Epiphany B 2018
Some people are comfortable with change and some people are not. What we all discover is that change does not care how you feel about it. Change is coming for you.
Actually, we all occasionally welcome or resist change. When things are good, we want nothing to change and when things are bad, we desperately want everything to be different. Yet, it seems to me that every change represents an opportunity whether welcomed or unwelcomed for our God never abandons us. There will be news ways to be merciful, to console, to receive or give. Grace is present everywhere and sometimes change is the new light we need to notice blessings previously unknown.
Not all our reasons for not embracing change are positive or helpful. It may be to preserve power. It may be that which is habitual becomes deeply engrained in us, especially our worse habits. The regular, no matter how darkly imbued, is familiar and we become so attached that our fears prefer it over the new land God promises. So we stay in jobs that sap the joy out of our lives; or we endure in relationships that become toxic and even dangerous. And God’s voice is harder to hear for fear counteracts love.
I think of this for today we see two reactions to change. The Magi see a star rising in the East and, at best they hazard a guess that there is a new born king of the Jews. They abandon everything to follow that star and prepare to give the best they had in homage to this king. They do not hesitate even when their journey ends not in a palace, but before the poor parents of a humble child. They still surrender their best. The journey is rewarded.
The same change that the Magi gave everything for is right there for King Herod. Jesus offers the same salvation to him. He will fulfill the dreams of all his people. You know the song “Do you hear what I hear?” Of course you do for they started playing Christmas songs in late summer. He could have been the king who announced the birth of the Lord as the one who would bring us goodness and light. Instead, all he can think is how to destroy the child. If he had looked for beauty, he would have known it in its fullness; if he had looked for God, he would have met him.
We each have a star that leads us to Christ. It may not lead us to where we plan, but it will always lead us in the direction of peace and of love. And do you know what you get when you reach that place? That’s right – an epiphany! Committed to love, you will find love; searching for peace, you will be a peacemaker; living with hope, your light will shine before the world. And to live in the light, it is worth giving everything. So give your gold, your frankincense and… I know it is hard, but even your myrrh. Accept change and let it lead you to Christ that you may bask in his light and bear that light to others.