{"id":11913,"date":"2020-01-02T14:58:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T20:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transformingcenter.org\/?p=11913"},"modified":"2023-01-06T09:05:11","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T15:05:11","slug":"epiphany-a-dangerous-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transformingcenter.org\/2020\/01\/epiphany-a-dangerous-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Epiphany: A Dangerous Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally\u00a0published in 2020 this reflection feels as timely as ever.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA good journey begins with knowing where we are and being willing to go someplace else.\u201d\u2028 <\/i>\u2014Richard Rohr <\/b><\/p>\n

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Lectionary Calendar and guidance for using the lectionary<\/a><\/p>\n

Today marks the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of the season of Epiphany\u2014the \u201cshowing forth\u201d or \u201cthe revelation\u201d of God\u2019s presence to unlikely people in unlikely places amid the most challenging of circumstances. In particular, we reflect on the journey of three spiritual seekers and celebrate their arrival at the manger with longing in their hearts and gifts appropriate for a king.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In yet another strange twist to the Christmas story, it was pagan astrologers who were among the first and most venerated visitors to the manger. Although theirs was an occupation that was expressly forbidden in Jewish law\u2014the modern-day equivalent of those who read and interpret horoscopes!\u2014they were welcomed, and their gifts were received. In our (often) sanitized versions of the Christmas story, this moment is depicted as peaceful and serene in which \u201call is calm, all is bright.\u201d But the truth is, they almost didn\u2019t make it home alive and their journey was full of danger for themselves and others.<\/p>\n

A Spirituality of Imperfection<\/h2>\n

One of the most striking elements of the Christmas story is its imperfection by any kind of human standard. None of the circumstances surrounding Jesus\u2019 birth were ideal. Mary\u2019s baby was born out of wedlock. When the time for her delivery came, Mary and Joseph were on the road due to political forces that were beyond their control. There was no good place to have the baby, so they ended up sharing this blessed event with livestock in the place where animals were kept.<\/p>\n

Beyond these intimate imperfections, the outer landscape was very bleak. Jesus was born into a time of political and religious upheaval. King Herod, an insecure and violent man, was in power at the time which created a very dangerous and volatile environment for anyone who threatened him. Although we often refer to these travelers as \u201cwise\u201d men, they were actually more of a hindrance than a help in the unfolding of the Christmas story: they tipped off Herod to the fact that there was a potential usurper being born in Bethlehem which sent him into a jealous rage.\u00a0 <\/span>This caused him to order what is now known as \u201cthe slaughter of the innocents\u201d\u2014the murder of all male children two years and under. The journey of the magi to seek a new spiritual reality was a dangerous one indeed\u2014not only for themselves but for everyone around them.\u00a0 <\/span>That first Christmas season echoed with the cries of mothers, fathers, and whole towns weeping and lamenting the loss of their children<\/p>\n

These were dangerous times, and none of the major players in the Christmas story had control over any of it. It was not a safe environment for any kind of spiritual seeking nor was it a good time for opening up to a new spiritual reality.\u00a0 <\/span>But Jesus was born anyway. And the magi left their home country, pressing on through many dangers, toils and snares travelling to seek this One who offered them hope.<\/p>\n

If Epiphany tells us anything, it tells us that none of us does our seeking perfectly\u2014least of all these earnest seekers\u2014and yet, the story of these intrepid travelers is about spiritual longings that cannot be quelled, no matter who we think we are. Apparently they had reached the limits of human wisdom to truly satisfy the longing of the human heart. In the midst of whatever knowledge they had pieced together, there was a poverty of spirit that could only be satisfied through an in-person encounter with Jesus. Their longing propelled them to move beyond the norms of their previous existence in order to discover a deeper spiritual truth.<\/p>\n

Seek and You Shall Find<\/h2>\n

The story of the magi is a story of pilgrimage. It is about being willing to leave that which is familiar in order to arrive at our deeper spiritual home. It is about seeking something we don\u2019t fully understand until we stumble upon it where we least expect it.<\/p>\n

If we are at all awake during this season, we might sense ourselves being invited to a new journey of our own\u2014a journey that involves leaving familiar territory in order to seek and find new ways of opening ourselves to God\u2019s presence even (and perhaps most especially) when we feel our circumstances won\u2019t allow for it.<\/p>\n

