
Hollowell & Guilsborough: 2[nd] Sunday after Epiphany 18[th] January 2014
I saw an advertisement for an airline other day claiming that it was "Flying in the Face of  Ordinary" .  And I thought  that's a good slogan for the spirit of Epiphany.
When we talk about Epiphany we tend to think of the Wise Men's visit to Bethlehem which brings the 12 days of Christmas to an end.  But it's a good deal more than that, as today's Gospel reading makes clear. 
Events  described in the first chapter of John's Gospel, our reading for this second Sunday of Epiphany,  take place over four days,  almost like a  deliberate echo of the days of creation in Genesis 1.  After the stirring  philosophical opening to the Prologue  < In the beginning was the word ......>  , we might expect a powerful revelation of God's glory in Jesus.  But no: suddenly things change, and the revelation of God's glory occurs in a series of ordinary encounters among ordinary people. They were out in the wilderness  -  where we were on our pilgrimage last year  -  to meet a preacher. 
 Baptism, as I understand it, was traditionally  a ritual washing and cleansing of impurities described in the Old Testament, a symbolic  renewal of the Covenant between God & Abraham.  And  apparently in some cases associated with  purification  after leprosy or cleansing after handling dead bodies; or it could be a way of bringing in new converts to the Jewish religion by washing away their past sins.  In other words it was a ritual.   
But John the Baptist is the first person in the Bible, as I understand it, who focuses on baptism as a catalyst for repentance and then forgiveness from God for sins.  His baptism comes with God's authority  - " he talks of  He who sent me to baptize with water " -  not a ritual. 
So we have John doing his baptisms and calling for renewal.  On the first day intellectuals  i.e. the priests and Levites ask  who he is and he replies that he is not The Christ nor, in response to another question, is he Elijah.  He is,  in that famous explanation,  " the voice of one crying in the wilderness Make straight the way of the Lord " 
Puzzling stuff 
Then they asked him why he was baptising and his response was to downplay his baptism as being only with water and telling his hearers that someone else was on the way to baptise them with the Holy Spirit.   
On the second day, described in he reading,  Jesus comes and John publicly recognises him with the comment  " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world "  and he describes the dove descending on Jesus to indicate the Son of God who will baptise with the Holy Spirit that he had spoken of the day before, notwith just water  
|The third day John,  accompanied by two of his own disciples,  recognises Jesus again          " behold he Lamb of God"  he says again.   And those two disciples left John the Baptist and followed Jesus to spend the evening with him -  Andrew Simon Peter's brother, and then he brings Simon  himself  to Jesus.  
And on the fourth day we are introduced to Philip and Nathanael, the latter having been seen by Jesus under the fig tree. 
All of this happening against a backdrop of baptisms being carried out  by John the Baptist: although the Gospel according to St. John, unlike the other three Gospels, does not actually mention  that J the B  baptised Jesus.   
No attempt at persuasion . John says that he is preparing the way for another superior being. Jesus Himself says to Andrew and Simon when they follow him :  "What are you looking for? "
 They respond with another question: "Where are you staying,  rabbi ?"   Then they effectively invite themselves into his company, as people who wanted to be disciples of a rabbi would do. Their calling began with Jesus's offering them hospitality, and, since they remained all day, the conversation obviously flowed. 
In writing about this St John  is quite detailed.  The meeting ends at the tenth hour  -  not sure what time that was - ; perhaps it was such a significant and life-changing encounter that the time stuck in their memories, in the same way as people remember where they were when they heard of President Kennedy's assassination or watched the Coronation on TV 
Whatever the reason, this appears to be the moment when Andrew experienced a revelatory calling him to change his life.   His first response was to find his brother, Simon, and, with extraordinary certainty (just what had Jesus said, after that first almost-casual question?), to assert that he had found the Messiah.  Then,  Andrew and his friends offered their lives for renewal, without knowing the outcome. 
That is  the story vivid in its language. And the collect for today is asking God to do  the same for us, namely, to " transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace and in the renewal of our lives. "   Like that airline advert to fly in the face of  ordinary, which is what they did those ordinary fishermen. 
So  we learn about a calling from these scriptures which seems to me the most important part of the Epiphany season, the season of the revelation of the glory of God through the appearance of Jesus.   It is also a time of year for us to rededicate ourselves to the Christian faith and follow the way of Jesus, as those first disciples did.  
In more general terms, the phrase "religious epiphany" is used when a person realizes his faith, or when he is convinced that an event or happening was really caused by a deity or a being of his faith. And that  has happened in some spectacular ways.  
Some examples  
William Booth  -  a bit of a J the B - was  and the preaching of repentance.   Booth his wife later wrote would "stumble home night after night haggard with fatigue, often his clothes were torn and bloody bandages swathed his head where a stone had struck".   Evening meetings were held in an old warehouse where urchins threw stones and fireworks through the window.
Booth had Powerful message and disturbing message to his more prosperous Victorian hearers that I would argue is as valid to day as it was 150 years ago. 
" It is against stupidity in every shape and form that we have to wage our eternal battle.  But  how can we wonder at the want of sense on the part of those who have had no advantages, when we see such plentiful absence of that commodity on the part of those who have had all the advantages?" 
I watched an episode of < Benefits Street >  the other day.  Want of sense certainly seems to apply to some of those shown living on that street  ( James Turner Street) in Birmingham, and want of sense by the city council refusing to collect rubbish.   And as I watched  I remembered some others words of William Booth: 
While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end !
It would be good if we could hear more of sentiments such as that from our leaders today. 
Christina Noble and Vietnam & Mongolia.
We here are probably not going to have the kind of vision or impact that Christina Noble has had but, my goodness,  she has certainly flown in the face of the ordinary.  
However we can go out and do our bit, whether its in the Messy Church or in pastoral visiting and youth clubs.  Anyone ready to go the whole. hog and put on a hi-viz jacket and be a street pastor on a Saturday night in Northampton ?  .   
Our Gospel story today shows us each of us can find out own  kind of epiphany, to suit our own personality and talents.   Seek and Ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. This is the time to do that. Fly in the face of ordinary. 

Teach us Good Lord to serve Thee as thou deserves o give and not to count the cost .....  

