column for Jan. 6-Epiphany

Today is Epiphany in the church calendar. This is the day we consider the visit of the Magi, the Wise Ones, to visit the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem in Matthew’s gospel. We usually picture three of them to match the number of gifts. For all we know it could have been two, or it could have been many more. Some of you may be wondering how we saw these magi transmuted into kings. Using an old method of biblical interpretation, the early church found references to the gifts, at least frankincense and gold, in Is. 61:1-6 and Ps. 72. With the gifts, the counselors to kings became kings themselves. The ethnicity of the Magi that we often see depicted in crèche sets comes from the locations of those who would come to pay homage in Israel, instead of the other way around, especially when Israel was under the yoke of being a mere colony for centuries.

The Magi were accustomed to serving what the Occupy movement calls the one per cent. Although they are wise in astrology in all likelihood and the corridors of power, they misread the signs. They stumble into Herod’s palace and then cause the life of the newborn Jesus to be threatened. If one merges the story of Luke and Matthew, we have the delicious irony of the classic members of the ninety-nine percent, shepherds, being the only ones to get the message of the newborn Jesus, while the one per cent is in the dark.

Epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning to shine around. Even though the Magi were in the ark about the true identity of Jesus, their secular knowledge drew them closer to Jesus than most. Even though most were in the dark about the identity of Jesus, even those who could direct them to Bethlehem, not Jerusalem, the Magi have the light shine on them as they paid homage to the child. Even that is ironic for the same word can be worship. Perhaps without realizing it, their posture fit God’s own as well as a political ruler. They stand for all of us on whom the light of god rests, not just insiders but outsiders as well. Indeed they are the first representatives of the global reach of the life and message of Jesus.

In its standard use in the language, epiphany mean a sudden flash of insight, the light bulb going off over one’s head. It may be a new idea. It may be seeing connections between disparate things that were formerly separated. It could be seeing a whole level of meaning beneath the surface. It may be finding a way out of an especially nettlesome issue.

Epiphanies fit the idea of inspiration. it is as if we have drawn in a spirit of understanding or truth from outside ourselves. All the effort doesn’t seem to be able to force such an insight. Since we are fallible, even “ah ha” moments can be wrong. Still, they often have a sense of rightness to them, of something clicking into place, of a bridge being built. Some would say that epiphanies are rare moments when the two different slices of our brains fit together instead of being segregated from each other, the artistic and the logical finally meeting in the middle. We do not seem to be able to force those moments. They do seem to come out of the blue. They may even come and we are not alert to their presence and dismiss them. I hope and pray that 2012 brings epiphany, new light on your spiritual journey and your insights into your relationships as well. Perhaps, an epiphany would be to see those two dimensions, the sacred and the secular, as always connected.