January 6, 2019 - Epiphany - From the Hidden into Plain Sight

And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.

- Rainer Maria Rilke Unbound

Worship today started with Third Day's God of Wonder. All of us sang "God of wonders, beyond our galaxy You are holy, holy"  and I was struck again by how easy it is to set God apart from being mortal on this earth precisely in the season where we also celebrate the "Emmanuel God with us" change in our world and the Epiphany that follows.

Pastor Ray's preached about the lectionary reading leaving out The Slaughter of the Innocents described in Matthew's Gospel that begins just where the lectionary ends. When Herod realized that he had been tricked by the Magi he was furious, and he sent and killed all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under according to the time he had learned from the Magi". This, says Matthew, was in fulfillment of the words of the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31,31:15, "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more".

The historical accuracy of Herod's slaughter is debatable but that is probably not why it is left out of the lectionary. It is hard to be reminded of the evil that can happen in response to the hope and transformation that Epiphany represents. People naturally want to avoid any "negativity" or even disagreements in life. The Slaughter of the Innocents, as recorded in Matthew, was triggered by Herod's anxiety and fear.

There are so many members of Creator that make my heart leap with joy, or with deep concern, when I see them. And when we talk about Christian love this is what I imagine. I follow and dedicate myself to the Christian story because of the multiple opportunities that move me seeing someone simply as another person encountered in life to becoming important and real with life stories and qualities that make them stand out.

I could talk about all the talks with people now important to me that made my heart swell today. The person I talked to most, however, did not simply engage me in a joyous conversation. He was coming from a place of anxiety and fear. Part of this was due to the member's physical health. Part of his anxiety was rooted in how he was relating to other Creator members at this time.

We are human beings who make decisions from and live with perceived scarcity, petty differences we imagine as huge barriers. We retreat from dealing with or expressing those differences and barriers. They cause us to make judgments of one another and initiate more of the very anxieties that we try to avoid.

As we talked I heard this man, who was struggling with anxiety, expressed fear about the future of our congregation given some recent experiences he had with our other members. Too many times I have reduced conversations like this in the past, and listed to what was said as arguments where I need to take one side or another after hearing them and render an appropriate judgment. Yet I know there can be another way.

I thought about the Wise Men following the way of the Bethlehem Star today. Their knowledge made an obscure star obvious in both meaning and distinctiveness. I say this because there would have been astronomers in Herod's court. They did not see the star. Many people in that time looked into the night sky. They did not follow the star either because it was neither obvious to them nor they did understand the star's meaning.

Being Christian helps some of us understand and find the meaning of that one star out of the multitude we could see. Being Christian opens our minds to the possibilities and the stories of the one among many and that they are unique. We constantly learn what it means to live in community with the many and the heart moving within us that makes them individuals that  stand out is part of the meaning of the Bethlehem Star.


Today I am not thinking of that star as some manifestation in an ancient night sky that revealed that God is with us. After all, how does a bright star lead to one stable or even a small city?  Rather this star shining is not a light merely making itself visible in the night sky but a star that makes the world and others visible to us, This is the Epiphany that I am celebrating today.