Celebrate Epiphany?

Happy New Year! Look around…Do you notice pipers pipping? Or ladies dancing? Or lords a-leaping? Or perhaps even drummers drumming? No? You sure? For we are now at the end of the 12 days of Christmas. What your true love gives you on each of the final four days seems to change with each song rendition. What doesn’t change is Epiphany. Today, January 6th–twelve days after Christmas–is Epiphany. Traditionally, it is a time to celebrate and give gifts after reading again the story of the arrival of the gift-giving magi/wise men/kings/star-followers that is only found in the Gospel According to Matthew.

But of course since 2021 here in USAmerica, January 6th has taken on a much bleaker meaning when we all witnessed armed insurrectionists attempt a violent coup to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. I remember that day, and all the lies and misinformation that fueled it, left me exhausted, angry, and even scared. (In contrast, today we witnessed the uneventful manner in which an election is supposed to be certified.) I found myself wondering what I said in my sermon that Sunday after the attempted coup. I know I addressed it, but what specifically did I say? I won’t offer the whole thing, but I think a couple pieces from it are good and necessary reminders for us today.

We speak up because, as the Board of Church & Society (the social justice arm of the United Methodist Church) writes, “Not only is to be silent to be complicit–it is to abandon our baptismal vows.”

We read what some scholars are convinced is the oldest section of the New Testament: Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3:26-29. That section is likely the very first creed proclaimed by the early church; one used in baptisms. But it wasn’t the familiar creed that most Christians know. The first creed was:
For you are all children of God in the Spirit.
There is no Jew or Greek; 
There is no slave or free; 
There is no male and female.
For you are all one in the Spirit.

This creed is about identity. It says there are no barriers to who can follow Jesus: nationality, class, gender—none of those can keep someone out. 

As Dr. Diana Butler Bass wrote:

“The ancient Roman world was even more divided than ours. It was a society of hierarchies where certain ethnicities were privileged, people who were free were deemed fully human and slaves considered as beasts, and men were always superior to women. Bigotry, slavery, and sexism were the coinage of the Roman Empire. Jesus challenged all this by welcoming sinners and outcasts, by eating with people deemed unclean, and insisting that those who were last would be first.”

We’re angry today because of the way Christian faith has been used to prop up bigotry, hatred, and violence. Our baptismal vows both ancient and modern remind us that is not the way of Jesus. We’re all children of God. This creed helps us to see clearly that:

Xenophobia is incompatible with Christianity.
Sexism and misogyny is incompatible with Christianity.
QAnon is incompatible with Christianity. 
White supremacy is incompatible with Christianity.
Racism is incompatible with Christianity.

Let’s be baptized anew into the Way of Jesus, the way of solidarity with the marginalized and the outcasts. So we can unite in the midst of all our differences to heal the violence of bigotry done in our name. That is what we do with our anger and fear. That, it seems to me, is how we can move forward. Baptized anew in the way of solidarity with one another. 

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash