“Revealing a mystery”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, January 6, 2023
Ephesians 3:1-12 (Forward, p. 69) CEV p. 1223
I am a great fan of murder mysteries and so have greatly enjoyed some of the great writers of this gendre from the past, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, P.D. James, and G.K. Chesterton, for instance. And with the proliferation of TV series of this type, we have been privileged to watch ‘Murder She Wrote’ in times past and now ‘Father Brown’, ‘Sister Boniface Mysteries’, ‘Murder in Paradise’, ‘Grantchester’ and lots of reworkings of Agatha Christie stories.
In pretty well every case, there is some sort of mystery, something that entirely perplexes the investigators of the crime. For instance, how could this murder have occurred in a locked room. There are clues, loose ends, interconnections and inconsistences, but I’m afraid that I am pretty dismal in teasing them out. In fact, often at the end I have to mentally go through the story again, trying to ascertain what I missed or what led the investigators to their conclusion. It becomes a mental exercise to try to uncover what is hidden, to unlock something that is a secret. And, even then, the full detail, the full story, often remains as something of a mystery, at least to me.
It is this sense of uncovering something hidden or secret that would surely resonate with the apostle Paul. In today’s passage, he goes to great lengths to describe something that has hitherto been hidden, hitherto been a secret. And that secret is this, that the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is for all people everywhere, that is, for the Gentiles as well as the Jews. God had wanted, even from before time itself, to include Gentiles in His promises and in His Church, and had chosen Paul to be His messenger, His envoy, to let people know of this. Furthermore, we don’t have to muddle through the clues and try to second-guess the author and figure it out, as I often have to with murder mysteries. It is now an ‘open secret.’ So, what had hitherto been hidden, a secret, is now to be proclaimed everywhere. And, that means that everyone is to be invited to be part of it, no exceptions! Thanks be to God. Amen.
Forward notes: “This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him” (verses 11-12).
“I grew up near Tarpon Springs, Florida. Every year, thousands of Greek Orthodox Christians make the pilgrimage to the city to participate in Epiphany celebrations. At noon, a procession goes forth to the Spring Bayou, where a young member of the choir releases a dove. Then the archbishop throws the Epiphany cross into the cold water. Dozens of local teenage boys dive in after the cross, all hoping to be blessed by the experience.
“Today, we remember the Magi’s visit to the Christ Child. Both this and Jesus’s baptism in the River Jordan are an epiphany, or revelation of God incarnate in Jesus Christ. The Magi traveled from their homelands in order to encounter God. Together, they approached Jesus with gold, frankincense, and myrrh; gifts for a king, God, and mortal, respectively.
"In the person of Jesus, the full nature of God and humanity is revealed to all people. And we are able to approach the living God with no barriers between us.”
Moving Forward: “How will you celebrate Epiphany?”