We celebrate today as the Feast of Epiphany the 12th day after Christmas Day. It is one of the seven Principal Feasts that our Church observes. Epiphany like Christmas is the divine manifestation of the incarnation to the whole world. In our gospel lesson, we see that this mystery of the incarnation in Jesus is revealed to the wise men from the East who are gentiles.
At this point, I would like to have us bless the chalk. I’m sure some of us might be familiar with this tradition of chalking the door. Let’s go to page 7 in the bulletin. Celebrant: Our help is in the name of the Lord People: The maker of heaven and earth Celebrant: The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in. People: From this time forth for evermore. Let us pray. Loving God, bless this chalk which you have created, that it may be helpful to your people; and grant that through the invocation of your most Holy Name that we who use it in faith to write upon the door of our home the names of your holy ones Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, may receive health of body and protection of soul for all who dwell in or visit our home; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. This ritual of blessing the chalk and marking a special logo, 20 + C + M + B + 18 on the front entrance of a house has been around for centuries. This Epiphany tradition is more well-known in the Roman Church than our Anglican Communion, but I’ve noticed that it is becoming more common in the Anglican Communion as well. This ritual of chalking the wall has been to ask God’s blessing on our homes on the Feast of Epiphany, usually observed on the 6th of January. And since Epiphany is close to the beginning of the new year, it is quite fitting to ask for God’s blessing on our homes where we rest, restore, and recharge our body, mind, and spirit as we embark on a new journey of 2018. Now you might wonder what these letters and numbers might mean. 20 and 18, you can easily guess that it represents the year 2018. What about C, M, and B? They have two meanings. One is that these letters are the initials of the traditional names of the three wise men who visited Baby Jesus which is our gospel reading today. Their names are Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. The other meaning of these three letters is that they abbreviate the Latin prayer request “Christus Mansionem Benedicat,” which means “May Christ bless the house.” On the last page of the bulletin, there’s a liturgical instruction that guides you to bless your house with this blessed chalk. It would be wonderful if your family can gather and do it together. As you can see, this ritual originates from today’s gospel reading. This is the story of being led. The three wise men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar from the East (probably from Persia?) are first led by the star of Jesus to Jerusalem. They lead King Herod to investigate where this king of the Jews is to be born. Herod leads all the chief priests and scribes to figure out where the Messiah is to be born. They finally find the location of the Messiah’s birth in Micah 5:2 which is Bethlehem. Herod calls C, M, and B and gains more detailed information about the exact time of Jesus’ birth. He in return tells them where the Messiah can be found, but demands that they get back to him so that he himself can go visit the Messiah. Both the wise men and Herod have something in common, which is that they are constantly being led. By what they’re being led, however, is strikingly contrasted. The three wise men are led by a sense of joy. They’re not unwillingly forced to look for Jesus and pay homage to him. They start their journey to visit him out of joy. This great joy leads them to travel from the East to Jerusalem to Bethlehem. Herod, on the other hand, is led by fear. When he first encounters the three wise men, he is frightened. As a king appointed by the Roman Empire rules the Jews in Jerusalem, there shouldn’t be any other king of the Jews other than Herod himself. Already a ruthless figure who is not afraid to get rid of anyone who becomes a threat to his power, he slaughters all the children in and around Bethlehem. It makes sense that the Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28 is celebrated during the 12-day season of Christmas. A joy-driven journey creates endurance whereas a fear-driven investigation produces panic and violence. The three wise men patiently follow the movement of the star and never give up on their search for Jesus the Messiah for the whole world. Herod plans things in secret and also never gives up his plan to get rid of Jesus. The three wise men’s joy is the fruit of hope given from God. Herod’s fear and anxiety lock himself in his own hell where he isolates himself from God’s mercy. Fear leads him to infanticide. Joy leads the three wise men to the house where they finally see Jesus with his Blessed Mother Mary. Then we might want to ask ourselves what we’re being led by when we make decisions in our lives. Is it joy or fear? What drives you to do the things you do? For example, what led you to come to this service? Is it joy or fear or something else? I ask this question because we’re living in the world that is mostly driven by fear and anxiety. A fear and anxiety driven society puts us in survival mode. Every day at work, we are on a battlefield where others are judged as either allies or enemies. In the case of Herod, fear creates hatred. We hate what we are so afraid of. Herod’s fear of losing his power as the king of the Jews leads him to hate not only Jesus but also all the innocent children who are seen as a potential threat. The Holy Spirit never uses fear or anxiety to lead us to Jesus. It is joy. It is hope. It is love. It is grace. Always unconditional and eternal, ever forgiving and embracing just like the father of the prodigal son. The three wise men may have been afraid of Herod, yet the joy that is leading them grants them courage to continue their journey no matter what. And they enter the house of Jesus. I began my homily with the ritual of blessing our homes with the blessed chalk. This might have given you the impression that we simply want good things to happen in the house and ask Jesus to keep it that way or cast away all the bad things. As we dig deeper into the gospel lesson, this ritual leads us to Jesus who is already living in our home. In the gospel lesson, we see that it is Jesus who is in the house, not anyone else. So it would make more sense that this ritual of blessing the home is an act of faith that confesses Jesus is already in our house. Just like the three wise men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, we are led by joy to find Jesus with his Blessed Mother Mary in our own houses. And we recognize Jesus who is ever present not just in the house, but deep in your own hearts, always longing to be sought. Week after week, at the Eucharist, we are receiving Christ into the house of our body, mind, and soul. St. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians talks about the mystery of Christ in whom we have access to God. This mystery of the incarnation means that there’s no place where God isn’t present. God is found everywhere. As God became human in Jesus, God has come closer and nearer to us than we are to ourselves. And this God in Christ should be found in your own house and in your heart, letting ourselves kneel down and bring our whole selves to him out of joy. This inner work of personally encountering Jesus in our heart takes us to another joy-led pilgrimage to seek Jesus who is also dwelling even in the hearts of those who might not see Jesus in themselves. In this way, we become the house to receive strangers as Jesus himself as we provide hospitality to them. St. Benedict knew this mystery of Christ in the 6th century. He instructs his fellow brothers, “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt 25:35)” (RB 53.1) “...Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received.” (RB 53.15) Find Christ in your house and in your heart. And become yourself the house that receives Christ the stranger. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
|