First Reading:
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. 3Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms. 5Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. 6A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
Second Reading:
This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles — 2for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, 3and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, 4a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. 5In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 7Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power. 8Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.
Well, it's been a little over a week now since many of us gathered around the tree and unwrapped presents. And I tell you what we got plenty of Christmas presents this year at our house: books and toys and sleds and this little lady bug that projects stars on the ceiling. Some of the gifts have been played with every day, a couple of the gifts have hardly even been opened yet, still waiting for their moment in the sun. But it's after the new year now… and culturally, Christmas is over. The radio station that only played Christmas music all the way through December is back to its regular programming. I went shopping last night and saw that the grocery store has a Valentine's day display. Even at home, our Christmas decorations are stored back up in the attic… waiting patiently till next Thanksgiving. But there's one present at our house that's still wrapped and sitting on my bookshelf waiting… it didn't come late… it's not like it showed up last night or anything… but you see the person who gave this gift said that my daughters could open their gift on Christmas but I had to wait till epiphany for mine. Apparently they heard me as I was ranting at a Christmas party that if we want to claim any scriptural precedent for gift giving around Jesus' birth, we wouldn't really do Christmas presents at all, we'd do epiphany presents… because Epiphany is the day that's traditionally set aside to remember the coming of the wisemen and of course they're the ones who brought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh to the baby Jesus.
This year we heard the story of the wisemen read during the Festival
of Carols last week… and we nearly always hear it as part of
the Christmas eve celebration… But you know, Luke doesn't have
the wisemen in his gospel… and even in Matthew's gospel the
wisemen come sometime after
Jesus was born… The gifts
the wisemen brought were both impressive and expensive … Gold,
Frankincense and Myrrh were gifts worthy to be given to a king. But
when we remember the significance of Epiphany, only a small part of it
is about the gifts the wisemen brought… and only a small part
of it is about the gifts we bring to the Christ to celebrate his
birth…
Don't get me wrong… those gifts are important… when we share our talents and abilities, that's the way the gospel gets shared and spread. It's the way ministry happens… Giving those gifts is exceedingly important for our lives and for our faith development as well as the development of the church… But the gifts that we give, as important as they are, aren't really what epiphany is about because the focus of Epiphany is on another gift. And we get a picture of that gift in our scripture texts for the day.
The first reading from the book of Isaiah tells of foreigners and
people from great distances coming together to recognize who God is;
to celebrate and to praise God. It says that the whole world will one
day know that the Lord of Israel is God of everything that is.
… And that passage in a lot of ways is the template for the
story of the wisemen…. Isaiah begins, arise your light has
come
… and the wisemen started their journey because they
saw a star, a new light rising in the night sky… Isaiah
continues—nations shall come and kings to the brightness of your
dawn… and we really don't know much about who the wisemen
were… most of the details were filled in by story-tellers
throughout the ages… but even with all that we don't know,
Matthew's gospel does make it clear that they were foreigners and they
were wealthy… which is a parallel of the nations and kings
mentioned in Isaiah. Now there's not a one-to-one correlation between
Isaiah's text and the story of the wisemen, but the similarities are
striking… right down to the Gold and frankincense that are the
gifts offered to God in each of the stories.
But, again those gifts are incidentals because epiphany isn't primarily about celebrating the gifts we bring to God. It is much more about recognizing the gift God has given us, the gift God has given to the world in this new Christ Child… On Christmas eve in Luke's gospel the angels proclaim that Christ's coming is good news for all people… on epiphany in Matthew's Gospel the wisemen represent the same thing… People who may have known absolutely nothing about the history of Israel, or the concept of the Jewish messiah, they're the ones who gather and who travel to recognize Jesus as a king. Epiphany is the celebration of recognizing that the blessing and the goodness of Christ's coming isn't limited to the Jews who were a relatively small section of the conquered Roman empire. The goodness and blessing knows no bounds… it's good news for all people… That's the gift we celebrate at epiphany and that's what epiphany is about… and on a side note, it's a big part of what Christmas is about too… good news for all people.
Fast forward to our second reading… Paul writes to the church at Ephesus after Jesus' ministry, death and resurrection. Christian churches are beginning to form in different parts of the empire and the further the message of Christ spreads, the more Christians are being persecuted. In both our scripture and other historical documents from the time period we have accounts of people being tortured and killed for practicing their Christian faith. And yet the message of the Christ is still being carried out to the world by the apostles and by Paul and by others at great personal risk to themselves.
And in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes: I write for your
sake… In former generations the mystery Christ wasn't made
known… but now it has been… Gentiles— they're
heirs… they're sharers in the gospel of Christ… those
who were outcasts have become incasts
… members of the
same body. To the people who understood themselves to be God's chosen
ones, Paul was saying… They
are united with us.
In fact there isn't an us and them
we are all loved by
God… To the gentiles— people who were understood to be outside
the circle of God's care he was saying… You have a place in
the fellowship of God's people because the promise isn't just for
some, it's for anyone who wants it, it's for everyone.
And then he goes on to say, Of this gospel, I've become a
servant.
There may be other things that are good news in life.
Depending on the context, a great deal at my favorite store might be
good news. Finding a really good new restaurant might be good news.
Seeing a good movie, reading a good book, hearing about the investment
power of dollar cost averaging and compound interest… all those
things might be good news. But they are not THE good news. Paul says
it's of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that I have become a servant. The
gift of God's grace was given to me. So I proclaim both the gift, and
the giver because I know God has done good things in my life and that
makes me believe that God can do good things in other people's lives.
And that's part of what Epiphany is about recognizing what God has
done in our lives… If God's coming is good news for all people,
then that includes me and it includes you.
So Paul uses his own story as evidence. He writes… surely you've already heard of what I've been called to do and also what God has done for me… (If you don't remember, the story is in Acts 9 you should read it) he says the mystery was made known to him by revelation and for us this morning it's enough to say that Paul was a persecutor. He was one of the people who ordered the persecution of Christians. He was responsible for people being stoned to death. But God allowed him, or perhaps God made him see in a way he hadn't before. His eyes were opened. God did something in his life. And because of that grace, that surprise gift of love, Paul was changed forever. He stopped persecuting Christians and started sharing the gospel message. He wrote about half of what is now the New Testament. He became perhaps the most successful missionary the world has ever known. Because of God's grace, he became a servant of the gospel.
And he's not the only one… In the writings of just about every
great spiritual author we see a transformation… sometimes it
happens around a significant event and sometimes it just
happens… but there comes a time in the story of their lives
when they say, Once I was… and by the grace of God, now I
am…
One of the marks of connecting with God is
transformation that happens in our lives. And it makes me wonder how
would we finish those statements? Once I was… but by the grace
of God, now I am… How has the grace of God transformed us?
Perhaps every Christmas we should leave a gift wrapped up… sitting on the shelf… the epiphany present… it could be a reminder of who God is and what God has done… it could be a reminder that, yes, God's gift of Grace is for me and also a reminder that it's not only for me… It could serve as an invitation first to be open to being transformed by the grace of God and second to allow others to be transformed by that grace working through us. After all, that's what Epiphany is about… recognizing who God is, recognizing what God is doing and then being a part of it… Those are the real Epiphany presents. Happy Epiphany! Amen
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on January 3, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
