Holy Brit

The lectionary today is full of stories of journeys and visitations. The feast of the Holy Name is being celebrated on the other campus and this uses the story of the shepherd visiting the infant Jesus, we are picking up the story of the slightly later visit of the Magi and the other choice of reading is the journey of Mary and Joseph to Egypt, fleeing the wrath of Herod as he tries to avoid the possibility of Emmanuel by killing the infants in Bethlehem.

We will, no doubt, take down our Christmas tree at home this afternoon, to make our Monday morning green pick-up date. I grew up in a house where decorations came down on twelfth night – although my parents were not religious this was a glancing recognition that Epiphany was the end of the Christmas season – although, of course, in the Episcopal calendar Epiphany extends itself, somewhat bizarrely, all the way to Lent.  Candlemas, February 2^nd, is the end of the Christmas pericope proper, after which ordinary time really should begin until they take on a purple hue.

The Gospels are at pains to point out that Jesus has visitors – Luke gives us local visitors – shepherds and Matthew gives us exotic faraway visitors – Magi. Luke gives us angels and archangels to tell the shepherds. Matthew pairs the Magi with Herod giving us a geo-political picture with which we are familiar but which we need to hold in mind as we proceed through the Gospel. Israel is one among many vassal states of the Empire but the whole world is not Rome. These Magi represent a land beyond – represent the whole world, a humanity which is somehow undefined and in a sense unbridled, free to choose, unspoken for. Perhaps it is an interesting inversion that it is Matthew that gives us the true nations of the Gentiles here and not Luke.

These visitors come and they go. They bring their gifts and I always wonder where they went next – what they did the next day. How they felt a year later. Did this experience change them? Did they come back- did they see Jesus again later? In his poem Journey of the Magi of course T. S. Eliot has a retrospective version of the Journey from an older person looking back on the journey – remembering how things were on that journey, no longer at home in his home.

During this Christmas season I hope we have already considered our journey to the stable. I hope we have brought gifts and laid them before the infant king. I hope we have stared in wonder. Perhaps we have not – it is not too late to start. I was thinking this morning that I might move my nativity at home to a quiet corner and make a moment to stare at it each morning until Candlemas – it has been blending into the tree and the other decorations far too much up until now.

The question I wanted to think about this morning is what sort of visitor are we, what sort of visitor am I? Many of us will have been to some sort of gathering over Christmas – and if not this Christmas then perhaps some other gathering in the past – so we know that people are different sorts of visitors. There are those who we really look forward to welcoming, those who fill our hearts with joy who are great to have around, who seem to know how to receive well, how to give well. Then there are those who are over bearing or over needy – those who will not be done-for or those who need everything done for them.

What sort of visitor to the Christ child are you? Are you even paying attention? Is the stable just another shop window to pass by, another product you may or may not buy today. Is it a picture postcard, a child’s tears, a dream in the night?  Are you excited as you draw near, does the pit of your stomach ball – this is it, this is Jesus – do you feel apprehensive – this is it, this is Jesus. Do you wonder what it will be like, worry you will feel nothing, worry He will see straight through all those layers you have constructed around yourself? What sort of visitor are you?

Often our mechanics of visiting are a little bit broken by the world we live in and our ability to change is mediated by our fear of what that might mean for us. Visiting for many of us over the Christmas period may well mean spending time with people who we find difficult. Many families and my own extended family is not exempt from this, have patterns which have been laid down over the years which are not healthy but which no one challenges because to do so would just be….well….difficult, or unthinkable, or may result in someone questioning us back – who knows – but we all know the awkward or sometimes explosive result.

But here is what we noticed sometimes happens in our family – it hasn’t solved all the problems but every so often it has given us pause for thought. I won’t say who but in our extended family which is quite large there is one person who tended to be a bit of a curmudgeon,  that was until it came to the youngest child. They were butter in the youngest child’s hands and in all innocence the youngest child could ask questions like “XX why are you so grumpy?  XX why were you so mean to so and so??” and XX would not get mad at the youngest child but would actually evaluate their behaviour and answer the question. It was nothing short of a miracle.

So what is Jesus saying – to you and through others to you.  This is tough. It is hard to hear. It is hard to say. But that is what being in community is about. By the way – if it seems too easy to say – then perhaps it is not the right thing to say, so be careful. But the silence with which we surround ourselves, that lonely silence of self-righteousness on which our society thrives is so, so unhealthy and un-Christian and, well, not very Christmas – very commercial Christmas but not at all Incarnation.

What those first visitors to Jesus found is what we are invited to find and that is the revelation of God in humanity – that is what Epiphany means – truth being revealed – but that is not only truth out there – that is truth in here – truth in our own hearts, truth which makes us catch our breath and marvel and the glory of the moment. Truth which makes us astonished that we might even be the sort of people who are visiting such a place – but we are, we are here. Just as we would watch the wonder in the eyes of our curmudgeonly family member as they pushed back the blonde curls from the eyes of the youngest child – we would see a deep connection – just as that we without words – so we are invited to a place without words – a place of deep and real connection with this God who is here and now – that is the sort of visitors who we are.

The real question is what sort of visitors will we become in this place of revelation? The story of the season of Epiphany goes beyond the stable. The magi and the shepherds return to their day jobs but is their journey of revelation ended? Is their transformational visit curtailed?  I cannot believe that. This is the change which takes place during the Gospels. Those who follow Christ move from being those who visit the infant Christ to those who abide in the adult Christ – we are those who dwell not just in the shadow of the Most High but we are the Body of Christ. Astonishing -  isn’t it?