Evensong Epiphany: The best has been saved for the last.

One of the scariest, but also most beautiful, experiences in my life was meeting an elephant.

We were on safari in the Serengeti, safe in a vehicle, and I had every confidence that the driver and guide knew what they were doing. For a moment the jeep came to a halt. To my left, out of the undergrowth, emerged the biggest elephant I’ve ever seen. It was HUGE.

I could also see, down below it, two young elephant calves, and I knew that mummy elephant was going to be very protective of her offspring. So, as you might imagine, I was both impressed and afraid. We might have been in a modern and safe vehicle, but we were no match for this behemoth.

Elephants have a long history in their contact with human beings.

You might know the parable of the blind people and the elephant. This story was first recorded about 500 years before the birth of Christ and features in several world religions.

In other accounts it is a group of sighted people who encounter an elephant at night.

Whatever the version of the tale, the message is the same. The people who find the elephant cannot see and each touch a different part of the beast. From the tail, to tusks, to toenails and the animal’s hide, each person gives an account of what they believe must be true for the whole of the creature. “It is a hard, bone-like animal, unyielding and sharp”. Or “it is made entirely of leather, rough to the touch but also soft and mobile”. And so the story goes on.

The people only begin to move towards the truth about the elephant when they have an ‘epiphany’. An insight, or moment of change, that leads them into greater understanding. The epiphany comes when they start listening to one another and piece the experience of each person into a tapestry of the whole.

Tonight, we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. In Christian theology it’s the time when the identity of Jesus begins to be revealed. From the Magi in their distant pilgrimage from the East, following a star, to the miracle of the water-become-wine. The stories of this season offer us glimpses of Jesus so that we might deepen our faith in him. Just as the disciples, the Magi, and the people around him began to grow in their understanding of Jesus, we are also called to make that journey.

The Epiphany for the people encountering the elephant was the dawning realisation that they didn’t have the full picture. It’s a humbling and complicated realisation. For us it means that we can’t go around haranguing other people about the Jesus we’ve found – because we only ever have a partial picture of who Jesus is. If we want to learn more, to expand our understanding and love of Christ, then we need to listen to other people.

There’s that lovely moment in the reading from John when the mother of Jesus tells the servants to ‘do whatever he tells you’. The only way they can do that is by listening to him. As the Church we listen to Jesus in many different ways, from prayer to reading the Bible. But we also hear Jesus speaking through those who are also trying to be faithful disciples, and for that reason, we need to listen to one another.

When the prophet Isaiah urges the people to ‘Sing unto the Lord a new song’ it implies that new experiences, new epiphanies, should develop and renew the worship offered to God.

Isaiah invites the people to ‘Lift up your eyes and look around’. Forever looking inwards and to the past can limit our openness to new epiphanies. I appreciate that this can be frightening and unsettling. Hording our self-certainty can be far more appealing than setting off to a distant land; or listening to other people’s experience of God; or even saying in our prayers: ‘Lord, teach me new things’.

Part of the promise of Epiphany, thankfully, is that God doesn’t leave us alone. Isaiah says ‘yes’, there will be times when the land is darkened, and ‘thick darkness’ covers all the people. And this doesn’t sound very promising. But God always encourages us to lift up our hearts and have faith that beyond this darkness, beyond the difficulties in which we find ourselves, there is a wonderful future that we can hardly imagine. From empty bottles and a wedding party about to end in embarrassment, the situation won’t just be rescued – it will be transformed into more than the best we could ever imagine. The season of Epiphany invites us to ‘lift up our eyes’. To listen to the experiences of others who are on a journey of faith, and to grow in our understanding of God. And no matter how dark the days may seem, God promises that in this season, against all expectation and convention, the best has been saved for the last.