Epiphany

Seeing is believing, or so they say.

And that's what  Epiphany, which we celebrated on Thursday, is all about.  Some see and some don't, plain and simple.

Now, there are many reasons for this.  Some people can't see, while others just don't.  Still others do all that they possibly can to avoid seeing - or at least seeing certain things.  But the reason doesn't matter - if you didn't see it, it's pretty hard to believe a lot of things.  And that's why I always thought Doubting Thomas got a bum rap.  He just wanted to see.  What's wrong with that?

But seeing isn't an end in itself.  It doesn't matter if you can see if you don't know what you are looking at.  A big part of Epiphany is the Magi following the star to find the Christ-child.  Now, if there really was a star like that, you can't tell me that they were the only ones to see it.  If they followed this star "from the East," it had to have been a pretty big deal and a lot of folks would have seen it.  But it takes a little more to know exactly what you're looking at.

"We see through a glass, dimly," said Paul.  By this, I take him to mean that no one sees things exactly as they are.  Rather, our vision is limited and we have to figure our what it is we are looking at.  We're stuck with interpretation, all the way down.  And that's why those Magi, who saw a star and figured out that it was pointing to something important - that's why they are called wise.

What star have I failed to see?  What star have I look right at without knowing what it was?  What is keeping me from being wise?

And, when I see a star, when I understand its importance, what do I do?  Do I share it with others?  Do I flaunt it, letting others know how special I am to have seen it?  Do I love my star so much as to have to denigrate the star another sees?

For that matter, is there only one star?  Is there only one meaning to a star?  Do I have possession of truth in its entirety?  Or can there be different stars, different visions, different interpretations, different epiphanies (or Epiphanies), each with a partial grasp of truth?

"Do you see what I see?" asks the great carol.  But, if you see something different, does that make you wrong?  If you see the same thing, but think it means something else, does that mean that you have a problem?  Does my vision trump yours?

That's the problem with Epiphany in a pluralistic society, when our friends and family and neighbors are different from us, when we respect and learn from and even love them.

But maybe that's our Epiphany today - that there are multiple visions, many interpretations, more than one Epiphany...and that that's okay.

If these Magi "from the East" came to visit a poor Jewish boy because they thought he was important, then maybe I need to learn from those different than me.

Maybe the point of Epiphany is not that I have some special knowledge to share with you, not that I need to make sure that you have an epiphany.  Maybe, just maybe, the whole point of Epiphany is for me to receive an epiphany, for me to be open to a new idea, a foreign concept, an epiphany from another tradition.