We can point at things and wait for things for a long time, and sometimes get ourselves so occupied in the action of so doing that we can forget what we are pointing at. We take things out and we put them back in again. We change colours of vestments and choose seasonal hymns, we look forward to Easter and then we look back to Christmas, each occasion necessitating a different kind of cake or drink t accompany it – in other words, we have succeeded in accomplishing the enormous feat of domesticating the creator of the universe, even making little statues of Him to put in the crib or on the altar. This may seem utterly shocking or not, depending on your point of view.I am firmly in the ‘not shocked’ camp, but with caveats. I like to think that the domestication of divinity is a human essential – we cannot spend our time lost in the awesome wonder of eternity not because it would be a waste of time to do so, but because we have a divine mandate to go forth and baptise all nations, and to tell of the wonderful news we have heard, and it is hard to do so while staring into space, indeed the disciples were told off by the angel for doing just that on the day of the Ascension of Christ ‘men of galilee, why are you standing there staring into the sky?’ before being reminded to go back to Jerusalem, where the greatest concentration of people were, and begin the Church of God.It is therefore useful to have ways of reminding ourselves about the faith, and to share those with others. As long as the colourful fabrics and the music and the statues and the icons and all the rest of it do not become a burden and a distraction to the practice of the faith, then all well and good, and we must remember, those of us who are in church often, that for most people they only see this for an hour a week, if that, so it is right that we make the effort, for them if not always for us. There are expectations laid upon us by God and by our fellow human beings and one of them is that we are here, reminding a forgetful nation that there is something else, something greater.The Baptism of Christ is a reminder to us of just that, and like all practical reminders, it also contains an inherent truth in its teaching. We hear the account from Luke this year, which is short, and made shorter by editing, and patchy on details, therefore we should pay attention to the things it does tell us, as they are the sparse but rich details that Luke wishes us to know. Verses 18 – 20 are edited out of the reading today, and interestingly they relate to John the Baptist alone, and so we are left with a completely Christological narrative of astonishing and awesome simplicity.To prepare us for this, we listen to Isaiah prophesying, as prophets do, about the person of John the Baptist, saying that one day someone will come, a joyful messenger to announce the Messiah – note though that the text of Isaiah, even though it is detailed about the Precursor, John, culminates with what the Messiah will do, once He is announced. The messenger will say ‘here is your God’ and then the blessings of God will come. This is pivotal to what happens in the Jordan today but, like our churches year, it points to things without being in itself a fulfilment of them.It is remarkable that Christ is baptised, as He has no need of it. Instead, He cleanses the water by His immersion into it, in the same way that He cleanses the world by His incarnation and overturns the sin of Adam by being a second, greater Adam, a new man, a new birth for the world. On rising out of the water, as he rose from the womb of Mary, He brings forth fountains of grace and hope to our world, and as at His birth the angels brought forth shepherds and magi, here this allegorical second birth brings forth something greater – His teaching ministry is birthed in the Jordan and brings forth the voice of God the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit – a manifestly clear sign of the salvation yet to come.But, like our own pointing and waiting, we are not there yet. What, in this perspective, makes the Baptism great as a festival of the Church is that in this way it is the prefigurement of the Crucifixion. The whole destiny of Jesus is contained within it. It is the culmination of Christmastide because it is the source of the impetus that will carry us on to Easter, this is the beginning of His ministry and that ministry will end on the cross, a second and greater cleansing.This is what the Byzantine icons tell us. Christ goes down into the Jordan as on Calvary he will sink into the chaotic waters of death, to redeem them and to banish death. The river is dark with the murk of evil, but the shimmering light which surrounds the figure of Christ cleaves it like a sword. It is a reminder to us of his Sacrifice when on the Cross he will enter the darkness again and this time transform it into the radiance of the Resurrection light, offered to us all as joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.So we do not have a little figure of Christ to dip into a little bucket today, because statues and costumes only point the way, as John pointed to Christ. Now our salvation is begun, and the work of witnesses to that begins and never ends until He comes again. We mark the seasons, keep the feasts, because it is a way to evangelise, but for us who have come to believe, today we enter the mystery which no chalkware or damask can imitate – the life of the world and the Triune Godhead stand in the water, and command our attention. Our work today is not in singing or in costume, but in listening and living according to this dynamic event which, more than Christmas, is what Isaiah was looking to, what all God’s faithful people longed for – and it has come to you in Baptism, when we made vows which, now, we will make anew.
