By Derek Olsen
Epiphany has got to be one of my favorite feasts of the Church Year. In fact, it may well be my favorite. I love the way that it pulls together texts and concepts from across the Scriptures and unites them in a single celebration of the joining of heaven and earth, the human and divine, the creation and Creator. It’s a love I learned entirely from the liturgy.
Now we Anglicans are a people of biblical liturgy. When we use the great Gospel Canticles at Morning and Evening Prayer we grudgingly allow the use of antiphons—sentences read before and after the canticle—as long as these come from Scripture. I understand why; I get it. I’ve seen some of the florid oddities of the medieval sanctoral cycle and I understand this reformation legislation. And yet—Epiphany is the feast where I just can’t help myself. The old antiphons just lay it out better than any Epiphany sermon I’ve ever heard.
The antiphon for Vespers in the old Latin liturgy adorns the Song of Mary, the Magnificat. It’s a didactic little bit of liturgy that encapsulates how the Church has classically understood the Epiphany. These days we’re all about the kings. Traditionally, the kings were just one of the facets of the day. Here’s the antiphon:
We celebrate three miracles that adorn this holy day: today a star led the Magi to a manger; today wine was made from water at a wedding; today in the Jordan, Christ willed to be baptized by John that he might save us.
Several things are going on here. First, each of the events are references to Scripture passages. The first is the most obvious—the Magi bit refers to Matthew 2:1-12 which was the historic Gospel reading at Mass on this day. The water from wine refers to the wedding at Cana recounted in John 2:1-11. The third points once again to Matthew 3:13-17.
Second, all three of these are important manifestations. And that’s what the term “epiphany” means, after all: manifestations, showings-forth. In the first case, God’s manifestation was so public and clear that it brought pagan priests—for that is who and what “magi” are—to the Infant Christ’s crib. The second isn’t just an amazing sign of abundance, but a verse at the end of this section specifically identifies this miracle as “the first of his signs” (John 2:11). The third culminates with the heavens being torn upon and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending upon Jesus, complete with the voice from heaven identifying him as God’s Son. You don’t get much more “manifestation” than that!
As an aside, I’ll note that the Church didn’t stop at these three either. A hymn—possible by the pen of St Ambrose, possibly from a few decades later—also connects the feeding of the five thousand to this day and it is these four events that are recorded for posterity in the Golden Legend from the 1260’s that were to feed Christian imaginations for centuries to come.
We could stop there:
Epiphany is a feast that celebrates showings-forth. And the Church has consistently identified these three or four events as the points in the Gospel that most fully show forth the truth that Jesus is the Son of God.
Yeah—that’ll preach.
But the Church didn’t stop there.
(And this is where it starts to get really interesting.)
The antiphon for Lauds around the Song of Zechariah, the Benedictus, takes these three events and starts twisting and turning them on their head, befuddling our chronological sense in the most mystical of means. In the words of the liturgy the Scriptural events intertwine and synergistically become something other and more than they were before:
Today the heavenly Bridegroom is joined to the Church, because in the Jordan, Christ has washed away her sins; the Magi run with gifts to the royal wedding , and from water-made-wine the guests are made glad, alleluia.
The Christmas season is the ultimate celebration of the Incarnation. The feast of Christmas proper is about the great joining of heaven and earth in the physical person of Jesus. The feast of Epiphany is about the great joining of heaven in earth in the mystical marriage between Christ and his Church. From disparate texts the Church has woven together the great wedding feast which is hinted numerous times in the New Testament and Old. Baptism, the joining of water and Spirit that gives birth to the Church is hallowed. The abundance of life in God is present in signs of free-flowing wine and blessed bread. Heaven and earth are joined in mystical union in the reconciliation of the ages through which we are hid with Christ in God.
And that is why I love Epiphany.
Dr. Derek Olsen recently finished his Ph.D. in New Testament at Emory University. He has taught seminary courses in biblical studies, preaching, and liturgics; he currently resides in Maryland. His reflections on life, liturgical spirituality, and being a Gen-X/Y dad appear at Haligweorc.