Sacredise - Hide And Seek

Things are changing!

By the time you read this we will have moved into a new season in the Church Calendar. We celebrate the incarnation at Christmas, but we need to understand what it really means. The season that helps us to do this - and in which we are already engaged - is called Epiphany – which, as I'm sure you know, means simply “to show” or “to reveal”.

Epiphany was celebrated on January 6th (or on Sunday January 3rd) and, in many churches, the continues until Ash Wednesday. The biblical characters we meet are people who learn who Jesus really is – and they take us with them on the journey. From the Wise Men, to Jesus' mother at the wedding in Cana, to Jesus' proclamation of his mission in the synagogue (Luke 4), to the first disciples, to the transfiguration, we are invited into a journey of learning the truth about this Jesus.

But what is it that Epiphany teaches us? Far too much to explore here, but we can select a few highlights.

The World Jesus Came For
The story of the Wise Men carries a very important message for followers of Christ. The first people to recognise who Jesus was, were Gentiles – strangers from outside of God's chosen people. Their gifts reveal their understanding of Christ's person and work – Gold for Royalty, Incense (symbolising prayer) for Diety, and Myrrh (embalming fluid) for the Sacrifice Jesus would one day be. In these three gifts lie the essential meaning of the incarnation!

What Matthew seeks to impress on his Jewish readers, and on us, is that the Saviour came not just for insiders, for a specific chosen group of people. Jesus came for the entire world, and all of its peoples – including these strange foreigners. In a nation still wrestling with the curse of xenophobia, we need to hear this story again.

The Jesus Who Came To The World
As we follow the rest of the Epiphany journey, we are introduced to this Jesus through the eyes and experiences of those around him – and it's an enlightening journey! We see him as the one who brings joy through the simple sign of turning water to wine, enhancing a wedding celebration. We learn from his own mouth that he has come as the fulfilment of the Jubilee promise spoken through Isaiah to liberate, heal and restore. We see the impact he has on the first followers who cannot resist his call, and we are witnesses with his three closest friends of that moment of transfiguration that reveals the truth about Jesus – and of his self-sacrificing mission.

It's like a game of hide and seek – here a glimpse, there a sign, there a small piece of evidence – that leads us into a growing realisation that Jesus truly was God made flesh, and that this changes everything.

Our worship is for us the play ground for this game. If we will allow it, God will draw us into a journey of discovery, learning to see the signs, recognise the evidence and learn the truth. And as we find the Jesus we seek, we will be changed, a little more each week, into those who reflect him to the world.

Thanks be to God!