Epiphany is here, and the last Hurrah of Christmas with it, although it carries on liturgically until next Sunday and in a slightly more folksy way until Candlemas, but for most people it ended eleven days ago, and a few chocolates wait on the sideboard for the moment when firm January convictions fail and we are back to business as usual. Tomorrow, all the routines resumed, emails, meetings, a new ‘to do’ list and we put Christmas back in its box. In January, things return to normal; it is familiar. Epiphany tames all that festival extravagance and marks the solemn end of the nut selection and the port decanter.I could tell you a story of sophisticated London clergy going on a weeks walking holiday in the Lake District, packing, in their soft leather bags, essentials that they felt would be unavailable in the North of England, like gin, chocolate and books. Hiking in new and expensive boots which were built more for Chelsea Garden Show than Mitredale. Or a story of the day I took one hundred and twenty clergy from the Willesden Episcopal Area on coaches to Merville for a conference, and made them make their own beds and get up at six in the morning for Mass, and had bowls of pork scratchings on the bar which I built and stocked with excellent local beer, wine and unusual distillates. All you could hear was moaning for the first couple of days, until the beauty of the place and the simplicity of the liturgy took over and they assumed a theology of creation finally, and left their horror at instant coffee at the door and, as Scott once wrote; ‘Took longer still to learn to skip a stone across the lake.’In a wonderful phrase, Scott suggests that as those wide-eyed priests struggle with all that natural grandeur they search for something more familiar, something safer ‘to narrow down the glory. To narrow down the glory. Is that what happens today? Do we really put Christmas back in a box and settle for something more manageable. Well no of course we don’t. We need to pay attention to what we are being told.First, let’s tidy up the terminology. They were not kings. They followed a star remember they are astrologers, there is the hint of something just slightly fey here, a little bit alternative. It is Matthew’s gospel we are reading and we should remember, notice, that Matthew is keen on dreams. Something stirs here half-understood; there are hints and glimpses. The star only gets the wise men so far remember, they have to stop and ask directions. Where astrology fails, prophecy comes good. At this point Matthew sticks out his jaw and becomes rather more robust. There may be dreams to be dreamt, but there is also a divine providence to reckon with.And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel - Matthew 2:6It is Bethlehem the wise men must find. It was always going to be Bethlehem. When they arrive and finally present their gifts they may not know what they are doing, but Matthew does. They are fulfilling prophecy. It is a sophisticated thing we have before us here, Matthew is wearing together a story about three mildly new age travellers and the prophecies of God. We meet a tyrant (Herod) and we get drawn into the beginnings of a planned genocide. All the great purposes of God swing, like the stars, round Bethlehem.So, no, this is not the night we put Christmas back in its box and get on with the business of life. Epiphany drags us outside under the stars and ask us if we have the capacity to imagine what has just begun in Bethlehem.‘And this was the moment When a few farm workers and three Members of an obscure Persian sect Walked haphazard by starlight straight Into the kingdom of heaven.’Jesus is unconfined, His divinity is tangible in a way that it will not be again until He stands in the Temple overturning tables. A hole has been blown in the chain of events and a baby is visible as a King. Today is a summons to the imagination. Epiphanies are only needed, and can only be accepted, by those of us who know that we must seek what we lack. The day we become certain, the day we become sure, the epiphanies end. Even here in St Stephen’s we are short of glory and looking to a Kingdom yet to come. Those astrologers, remember, went all that way and simply paid homage. They gave their gifts and they left. It is not at all what we expect of astrologers - no words, no horoscopes, no report, no memoir.We do not tonight, put Christmas back in a box, nor must we turn again to our routines with a sense of a job well done but in this changing world, be ready to journey out as magi did seeking what we still have not grasped and finding words for what we still cannot entirely name. And go back to find those who have not yet seen what we have seen, but not with a list of rules and regulations, but like the Magi, with empty hands and full hearts. There are epiphanies yet to come, and we have to search for them in the darkness this year, I think.
