Darkness can be your friend. A reflection for Epiphany
This travel log of the magi only happens in Matthew and initially, I had the idea of writing about the work of the camels. How they diligently soldier on with little or no recognition and yet are essential to make the whole story happen. But then I reread the story only to discover there are no camels that are mentioned. Not a one.
Then I thought perhaps these kings are the superheroes of the day with capes and undies on the outside. No evidence of that either. Nor is there anything to suggest that the gold frankincense and myrrh funded a business class ticket into Egypt.
Let’s dig a little deeper and more sensibly.
The backdrop to Matthew’s story is inky black. In fact, it is dark in two ways.
First, it is set against the dark backdrop of Herod’s desire to slaughter the Christ-child. The canvas is daubed with the black attempts to manipulate the magi to his own end. The backdrop of this story is the death Herod wishes not only for the Christ-child but also the death he will inflict on other children. We all know the next grizzly chapter of this story.
The other dark backdrop is the night sky. Against the black sky the star dazzles, inspires and leads. The darker the night sky, the easier it is to see the star. The more ugly and wretched Herod seems, the better the Magi look.
What if: … what if darkness actually has a pivotal role to play in our own journey on our way to see God face to face? What if it is not the big bogeyman that we once feared, but it is actually an essential tool to help us see more clearly the things that truly matter?
Splashed onto the gloomy and forbidding canvas of Matthew there is colour, wisdom, faithfulness, diligence and perseverance.
The ‘stars’, whatever or whoever they happen to be, can actually be quite dazzling and spectacular in the night times of our life. In fact, some of the finest acts of ministry that I have ever had the privilege of enjoying were at the darkest and most bleak times in my life. I remember them still with affection and with a great deal of awe. They inspire me still.
These words, these stars, these communications, these people, shine and guide us and we can never forget their kindness and how we were changed for the better. Like the star that emerges from a cloud on a dark night, when your eyes have grown tired from squinting and your heart is forlorn and withered from waiting, they are spectacular in their ministry to us.
And these ‘stars’ are frequently simple and profound. A word, a silence, a look, a card, a prayer.
We all long to see what the Magi saw, and it’s not just God face to face although that is always worth waiting for.
But the Magi also saw something else. They saw something which taught them a lesson. They saw something which enriched them with a deeper wisdom than the reading of the stars and constellations.
Here’s how Bishop Stephen Cottrell put it.
“We saw not a king but a child. And in that child, a glimpse of rare and uncomfortable beauty. In the restful and yet also troubling moments of that night, seeing the bonds of love between mother and child.
I wondered if true wisdom might be this: to know what matters, and to rest secure in the peaceful affirmations of loving and of being loved”.
To know what matters, and to rest secure in the peaceful affirmations of loving and of being loved.
So what if this year we breathed more deeply and just reclined in the sure and certain knowledge that our vocation was not to scurry around and be unkind to ourselves?
What if 2023 is the year when we understood that what matters is to rest secure in the peaceful affirmations of loving and of being loved? What if it was as disturbing and as simple as that? What if we just simply journeyed on through this year with all its trickiness, its false starts and wrong-turns, knowing that we always have his promise that we will arrive at our destination safely, securely and with joy? And we accomplish this pilgrimage if we simply rest secure in the peaceful affirmations of loving and of being loved.
One more thing to take on your journey with magi is to see the unexpected.
My fervent but feeble prayer is that this year you are open to the possibility, nay the probability, and if you are very brave, the certainty, that you too are a guiding star for others. That you also reflect something of the dazzling sparkling love of God in a world that sometimes seems to be overcast and shadowy.
You are brighter and more glorious than you first thought. You are more inspiring than you ever dreamed of and to glimpse what the magi saw, all you have to do is look in the mirror.