Reading Ephesians: probably liturgical piece from early church
        Chronology of salvation history: Incarnation was not an afterthought
        Chronology of salvation (hear, believe, marked/sealed)
    Reading John: the Word becoming flesh not an isolated marvel
        "What God was, the Word was"
        Purpose was to come to own home and people cause new divine begetting

Happy Epiphany! Actually, Epiphany isn't until tomorrow, so you still have time after church today to get your cards. Or maybe Hallmark hasn't caught on to Epiphany as a marketing opportunity. Probably because most of us are too embarrassed to admit that we're not sure what the word means. Epiphany is about God being revealed.

There used to be a cartoon that showed two scientists in front of a blackboard covered with mathematical formulae. It looks like things are proceeding from left to right, but there's a blank spot and then the writing begins again. Into that blank spot has been inserted the words, "And then a miracle occurs." The scientist without the chalk is saying to the scientist with the chalk, "I think you need to be a little more specific here." There's also a blackboard story about Einstein as a teacher at Princeton. Einstein wrote the word "erase" over the blackboards for the sake of the cleaning people, but one day he marked one board "do not erase." What was on that board simply read, "2 + 2 = 4."

Epiphany is kind of like that insertion into all those mathematical formulae. Epiphany is the busy-ness of salvation history just covering the board, until there's a gap. "And then a miracle occurs." But-both our texts today say this-this was not an unexpected miracle. God had planned this miracle all along. God's intention is the "do not erase" with the simple information, "2 + 2 = 4." That flesh thing-God in the here-and-now, the Incarnation-it didn't come out of nowhere. God has loved us all along.

This is good news, friends. We can make things so complicated. It is so easy to suspect we are at the mercy of some Divine Trickster. Why else would all the stoplights turn red as your car approaches? This sounds like silliness, but sometimes Christians get confused about why the Word became flesh. "What's with this flesh thing?" they ask. Sometimes they think the Word became flesh to "teach us a lesson," to show us how to "get it right." Which is kind of true, but not in the sense of God in heaven at the final straw--"That's it, I've had it with humans! I'm gonna go show them how to do it." The Incarnation-this "flesh thing" about God-has only one origin, only one reason: love. God yearning for us to be in the family.

Epiphany in church talk is about the revelation of God. Epiphany in faith talk is about "seeing" God for who God is. Don't get confused by the literal flesh-and-blood-ness of the Incarnation. And don't get to thinking that "embodying" God's hope in the world is the same thing as "being" God's hope in the world. Jesus is still God's hope for the world, but we are the ones who get to live so that people "see" God and God's hope. I'm not talking perception here. When I was in college, there was an annual debate between the psychology and philosophy departments about perception. It always deteriorated to "How do we know what I see as red is what you see as red?" Seeing as perception is about seeing the network of strings that hold the lines from which our origami cranes hang. Seeing as faith is understanding that these folded paper cranes are prayers for peace, and then praying those prayers and living with justice so as to bring about that peace. When we "see" God-when our lives enable other people to see God-it is knowing you can count on God. "Seeing" God means looking for God's grace and benevolence and reliability-and finding it. Not giving up until you find it.

I always think a good parent is one who leads each child to believe that he or she is "the favorite." When a child is secure in this, being "favorite" doesn't exclude the others kids from being favorite nor does it depreciate the parent's love for the others. At Homer's funeral, his grown up kids joked about being "Dad's favorite" or "the good one." Each child deserves no less! We take it for granted that good school teachers will make each child feel special without having "pets." Surely the Infinite Creator can do no less! Each one of us is "God's favorite," and being that loved by God doesn't detract one bit from God's love toward others. No one is slighted because God loves me the best. God is so big that there is room for each one of us to be the favorite.

The implication of this requires us to do something. We are-each one of us is-God's "favorite," not because any of us is more deserving than another, but because God is so generous. This "flesh thing" is the actuality of God's generosity. God-in-the-flesh means God is making a new humanity, and that new humanity is us. Here's the implication: we get a job. As the new humanity, we've been set apart to "embody" God's hope in the world. Us! Take a look around you. Pretty motley crew, eh? Proof of God's sense of humor. But our lives are proof of God's work. Whether you like it or not, once you sign on as a Christian, you are a living testimony-good or bad. You have staked your life on that simple 2 + 2 = 4, that God came in the flesh and that you personally are God's favorite.

Now, a lot of folks are uncomfortable with that "living testimony" stuff. Whatever you intend, as long as you are actually living, you are pointing to something-either to yourself, to your possessions, to what kind of job your parents or the schools did, to God. You may as well point to God's hope, since that is what God intends you to do. It's a whole lot easier to go along with it. Most people try to avoid responsibility for this "embodying hope" thing by saying, "I'm no Mother Teresa." Of course not! You aren't asked to be that good. We've all met ordinary people who remind us of God's hope in the world. I know I've benefited from the hope reminders of a couple of Sunday School teachers from my childhood, an elderly friend who drank gallons of tea in comfort with me when my mother died, not to mention various aunts and uncles, pastors, and a few deaconesses. They aren't Mother Teresa either, but they are people with whom I spent time and came away thinking, "this is what faith looks like." It's not that their lives were easier than anyone else's. Often, the lives of these hope-reminders are harder. But it had never crossed their minds that life's events were "about" them. Not even the stoplights. For some reason, these folks figured out that the only thing in life "about" them is God's love. It is what motivates them, it helps them choose what to do and who to do it with. Consciously or unconsciously they just point to that simple fact that God loves them, and invite others to enter into it with them. 2 + 2 = 4. God came in the flesh, and you personally are God's favorite. Listen to how The Message paraphrases Ephesians: "Long before [God] laid down earth's foundations, [God] had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love." God knew all along. That is what's with this "flesh" thing: that God loved us all along. And now we get to live like that-whole and holy. That is hope. May this be so for you. Amen.