Today, we celebrate Epiphany Sunday and the story of the Wise Men who came from the east to offer gifts to the Christ Child.
Wise Men, Magi, We Three Kings – These are all titles that are commonly used in referring to this group of people who traveled from Persia in search of the newborn King.
I’d like to add another title for these visitors from the East. For today, let’s think of them as “seekers.” I love that title. They were seeking to offer their gifts and honor the one who was born, king of the Jews.
This year’s New Year’s celebration didn’t just feel like a welcoming of 2021. It also felt like a good riddance to 2020. 2020 wasn’t kind to us. The new year couldn’t come soon enough. I sensed a sigh of relief as we hung new calendars on our walls. Welcome, 2021!
For many of us, this higher than usual expectation for a better year also includes a renewed hope. With this in mind, think with me for a moment what this renewed hope could mean for our faith.
Like those magi who traveled many miles to seek the newborn king, what if we too would see ourselves as seekers of a deeper faith? This is a year in which we can take our faith to a whole new level.
Being seekers like the magi means that like them, we have a curiosity to know who this newborn king is and what this means for our own faith perspective. And like saying goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021, being seekers may also mean letting go of the past and embracing the future that God has in mind for us. Yes, this new year seems like the perfect time to travel with the magi and seek a deeper relationship with God.
I love the name given to this day on the church calendar. Epiphany. We sometimes use this word in everyday language when we say, “I just had an epiphany,” and we will proceed to share some new insight or something we discovered or learned.
To have an epiphany means being open to the new direction that God may be leading us. It’s difficult to have an epiphany when we are satisfied with the status-quo and when our minds and our hearts are not open.
Back in the fall, I received a college magazine update, and in her letter to the college community, the president of the college wrote these insightful words, “The three Rs of education should be more than reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. It needs to include seeking and finding truth – research and reflection – before reacting.”
I understood her words to mean that we shouldn’t be satisfied with the status-quo and to always have a healthy curiosity that will lead to growth and new understandings. Education and spiritual growth are never meant to be stagnant. When we stop learning and growing in our faith, we cease from being the seekers that God is calling us to be.
[Kirsten Powers, Journalist]
Kirsten Powers is a journalist and political analyst. She’s been on Fox News, CNN, and USA Today. I recently heard an interview she gave about her faith journey which is really interesting. Her story is the story of a spiritual seeker.
Kirsten shares how she grew up in a home that wasn’t particularly religious. Her mother was Catholic but had fallen away from the church. Her father was Episcopalian and didn’t attend regularly.
When she was in college, she saw herself as an atheist or agnostic. She just didn’t know if she really believed in God. When she was in her 30s, her boyfriend at the time was attending a well known evangelical church in New York City, and she started attending worship services with him.
She said how that church got her to start thinking about her faith more seriously and she became a believer during that time. But as she continued in that church, she realized that she didn’t agree with a lot of what the people of that church believed about the Bible, about politics, and about social issues.
Here she was, not a very conservative person, worshiping in an evangelical church that didn’t reflect her values and theological views. But, she says that she’s thankful for that church because that’s where she encountered Christ in a very real way. For the long-term, the church was just too narrow and one dimensional for her theologically because she was more progressive than they were on issues such as gay marriage.So she started attending a different church, an Anglican Church, but that church also felt too restrictive in their beliefs.
And so, she continued her spiritual search in finding where God was leading her in her faith. In her role as a journalist, she met Father Jonathon Morris and they became friends. She started asking him questions about the Catholic faith and he introduced her to a more inclusive understanding of the Christian faith, something that Kirsten had been seeking. For her, the evangelical church was too one dimensional, but in the Catholic faith, there was more room for both conservatives and liberals.
She decided to join the Catholic Church just a few years ago and since then, she has continued in her spiritual quest. When she went to Rome on assignment to do a story with other reporters, she participated in a spiritual pilgrimage that was happening while they were there. She said how that pilgrimage in visiting the holy sites in Rome had a big impact on our faith. It helped her to appreciate the mystery of the faith and that there didn’t need to be an answer for every spiritual question. Just live in the mystery. And this has led her to practice the spiritual discipline of meditation and prayer.
Another spiritual mentor encouraged her to read the book, “Falling Upward,” by Richard Rohr who has written several other books on Christian spirituality in which he talks about how our failings can be the foundation for our ongoing spiritual growth. Kirsten shares how this long journey of seeking has been worthwhile and gives her a sense of peace and wholeness.
She is now writing a book on the topic of grace.
After I listened to her interview, I was reminded of how like Kirsten, we are all called to be spiritual seekers and that spiritual journey is ongoing and leads us to new understandings, experiences, and connections. Kirsten’s story reminds me so much of what the Wise Men were doing when they made their long journey to seek the new born king by following a star all the way to Bethlehem.
Kirsten’s story also reminds me of the kind of church that I want us always to be, a church that gives room for people to be who God has called them to be, a church that is humble enough to see that we don’t have all the answers, but a church where we can point each other to the One who is the newborn king, the one who wants to live at the very center of all of our questions, doubts, and deepest longings.
One of my favorite things to hear as a pastor is when someone who has been a long-time church members says, “I learned something new about my faith,” or “that bible study helped me to see that there are other ways of interpreting scripture,” or “I like being part of a church where we see our faith in different ways.”
We are all seekers here. We are all following the star and it’s a long journey. But the good news that I want to leave you with today is, that journey will always lead us to Christ. That journey will always lead us to a deeper appreciation of divine mystery. That journey will always lead us to a richer understanding of God’s grace at work in our lives.
And as we begin this new year and let’s all thank God for this new year! As we begin this new year together, how appropriate that we begin our journey with the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The one who was born as our king is also the one who suffered, died, and who rose again for our sake.
May God bless you with many spiritual epiphanies this year. And like the Wise Men, may they always lead you to overwhelming joy.
God of light, heal us with your steadfast love. Forgive us for when we close our minds and and refuse to allow your brightness to shine through us. Restore us in your mercy when we put our own comfort before the needs of others, and when we are unwilling to speak out against oppression and violence. Renew us in the power of your Spirit when we refuse to follow the star you have placed before us. Lead us again to bow at the manger, offer our best gifts, and honor you as our true King. Amen.
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