The Epiphany of the Lord, 2025
Isaiah 60.1-6
‘The glory of the Lord has risen upon you’
Ephesians 3.2-3a, 5-6
‘It has now been revealed that the Gentiles are fellow heirs of the promise’
Matthew
2.1-12 ‘We have come from the east to worship the king’
‘For we saw his star when it rose
and have come to worship’
Matthew
2.2
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Today,
the feast of the Epiphany, also has the title in the Book of Common Prayer 1662
– the definitive Anglican prayer book – of ‘The Manifestation of Christ to the
Gentiles’.
Neither
the word ‘epiphany’ or ‘manifestation’ is in the gospels, but we use both words
to describe the showing of the new-born
Christ to the Gentiles, that is people outside the Israelite nation, the
nations of the world, who are represented by the Magi.
Epiphany
literally means ‘to show’ or ‘show outwards’; and manifest literally means, ‘grabbed by the hand’, a vigorous way of
saying something is being pointed out.
The
feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, the Manifestation of Christ to the Nations,
is all about human attention being caught by something beyond itself.
It’s
a visual feast: light comes and shines. (Isaiah 60.1)
Light
– in the form of a star - that draws and attracts, that grabs our attention and
leads us to the mystery.
In
the case of the Magi, their attention is grabbed by the shining star that
appeared in the sky; and you cannot get much more beyond oneself than something
appearing in the sky: the star signifies the call of God, maker of ‘the stars
of night’, saying here is the Saviour.
But
the use and meaning of the word manifest
is changing, as words do, and changing in a somewhat disturbing way.
‘Manifest’
was actually the Cambridge Dictionary word of the
year for 2024
And
the new way it’s being used is practically the opposite to how we’re using it
today, on the feast of the Epiphany.
The
way it is being used is not about something outside oneself appearing, being
revealed or shown, but is about picturing something in your mind to imagine
what you want to achieve, in the belief that it is more likely to happen.
This
use appeared last summer at the Olympics and Paralympics a number of gold medal
winners attributed their achievement to ‘manifesting’: I visualised it and so I
made it happen.
So
‘manifest’ in its new use means I picture
a goal or target inwardly, in the hope and belief of making it real and I use specific practices to focus my
mind on something I want, to try to make it become a reality.
You
might say it sounds a bit like prayer; but that is to misread both
‘manifesting’ and prayer.
Prayer
directs our inner life beyond self to God; whereas ‘manifesting’ is to become
self-absorbed in the belief that picturing what you want to happen will happen,
if you want it enough.
Sadly,
it is a beguiling lie and falsehood to say that if you want something enough
you can have it.
It
is spiritually corrosive; the antidote is prayer to God.
Prayer
is the soul’s whisper ‘be it unto me according to thy word’; ‘manifesting’ is ‘be
it unto me according to what I want’.
To
‘manifest’ is a new version of an old illusion, that of chasing after idols of
our own making; it is an idol is created within.
What
we have are two alternative routes to navigate where we find truth and reality
and where we locate ourselves in a big universe: my way or God’s way.
Without
belief in God, we inevitably go inside to find meaning and hope: the individual
becomes the beginning, the middle and end of the story.
Without
God we try to generate life and hope and peace by ourselves.
Do
that and we become rapidly exhausted.
After
all, if you generate all the meaning in your own life but feel empty and
hopeless, ambitions not realised, when you want something so much but don’t get
it, the only person you can blame is yourself.
There
are the roots of the spiritual and mental health crisis in the West.
What
a relief and blessing is faith in that which lies beyond us, in God, whose good
news revealed to the Magi is that there is a Saviour, not of our imagining or
discovery, for all nations and peoples.
God
is made manifest - in the original sense - revealing, showing, grabbing our
attention to draw us out of the mire of self-delusion into the glorious liberty
of being utterly dependent on Him.
The
journey of the Magi, which reveals this truth, is an ancient quest with huge
contemporary resonance.
In
a world of seeking, that lapses into ‘manifesting’, what the Magi show us is
that beyond ourselves lies true hope and the true satisfaction of human desire
in the babe of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ.
The
journey is Jesus Christ - the Way, the Truth and the Life - the destination is
Jesus Christ: the star signifies the call of Christ by which we can orient and
root our lives.
This
calls us away from idols of our making, or, should I say of our own ‘manifesting’
and takes us to the heart of reality in the Creator of all things.
Ultimately
it moves us to worship and adoration.
The
tyrant Herod was a ‘manifester’ taken to its worst, destructive and ultimate
conclusion: his request that ‘I too may come and worship him’ was really to
take a chance to destroy a rival to his worship of himself, where he is his own
god.
Herod
wanted a world on his own terms, God on his own terms, based around his own
gratification.
The
Epiphany of the Lord, this Manifestation, reverses our inclination to
self-worship and directs us out of self-interest to worship of God.
In
this New Year, in this Eucharist, may we fix our sights on Christ, the Morning
Star, and fall down before him in worship and adoration offering our gifts and
talents back to the One who gave them to us in the first place.
‘For we saw his star when it rose
and have come to worship’
