Epiphany 3 - Year C

Luke 4: 14 - 21

• My "back in time" moment.......
• And why? would I believe... would I be convinced....
• This is where the season of Epiphany catches us......

This Christmas to Lent time, the time of the season of Epiphany, is very much like the stars of the sky. That is, images of light, scattered through an unknowing depth of reality beyond our understanding. I mean really, how far does the universe really go? That wondering is only a partial wonder of ... how big is God, really? .....

It is the season of being caught in the eternal faith dilemma - what is real in faith; what do I really believe... and trusting the unknown and unknowable of those questions. Just like believing there is a universe at the back of the stars.

And so the images of the light of Epiphany come to us in a seemingly scattering of Gospel readings that have nothing to do with the order of the time life of Christ. In this season we travel straight from Christmas to Christ's presentation in the Temple (which is chronologically ok) to his baptism, to water into wine miracle, back to the beginning of his ministry and the consequences of not being welcome in his hometown, to another miracle of an overwhelming fishing experience, to the climatic event of the Transfiguration which is quite near the end of his life. We then enter Lent by going back again into the wilderness experience of the Temptations of Christ, before his ministry "officially" began.

We thus participate in a series of startling images of Christ that are caught in this time of Christmas to Easter; incarnation truth to resurrection truth. We will trust it is not to confuse. Although, my experience of teaching children at this time of year is very challenging, especially in the RE context of schools. You begin the year with the excitement and imagery of Christmas still fresh in young hearts and minds. And literally within 2-3 lessons we seem to be "killing off" this Jesus, as we tell the Easter story.

Such is the dilemma of faith. We are caught between the idyllic images of Christmas nativity (from which marketing companies have made a fortune) and the mystery of a virgin birth. We are caught in the whole spectrum of prophecy and what to do with it. It's just not part of the 21st century where we stamp out superstition and remove as much risk from our lives as we can. Lawyers and insurance companies help us on the way in providing predictable lives that we can control. Thus the voice of prophets has not kudos, not that we would perhaps recognise that voice anyway.... so, what to do with Isaiah and Micah and the really old guys of the Hebrew Scriptures? And what to do with Simeon and Anna as they hold the Christ child in his presentation in the temple and pronounce profound linking of old truth with new reality.

And what do we do with Jesus Christ himself; announcing his own person as indeed fulfilling all Messianic hopes of prophecy? There he stood, amongst his own Jewish people, people who had known and grown with him as a seemingly normal boy, son of a carpenter, local resident, and his announcement could not be comprehended. We are told, on that day, "When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage."

Right from the beginning, from that day in the synagogue, with the Christ who had just been baptised, and just been through his temptation desert experience, his story kept unfolding with similar emotions of disturbance, discomfort, and violence. This bringing of God's presence and word to the people was not like the Christmas nativity scene of light and love. Christ's short ministry was an incredible upheaval of norms and radical teaching that shook the very foundations of the church of the day. Wherever he went he upset enormous amounts of people, as well as attracting the masses.

We still live with the juxtaposition of these images, and truth, today. The world yearns for a safe message from God, a message of sweetness and light, a message that correlates with the lovely image of a baby at Christmas. Of stars in the clear sky above an idyllic scene of baby and silence. Christ's reality is the dramatic upheaval of all our preconceived images of peace and harmony and what is right, with God's reality of righteousness. Christ's imagery centres on thick, iron nails through frail human flesh in the most inglorious death. Is this the fulfilment of the prophets in the redemption of Jerusalem, and all peoples? Is this the revelation of knowing and knowingness for all humanity?

It is. We need to look again; we need to listen again. Epiphany offers us such a time; time and space to look beyond story and image into the revelation of God's truth. At the same time, the looking and the listening will also bring calling.... and that's the risk we take when we enter the unlimited universe of God's knowing.
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Are you that kind of risk-taker? And, very significantly at this time of the year as we plan and dialogue ministry for young people - are we prepared to expose and involve our children with that risk?

Have you ever thought about and reflected on what it means to be a young Christian? Have you thought about the children of this parish in their classrooms, in their sporting clubs, even in their homes of mixed opinion and belief, taking on the reality that by belonging to "a church" they are so in the minority of the world today. Perhaps it is less stark in the catholic education system, but my experience of the state and Anglican systems is that there may be only one or two, if none at all, practising Christian families in a classroom.

And it's not just the identity tag which, let's be honest, young people are not alone in being ambivalent about in exposing their God-status. We also, the "grown ups" are selective and wary in identifying our correlation with church at certain times, are we not?? I can certainly share with you that to reveal I am an Anglican priest in some settings has to be the most effective conversation stopper of all time!
But to return to the young people. As we as a community take on this year a very intentional approach of faith formation in all aspects of ministry and community life, the absolute challenges of forming young souls is apparent to us all, not just those who have declared their willingness to be part of their journey in that intentional way. I put it that way because we are all part of children's faith journey; but we indeed honour that group who will take on the teaching and forming of young lives through Sunday School, Pram Service, Saints Alive, Come to the Waters and other family ministries this year.

It's not only a question of what does it mean to hear Jesus say .. "God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free." For all of us it is what does it mean in my life and the life of the world to not only hear those words but live that truth? For all of us as a Christian community committed to the faith formation of each one of us, our challenge is enormous in involving young lives in the story.

The Sunday School year will begin next week with the powerful Gospel story following on from this week's story of Jesus been rejected by his hometown because of his claim on God's wisdom. We are asking our children to be in relationship with a radical rejected from normal society? Indeed we are, and we are inviting them into that same rejection from that moment, the same cry that we hear from the world as Christians today... who are you to say you are part of God's kingdom? Can you imagine the courage it must take for a child to admit that allegiance? as well as want to even explore what that means....

What are the images we bring not only in Epiphany but as an "all year" kingdom community to our children, and thus to all comers? I am not going to answer this; I am reflecting on this further in my Annual Report which you will receive next week. But think upon these things; this parish, as a worshipping faith community, is a primary place where faith is formed for all lives - and hopefully not separate from what happens in the home or other encounters in life. But the image of God for children is most dramatically and truthfully to be found here because we claim that every time we gather; that is core business.
That core business must have at its heart the passion to embrace young lives as fully in the divine as the human, to connect their reality with God's reality in a living, exciting and truthful way. There can be no greater teaching than for children to be part of that passion in other's lives - call it what you may... witnessing, practising what we preach.... and their participation will rely fully on our own immersion in formation, and our integrity in our relationship not only with them, but in their watching of how we are with each other. Because that is their gift to us - it is in the heartgrain integrity of young people, as they listen and see what happens here, that will return a truthful and open response to what they have received. We must continue to remind ourselves over and over that it is only through such lens, the insight and wisdom of the children, that we all indeed can be whole. Jesus said, as the children came to him and the disciples attempted to shoo them away... "Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very centre of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in."

Faith is not able to be formed without being part of and participating in the life of the whole people of God. In that participation, our ears will be tuned to listen, our eyes will indeed be opened and we will be able to proclaim, with Christ, the year of the Lord's favour.

The Lord be with you.