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January 7, 2018

 

There’s a line in the second chapter of Luke’s gospel that is uttered by Simeon, the old priest who blessed the child Jesus. He says to Mary and Joseph: “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.” It’s a curious line, but as I wondered about the Feast of the Epiphany and the beginning of a New Year for us, it seemed like an appropriate thought. I couldn’t help but think back at the year past and I was reminded that world political leaders have risen and fallen. Mr. Trump in the United States, Mrs. May in the United Kingdom, Mrs. Merkel in Germany, Mr. Kenyatta in Kenya, Mr. Mnangagwa in Zimbabwe, Mr. Moon Jae-in in South Korea, Mr. Shinzō Abe in Japan, Mr. Ram Nath Kovind in India… the list of national and international leaders that have come and gone this past year goes on and on… Some of their names resonate with us and others we’ve likely never heard of. Yet still, two thousand years later, the light of Jesus Christ continues to shape and reshape our world.

Matthew’s Gospel tells of travelers from the East who saw his star at its rising, and the truth is that the light of that star still illumines the heavens and shines hope on the world. He was no politician, and made no pretense to power. He was born in a nondescript town in Judea, raised in a village backwater on the fringes of the Roman Empire. He grew up the son of a hard-working laborer and a young woman of whom we know very little from the scriptures. His background of poverty seems to belie the story in today’s gospel of being visited by Magi. But very quickly, this narrative will give way to one in which a family must flee for their lives to a foreign land, becoming refugees displaced from their home and their own people by the policies and violence visited upon innocents by those wielding indiscriminate power.

Yet those who visited such horrific violence would soon fall, their names to be held in ignominy through the ages, while this child would grow to become a man of such compassion that the world cannot claim to have seen its like, neither before nor since. It is this powerfully human compassion, lived so honestly and transparently that brought such a dramatic change to the world, that we began to recognize the presence of God among us. The spark of the divine image, after which all humanity is created, is brought to mind for us:

“God created mankind in his image;

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.” (Gen 1:27)

Jesus, as a babe, invites us not into our Original Sin but our Original Innocence, our Original Goodness. Jesus as a man, invites us into the living of the Imago Dei, reminding us that our being is filled with divine breath (Gen 2:7). In all that Jesus did, we are shown what is possible for all humanity, for every person. We may not live our lives as perfectly or as well as Jesus managed to live his life, but our potential is extraordinary… at least as extraordinary as God becoming flesh in a tiny, vulnerable child of poverty, and growing to become all that we might be in and for the world.

This revelation of God-made-flesh in Jesus spoken of in today’s gospel is also a revelation of our potential as people of flesh and bone fashioned after the image and likeness of God. The whole world had the glory of God revealed in the Epiphany of the Lord. The whole world continues to see the glory of God being revealed in the faithful discipleship of the followers of Jesus in our own time and place:

Brothers and sisters:

You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace

that was given to me for your benefit, namely,

that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.

It was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:

that the Gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body,

and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6)

May this New Year be one of extraordinary grace lived and revealed in ordinary lives, for you, and for all those whom you cherish.

 

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