Home Alone is a perennial Christmas film with, incidentally, a cracking soundtrack by John Williams. If you’ve never seen it, (spoiler alert!) the McAllister family is embarking on a Christmas holiday to France. There are rather a lot of them and somehow, 8-year-old Kevin gets left behind. It takes some time for the family to realise this and when they do, mum makes a frantic dash back home to get him. Meanwhile, Kevin is at home, having a whale of a time and thwarting a couple of would be burglars. Then, when mum gets home, it is quite a heart warming reunion.Today’s gospel is a story slightly similar to Kevin’s story in that a young son, in this case 12 year old Jesus, is inadvertently left behind when His family embark, en masse, on a long journey. Jesus clearly lives in a very devout family which obeyed the law of God, making the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover. At this particular time, Jesus at the age of 12 was just about to transition from childhood to adulthood, 13 being the customary age at which Jewish boys became young men. The traveling party on the way home from Jerusalem would have been a large caravan of people, relatives, extended families. The women and children would travel at the front of the caravan with the men and young men bringing up the rear, at the back. We can only speculate that Mary, at the front, was expecting that Jesus, on the cusp of adulthood, was at the back with Joseph and the other men. Equally, Joseph was probably expecting that Jesus, still legally a child, was at the front with Mary and the other children. An understandable assumption by both parents. Until that heart stopping moment of realisation. Where is Jesus? At the back with His dad? No. At the front with His mum? Again, no. I have fortunately never been in a situation like that. My son, James, never went missing when he was a child and so I can barely imagine the panic that must have gone through the minds of Mary and Joseph, and their travelling companions, upon the realisation that Jesus was not with them.I have to confess, each time I have heard this story that I have been somewhat shocked that the caravan would have set off from Jerusalem without first checking that everyone was there. Just as I am shocked that the McAllisters set off for their French Christmas without checking that everyone was present and properly accounted for. But what we need to remember is the kind of world Mary and Joseph lived in at that time. Extended families of kinsfolk and friends would have lived together in an environment of close knit mutual trust and His parents clearly thought that Jesus was there, either at the front or the back of the caravan and safely ensconced with cousins or other family members.So, a very panic stricken Mary and Joseph hurry back to Jerusalem to look for Jesus, this time just the two of them. This in itself would have been a dangerous trip. They did not have the safety of the caravan around them, but they had to go back. They had to find Jesus. And they got back to Jerusalem, possibly expecting to find Jesus waiting for them at the gates of the city, emotional and upset at having been left behind. But He was not there. He was nowhere to be found in the streets of the city or anywhere else Mary and Joseph tried looking. Until, after three days of frantic, fruitless search, in a last desperate thought, they entered the Temple. And there He was. In deep discussion with the Rabbis and scholars. Astounding all who heard Him with His understanding of theology and His questions and answers. It was likely the custom at that time that after the celebration of the Passover, the visiting rabbis and scholars, the theologians of the day—the PhDs of Israel—stayed around the city. This was one of the few times during the year that they had the opportunity to sit down together and discuss matters of theology. And here was this 12 year old boy, not yet a man, engaged in deep conversation with them all.It is at this point that we begin to reach, I think, the very crux of the story. That Jesus was interacting with such knowledge is, in itself, a major part of the story. He has been described in some quarters as being theanthropic. A sort of portmanteau word combining Theos (God) with Anthropos (man) indicating His nature as being divinely human, or is it humanly divine? So one could say that Jesus was engaged in conversations actually about Himself and this is why He was so knowledgeable. I did also come across an article, a couple of years ago now, that speculated that Jesus was in discussion and asking questions of those He had created, as God. The creator in discussion with the created. So if we accept that theory, every time Jesus was in discussion with a person, He was in discussion with someone He Himself had created. That is a rather profound thought, I think. Mind blowing…But, back to the real heart of the story. Mary and Joseph finally finding Jesus in the Temple. Cleary there would have been relief in their hearts that they had at last found Him and He was safe. Mary, however, seems to scold Jesus ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.’ This may very well have been the first time that Mary had had to scold Jesus, but we can only speculate this fact. And now we would perhaps expect Jesus to apologise for giving such worry to His earthly parents, but instead He counters with a question of His own (something He does a lot in the gospels – answers a question with another question) ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ Effectively saying ‘Didn’t you understand it, mother, that I wasn’t here trying to be defiant to your authority? I was here because I’m compelled to be in my Father’s house. I’m not talking about Joseph’s house; I’m talking about God’s house. I had to be here because this is where my Heavenly Father wanted me to be’ Woah! I wonder how this made Joseph feel? He would have known that he wasn’t Jesus’ biological father but all the same. The Bible is resoundingly silent on this.Jesus is clearly beginning to make the distinction between balancing love and commitment to His earthly family with His primary obligation to His heavenly Father. His response that the Temple is His Father’s house is intended to remind His parents, and us, the readers of the gospels, that although He is born of a woman He is ultimately of divine origin. And this sets the stage for the miracles and teaching which would occur in the future. About 18 years into the future to be precise. This is something we need also to be mindful of. As Christians, a commitment to Jesus may have