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A reflection from our Epiphany Service 8 January 2023
Dreams and Angels

Matthew tells us: Then they returned to their own country by another
route, for they had been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod.

At the turn of the stairs in the Abbey at Iona, there was once a beautiful
and intriguing pewter plaque. Although the casting was modern, the style
and the story were older, it was based on a Romanesque carving from
Burgundy, made by a 12th century craftsman.

Imagine the picture, which guests and
Community members staying in the Abbey
would have seen each night as they went to
their beds: Three Magi – astrologers, wise
men – asleep in one bed. Maybe they are
kings, for their heads on the pillow are
crowned. Shakespeare wrote ‘Uneasy lies
the head that wears a crown’ – and they
couldn’t have been comfortable. But this is not meant to be photographic
realism, but to convey to us the depth and drama of the scene. Next to
the bed stands an angel, with spreading wings and a halo so big that it
breaks out of the frame of the picture. The angel’s magnificent gown
spreads out to form a bedcovering for the Magi, so it is part of their sleep
and their dream. But the angel is wide awake, pointing urgently to the
star which has led them to this place, to the Christ-child. The angels right
index finger touches the hand of one of the sleeping Magi. And, as
though an electrical impulse had run up the bare arm lying on the
coverlet, the eyes of the sleeping man are opening – taking in the
dream’s message:
‘ … they had been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod.’

Imagine what will happen when they wake up. This is a story of learned
men, who know about the past and the future, who have focused
together, maybe for years, on a research project, who have made an
arduous journey across frontiers, who have found what they were
searching for, a new-born king, and who have knelt down (grown men
before a child) to pay homage, as they delivered generous and symbolic
gifts. On their journey they have been given one more task – to go back
and tell Herod, the real power in that land, all that they have seen.

It would be logical, in alien territory, to retrace their steps. But now they
have been warned to go back another way. As astrologers they know the

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