“Merry Christmas,” we say.
“Happy New Year!”
How about “Exciting Epiphany!”
“I had an epiphany,” we say when surprised with a good idea.
Epiphany Sunday – a very good idea.
The word “epiphany” means … revealing; uncovering … making known … a disclosure, a discovery …
In this case, the revealing of the Son of God … and the love of God for all the world … everyone included … no one left behind!
An epiphany of capital order …
Epiphany Sunday … the journey of the magi … astrologers from the east … months of travel … all the way to Jerusalem; then to the little town of Bethlehem … to present their gifts to the King of the Jews.
Matthew is spare in his details … who were these magi, these magicians, these court astrologers?
Though the hymn sings, “we three kings,” kings they were not, but royal advisors … they came from the East, Babylon perhaps, or even Persia.
What was it they saw in the sky?
All sorts of suggestions over the years … a comet, a planetary conjunction, or a super nova ...
Whatever it was, they saw a portent in the sky – a king to be born, in lands to the west.
They go to Jerusalem to inquire of King Herod, thinking that an heir was born, and Herod would know.
But Herod hasn’t a clue … clever man that he is, he inquires of his royal advisors … they have the answer.
Bethlehem … that’s where it’s going to happen … the City of David … the House of Bread.
So the magi continue on to Bethlehem, another 6 miles or so … and looking to the sky, they know they’ve arrived.
They bow down and lay before the manger royal gifts: gold and rare spices … frankincense and myrrh …
And just as quickly, they return to their homeland … the end of the story … no more is said about the magi from the East.
In these few verses, Matthew creates a timeless pattern …
A Star in the night …
Journey & Discovery …
Gifts given …
Return home …
What’s your star? You have one you know!
Maybe a book you’re reading,
Maybe a stroll in the mountains, or a walk along the beach …
A movie image, a fragment of dialogue; music.
A chat with a friend and a glass of wine.
Watching a gull soar lazily in the blue.
A quiet afternoon, a strange constellation of swirling memories …
A great heartache, a longing, a hunger, a thirst … blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God for they will be satisfied.
We all have a star, something beckons us onward … “Don’t give up” … “stay the course” … “you’ll make it” … “it’s going to be all right.”
A friend of mine is going to be ordained January 27 … the same date I was ordained 38 years ago.
She came to me 10 or 12 years ago and said, “God is calling me.”
She came to the church as a young mother, started teaching Sunday School, something laid hold of her … she couldn’t shake it, she didn’t know what it was … but she knew Who it was … “God is calling me,” she said.
She explored that calling for five years … numerous visits with me; she joined a small group of similar travelers … trying to put the pieces together … saying yes with all her heart, and then saying no.
My little mantra: “God will make it clear.”
During one particularly difficult time, she came to an Ash Wednesday service … bound and determined to “just sit there” … but as God would have it, she sat next to Donna.
When the invitation was given to receive the ashes, Donna got up, turned to Ruthanne, offered her hand, and said, “Let’s go.”
Ruthanne got up, came forward, received the ashes …
Ruthanne said, “Donna got me there. I wouldn’t have received the ashes were it not for Donna’s hand.”
God was in Donna’s hand that night.
For Ruthanne, that simple journey from pew to chancel was a decisive journey … something broke lose; a divide was crossed … from that moment on, though difficult days lay ahead, she was clear about the journey!
The Bible is a book of many journeys … Adam and Eve leave the garden; Abraham goes to the Promised Land; Moses to Midian and back again to Egypt … God’s people on their way through the wilderness and across the Jordan …
Jesus is a journey-man … restless and ready … on the move, on the go … preaching here and there … reaching everyone He can …
“Come and follow me” is the heart of our faith, restless and ready.
Always one more place to go,
A new idea to explore,
A new mission to undertake …
We never arrive; we never settle down …
We’re a people on the move,
Because the LORD we worship and
The God we serve are on the road
Ahead of us.
Ruthanne’s journey wasn’t easy … never is … wish it were, but it isn’t.
The clay on the wheel shaped by the potter’s hand must sometimes think: “There’s gotta be an easier way.”
In the dark places of the earth … pressure and heat transform soft carbon into hard diamond – the carbon must sometimes think: “There’s gotta be an easier way.”
You and I become servants of the Most High God, followers of Jesus Christ … it’s not an easy journey … we sometimes think, “There’s gotta be an easier way.”
But the clay becomes the pot … the carbon becomes the diamond … you and I become the Servants of the Most High God and the followers of Jesus.
We make it … love has a compass … though often feeling lost, we’re never lost, because God has an eye upon the sparrow!
God is beside us, within us … mostly hidden and obscure … but God will never let us go.
The magi make it … their journey a success … divine intervention here and there – who doesn’t need a little help now and then?
They make it to the manger; they find the Star-Child … they discover the glory.
Thirty years later Jesus said:
‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8).
The magi find a place for their gifts … where every gift belongs … beside the manger.
We all have royal gifts to give … the golden gift of love … the sweet incense of mercy and kindness …
Gifts for the Master …
Life robs us sometimes of knowing our gifts … our spirits are mugged by folks who themselves were mugged …
Life hits hard … we hang our heads and declare ourselves worthless … “I’m no good. My life is a mess. I’m a failure.”
But every one of us is a magi!
We have gifts indelibly affixed to our lives … permanent gifts … slightly different for each of us … wonderfully shaped to fit the contours of our character … my gifts, your gifts … and we lay them down before the Star-Child, we lay them down at Bethlehem …
There by the manger, our gifts shine … the gold is brighter, the incense sweeter … the gifts find their rightful place …
The story ends simply: the magi return home!
I like that.
There’s something good and basic about that … simple and ordinary … nothing fancy or strange …
God takes us on a long and difficult journey … and in due time, we make our discovery, we find what we’re looking for, we lay our gifts by the manger.
Then, home again … back to where it started … ordinary life, but we’re different for the journey.
Journeys change us!
So many of my memories are journey-memories … a little boy in the backseat of a 1955 Dodge, sitting next to my brother, Mom and Dad in the front, on our way to Florida.
The college band tour … my friend, Freddie Cladder asks me to take his place in a Canasta game – I take his place at the table, and my partner is Donna, and, yup, she’s been my partner ever since …
My first trip to the Netherlands … getting off the plane, an overwhelming feeling of homecoming – roots, where it all began … going to the hotel, hearing the concierge pronounce my name correctly …
Our first trip to Greece to visit Rachel … the Parthenon … the boat to Mykonos … Rachel on the dock waving at us.
Journeys change us …
We come back home from the manger … oh so different … “you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.”
Have an Exciting Epiphany!
Amen!