serious implications for our relationships with our own families. God’s plan to redeem the world is one that involves us all, and it should come first, even if it raises conflict with our family’s wishes. We still love our families, of course we do, but above all, we love and honour our true heavenly Father, and that can be a tough issue for us to face. One which our Lord Jesus also faced.One small nugget which may sometimes be overlooked is that Mary and Joseph very probably thought they had lost Jesus for good when they realised that He wasn’t with the travelling caravan. They had travelled a day before they realised He was missing. Then they travelled back, probably another day, to Jerusalem. And then they spent three days searching for Him before they found Him. So that’s almost a week before they found Him. But it’s the three days in the city, three days – they thought He was lost and then after three days of search they found Him. When Jesus was crucified, His friends, disciples, His mum, thought He was gone, lost, but on the third day following the crucifixion, He was restored to them. Quite some parallel. And once Mary and Joseph had found Him, we are told that Jesus travels back to Nazareth with His parents and is submissive to them, and He grew in wisdom, and stature and grew in favour with both God and man. Seemingly no more going missing and no more angst for His parents. On this, again, the canonical Bible is silent. And although we hear nothing about the next 18 years of His life,He is clearly continuing that transition towards His divinity ready for His three years of ministry. Luke is the only one of the four writers of the gospels in the canonical Bible to recount this story. And the next time we hear about Jesus in the Bible is His baptism by John the Baptist and that is when the story really gets started.Let us pray.Lord, you chose to shed light on the humble childhood of your Son by the manifestation of his wisdom. May we be filled by the spirit of prudence and be pleasing in your sight by our sincere humility. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen
There are so many announcements and proclamations made that sometimes you could be forgiven for being a little underwhelmed by their content. Having a national alert scheme on mobile phones that is used when it’s a bit windy is maybe one example, or yet another announcement from the House of Sussex in Exile that they are both very happy and enjoying life in Lala Land maybe another. We are relentlessly spammed by interesting sounding headlines online which, on being clicked on, tell us something very mundane and open a cesspit of adverts and links that need surgical extraction, whereas items of real news, like the war we have been trying to ignore these past thirty years, are barely alluded to. There is nothing new, just the same old stuff, chewed over in different ways by perversely similar teeth.The lectionary readings today are full of greetings, announcements, introductions and declarations. New things are beginning and they, I hope, bear more need of our attention than what Keir Starmer cannot quite manage to accomplish today. We are offered new ministers when previous ones get found out for the same old stuff, and we seem incapable of escaping the gavage machine of celebrity and failure that we gorge on.But here, New characters are presented. A great drama – the divine-human drama of salvation – is to come to its fullness. The stage is set, and we ourselves are not the audience but co-characters to be caught up in the scope and sweep of the majestic creativity of the Father, Spirit and the crucified Christ. We do not vote for them, but we live with them.There is a quickening within divine providence. A new light is dawning on the landscapes of grace.From one hill-top village to another a young woman moves ‘with great haste’. How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of her who bears Good News!For he himself will be Peace. Shepherds and sheep await angelic visitations. In the East, camels and kings set out on a star-lit trek. The ox and the ass know their manger; they will soon know their master. Two pregnant women meet.Two pregnant women meet. It is a scene that could be seen any day in any Tesco’s supermarket or any school playground. Here is the goodness of the ordinary and the mundane and the marvels of life and life-bearing. Here the hinge of salvation begins to open, the Old and New Testament meet in this mundane setting, the Journey of Abraham and Sarah finally comes to an end, and our begins. Here, today, the world begins again and only these two women notice, as only one woman saw the resurrection.In this ‘mystery’ of our Lady’s visitation of Elizabeth, the ordinary and the extraordinary are caught up in each other. Not just in the transfiguration of the ordinary into the extraordinary. But in the transfiguration of the extraordinary into the ordinary. The divine Word is abbreviated into the wonder of maternity. And Elijah is dancing in the chariot of his mother’s womb. Grace is abounding upon grace, and the angels gaze on in wonder.Here blessings are not just descending from on high, but they are magnified in sharing and they are glorified in praise and thanksgiving ascending. That God can bless us is one thing: that he can empower us to bless one another is the same thing, the same gift. Elizabeth and Mary sing their duet of blessings shared and blessings abounding, calling to each other as only the gatekeepers of eternity may do, knowing that when Nature takes Her course, she will fulfil the word of God, and the salvation we long for will be ours. It’s a hard road they tread, and one full of judgement, but with each other, they may be free for a moment to be in rapture. Two women, dancing on the edge of time.Elizabeth adds her line of prayer to the Ave Maria begun by the angel Gabriel in wonder at ‘the most blessed among all women’. And Mary in her Magnificat sings the praises of her Spirit-conceived Son in his obedient mission from the Father – ‘from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace’.There is nothing outwardly remarkable to be seen by a passer-by or a curious neighbour. In Jerusalem what is to be rendered to Caesar is rendered to Caesar, the builders are laying stone upon stone in the renovated Temple: the priests are daily offering sacrifices at the altar; and Herod’s soldiers are sharpening their swords. The ordinary carries on in the usual routine of daily life.But grace abounds. And the world is changing, in the wombs of the women. Salvation is about to take its first breath.
