Epiphany 2002

*Preached at Grace North Church January 6th 2002.*

For many years the young adult spirituality group I am a part of called The Festival of the Holy Names used to meet every Sunday night in this sanctuary for Eucharist. We were an eclectic group, drawn from many denominations and even religions, gathered around the common purpose of healing from the spiritual and psychological abuse we had suffered from our relationships with the church. We were also very big on experimental liturgies, many of which are still in use by communities around the world thanks to the Festival website. We made circle dances an integral part of the liturgy, had open sharing times instead of a sermon, and welcomed dogs as well as humans to the Holy Table each week.

One of the truly wonderful things about the Festival was that, as the service's fame spread, many peculiar folk showed up to experience it. This was almost never a problem unless the visitors were clergy, because whenever a clergy person showed up they would start giving advice to people who talked about their struggles during the open sharing. This was strictly verbotten in Festival etiquitte, and everybody rolled their eyes to see a collar come through the door. Clergy are just the worst! But that's an aside; anyway, many delightful people WITHOUT clerical collars also graced our doors, and one night we were priviledged to welcome a Hindu family to our celebration.

They were a little hesitant about the circle dancing bit, but they were good sports about it, and gave it a try. We had a wonderful service and afterwards as we sat around the altar feasting on breads, cheeses, grapes and champagne we asked them if they had felt comfortable in a service that had Jesus as the central focus of worship.

"Of course," they replied, "after all, he IS an incarnation of Vishnu." I knew what they were talking about, but most of the rest of the folks at the Festival were mildly aghast. Whatever did they mean by that-an incarnation of Vishnnu?

The wonderful thing about Hindu theology is that it does not see itself as being at odds with any other religion. Hinduism does not compete with other religions, it simply subsumes them. One god is as good as another in that religion, as all gods are but manifestations of the One God, and that One God cares not what you call it.

Hindus believe that Vishnu, one of the principle members of the Trimurti, or the Hindu trinity, is intimately concerned with life on earth. Whenever evil and chaos threaten to spin out of control, Vishnu takes a body and comes to earth to set things right. Some of his most famous incarnations are as Krishna, the King Rama, and even the Buddha. But among his lesser known incarnations is a peculiar fellow named Jesus of Nazareth.

Hindus everywhere honor Jesus as the incarnation of the One God, and I have happened upon few Hindu altars that do not sport a photo of Jesus somewhere in their cacophanous assemblage of images.

No doubt this news might seem scandalous to some Christians, but for myself, I am delighted, because it exemplifies in a surprising way the universal appeal of Jesus, and gives us a new perspective on today's Feast of the Epiphany.

Traditionally, this Feast is seen as a celebration of the fact that Jesus came not for the Jews alone, but for the gentiles as well. Even those who do not know the God of the Hebrews will benefit from his coming; as our reading from Isaiah states "nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising." Christian mythology symbolizes this in the coming of the Wise Men.

Now the Wise men have at different times been depicted as Kings, or Scientists, or Sages, and probably the latter is most likely, if the event has any historicity at all. They were most likely Zoroastrian priests who divined the coming of a great king by the divinatory methods of their own religion, and set out to welcome him.

I would like to point out that scripture does not indicate that the Wise Men converted to Judaism upon their arrival, nor would any of them become Christians, since there was no such thing as Christianity until long after Jesus' death. No, they came as Zoroastrians, paid homage to Jesus as Zoroastrians, went home as Zoroastrians, and most likely died Zoroastrians.

Surely, Jesus' birth meant something great to them, or they would not have travelled so far to greet him. But Jesus meant something to them as Zoroastrins, not as Jews, and certianly not as Christians.

Zoroastrians and Hindus are not the only ones who claim Jesus as their own, of course. There is a wonderful story in the Islamic tradition of Jesus that tells of a man who begged Jesus to allow him to accompany him on his travels. Jesus agreed and when they reached the bank of a river, they sat down to eat. Now between them they had three loaves of bread. They each ate one of the loaves, and Jesus got up and went to the river for a drink of water. When he returned the third loaf was missing. "Who took the third loaf?" he asked the man. "I have no idea," the man replied.

Jesus scowled, but continued his journey with the man. Soon they came upon a doe with her young. Jesus called one of the fawns, and it came to him. He killed it and roasted some of it for their evening meal. After they had eaten, Jesus said to the butchered fawn, "Be whole, rise, and go your way, by Allah's leave." The doe was restored, and sprinted off to join its mother. Jesus then turned to the man and said, "I ask you in the name of him who showed you this miracle, who took the third loaf?" "I don't know," the man said.

