A Sermon For Twelfth Night - January 5th 2020
The Gospel for Epiphany - Matthew 2:1-12
In the time of King
Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came
to Jerusalem, 2asking,
“Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his
star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” 3When
King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and
calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired
of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it
has been written by the prophet: 6‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by
no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who
is to shepherd my people Israel.’” 7Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and
learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8Then
he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and
when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him
homage.”
9When they had heard the king, they set out; and
there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it
stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were
overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary
his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their
treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12And
having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own
country by another road.
May the words of my mouth and
the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, my Lord, my rock and my
redeemer.
Amen.
Over Christmas there were a
couple of cartoons going around on the internet about wise men.
The first was a century’s old
icon depicting the adoration of the wise men, kneeling in homage before the
baby Jesus and Mary. A caption had been added which said, “Just to be perfectly
clear. These gifts are for your birthday, AND Christmas.”
The second cartoon declared: “after
the wise men left, the three wiser women arrived, and they offered gifts of
fresh nappies, a week’s supply of casseroles and many, many bottles of wine.
The wise men are almost a
stereotype, we know very little about them but they feature in every nativity
play, on Christmas cards and in popular culture everywhere.
I suppose we are always drawn to
the splendour of royalty in finery and yet in our story here is odd, because
it’s the kings are worshipping a baby, and not the other way around.
Tonight is twelfth night or
epiphany eve. And while we are celebrating Epiphany today, the twelfth day of
Christmas is tomorrow, which makes tonight, Twelfth Night.
How did we get to this? Well, in
567 AD, the Council of Tours met to end a dispute.
Western Europe was celebrating
its holiest day of the season... Christmas day on December the 25th, meanwhile, the Eastern European
church was celebrating its holiest day at Epiphany, on January 6, which for
them recalled both the Wise Men's visit and Jesus' baptism.
East and West couldn’t agree
which day was holier, so the Council of Tours decided to make all 12 days from
December 25th to January 6th, "holy days," or
"holidays," these became known as "The Twelve Days of
Christmas."
Epiphany, in Greek, means the
manifestation, appearance or unveiling of something profound, in this case, of
Jesus as God, so it can also be known as a theophany, the unveiling of God.
The arrival of the wise men, together
with their undoubted entourage of a caravan of wives, servants, tents and camels
and then their pronouncement makes it clear, that this is no ordinary baby.
This is a huge reversal of
expectations.
Traditionally, Twelfth night is
a night of parties and reversals, reflected in the song, the Twelve Days of
Christmas (Lord’s a leaping, ladies dancing and game birds for feasting etc.)
and is also reflected in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, or What you will, written
as entertainment for this very night.
These reversals include a woman
Viola dressing as a man, and a servant Malvolio imagining that he can become a
nobleman.
All the while, there are overarching
themes and complications around love and identity.
Parties, reversals, love and
drama. These are all in the passage in Matthews Gospel. Well, perhaps not the
parties.
Yet in the sixteenth century,
there was a growth in parties at Twelfth night, with plays, music and dancing
to the extent that they were banned in
A tradition, dating back to 1450
which still continues in some places is the bean cake. It is baked containing
one bean and one pea.
A man finding the bean is
crowned twelfth night king and a woman finding the pea is crowned Queen of
Twelfth Night. Roles are reversed, ordinary folk take charge, and if a woman
finds the bean, she gets to appoint the king and so on.
The whole story retelling the
birth, life and death of Jesus is full of reversals.
Jesus is proclaimed King of the
Jews by the wise men, yet he is a baby born to a poor couple in a stable.
Herod had been proclaimed king
of Judea and the Jews since 40 BC, and was now being told by kingly wise men, scholars,
astrologers from the east, powerful men from outside Judea, that there was
another King and these wise men wanted to worship him and not Herod.
Herod’s role was being reversed
by outsiders, by Gentiles, representing us, from Persia.
Herod had spent his life
scheming to reach this position, he had arranged the murder of ten of his wives,
he’d assassinated rivals, including some of his sons and he lied to the wise
men about wanting to worship the new King.
He was so enraged that he would
order the murder of thousands of innocent children to try and keep power, which
would force Jesus, Mary and Joseph to flee as refugees to Egypt until after
Herod’s death.
Reversals; God born as a baby, a
king in a stable, worshipped by kings and shepherds, a messiah who came to save
the world but would die on a cross.
Parties, reversals, love and
drama. Parties, well, we’ve celebrated Christmas, even if we no longer
celebrate Epiphany so much, the whole Christian story is one of reversals, of
revealing’s and dramatic plot twists.
To be Christian today is
counter-cultural, it’s radical, it’s out of step with society.
And people don’t really change, marking
twelfth night, the end of the Christmas Celebrations of God as Man and adding
bean cakes, star carrying crowds of party goers in the 14th century,
to today, where people take a celebration of praise, like Christmas or Easter,
and makes it into something unrecognisable with Santa Claus and the Easter
Bunny.
But while these celebrations go
on, we need not lose hope. Christ is still in Christ-mas, there is a servant
king, sent by a God who loves human-kind so powerfully, his son came among us,
born, lived, died and was resurrected.
Yet, what can we learn from
faith in a God where there are reversals and contradictions at every step?
Well, perhaps we mustn’t accept
power at face value, asking ourselves, who is today’s, King Herod? Do they rule
in name only? Is there another destined to rule our hearts?
When we praise God, whether we
identify ourselves as wise or shepherd, do we have the humility to kneel before
a baby and call him God?
Is our epiphany to accept God as
Love, however God appears?
Does it matter if God is a
Viola, a girl, dressed as a man or a Malvolio, a poor man, dressed as a Lord?
Is what really matters the love within the soul rather than judging someone by
their clothes, their sexuality, gender or race?
When a wise man kneels before a
baby, the whole world is turned upside down and perhaps all we can do is join
those who are wiser than us, seeking truth, overwhelmed with joy, paying
homage, praising and worshiping our wonderful God in adoration and hope, ready
for any plot changes we encounter along the way.
Amen
Preached at Evensong, St Cyr, Stinchcombe
Preached at Evensong, St Cyr, Stinchcombe
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