This morning we meet the mysterious magi - the wise men from the East who help Matthew make a very important point about Jesus: he has come for all people. This wondrous truth, that Jesus had come to form a redeemed humanity, a new human race, was one that the early church came to embrace powerfully by understanding that the gospel of Jesus Christ could reconcile people to each other who would otherwise be enemies. In the same way they understood that the gospel could empower those who were living under the power of others - whether slaves, women or children or simply peasants in the harsh context that was the Roman world in which the gospel took hold - those who previously had no hope, no story that would help them see their lives as hopeful, are brought into the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and are told that their lives are now bound to his. Our destiny is bound up with Jesus’ destiny.
We all know how it is when we come face to face with our fears, our sins, our failures. It can be quite discouraging. We can really start to wonder in the midst of these moments of self-reflection who we really are and what will come of our lives. Sometimes it seems that other people will have more to say about who we are and what is most true of us. Perhaps a mean-spirited boss, parent, or other authority figure has had such a strong effect on us that we feel like we are puny, helpless, and incapable. Maybe some of us have a self-defeating tendency where we engage in actions and thoughts that make us feel paralysed. Or, maybe we have a prideful self-confidence - a swagger that usually makes us feel good about ourselves with little thought of how we are impacting others. For the proud there is always a day that comes when a loved one is so injured by the proud and selfish one that the latter has a moment where he wished he could be different but doesn’t know how. These are so often the stories that we live - stories of paralysis, shame, self-doubt of narcissistic pride. On Epiphany Sunday we remember that God is the one who desires to write the story of our life. His glory has been made manifest to all people in all circumstances! His mercy and forgiveness is always near and the story of Jesus is always the story we are invited to live into. Epiphany Sunday reminds us that we are never at the mercy of a trap or snare, we are never doomed to continue in destructive behavior; as those made in God’s image we are always meant for more! God is the one who is writing the story of your life. The Jesus story is now your story. May God grants us the grace to live into that story.
Questions for discussion:
1. It was suggested in the homily that keeping with the rhythm of the liturgical year can be a helpful way to be reminded that Jesus’ story is bigger than any one of us and that even our failures have a redeemable place within that story. Can you think imaginatively about how the liturgical year can speak to the seasons of your life in hopeful way?
2. What role does Christian community play in increasing our faith that we are living in Jesus’ story, that we have been united to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, that his destiny belongs to us?
3. In the early church it was quite remarkable for a slave or another powerless person to be brought into the power of Jesus’ story. The stories around them told them that they were powerless; the gospel told them the exact opposite. Can you think of examples from your own life when what someone else thought of you really governed your life in a negative way - a way that kept you from God’s love? What helps you get free of those life-killing stories?
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