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“Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear.” Those of you who drive will recall this statement etched on your side-view mirror, the reflective glass being bent in such a way as to broaden the driver’s perspective while altering depth-perception. This was played to comic effect in the first Jurassic Park movie, when a T-Rex was chasing a jeep and its terrified driver and passengers. The already-close dinosaur was even closer yet – must go faster!
Epiphany, the church-season we are now in, comes from the Greek – it means a manifestation, an appearance. We celebrate a third manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ today. On the Feast of the Epiphany itself we recalled Christ’s manifestation, or appearance, to the gentiles, embodied in the magi from the east, the wise men, we three kings of orient are.
Last Sunday we recalled Christ’s manifestation to himself, as it were, when Jesus, the fully-human and fully-divine Son of God encountered the glory of his trinitarian companions after his baptism in the River Jordan – the Holy Spirit descending in dove-like form, and the voice of the Father calling Jesus his beloved.
Today we recall Christ’s manifestation to his mother, some unsuspecting wedding workers and guests, and to his disciples, who must have been delighted by this miraculous event. Jesus revealed his glory in this, the first of his signs, turning ordinary well-water into an extravagant amount of impressively good wine. Jesus knew how to keep a party going.
Saint Paul tells us, in his masterful treatise on love to the Corinthian Church, that in this life the limitations of our human senses keep us from seeing the divine fully – now we see as if in a mirror, he writes; then, in the next life, we will see face-to-face.
But Saint Paul had no experience with modern-day side-view mirrors; the reflective glass, bent to alter our perception of reality. The Epiphany, these manifestations, these appearances of Christ make him closer to us than our senses will perceive. It is true, we cannot comprehend, in this life, the fullness of the Divine. Even the most mystical, transcendent saint would be quick to agree that what God showed them on earth is but a scant particle, the shortest segment of a wave, of what they would see in the heavenly eternity.
And yet, God so wishes to be known, so wants for us to know God, that God gives us side-view mirrors in the traditions of the Church. Word and Sacraments, today’s collect reminds us, bring God closer to us than God appears. When we hear God’s Word proclaimed and broken open, God’s grace acts on us in ways beyond our comprehension. When we receive the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, God’s grace fills us further than the calorie or two calculated in a slip of a wafer and a sip of wine.
When you leave this place today, it is possible that you won’t yet feel changed, that you won’t yet perceive a difference. Not every moment of our lives are Cana-like miracles. Jesus didn’t go around changing water into wine every day. If he did, he and his disciples never would have gotten anything done!
But make no mistake, God is working on you and in you. The Holy Spirit descends on you, even if you don’t see a dove. The voice of the Father calls you his beloved, even if you don’t hear the heavenly rumble. God-sent, star-led people show up on the doorstep of your heart from time-to-time, bringing you gifts you didn’t think you needed. And, drop by drop, the good wine that is already in you is replaced by the better vintage. God is closer than God appears.
Sure, you can try to drive faster to get away, but God’s claim on you is faster still. God’s love for you is insatiable. And God’s delight in you is perfect.
Shine!
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Fr. Daniel S.J. Scheid, SCP
2 Epiphany C – January 19, 2025
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, San Francisco
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