Son et Lumière and the Magi

Sermon at St John The Baptist Felixstowe – Feast of the Epiphany – 7th January 2024

(First in a series celebrating the life of the Parish)

Text: …they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.   (Matthew 2v11)

God give you peace my sisters and brothers.

Have you ever been to a Son et Lumière presentation?  Most of them involve iconic buildings, most recently in our National life Buckingham Palace has been used as the backdrop to some marvellous celebrations.  They are both musically and physically breath-taking and if you have not yet seen one please make plans to so do.  

Although many are on the exterior of grand buildings the only two I have seen and heard have been in caves.  The first, when I was 13 was on a visit to St Michael’s Cave, one of the caves inside the Rock of Gibraltar.  The second was in 1984, the year I was ordained deacon, when Lesley-Anne and I visited the Cango Caves near Oudsthoorn in South Africa.   Without the sound and light show the caves are dark, damp, and dingy places inhabited by bats and creepy crawlies.  But when the light shines the beauty of the cave shines and we are amazed by the wonder of nature.

The Epiphany, marking the visitation of the Magi and, to use its formal title, The Manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, is a Son et Lumière show.  Brightness and music and richness is brought first by the angels and later by the Magi to a dark place, the manger at Bethlehem.  And these bright visitors allow the story to shine and spread to the whole world by the joyful message of the shepherds, over used to living in darkness, now are overflowing with joy at all they had seen and heard.

It’s an interesting trade off.  The Magi are the ones bringing the riches to the dark manger but it is the little baby that shines the light.  Sometimes it is easy to forget that one of the chief tasks of the Christian life is to imitate the Babe of Bethlehem and bring Son et Lumière, music and light to dark places.

This is something for which a dark cheerless world hungers.

When we lived in South Africa I was a member of Provincial Synod, the Southern African version of General Synod.  On the Sunday of Synod worship was not held, as is the case in the Church of England in grand places such as York Minster or Westminster Abbey but in shack settlements where Black people were forced to live outside the large urban centres where White people were allowed to live.  It was an act of defiance and, those of us who had a case of melanin deficiency, broke the law of the land every time we worshipped there.  But our worship was about more than standing against prejudice; it was about bringing a message of hope. 

The churches that Synod visited were barn-like structures – stables if you will – often clad in corrugated iron and were, as we always met in the Summer, always boiling hot inside!  You might have thought this would have led to a round of common sense amongst the liturgically minded and the use of light weight modern vestments.  Not a chance!  Bishops and clergy alike were expected to attend wearing their grandest and gaudiest (and incidentally heaviest) finery.  We sat in Synod Sunday worship, which takes an hour or two in a Black African township and melted.  On one occasion, wringing  out my soaking wet handkerchief after wiping my sweat dripped brow I suggested to the Bishop of Pretoria that we might want to wear slight fewer vestments the next time we met.  He took somewhat jovial offence and replied, ‘Andrew we must do this, those around us never get to see anything other than the crumbs of life and the boot of their oppressor.  When we come here all tricked up and full of bling we bring them hope.  It is the Ministry of Looking Pretty.’

The Ministry of Looking Pretty may not be a term that goes down well with those who are at the heart of the Anglo-Catholic tradition to which our parish is heir but, in a sense, it is what we do Sunday by Sunday as Choir and Organist, Servers and Sacristans enable our very own Son et Lumière production.  

We are the only church in our Deanery, and sadly most of East Suffolk, that has Sunday by Sunday, this type of presentation of the Good News through Music and Light.  There are very few churches nearby with an organ and choir (and even less with an organ of the size of the one with which we are blessed).  There are very few churches  nearby (thanks to the ravages of Smasher Dowsing) with such a rich heritage of Stained glass and multi-coloured vestments.  There are very few churches that hold public worship six days a week and Sunday by Sunday follow our Lord’s command to break bread and share wine in memory of Him.

We are indeed blessed.  It is almost as if Epiphany happens here every Sunday!  Not that this means that members of the Ministry Team may liken ourselves to the Magi.  Just because we wear chasubles and dalmatics it does not mean that we are counted amongst the wise of this world.  It does mean, however, that we are a parish that offers a sanctuary for those who need food for the soul and hope in times of darkness.  As the old saying goes, ‘The reason a church has windows is not to let the light in but to let the light out!’  And both of our churches have a bright multi-coloured light streaming from them.

..and this Son et Lumière show, this ‘Ministry of Looking Pretty’, this offering of hope and light to a sad dark world, is enabled quietly and faithfully, Sunday by Sunday through the generosity of our Choir and our Organist, our Servers and our Sacristans and our Sidesmen.  Faithfully preparing, quietly working, never (well rarely) complaining, they bring the light to us so that we might share it with others.

Thank you!

This is no sinecure and never an easy task.  Clergy, especially the Incumbent, are very good at being inspired…   at the very last moment!  This requires immediate rearrangement of plans and occasionally the odd mutter.  But our churches are not simply quiet sanctuaries they are also busy bustling places offering succour of all sorts every day of the year which means arranging for everything to be done ‘decently and in order’  is often a challenge.  But then, as one of the servers said to me only this week when noticing something was not quite in the best place ‘This is a working church’ and things will not always run smoothly.  However, thanks to the team of wonderful people who only ever get to see my back whilst I am preaching it is a place of music and light, succour and sanctuary, joy and hope.  For this we give thanks to our Lord born in a place of darkness, a light in our hearts, that we might this day become epiphanies, lights, who by word and deed guide others to the true light which has come into the world even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen!

This blog ‘Son et Lumière and the Magi’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2023.  It may be reproduced free of charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.

Matthew 2.1-12: The Visit of the Wise Men

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ² asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ ³ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

⁶ “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
 are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”’

⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸ Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ ⁹ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹ On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.