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The Rev. Canon Patrick P. Augustine

St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School

Biblical Reference

 

May I thank you and your Rector for your kind invitation and warm hospitality. My wife Myra and I are excited to be here with you today. I feel like a little boy who stood on New York docks watching the unloading molasses from the West Indies. The sweet smell almost intoxicated the young boy. He longed for a few drops and you could almost feel how he was salivating. Suddenly, one of the sacks burst and this boy was covered from head to toe in molasses syrup, and underneath that syrup he was heard praying, "Lord, give me a tongue worthy of the task. Let us pray:

May the Light of Christ, rising in glory dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I have learnt that last Sunday your parish raised funds for those affected by the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. The tsunami has killed at least 150,000 people and changed the lives of their surviving relatives forever. There are people asking how a "loving" God could allow such a catastrophe to happen. Where is God present in the circumstances and events of our world today? This is not the first time human beings have asked this question. Where is He? It is the same question three wise men who came from the east asked and then Herod asked the religious leaders of Israel. Where is He? Several years ago I saw on a church bill-board a statement, "Wise men still seek Christ." Our world is still in search and it is still a quest worth becoming a question: look no further than Jesus Christ. In Jesus we know the deep association of God with our humanity. "And the Word became flesh and lived among us (in our neighborhood). Here is the gospel and faith of the church that in Jesus we come to know the heart of God. Heart full of love, mercy, Justice, peace, healing and His saving grace for the whole of humanity. When the world suffers in Southeast Asia, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and other parts of the world. We come to know about this God that " God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is the epiphany of the nature of God whom we come to worship this morning.

According to the liturgical calendar we are in the season of Epiphany. Epiphany is one of the oldest festivals in the Church. This is a season in which the identity of Christ is made clear and clearer to all who seek to find Messiah, the face of God. The story of the incarnation of God who moved in our neighborhood began in Bethlehem. It began with a private annunciation of the angel to Mary and then to Joseph, what was then made manifest to the shepherds and to the animals in the manger is now made increasingly clear to an ever expanding audience of witnesses. The circle gets bigger and bigger, more and more people are included in these manifestations. From here now on in the gospel the person of Christ and his epiphany is like a stone that is dropped in the water, which sets off concentric ripples that get bigger and bigger and bigger until the entire surface imperceptibly is witness to the initial movement of that stone. That is what the Epiphany is all about and that is where we begin to find ourselves with our fellow believers in all places and at all times, drawn in relationship to those circles that emanate from the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. From this Sunday to Easter day everything that we read and hear in the Holy Scripture is an epiphany of Jesus.^1[1] In these epiphanies we notice that God pops up in most surprising places.

This morning we shall look at three stories of the Epiphany of Christ. The first story of the Epiphany is that the knowledge of Christ is made known to three Wise Men from the East. By the inclusion of this simple story Matthew makes the radical point that God intends for Gentiles as well as Jews to receive the immeasurable grace of Jesus Christ. God's Messiah is for Jew and for Gentile! This point finds elaboration in the Epistle: Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Eph. 3:6). How startling is that today? Must be pretty startling. The Church has done great things with over 2/3 of the world today; however over 20% still hasn't heard the Gospel for the first time. Or, from another angle, 1.1 billion people have not yet taken in the Good News that God has sent a Messiah for their forgiveness and their eternal place in heaven. Fifteen years ago five of us met in Prayer and then formed a missionary organization called Anglican Frontier Mission. Its purpose is to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the un-reached people groups in the world. I ask your parish to become partners in Mission with us to support the work of Anglican Frontier Mission.

The second story of the epiphany of Christ I would like to share with you is from the Gospel of John. Jesus is present at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. The host ran out of wine and Jesus rescued the happy celebration and honor of the middle-eastern family by replenishing the supply of wine; he turned the water into wine, a wine not sort of vin ordinaire, but of extraordinary quality. This story is not about water with a great trick of alchemy turned into great tasting wine. It is about being a witness to who Jesus is, the creator God. As William Barclay has said that the water realized that the Creator God was looking at him and the water blushed and turned into wine. It is story about seeing Jesus. It is in Jesus we see as the one upon whom God has shown extraordinary favor, and by whose presence people in Cana of Galilee and us today are gifted and blessed.

The third story of the epiphany of Christ is found in all three synoptic gospels about the baptism of our Lord. When Jesus presented himself to John the Baptist, his reaction was why do you need to be baptized by me? John is not famous as a modest person who easily gives way to anyone who comes to town. John has an epiphany and he realizes that the one to whom he must yield, Jesus, "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world", is now standing in front of him. John actually protests that he is not worthy to baptize Jesus but the Matthew makes the point that it is not a question of merit but of the fulfillment of God's will. (Peter Gomes). As Jesus came up out of the water, "Suddenly the heavens (have epiphany) were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased." At the baptism of our Lord God manifests both to heaven and to earth that Jesus Christ, is the means by which God will accomplish his will and work on earth.

The gift that God gave in Jesus baptism is the gift of Holy Spirit. It is the same gift given to us in our baptism. We remember the words of our own baptism: "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own for ever." Our baptism means engrafting into the life of the living Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit to shine as the light of Christ. It is the epiphany of Christ manifest through us. Our baptism is our ordination into the priesthood of Christ, each Christian's commissioning is to share in Christ's work in the world. As baptized members of the body of Christ we choose to stand with him in his outpouring of his life for the poor and disenfranchised, for the suffering, the outcast and the lost. And we place our own bodies in that position of death to our old life, to "drowning" it beneath the waters of baptism only to rise to new life in his service.2[2] In our baptismal covenant we promise " To seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself and to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being" (BCP. P.305).

It is because of the epiphany of the love of Christ you are willing to stand in solidarity in prayer and share your financial gifts with the victims of tsunami and the persecuted church in Sudan. The church in Sudan has been under persecution for the last many decades. There are 2.2 million who have been killed and four million are homeless from Southern Sudan because of the genocidal policies of Sudanese government in the North. Now that conflict has further spread into Darfur. I was in Sudan last November and I have brought my report of this visit to share with you. Under such challenging circumstances the Sudanese church has been faithful to the cross of Christ. It is on the cross of Christ they have come to know their epiphany about the love of God as people ask them "Where is your God." I have heard them praising God with such songs:

We call upon you, O God to visit us with peace

The world afflicts us continually.

Hear the moaning of humankind, the souls

Crying out, looking toward eternal life.

Let us grasp the cross with two hands so your

Salvation will arrive as we wait.

Open the windows of eternal life for us

I will not depart from the Lord Jesus for I

have found my wei (Life)

There is nothing more satisfying than the Christ.

God alone is our salvation!

The question was asked then by the wise men, Herod and many sages of the past. Where is God, Where is Christ present in our World? This question is still very relevant. Where is God in all the mess we have in our world today? Our answer is the Word became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. He dwelt in our neighborhood. He has shared his epiphany, his light which enlightens every one who believes in his name. He gave power to us to become children of God. (John 1:12) We are now the epiphanies of Christ in the world. Jesus Christ is known, lives and works through us in our world today.

Therefore, I charge you in the name of Christ: Go forth into the world in peace; be of good courage; hold fast that which is good; render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the faint hearted; support the weak; help the afflicted; honor all people; love and serve the Lord rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. Because we are Christ's epiphany.

1[1] Peter J. Gomes, Sermons, Biblical Wisdom for daily living, chapter Epiphany 1, Baptism, Harper San Francisco, 1998. p. 30, 31.

1[2] Synthesis: January 9, 2005, The Baptism