The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Are you keeping warm? I commend you for being here this morning. A lot of Floridians don’t venture outside if the temperature dips below 50!
There’s a story about some Indians who asked their chief in autumn if the winter was going to be cold or not. Not really knowing an answer, the chief replied that the winter was going to be cold and that the members of the village were to collect wood to be prepared. Being a good leader, he then called the National Weather Service and asked, “Is this winter to be cold?” The man on the phone responded, “This Winter is going to be quite cold indeed.”
So the chief went back to speed up his people to collect even more wood to be prepared. A week later he called the National Weather Service again. “Is it going to be a very cold winter?” “Yes,” the man replied, “it’s going to be a very cold winter.” So the Chief went back to his people and ordered them to go and find every scrap of wood they could find.
Two weeks later he called the National Weather Service again: “Are you absolutely sure that the Winter is going to be very cold?” “Absolutely,” the man replied, “the Indians are collecting wood like crazy!”
Happy Epiphany! We are gathering on this day as Christians have done for over 1600 years. The feast of the Epiphany began in the East in the 4th century, but it began as a celebration of the birth of Christ. Eventually, Christmas replaced Epiphany as the celebration of Jesus’ birth, and in the East to this day Epiphany is the Feast only of the baptism of Christ.
While you would never know it from the way we celebrate it today, Epiphany is really the feast of three miracles, the celebration of which can occur within a period of as many as two weeks in our current Christian calendar.
What are those three miracles? The first is what we normally think of when we think of Epiphany, the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. This is an epiphany, a manifestation, a theophany of the divine nature of Jesus. The Magi were Gentiles who were led to the baby Jesus by the appearance of a brilliant star and would be led ultimately to worship him. This is an epiphany that Jesus is the Savior of the whole world, not just the Messiah for the Jews.
What are the other two miracles? The first was the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. His baptism was an epiphany of his mission to take on the sins of the world and to die for those sins. When Jesus was baptized by John, as he came up out of the water the Holy Spirit descended upon him as a dove and God said, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” That was an epiphany of the divine nature of Jesus, occurring right at the beginning of his earthly ministry.
The third miracle that we celebrate on Epiphany is Jesus changing water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. This miracle is not just a manifestation of Jesus’ power, but a sign of his divine mission. The wedding takes place on the third day, which is symbolic of Jesus rising from the dead on the third day. This links this miracle of Jesus with the Paschal Mystery. It symbolizes what Jesus can do in the life of the believer as he changes the dull, tasteless water of our lives into the richest wine. And it is a foreshadowing of the Eucharistic community of the Church and eternal life with God in heaven. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in one of his catecheses, interprets the wedding feast at Cana as a type of the Eucharist and of the marriage of Christ and his Church: “At Cana of Galilee, he changed water into wine. Is he not to be believed, then, when he changes wine into blood? When invited to an earthly marriage, he did this marvelous deed. Shall we not profess our faith even more readily when to the companions of the bridegroom he makes a present of the enjoyment of his Body and Blood?”
In the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer placed all three of these on the same day. At Morning Prayer the account of the baptism of Jesus was read, at the Holy Eucharist the Gospel was the visit of the Magi to the ChristCchild, and at Evening Prayer the account of the miracle at the wedding at Cana was read.
Today we celebrate these three miracles on three separate occasions, but all either on or close to the Feast of the Epiphany. We celebrate the visit of the Magi on the Feast of the Epiphany, 6 January; the Baptism of Jesus on the First Sunday after the Epiphany; and every third year, when the Gospel readings are primarily from the Gospel according to Saint Luke, the Gospel is the account of Jesus changing water into wine.
Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, did a totally unique thing in coming to this earth, taking the flesh of the Virgin Mary, and becoming a human being in Jesus of Nazareth. Following an unusually brilliant star, wise men from the East were led to worship him. When he began his earthly ministry by being baptized by John in the River Jordan, God the Father proclaimed him his only-begotten Son, and his first miracle at a wedding in Cana symbolized what he would do for all of humanity for all time.
Now, 2000 years later, we continue to remember and celebrate these miracles. To the skeptical, they’re simply reminiscences of a mythical, prescientific age. But to the faithful, they are signs leading us to the One who saves, the only One who saves.
“The eastern sages saw from far and followed on his guiding star; by light their way to Light they trod, and by their gifts confessed their God.
Within the Jordon’s sacred flood the heavenly Lamb in meekness stood, that he, to whom no sin was known, might cleanse his people from their own.
Oh, what a miracle divine, when water reddened into wine! He spoke the word, and forth it flowed in streams that nature ne’er bestowed.
All glory, Jesus, be to thee for this thy glad epiphany: whom with the Father we adore and Holy Ghost for evermore.”
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Epiphany
6th January 2018