29 th January: 4 th Sunday after Epiphany

The term ‘epiphany’ has made a welcome appearance in recent academic literature to refer to ‘a penny-dropping moment’ or a ‘disclosure situation’: that moment of insight or intuition in which what seemed before to be complex or clouded is now seen with clarity, where a pattern might emerge from a previously random scatter of data. It is often accompanied by a slight frustration about why it had not been clear before—in other words, it is a GBO, a Glimpse of the Blindingly Obvious.

In Christian thought, the Epiphany encompasses three events (as recorded in the Common Worship Eucharistic Preface for Epiphany): the visits and gifts of the Magi, the Baptism of Christ, and the miracle at Cana of Galilee, where Jesus turns water into wine. Both ‘manifestation’ and ‘disclosure situation’ would be appropriate phrases here. What is shown or disclosed is primarily the underlying identity of Jesus, as king, as beloved son, and as the glory of God. Another Epiphany reading has John the Baptist and his disciples describing Jesus as the Lamb of God, the Messiah (John 1:29–42).

Today’s Gospel shows similar concerns with identity, but this time it is not Jesus’ identity which is under scrutiny; rather it is ours, as people in relationship with God. The earlier images and ideas answer the question: who is this Jesus? This set of readings examines another related question: who are the followers of Jesus? It is instructive here to note that the only other time that the Beatitudes appear in the lectionary is for the feast of All Saints in November. They might thus be regarded as a kind of blueprint for sainthood, or in the language of employment, part of the person spec. Inasmuch as we are all called to be saints, it would be fair to say that here is a summary job description for the Christian community.

Putting aside temporarily the Gospel reading, Micah underlines the ethical disposition of the supplicant rather than simply piling up traditional offerings and sacrifice; what is required is ‘to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God’ (6:8). Similarly, the psalmist here talks about right relationship with friends, strangers and business associates. St Paul’s overview in his letter to the Church of Corinth sets up a contrast between the young communities he is fostering and the two other communities among whom they are situated: the Jews and the Greeks. Human wisdom and divine wisdom are juxtaposed, with the Church implicitly reflecting the divine. Equally, other oppositional pairs are introduced, weak/strong, despised/not despised, so that God’s wisdom is revealed in the ‘foolish’ choice of the lesser of each of these. The overarching symbol is that of Christ crucified, representing another kind of breakthrough moment in God’s new dispensation.

The familiarity of the Beatitudes can inure us to their sharpness. Like Constable’s Hay Wain or Van Gogh’s Sunflowers too many chocolate boxes have dulled our sense of the remarkable. In the biblical example, it is easy to miss the significance of the second half of each sentence, not quite an opposition but almost. As the liberation theologian Segundo points out (in reference to Luke’s version), the poor are not blessed because they are poor; those who mourn are not blessed because they mourn. Their benediction comes because they inherit the kingdom, because they will be comforted, and so on. ¹ In a reading of these verses as a description of community, this implies not only that the meek, the pure in heart, the merciful are important to God, but that such ‘weakness’ will be transformed by God into a life-giving wonder. Far then from being a community weighed down by its downtrodden status (an early victimhood), here is a dynamic society overturning expectations. While there is a certain future-orientated movement here—the eschatological hope of the Kingdom—the healing actions of Jesus in Matthew’s later chapters suggest some expectation of immediate fulfilment.

How can we translate these insights into something which gives us traction for being a follower of Jesus today? Firstly, perhaps, by saying that job descriptions and person specifications tend to the functional, and are certainly individual. The Christian Church is not simply a disparate group like a queue at a bus stop, but an ethically-bonded entity, a ‘community of character’. ² Secondly, and following a postmodern trend, it would be better to see a range of Christian communities across space, time and culture which have responded in different ways to the question: what does it mean to follow Jesus here and now? In other words, the context matters and may be determinative, even down to the level of an individual parish. The art is in knowing the limits of this contextualization over against the claims of the universal, as illustrated in these biblical narratives.

For our country, for our society now, it is quite easy to highlight the Christian community’s role in reconciliation and healing—and certainly there are fissures to bring together. The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life however, do not provide much support for a quiescent kind of reconciliation; instead, a robustness underlies his approach, much more like the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Being a follower of Jesus in this sense is much more of a challenge, not least because the Church is hardly a good exemplar of reconciliation in its own past and present. It does, however, model the struggles and difficulties that encompass attempts to live together and, as such, may prove helpful. We are also reminded that all the attributes of character and community described in the Bible are works-in-progress, hopes rather than full realities.

The epiphany here, in the sense of a GBO, may be that we cannot determine how to be a disciple of Jesus, how to meet those exigencies of universal sainthood, without having first worked out who Jesus is for us; and, to reverse the direction of travel somewhat, it is in being a disciple that we in part discover the divine identity. In times of fragmentation and anxiety, a return to our direct engagement with God may provide comfort but, in the longer term, it will strengthen our Christian communities.