Epiphanies Lost and Found

The purpose of the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures is not to save souls but to save us all from the darnkenss that surrounds and sometimes engulfs our shared reality. (Isaiah 60:1-6) The texts appointed for this Sunday of Epipany in the Common Ecumenical Lectionary provide us with a light that could lead us out of the current darkness of economic recession and expanding military conflicts in our world. It is an old Epiphany lost but in need of being found.

Unfortunately, the text from Matthew (spater 2:1-2) tells us that the political rulers and the religious elite know where to find the light but seek only to snuff it out so that those who are seeking someking of magic to deliver us from the darkness must take a different way home in order not to be complicit with the plot to lose the Epiphany of Bethlehem under the crush of oppression.

Psalm 72 give a clear indication of the epiphany needed for the rulers to deliver their people from the darkness: justice leads to peace and prosperity {"Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son; that he may rule your people righteously and the poor with justice; that the mountains may bring prosperity to the people,and the little hills bring righteousness. He shall defend the needy among the people; he shall rescue the poor and crush the oppressor...In his time shall the righteous flourish; there shall be abundance of peace till the moon shall be no more.") We need some true believers in high places so that it becomes clear that the way out our darkness is through investing in quality education and health care for all the people, jobs that pay a living wage and respect for the dignity and human rights for all of God's children. In both the darkness of economic recession and the suffering of war, this is the way toward the light. This is the Epiphany that our world needs but that is not known, or purposefully forgotten by the rulers and authorities that govern our nations.

Odds are that this epiphany will remain in the category of lost as the one institution called specifically to make in known will individualize and spiritualize the message in the hope that the paying cusomers in the pews will not get the impression that the pulpit is a place for preaching Epiphanies that could change public policy. This despite the clear statement of mission from the text of St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians: "Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities..."

The wisdom of God that needs to be known by rulers and authorities is that peace and prosperity flourish when the focus of society is to make sure that the poor, the needy and the lowly have access to all that makes life possible in the real world - education, health care, dignity, jobs.

May this be the faith that guides President Obama toward policies that invest in education, health care and jobs at home and economic justice and social reform around the world. And, may the church find the magic that will return it to the mission for which it was called - to love the world the way that God so loved the world.