In the little thumbnail sketch
of themselves, which some people put on Facebook, there is a heading entitled, relationship
status, and another entitled, religious views.
Some of my friends have in both
those boxes the simple phrase “it’s
complicated”.
Well relationships are
sometimes complicated and none more so than our relationship with God.
However simple our faith may
be:
Jesus loves me
This I know
For the Bible tells me so;
the way we sometimes come to
faith and grow in faith is often complex.
Evelyn Waugh converted to
Catholicism in 1930 and added to his extremely complicated human relationships
a devout but complicated divine relationship.
Twenty years later in 1950 he
wrote probably his least-known book: Helena.
It’s an historical novel that
explores faith through St Helena, the mother of Constantine, as she travels to
Palestine in the 4th Century to find the ‘true cross’.
On this day, the Eve of the
Epiphany, she finds herself at the place of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem
contemplating the magi and her own late arrival to the Christian faith.
The Epiphany - the
Manifestation - the Showing; or the Theophania as it was also called - the
showing of God - has been celebrated since the early 3rd Century. By the 4th
Century, in the Western Church, its focus became the Revelation of God to the
Gentiles - personified in those three Wise Men from the East, or were they
Kings, or Astrologers? We don't know what they were, or for that matter how
many of them there were. That’s why we have the traditional three in our crib
scene, but these two magnificent kings on elephant and camel still travelling
over here by the sacristy. And we don’t know when they arrived. Matthew makes
clear that Jesus was probably a toddler by the time they presented their gifts.
Traditionally, they came to be
known as Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar and many customs have grown up around
them especially in Europe.
There will be some Anglican and
Roman Catholic priests tomorrow visiting the homes of the faithful and chalking
over the doors the initials of the three kings:
20 + C + M + B + 14
This represents a New Year
blessing: Christus mansionem benedicat
(May Christ Bless this house).
And here this morning we will
have our own Galette des Rois -
King Cake – with our wine after
the service.
But let’s return to Helena in
Evelyn Waugh’s Novel, and listen to her meditating on the Magi around the
shrine of Christ’s birthplace:
“How laboriously you came,
taking sights and calculations, where the shepherds had run barefoot!
How odd you looked on the road,
attended by what outlandish liveries, laden with such preposterous gifts!
You came at length to the final
stage of your pilgrimage and the great star stood still above you. What did you
do? You stopped to call on King Herod. Deadly exchange of compliments in which
there began that unended war of mobs and magistrates against the innocent!
Yet you came, and were not
turned away. You too found room at the manger. Your gifts were not needed, but
they were accepted and put carefully by, for they were brought with love…
You are my especial patrons and
patrons of all late-comers, of all who have had a tedious journey to make to
the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who
through politeness make themselves partners in guilt, of all who stand in danger
by reason of their talents…
For His sake who did not reject
your curious gifts, pray always for the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let
them not be quite forgotten at the Throne of God when the simple come into
their kingdom.”
The Church in London continues
to grow and we see at baptisms and confirmations that many now come to faith
later in life, and often they come with a complex understanding of their
relationship with God in Christ.
As Waugh and many others have
recognised, we often come thinking we have gifts to offer God; only to find that
the gifts are accepted, although not needed - accepted because they are brought
with love as a response to the love of Jesus which we celebrate at the altar.
And of course, like the magi,
for all our learning and good intentions, we often get side-tracked along the
way, and fall into the company of Herod, who seems intelligent, cultured and
entertaining, but who is capable of such horrors.
And who has not, through
politeness, as Waugh puts it, made themselves partners in guilt?
For others of us, the first part
of the journey, when the star shone so brightly, was indeed easy and simple.
Then knowledge and life
experiences made our faith seem more oblique. It would be so easy to give up
following the star and join the cynics round about us.
But the wise men persevered and
although they did not understand whom it was they worshipped with their gifts,
they realised that an encounter with Jesus would change the rest of their
lives.
Perhaps this is why they are
remembered.
They are, not just for Helena,
but for many of us, our special patrons, for they encourage us through all our
doubts and fears and wrong turns, to persevere in following the light God has
shown us. For all of our life is a quest to know God, and therefore ourselves,
better – faith seeking understanding – Anselm’s motto, fides quaerens intellectum, which for him means an active love of
God seeking a deeper knowledge of God.
And we are so much richer than
the magi, for we have the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the church, the bread and the
wine, and two thousand years of Christian witness.
We bring simply the gift of
ourselves, the adoration of our hearts, and with the wise men, we worship.