The journey of the magi was a dangerous one that put all the characters in the Christmas story at risk. They discovered, as we all must, that the only way to traverse such risky territory is to follow the guidance that is given\u2014whether it comes from an unusual star, a friendly angel, a pertinent dream or an inexplicable longing. Those who fared best in the unfolding of the greatest story ever told were those who responded immediately to whatever guidance they received, in whatever form it came.<\/p>\n

Ordinary Mystics<\/h2>\n

In a very real sense,\u00a0all the major players in the Christmas story were mystics!\u00a0<\/i>They were open and responsive to the mystery of God in Christ and the strange revelations of how God was choosing to be at work in the world. They were attuned to God\u2019s mysterious ways, which are always beyond our human understanding, and, as the epistle reading for today points out, such ways can only be perceived through divine revelation. (Ephesians 3:1-12)<\/p>\n

Many of us have a stereotypical view of what it means to be a mystic. We think it refers primarily to the experience of ecstatic union that only a few rarefied (and very weird!) saints achieve. This is a very limited view. The truth is that mystics are those who\u00a0really believe<\/i>\u00a0what the rest of us say we believe\u2014that God is real, that God is mystery (that is, totally beyond our human comprehension), that God can be encountered in the depths of our being, and that our human lives can be radically oriented and responsive to the One who is always present with us.<\/p>\n

Mystics are those who are open to actual encounters with the Divine that are often unmediated by religious trappings. These encounters are often given to those who find themselves on the fringes of institutional religious structures while remaining radically committed to what is truest about our faith. Mystics are those who have a longing for God that is so profound that they make radical choices to seek God and respond to God\u2019s leading in their lives. As German theologian Karl Rahner famously points out, \u201cThe Christian of the future will either be a mystic or will not exist at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Present to the One Who Is Always Present<\/h2>\n

In his book\u00a0Understanding Christian Spirituality<\/i>, Catholic theologian Michael Downey writes \u201cThe spiritual life and especially its expression in mystical experience, is not so much a matter of striving for heights of mystical union between the soul and God\u2026 It is rather more a matter of attending to God\u2019s presence with us and responding<\/i> to God\u2019s presence\u00a0by being altogether present to the divine presence which is always near.<\/i>\u201d (emphasis mine).<\/p>\n

This is the kind of journey I want to be on this year\u2014the journey of learning how to be ever more present and responsive to the one who is always near\u2014even when that Presence moves and moves ME in mysterious ways. Even when it means that I must pass through dangers, toils, and snares I might have avoided if I had refused to leave the safe and the known. Like those \u201cwise\u201d travelers whose risky journey brought them to the place where the presence of God was revealed to them at a particular moment in human history, I want to take my place in the long line of spiritual seekers who participate ever more fully in the Divine life as it reveals itself uniquely at\u00a0this<\/i>\u00a0moment of human history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a moment that is imperfect and dangerous and pregnant with possibility all at the same time!<\/p>\n

O God,<\/i><\/div>\n
who am I now?<\/i><\/div>\n
Once I was secure<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0in familiar territory<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0in my sense of belonging<\/i><\/div>\n
Unquestioning of\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the norms of my culture<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the assumptions built into my language<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the values shared by my society.\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
But now you have called me out and away from home<\/i><\/div>\n
and I do not know where you are leading.<\/i><\/div>\n
I am empty, unsure, uncomfortable.<\/i><\/div>\n
I have only a beckoning star to follow.<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
Journeying God,<\/i><\/div>\n
pitch your tent with mine<\/i><\/div>\n
so that I may not become deterred\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
by hardship, strangeness, doubt.<\/i><\/div>\n
Show me the movement I must make<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0toward a wealth not dependent on possessions<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0toward a wisdom not based on books<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0toward a strength not bolstered by might<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0toward a God not confined to heaven.<\/i><\/div>\n
but scandalously earthed, poor, unrecognized\u2026.\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
Help me to find myself\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
as I walk in others\u2019 shoes.\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n

\u2013 Kate Compston, Bread of Tomorrow: Prayers for the Church Year<\/i><\/p>\n

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\u00a9Ruth Haley Barton, 2022.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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We recorded a special episode<\/h3>\n