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Today we celebrate the last of the Epiphanies: those moments of sudden wonder and understanding when something extraordinary is revealed to us. In these moments Christ shows us not only who he is but also who we are. Of all the epiphanies, the last is probably the most ordinary: a young family go to worship and are welcomed by a couple of old folk. Yet is also the one that is perhaps the most helpful in showing us how to become who God made us to be. In Luke 2:22-40 the revelation of God’s presence here with us is only made when different people are gathered together. It is when people of all ages, genders, class and status are united, that we see God united with us also. God is made present among us. The path to God is found in embracing each other and discovering what unites us.
Today we celebrate the Conversion of St Paul, who teaches us that “by grace you have been saved by faith”. Yet both our readings express something of the doubt and confusion involved in the life of faith. In Acts 9:1-22, Paul, once so certain of his faith, is blinded, unable to see, not knowing where he is going. Ananias is also confused and uncertain when God calls him to visit the man who has been an enemy to him and his fellow believers. It is Ananias faith, his ability to take a risk and follow God into the unknown despite his doubts, that brings healing, sight and faith to St Paul. In our gospel, Matthew 19:27-30, the disciples are also experiencing doubt: they have taken the risk of faith, they have left everything, yet they are uncertain of their future.
They, like we, want security, they want to know where they are going. We like to feel in control of our own lives and it is often only when the rug is pulled out from beneath us, when, like Paul, we are groping blindly and are unsure of the way to go, that we place our trust in God. Wealth, status and health are ephemeral but the merciful love of God is enduring.
When we feel lost and disorientated by life’s events, this is not the end of faith, but it’s beginning.
Jesus’ ministry has a very low-key start in John’s gospel. In Mark he silences a demon, in Matthew he teaches a vast crowd, in Luke he preaches in the synagogue but in John 1:29-42, he just stops and talks to a couple of people, asking them what they want, what it is that they, that we, are seeking? What is it that we need?
There are parallels with the way in which the suffering servant, in Isaiah 49:1-7, starts with the needs of others. Whether the servant refers to an individual or to a wider group of God’s people the answer to their own suffering and seeking is to be found in serving others.
The two disciples respond to Jesus with a question of their own: where can we find you? Jesus’ reply, come and see, is an invitation. In the other three gospels Jesus begins his ministry with an action or a statement which shows others who HE IS but here, in John, he invites us to join him so that we might discover who WE ARE.
Just as the people of God who have suffered exile and defeat in Isaiah are offered healing and restoration through engaging in the needs of those around them; so Jesus invites us to find what we seek by participating in God’s work of healing and restoring the world around us.
Who do we think we are? Epiphany is the season of revelation; the stories that reveal Christ’s true nature also reveal our own identity as his siblings in the family of God. Today, as we mark the baptism of Christ we remember that we too are baptised in the same spirit.
In our gospel, Matthew 3:13-17, John does not want to baptise him, yet Jesus insists so that we might not be afraid to follow him into deep waters. Just as the Spirit moved over the waters bringing creation into being, so the spirit moves over the waters of baptism recreating us.
The voice of God calling Christ his beloved child is for us too, we are claimed and renewed and anointed so that we might follow Christ, carrying the spirit of God into the world and working for the renewal of all people and the whole of creation.