Advent: 4 December 2022
Good morning,
…on this the second Sunday of Advent. Behind today’s window in our Advent Calendar we discover that E is for Epiphany. This is the word used in English for the feast on 6 January for the coming of the Magi, known as Wise Men or occasionally (and mistakenly) as Kings. They were Eastern figures who studied the stars for signs and portents. According to Matthew, Magi had seen a star rising and so came to Jerusalem, believing it signified the birth of the king of the Jews. The word epiphany also has the related sense of a significant shift in understanding, a sudden sense of clarity, often casting light on life as a whole.
This passage is from Helena, the novel by Evelyn Waugh about the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Here Helena finds in the Magi fellow-latecomers:
‘You came at length to the final stage of your pilgrimage and the great star stood still above you. What did you do? You stopped to call on King Herod. Deadly exchange of compliments in which began that unended war of mobs and magistrates against the innocent!
‘Yet you came, and were not turned away. You too found room before the manger. Your gifts were not needed, but they were accepted and put carefully by, for they were brought with love. In that new order of charity that had just come to life, there was room for you, too. You were not lower in the eyes of the holy family than the ox or the ass.
‘You are my especial patrons,’ said Helena, ‘and patrons of all late-comers, of all who have a tedious journey to make to the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who through politeness make themselves partners in guilt, of all who stand in danger by reason of their talents.
‘Like me,’ she said to them, ‘you were late in coming. The shepherds were here long before; even the cattle. They had joined the chorus of angels before you were on your way. For you the primordial discipline of the heavens was relaxed and a new defiant light blazed amid the disconcerted stars.
‘How laboriously you came, taking sights and calculating, where the shepherds had run barefoot! How odd you looked on the road, attended by what outlandish liveries, laden with such preposterous gifts!’
But in this quotation from Aberdeen theologian Brian Brock in his book Wondrously Wounded, the Magi offer a pointed contrast to the gift given in Jesus:
[Jesus] was different in kind from the magicians – he could give life. Early Christian art emphasized this latter point by presenting the three wise men as magicians laying down their potions and magical arts at the feet of the baby Jesus. In Jesus, God had given a gift to humanity that had drastically, extravagantly, outdone the gifts any magician could muster.
Here indeed is the earliest surviving depiction on the Epiphany in art, from the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome (2nd-3rd Century):
This morning we will hold our service for the second Sunday of Advent at 11 am in St Salvator’s Chapel. The focus will not be on Epiphany but on signs in prophecy from Isaiah to John the Baptist of God with us in Jesus, another E – Emmanuel. Our preacher will be Professor Oliver Crisp, Principal of St Mary’s College and Head of the School of Divinity here in St Andrews. All are welcome. The service will also be livestreamed here: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chaplaincy/worship/
Finally, thank you to all involved in last night’s University Carol Service – from organ scholars to readers, chaplains to friends at Holy Trinity, choir to congregation, Claire Innes-Hopkins to brass ensemble, people on tech to ushers helping the hundreds there find seats. It was a beautiful return after three years since our last Christmas gathering there.
Yours,
Donald.