Not long after this, they came to a lake in a valley. Jesus took the man by the hand and they walked together upon the water to the other side. When they got there, Jesus implored him again, "I ask you in the name of Him who showed you this miracle, who took the third loaf?" "Haven't a clue," the man stuck to his guns.

When they came to a desert, Jesus gathered some of the sand into a pile and said, "By Allah's leave, turn to gold." Instantly the sand piles became gold. Jesus divided the gold into three portions and said, "A third for me, a third for you, and a third for whoever took the missing loaf." At that point the man confessed, "It was I who took the loaf." Then Jesus said, "I will give you all the gold, then."

At this point Jesus went along his way and parted from the man. Two men came upon the man with the gold, and threatened to rob and kill him. But the man was clever and said to them, "Let's divide it into three portions among us, an dsend one of you to town to buy us some food." So one of them set off for town, and said to himself, "Hey, why should I divide the gold with those two losers? Instead, I should poison the food, and take all the gold for myself after they've eaten it." And he poisoned the food he bought.

Meanwhile, the two who stayed behind said to each other, "Hey, why should we give him a third of the gold? Instead, let's kill him when he gets back and divide the money between the two of us." When the man returned from town, they killed him, ate the food, and died themselves.

So, the gold lay in the middle of the desert with the three dead men beside it. Jesus passed back that way with some of his disciples, and when he saw the three corpses he said to his followers, "This is the world, my friends. Beware of it."

This and many many other great stories are to be found in the Koran, the Hadith, and other sacred Muslim writings, as Muslims honor Jesus as a great prophet in the line of the prophet Muhammad. The Koran speaks of Jesus virgin birth, his miracles and many surprising incidents in his life that few Christians have ever even heard of. Muslims honor Jesus as one of their own, as a great ascetic teacher, who warned his followers not to be attached to the things of this world.

Likewise, many contemporary Buddhist theologians are celebrating the wisdom teachings of Jesus. Thich Nhat Hahn, the great Vietnamese Zen master, calls Jesus and Buddha "brothers" and has written extensively on the similarity of their teachings. Many compendiums of parrallel sayings have been published throughout this century, and ever since the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, speculation on Jesus as the founder of a uniquely Jewish school of Buddhism has been proposed, with much scholarly interest.

Jews, too, are beginning to reclaim Jesus as the radical rabbi that he actually was, a reformer who presaged many changes Judaism would later adopt, a faithful son of the Torah who called people away from hypocrisy and into real realationship with the God of Israel. No longer the "enemy", Jesus is being hailed as a great Jewish prophet by his own people, sparking renewed interest in Jewish-Christian dialogue around the globe.

Now why is all this important? It is important to us as Christians because we need to understand that JESUS DOES NOT BELONG TO US. Jesus is NOT the proprietary domain of the Christian church. If the Feast of the Epiphany shows us anything it is this: Jesus belongs to the family of humanity; Jesus belongs to the world. His shining gives light to peoples of every race and nation, every tongue and kindred, every religion, sect, or cult, and it is not for us to say in which way that light must shine.

When Simeon declared Jesus "a light to enlighten the nations," he was not talking about Christianity conquering the world (as the church has traditionally understood this proclamation), he's not predicting some ideological manifest destiny, he's simply stating the truth: Jesus is a gift to all the peoples of the earth. Not just a gift to those who accept a Pauline Christology, but to everyone who recognizes and rejoices in wisdom.

And as we study different religions, and listen to their interpretation of Jesus' teaching, we come to see how each tradition make room for him at their respective feasts, in their own peculiar ways. And this is as it should be. As Jesus himself said, "If you have a light, set it on a hill, don't hide it under a bushel." Just as we cannot contain God in the little boxes we construct for Him in our theologies, it is just as futile for us to Jesus in a little box called Christianity. We belong to Jesus, he does not belong to us. And while this may be hard for us to grasp now, it will be made painfully clear to us at the end of the ages, when Jesus welcomes all to the great feast at the table of God, where all holy peoples will find a place, Hindus and Jews, Zoroastrians and Pagans, Muslims and Buddhists alike. Let us pray

Faithful God of all Holy peoples, in every land, of every creed, help us to see thy light wherever it shines. Help us to see faithful people of every tradition as our brothers and sisters, and encourage us to work together for your reign of peace and justice, until all peoples have enough to eat, and every nation beats its swords into ploughshares, and we all feast together at the great table of God. For we ask this in the name of Him to which we belong, and whose Good News we perpetually proclaim, even Jesus Christ. Amen.