The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. (Isaiah 61:1-6)

From the wise men to the baptism of Jesus to the wedding at Cana, Epiphany is a series of manifestations in which Jesus is revealed as the Christ-the long awaited Messiah. One of these is, of course, the baptism of Jesus when the voice of God declares: "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased."

St. Matthew and St. Mark tell us that the first move made by Jesus after His baptism, and His temptation was to come into Galilee preaching the good news of the coming of God's Kingdom. St. Luke deviates from this established pattern by revealing a visit to His hometown of Nazareth where He was called upon to read the appointed lesson from the prophets in the synagogue worship service. There is abundant evidence that the lesson from the Jewish lectionary was this particular messianic prophecy from the pen of Isaiah — However, on the day He read, Jesus chose to abruptly end the lesson instead of reading the entire twenty-one verses customary, consequently, Jesus read a verse and a half ending with, "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Of course, the acceptable year of the Lord was that year in which the expected Messiah would come to establish God's Kingdom. Having finished then, Jesus made the startling announcement, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

Now, the most eye opening bit of information that we gather from Saint Luke's story is that the citizens of Nazareth, at least up until the time they become highly agitated at Jesus, when they discovered what He had really said, the point that draws our immediate attention, is that these citizens did not hear one word that Jesus said about the Kingdom of God being present in Him. Jesus brought the homefolks the most wonderful news they could ever expect to hear and they never heard one word He said about the Kingdom's presence. All they could talk about was the magnificence of His delivery, His enunciation, His melodious tonal quality. "My this young man is certainly a credit to Nazareth," they cooed and glowed.

When He finally succeeded in getting their attention, and guiding the hometown congregation to an understanding of what the Kingdom meant and that He was the promised Messiah, their wrath knew no bounds. "Is this not Joseph's son? Is this not the boy who lived down the street? Where does He get all this glory business?" Well, the point to be made is simply this — most Christians have a blind spot when talk turns to the Kingdom of God. Most Christians insist that the Kingdom is other worldly and never a present reality; this leaves them vulnerable to every con-artist who ever opened a Bible.

One of the most difficult tasks I have as a priest and pastor is to convince people that the Kingdom of God is not something that happens after death, but is a present reality. The Kingdom is now! And we can and may participate in it. Everything depends on our ability to see and hear and respond.

The very first action of Jesus when He began His ministry was to announce to everyone within hearing distance, "Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand." Many people then as now did not understand that "at hand" did not mean that the kingdom was something that was coming after death, or after some future millennial reign. At hand means that the Kingdom of God was within reach — literally at one's finger tips.

Since so few hear this good news, won't do any harm to give the definition of the Kingdom again. The Lord's Prayer gives the definition as, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done." So the Kingdom of God is wherever God's will is perfectly done. As a consequence, wherever we find Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, who is perfect in obedience to the will of the father, we find the Kingdom. Christ is the perfect keeper of God's will and commandments. So when Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming, "The time is fulfilled, repent and believe in the Gospel, the Kingdom of God is at hand," the Kingdom was at that time just as close as Jesus of Nazareth was to those who heard His words. The Kingdom was not somewhere down the ages coming on the clouds of glory, it was within grasp of those who stood and listened to Jesus.

For further verification that the Kingdom is wherever God's will is perfectly done; all we must do is turn to the Creation story of Adam and the Garden of Eden. Most everyone realizes that Eden is the Kingdom of God — the paradise God has established for man on earth — for man who keeps God's commandments. When Adam disobeys God, he is immediately expelled from Eden — God's Kingdom on earth. And God's Spirit is withdrawn from Adam. The Spirit must be present for the Kingdom to be present. So, it is no accident that when Jesus speaks of the Pearl of Great Price, the parable is told in the present tense. When Jesus speaks of the treasure hid in a field, which the kingdom is like unto, the merchant sells all that he has to buy the field or to pay for the pearl, of such value is the Kingdom of God — the gift of which is priceless. All these parables are told in the present tense, not the future.

When Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees and accused of being the devil incarnate what is the Lord's reply? When you see the lame, the halt and the blind, healed and restored to completeness of life, "Surely," He said you must realize, "the Kingdom of God has come upon you," for the prophets prophesied that the miraculous cures would be a sign of the coming of the Messiah. Those disciples who were not ashamed of Him would be rewarded He said, for He assured them, "Verily, there be some of you standing here who will not taste death until you have seen the Kingdom of God come with great power." And those apostles who were with Him did live to see the Kingdom come with Great Power on Pentecost when the Spirit descended upon them as a mighty rushing wind and with cloven tongues of fire. And Peter testified that this marked the coming of the Kingdom declaring that this was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel who declared that the Kingdom would come when God would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. The Pentecost event is also the fulfillment of the Prophecy of Daniel for the risen Christ promised on Mt. Olivet to send His apostles power from on high. On high means that He was seated next to the right hand of God where Daniel tells us the Ascended Christ was given power, and authority and a kingdom that is an everlasting kingdom that will not fade away. Just before being stoned to death the first Christian martyr, St. Stephens, saw the heavens opened and saw Jesus seated, and enthroned in power at the right hand of God from whence He had come after entering that cloud on Mount Olivet forty days after the resurrection. Jesus Himself, seeing the days when men of this world would attempt to seduce Christians into false doctrine, misleading them about the Kingdom, told us, "The kingdom cometh not by observation. The day will come when you shall desire to see one of my days again, but you will not see it. And men will tell you the kingdom is here, or it is there, but do not believe them. For the kingdom of God is already in your midst." (Luke 17:20-22). If we want to find the ultimate truth of the kingdom we will find it in the resurrection. The resurrection is God's triumph over evil and over death. If God had not been victorious over evil and death, then evil and death would still reign supreme and there would have existed that heresy called dualism or Manichaeism that sets up two equal powers on earth — good and evil. If God had not been victor over evil we would not be worshipping here today for the Resurrection would have been in vain. St. Paul writes, "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, and ye are yet in your sins but now is Christ raised from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept." To deny that Christ did not establish His kingdom is to deny that God has overcome evil by the resurrection of Christ — His great victory over "the world, the flesh, and the devil" — your sacred vow in Holy Baptism which would be of no effect if Christ is not victor. So all of the life and work of Christ is a great Epiphany that points to his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension to heaven where he reigns now, this minute in glory and in the hearts of men and women. Christ is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. All things are His.

It has been said that "If Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all." In the words of that great Easter Hymn, "The strife is o'er, the battle done, The victory of life is won; The song of triumph has begun, Alleluia!" "He closed the yawning gates of hell, The bars from heaven's high portals fell; Let hymn of praise his triumphs tell, Alleluia."

This morning we will close with Hymn 54, traditionally sung at the end of Epiphany, the final time Alleluia is sung until Lent is over. Next week we begin the pre-Lenten season of the so-called "gesima" Sundays that lead to Easter and the final unveiling, the final manifestation — of the full meaning of Christ coming into the world to bring the good news of the present reality of the Kingdom of God.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings.