An Epiphany;

   Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany…………what’s that I hear you cry……..well ……the word Epiphany comes from the ancient Greek word ‘Epiphania’ which means ‘a manifestation’ and basically…. it is the sudden realization or comprehension of the larger meaning to something…or alternatively it can be used to signify that moment when someone has found, as it were the last piece of the puzzle and now sees the whole picture," …and there are a number of very famous recorded epiphany events….

 For example some time after 300 BC a Grecian King named Hiero the 2nd supplied a quantity of pure Gold to be made into a crown, once made the King started to suspect that the goldsmith had substituted some of the pure Gold for silver and pocketed the rest so he asked his famous mathematician, a chap called Archimedes to test the purity of the crown………however there was, at that time, no way of doing this without melting it down which of course he couldn’t do…………whilst taking a bath however Archimedes noticed that the level of the water rose as he got in and determined that by putting the crown in water and using the displaced water as a means of measurement he could discover the mass of the crown and answer the kings question ….and crying the now famous phrase ‘Eureka’ he leapt out of the bath  and ran naked as the day he was born through the streets of his town…………….

 Sir Isaac Newton -- Gravity and the apple. And there are of course many others………..

 In religious experience Epiphanies or Eureka moments as we might also call them happen all the time, for me it first happened when I was 16 years old on the morning after I had prayed and asked Christ to come into my life, I remember vividly and after months of contemplation waking up the next day with the sense that all was just now clear to me, I had wondered about Christianity for some time but that morning, it was obvious, I new that God was with me, that Christ was alive and by his Spirit was now living within me it all just made perfect sense it was indeed a Eureka moment…………

 One of the most beautiful commentaries on the discovery of the presence and reality of Christ is perhaps provided by Martin Luther the founder of the 16th Century Church reformation where simply he describes his realization as if he had entered into the gates of paradise itself.

 For us today the meaning of the Epiphany of Christ as the Son of God is best summed up in our reading from the Apostle Paul.

 “This grace was given to me to preach to the gentiles the unsearchable riches in Christ and to make plain to everybody the administration of this mystery which for ages past was kept hidden in God who created all things. His intent was that now, through the Church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms….in him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence”

 Christ then is the mystery of God revealed.

 As we say in the setting for our Christmas Holy communion;

 “We give you thanks and praise for your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, who for love of our fallen race humbled himself, was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of your Spirit, and lived as one of us. In this mystery of the Word made flesh you have caused his light to shine in our hearts, to give knowledge of your glory in the face of Jesus Christ. In him we see our God made visible and so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see.”

 Jesus is then the worlds ultimate religious ‘Eureka’ moment, the realization that there is a God in heaven, a larger meaning to our existence, that life itself is not a meaningless journey of 70 or 80 years from birth through decay old age and ending in death, that human beings are not as Charles Darwin would suggest just higher animals……….. but living souls made in the image of a God who is eternal and alive and who loves his creation.

 The coming of Christ changes everything because in him we are shown the invisible God made visible, the Word is made flesh and through this God has caused his light to shine in our hearts and we have the opportunity to be caught up in the love of a God that previously we could not see.

 As the Church, we have been made the guardians of this truth.

 Paul points out that this grace was given to him not for himself alone but so that he would  preach to the gentiles and in his picture of us as the Body of Christ on earth he makes it very plain that he has passed on this mantle of responsibility to all those who come after him.

 In the Gospel story of the three kings we see also the writer presenting us with a picture of Christ’s universal ministry and reign in an age in which religion was parochial, Christ is worshiped by representatives from outside of Israel, from the world beyond Judaism …………The Gospel is therefore for everyone………our Epiphany is meant to be theirs as well. 

 So on the day we should ask ourselves firstly, whether we have discovered the last piece of the puzzle?

That piece which allows us to see the whole picture of Gods revelation in Christ.

Have we embraced the mystery of the word made flesh?

 Now we are all here so one would assume that we all have but that’s not always the case many people come to church with great faith, but many come with only a little, some come with assurance other come because they want to be sure, some come because they have found the answer other because they are still looking, and all that is perfectly appropriate …..The answer for those still looking is of course an acceptance of the presence of God now with us by his Spirit, the Spirit that Christ sent to reveal all truth, Jesus came as the incarnation of God ..he sent the Spirit to simply communicate this Spiritually into our lives  and all we have to do is open up our hearts to receive the Spirit and we will find Jesus waiting as a friend to hold us in his arms………….

 Christ is then the Epiphany of God, the manifestation, the one who shows the ‘striking appearance’ of the Divine. He is the last piece of the puzzle which when placed in its slot makes the whole picture easier to see.

 Have we all had our Eureka moment and asked Jesus into our lives. Have we called on The Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth………If you haven’t and you decide to….I don’t suggest that you all run down the street as naked as the day you were born like Archimedes did  but it will I promise be an experience you will treasure for the rest of your lives.