January 7, 2006, Epiphany
Isaiah
60:1-6 ; Ephesians
3:1-12 ; Matthew
2:1-12 ; Psalm
72:1-7,10-14
Gifts for the Christ Child
The Eastern Church celebrated Christmas yesterday – January 6. Because the western church and the Eastern Church disagreed, the 12 days of Christmas was born. Some cultures exchange gifts on December 25, the day we remember Jesus’ birth. Others exchange gifts on January 6, the day we remember the Magi bringing their gifts.
In the Greek language, the word Epiphany means an appearance or miraculous phenomenon. The standard definition of Epiphany is a realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something. It’s sort of like in a cartoon when you see a light bulb come on over a character’s head when they’ve just come up with a “ bright idea.” That’s what an epiphany is – a sudden understanding or a clear insight into a problem or whatever it is that you are considering.
In the Christian
world, it is the 'shining forth' or revelation of God to mankind in human form,
in the person of Jesus. For the church,
the Epiphany is when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. The
What follows
January 6, is a whole ‘season’ of revelations – anywhere from 5 to 9 Sundays of
the epiphanies of the Lord. The gospel
readings during this season will be those in which we see God being revealed in
the person of Jesus Christ.
Many of you will remember that on Christmas Eve, I talked about the Son of God lying in a manger and those who heard and who cared enough to go out of their way to see this child. Well, today’s gospel lesson is a prime example. Here we have a number of people – the gospel doesn’t say how many – tradition says 3, because there were three gifts. Anyway, the Magi are people who are not even Jewish, who have seen a sign in the sky, who go out of their way to discover what that means.
After this season, Sam and I will never think of the three wise men in the same way. We’ve seen two different portrayals – but both is them gave a view of ‘learned men’ – nerds of their day. I was struck by one phenomenon of these wise men – unlike today’s males, they stopped to asked directions. They were looking for a king, so they stopped to ask a king.
It just so happened that the king they stopped to ask, was cruel and ruthless and totally over-protective of his kingdom. He even killed a number of his own sons because he was afraid that they would rise up against him and take away his power. So news of a newborn king, was not good news – it was very threatening. Imagine being insecure that you would be scared of a little baby. So defensive was he of his power that he had all babies under 2 years old killed so that one possible child could not overthrow him in 20 or 30 years.
But these wise men, sort of like university professors of today – single focused – continued on their journey until they came to the Christ child and knelt down before him. They also brought him gifts – gold and frankincense and myrrh – gifts for a king. According to tradition the gifts had special significance – gold represented his deity and purity; frankincense represented the fragrance of his life, and myrrh represented his sacrifice and death.
But the most important part of today’s lesson is the light – the Magi followed the light and we live in that light. From last Sunday’s lesson we heard, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” The Magi followed that light and Herod tried to snuff it out, but it wouldn’t snuff. Our first lesson today says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come.” Jesus had come into the world.
And Jesus has come into our world, too. And the question is, what are we going to do about it? There was a time when this church responded to Jesus, going out of their way to become a people set apart – to shine in the darkness of the time and light the way for others.
I believe that time is coming again when Redeemer will be set apart for the glory of God. But that’s what we have to remember – that it is to God’s glory and not our own. It is to provide opportunities to transform lives of the people who live, work or study in this area. Don’t worry about going beyond this area, don’t worry about being known world wide. Concentrate on what we have here, how we can affect lives right here in Eastwood, at U of H, our corner of the world.
In the past 6 months, there have been dreams expressed and suggestions made. Not all of them will be viable, but work is beginning in many of these areas. It is going to take group effort, but transformation is possible. We can make a difference in people’s lives. It is a transformation that is possible only when we know and believe that Jesus Christ is alive and in our midst. It is a transformation that is possible only when we allow the Holy Spirit that is Jesus Christ to guide and direct us where he would have us go.
Just as the Magi followed the light until it stopped, and just as they gazed down where the child was and gave of their gifts; so we must follow light as it leads us to where God is made manifest in our presence and open up our gifts to give of them.
Amen.
Please feel free to email me with comments at nan@doerrworks.com