A sermon on the Epiphany
shared with First Presbyterian Church, Spring City, TN, January 7, 2018
Today is
Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany means
revelation or special insight. In the
context of the gospel it means the revelation to the world of who Jesus is. The epiphany of the gospel reveals the cosmic,
or divine context of the “Christ Event.” For most of us, we associate Epiphany with the three
wise men that we place in the crèche under the Christmas tree.
Today, I’m
going to explore with you how the gospels put this event of Jesus entering the
world that we call “The Epiphany” in a cosmic, or divine context. Although I’m
not going to go deeply into it, I think this approach also gives us an insight
into the Apostle Paul’s understanding on what we academically call the “Christ
Event.”
If I were to challenge you to read the four gospels (the three synoptic gospels - synoptic means “summary” or “overview” -Mark, Luke and Matthew and the fourth gospel of John) to decide where does one find “the” epiphany" of the identity of Jesus, what would you find?
You would
likely read the gospel of Matthew and find the passage about the Magi, or wise
men, Matthew 2:1-12. You
will not find this account in Luke, but you will find a couple of candidates,
Simeon’s song, the subject of last
week’s post, or you might decide Luke 4:14-21, or perhaps a few verses earlier when Jesus
was baptized. If you go to Mark’s
gospel, you find not birth narrative or childhood stories. Mark begins with a short introduction of John
the Baptist and the baptism of
Jesus that read today. John the Baptist is out in the wilderness
proclaiming the repentance of forgiveness of sins and the coming of the Lord to
the people of Jerusalem and Judah, when seemingly out of nowhere Jesus appears walking
out of the wilderness of Galilee towards John. John baptizes Jesus and we hear
this voice from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well
pleased." And so begins the ministry of Jesus according to the gospel of
Mark. No birth story, no Magi or wise men, just this supernatural experience of
the heavens opening at the baptism.
A search of
John’s gospel may stump you unless you decide it is the account of the baptism of
Jesus by John the Baptizer.
Let’s step
back and look at how many Biblical studies place the gospels in time. Personally,
I believe the differences within the synoptic gospels have a lot to do with
their relative age, Mark the earliest, Matthew the latest, but not with
the message, though.
Like many
people who have written about the gospels and explored the similarities of
Matthew, Luke and Mark, I believe Mark is likely the original or earliest gospel,
and both Matthew and Luke were written later to believers adding information,
perhaps oral traditions, that fill in the missing blanks in the origin of Jesus
given in the Gospel of Mark. It is
tempting to think the elaboration in Luke and Matthew uses oral tradition to
fill in the gap about the human questions about the origin of Jesus that Mark
expects us to accept on faith alone.
But, is there more to it
than this? The emphasis of each of the
three synoptic gospels and the gospel of John is different. It is a balance
between two views from Mark that is “believe by faith alone,” to John who says,
“believe because of the signs or miracles.” Mark focusses on faith and urgency,
while Luke focuses on how Jesus fulfills scripture and how materiality (money
and wealth) challenge our faith. Luke makes no bones about the fact they
do challenge faith that the
kingdom of God is at hand inaugurated by Jesus.
Matthew, at least in my
mind, seems to be the latest of the three Gospels. Matthew reads as if it were written in a place
and time when an early church was already in existence. It offers many
teachings and guidance for how members of the congregation should live together
under the teachings of Jesus. Matthew is also the only source of the Magi, or
three wise men that form our common view of the Epiphany. They Magi formally identify
to the world that Jesus is the Messiah, the King of the Jews.
If we use only Matthew’s
account of the Epiphany, are we missing a message coming from other scripture
and gospels? That is the question we are
exploring today.
Why did we introduce this
discussion of the Epiphany using the first five verses of Genesis creation that
describe God's creation of the world and of the separation of light and
darkness in our scripture readings?
The creation story almost
demands that we look at John’s gospel. We
did this not too long ago when we explored the first eighteen verses of John
that we often call the prologue. Remember?
John’s gospel is unusual.
If you compare his prologue (1:1-18) and these verses in Genesis you find
a remarkable parallel. John’s message is
that “the entrance of Jesus into the world is a consummation of a new
creation, or the completion of the original creation.” It is a new creation in the sense that the light
of God has entered our world and defeated darkness (sin). (You may recall
Simeon's song from last week in which he observed that Jesus was the light to
nations(Gentiles) trapped in deepest darkness.)
And so, I suggest that we
consider the entrance of Jesus into the world (Christmas) in that context, and
the revelation of this fact as the Epiphany.
You may see where I'm
going. How does the gospel of Mark
describe the entry of Jesus into the world? It simply says beginning in 1:9, "in
those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the
Jordan. And as he was coming up out of
the water Jesus saw the heavens torn apart and the spirit descending like a
dove on him and a voice came from heaven saying, "you are my son, the
Beloved, with you I am well pleased." And so begins the ministry of Jesus.
The message (epiphany) is, “You hear, now believe.”
To me, it's very
difficult not to read these powerful words of Mark without the words of
creation in the book of Genesis and the prologue of John lingering in the air
as an echo. God has inaugurated (begun)
a new world and a new life for humanity. The appearance of Jesus changed everything
forever.
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus’
proof of this fact is expected to be received on faith by the event of his
baptism. Every time someone asked or
says that Jesus is the Son of Man, Jesus chides the person and says to be quiet
not repeat that.
But John’s prologue or
Epiphany is a bright neon billboard proclaiming the divinity of Jesus, the very
thing that Jesus in Mark sought to keep silent. John goes far beyond the
synoptic gospels and connects the presence of Jesus to the fulfillment of the
original creation.
John’s prologue makes it
perfectly clear up front who Jesus is and what his presence in the world means:
the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
I know that I'm jumping
around and you may not see how I’m connecting all this to Epiphany Sunday. The
message of the epiphany in all four of the gospels is the same. All four gospels announce the Lord of All has
come, in one way or the other, but the baptism in Mark and John’s prologue profoundly
connect Jesus to our new re-creation:
The kingdom of heaven is
at hand. God has changed the universe permanently
in a new recreation.
So what does that mean
for us? The answer is lying before us in the texts from Genesis, John and Mark
that I read. In Genesis light was
separated from darkness. In John light
has entered the world shining in darkness. In Mark, this man Jesus walks out of the
wilderness, which is another way to describe desolation or darkness, into our
world. In this way light and water of baptism serve the same purpose as the
creation described in Genesis, God is the source of life, light and water. Just
as in the creation story, God separated light and darkness, land and water and
caused the wilderness to green with life. In Jesus, Light defeats darkness.
The question for us is
how good a gardener of this green wilderness shall we be? How shall we green
the wilderness? Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment