Arise, your light has come!

Epiphany Sunday

Today's readings: Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Welcome to the year 2020! I’m afraid to say we’re not off to the best start.. The year 2020, like the last few years, is a time of connection. Honestly, it’s almost impossible to be disconnected or unaware of the tragic things happening in our own backyards AND across the globe. Whether you watch the news on TV, read articles online or from a newspaper, you in some-way-shape-or-form know what is happening in the world. Even if you lived in a van down by the river, I’m afraid that wouldn’t be detached enough, you’d still have too much interaction with the world around you! No, I’m afraid if you want to disconnect these days you would need to find yourself a home in the middle of the woods somewhere - where you had no phone,

tv, computer, or contact with humanity.. Ah, I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me right about now.

Yet, it is Christmas! We are still living in the story of our Saviors birth! Where God does the exact opposite of disconnect and escape from creation.. but rather comes to earth, becomes a human, and dwells with us! God.. who has created all there is and who could turn away and start all over again if desired, chooses to stay - faithful and overflowing with love, God becomes the created. We may want to turn it all off and pretend we don’t care or don’t NEED to care as long as it’s not happening to us, but how can we do so, when the only one who actually could leave it all behind and start over.. chooses to stay?

(To generalize) I think there are two mindsets of people who walk through the sanctuary doors on Sunday mornings. There are the people who come to worship hoping that this can be the one hour of refuge from the world, the one place where they can disconnect and pretend it’s all okay and none of the mess outside those doors matters. Then there are the people who come to worship thinking if the needs of the world are not addressed here this morning, what am I doing here anyways? How is God or worship even relevant to life itself?

I don’t want to say that one mindset is right and one is wrong, because let’s be honest, life is never black and white, but I do think the God whom we worship here leads by example.. Christ Jesus, God incarnate, was/is/and will always be IN and of the world. In worship, yes, we have the opportunity to participate in a different way of being. Here we share peace, even with our enemies. Here we offer our gifts, whatever they may be. Here we are in relationship with God and one another. Here we find belonging, healing, wholeness, and peace in the midst of a fragmented world that thrives on fear, violence, and scarcity. Here we experience the covenant God made to Abraham, fulfilled in Christ - a life of abundance and blessings for all people (Gen. 12:3). But worship is not meant to be an escape, rather a place to practice and learn a new way of life so that we can confidently carry our transformed hearts ‘out there’… where God is.. where God dwells.

Today we celebrate Epiphany, the last day of Christmas and the day the magi arrive to pay homage to the King of the Jews and deliver him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. There are debates about this story over historical facts, like were they wise men, magi, kings, or something else?.. and how many of them actually were there?.. and where exactly did they come from?.. Regardless of historical fact, what matters most in this story, is that those who came, came from afar and they were NOT Jewish. Who were they? They were important men from the East who saw a great light. Where did they come from? Well.. what is east of Israel? I can tell you today that would be Syria.. Iraq.. Iran.. Afghanistan.. Pakistan.. Saudi Arabia. The Israelites seemed to be oblivious to the divinity of the Christ-child. Yet these foreigners, these Gentiles (non-Jews), traveled to his bedside and fell before Christ, worshipping the God made flesh, the King of the Jews, on their hands and knees.

This is a very important story for us, because we are the Gentiles. We are not the people of Bethlehem, we are the foreigners who have seen a great light. We came to the Jews who made sense of that light for us and who welcomed us into their Scriptures. For a moment, at the feet of Jesus in the manger (and at the cross) all peoples of every nation were united as one, blessed as promised to our Father Abraham.. For a brief moment the whole world stood still and there was no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, but all were one in Christ Jesus, heirs of Abraham’s promise (Gal. 3:28). But because we are human, things of course didn’t stay that way.

The world became divided over Christ, some followed him, called him Messiah, while others crucified him. The Gospel of Matthew is written after Jesus’ death and resurrection and Matthew does all that he possibly can to keep his beloved Jewish community united, to help them see how Christ has fulfilled the Scriptures and prophecies.. to help them welcome these Gentiles into God’s story as fellow heirs of the promise. You see the ‘early Christians’ we’re not really Christians at all, they were just Jews. Matthew and many other Christ believers never wanted to be anything but Jews. This is not unlike the agenda of our own Martin Luther, who was a Catholic wishing to have conversations and spark change within the Catholic church.. never wanting to divide the body of Christ, let alone have a new church body named after him. Matthew nor Luther succeeded in keeping their siblings united. In our humanness we are broken.. divided.. constantly dividing… Christ came and fulfilled the promise to Abraham that all people of the earth shall be blessed.. How have we gotten here today? Where we cannot even watch the news or scroll through our newsfeed, because it’s too much to bear to hear another story of death/destruction/fear/violence.. With the Psalmist we cry out, how long, O Lord, will we keep killing each other? Ourselves? Our planet?..

In Advent, we sit in darkness awaiting Christ’s light. We acknowledge the world is not as it should be and we hope and believe in God’s promises of peace, light, and life. At Christmas we stand in awe at the manger.. of God made flesh. Of a love and salvation that is tangible, physical, real. This Christmas.. at the dawn of a new year.. in the midst of wildfires and whispers of war clouding our vision.. we have seen a great light. Like the magi, we must follow that light.. It is the only thing that will lead us all the way home.

Like the Magi, we are on a journey towards that great light, we long to meet the King of the Jews. To lay our lives down before him. To pay him homage, which means to bow down before him completely; hands, knees, foreheads on the floor before our God. To surrender. And to offer up the gift of our lives, for that is all we have to give our king. May we say with the Apostle Paul, “Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of God’s power,” (Eph. 3:7).

Life, as it does, will bring us to our knees.. but may we, like God, choose to keep showing up. Let us journey with the magi, let us learn from our Jewish brothers and sisters the Scriptures, and let us go forth being bearers of the light which we’ve witnessed and offered our lives to. In humble service to the one who gave us life, may we end division, hatred, war, and the misuse of power, working toward the mission of Christ, that all might be ONE in him. For one day, as promised, ALL peoples of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:3)!

Merry Christmas children of God. Christ has come to dwell with us.. to save us from ourselves.. to end hatred and division.. to show us a new vision, a new hope.. of a world where there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, but all are one in Christ Jesus.

Let it be so.

Amen.