SERMON PREACHED BY
THE REVEREND DR. HAROLD T. LEWIS, RECTOR
CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
ON THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY, 2008

 

 

"The Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel." (Ephesians 3:6)

 

The Epiphany scene, thanks to a barrage of Christmas cards, a plethora of public crèches and countless depictions of the Adoration of the Magi we studied in Art Appreciation 101, is etched in our consciousness. The three kings (both the number of the wise men and their royal status are traditional accretions to the Scriptural story --- they were actually an indeterminate number of astrologers --- magicians, if you will) bring gifts to the Christ Child and pay homage to him at the Manger (although the Gospel tells us that they came to a house, suggesting that the Holy Family had left their original makeshift digs). And if we are to take seriously the tableaux of such masters of Peter Paul Rubens, we know that the Wise Men were elegantly clad in yards of brocade and velour, with bejeweled silk turbans. All this suggests that the Epiphany is very like a chic Christening party, so I think we could all benefit from a reality check.

 

It has been alleged that no sermon preached by the rector is complete without a reference to the old Prayer Book or the old Hymnal, so I'll satisfy that requirement right off the bat, by bringing your attention to the page in the 1928 Book containing the collect and lessons for today's feast. It reads, "The Epiphany, or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles." And if I am not mistaken, earlier Prayer Books put it this way: "The Feast of the Manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, commonly called the Epiphany." The Epiphany, then, is Jesus' Coming-out Party, his Showing-forth to the world which he came to save. It is his first public appearance, which takes place not in the Temple or in a Jewish home, but in or near the very public (and presumably hard-to-find) place of Jesus' Birth. The Manifestation is to the Gentiles, those not of the Jewish fold, those not considered chosen.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul drives home the point that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and sharers in Christ's promise. These words would have come as a great shock to Paul's Jewish audience, who had been taught that salvation came from good works, and that keeping the Law ensured a right relationship with God. For upstart Gentiles who had not earned their way into a covenant with God to be accorded equal recognition in the Church, was, to Paul's flock in Ephesus, unthinkable! To them, Paul explains that this is a mystery, fathomable only in terms of the "unsearchable riches of Christ." In his recent book, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus (available in the Calvary Bookstore) Peter Gomes reminds us that the good news for those to whom the Gospel is preached is always bad news for somebody else! So while Gentiles, not to mention harlots and tax-collectors saw this open-door policy founded on grace and not law as welcome news, others who subscribed to a gospel of entitlement, whose social status was seen as part and parcel of their religion, found that news uncomfortable and unsettling to say the least.

But wait, there's more! We would be remiss if we did not mention that the Greek word for Gentiles is ethnoi, which as my Greek professor would say, comes from our English word "ethnic." So we can rightly describe the Epiphany as the Feast of the Manifestation of Jesus Christ to Diverse and Sundry Ethnic Groups. This point was certainly not lost on mediaeval and Renaissance artists, who typically depicted the Wise Men as ethnically diverse. Yes, even long before the days of political correctness, the Three Kings looked like a Middle Easterner, an Asian and an African. The Epiphany demonstrates, it would seem, not only that the church offers her saving message of the Gospel to everyone, but that the church is by definition a missionary enterprise. As Archbishop William Temple once said, "The Church is the only institution which exists primarily for the benefit of those not its members."

But what happened? The great irony is that members of the church throughout the ages have too often sought to keep out one group or another. And this is not a recent phenomenon. The Book of Acts is replete with stories that would suggest that some of the early Christians just didn't get it! Some, famously, insisted that when Gentiles were admitted into the fellowship of the Church that they should undergo circumcision first, in other words, become Jews on their way to becoming Christians. And I needn't rehearse for you the most recent examples of such behavior, as groups in the church claiming a corner on the market of orthodoxy declare this group or that group unfit to be called Christian. (This inevitably leads, by the way, to further splits and bifurcations even among the so-called orthodox, but that perhaps is another sermon.)

The reason that the world is especially offended --- scandalized, if you will, by Christians who behave badly is that the world believes that goodness is the Christian's stock in trade; Christians are supposed to be setting an example for others. But the reason that Christians sometimes behave badly is that we haven't quite managed to follow Paul's advice to the Romans that we should transform the world and not be conformed to it [12:2]. We bring our worldly baggage to church affairs --- subscribing to a version of the Golden Rule that says that the one who has the gold, rules; lording it over others, believing all too often that our wealth, influence, lineage and pedigree, real or imagined, should translate into clout in the bosom of our church family.

My friends, I would like to suggest that this past week, the American people, just perhaps, caught a glimpse --- dare I say an epiphany? --- of what our nation and our world could be like when bedrock Christian principles hold sway. In Iowa, quintessential Middle America, the representatives of both major political parties sent a message to Washington that "enough is enough!" Warmongering, corporate greed, and keeping marginalized people on the margins of society were declared absolutely unacceptable! Those whose political power and prestige had led them to the presumption that victory was a foregone conclusion were given a very serious reality check. When a Southern Baptist minister prevails over the heir to a fortune made in the automotive industry and who comes from a family of political heavyweights; and when the spouse of a popular president loses to a newcomer to the political scene who brings to the table a racial identity usually seen to be a liability, this is huge! I don't know about you, but on Thursday night as I watched the returns, flashes of Biblical stories raced through my head. I saw David and Goliath; I heard Mary saying that God would put down the mighty from their seat and exalt the humble and meek. I was reminded of the parable of the vineyard in which those who signed on for work late in the day received equal pay with those who were there at the crack of dawn. In my mind's eye, I could see all the underdogs whom Jesus recognized and honored, like Bartimaeus the blind beggar and Zacchaeus who was vertically challenged and had to climb a tree to catch a glimpse of his Lord. While Mr. Obama cited no Scripture in his speech, I could hear him echoing Jesus' words that love casts out fear. I could hear him concur with the writer to the Hebrews, who said that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" [11:1].

Analogies aren't perfect, so I want to make one thing abundantly clear. What happened in Iowa is not the triumph of good over evil. No one, least of all this preacher, is impugning the character of those who received less support than they had anticipated. But to me, what happened in Iowa was nothing short of the recognition of modern-day Gentiles, who, like the Gentiles to whom Jesus reached out in his Epiphany, became fellow heirs, members of the body and sharers in the promise, if not of the Kingdom of heaven, at least of the American dream.

I am savvy enough to know that a year, nay even a week, is a long time in politics. And time will tell whether these developments are a foretaste of things to come, or a blip on the screen. But we savor them and rejoice in them, because we believe that at least for a fleeting moment, a nation whose sons and daughters are being needlessly sacrificed on the battlefield; a nation which is still struggling with questions of gender, racial and sexual equality; a nation in which the avarice of a few has resulted in loss of home ownership for many; a nation in which racism and xenophobia and the erection of walls both literal and figurative have conspired to stem the tide of immigration --- at least for a fleeting moment our nation has caught a glimpse of the heavenly Jerusalem. And in that fleeting moment we can sing:
Tie in a living tether the prince and priest and thrall,
Bind all our lives together, smite us and save us all;
In ire and exultation a flame with faith and free,
Lift up a living nation, a single sword to thee. AMEN.
Hymn 591, The Hymnal 1982