A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, January 6, 2008
Matthew 2:1-12
Have you made your New Year’s resolutions? I’ve made three: spend more time with Andrea and fewer evenings working, tone up this six-decade old body, and enjoy life more. Sound familiar? These life tweaks top the list of the ten most popular New Year’s resolutions. Some others are to quit smoking or drinking, eat healthier foods, get out of debt, get organized, and help others.
It’s obvious that New Years is about new beginnings, a clean slate, a fresh start. And we always start out with hope and optimism, wanting to make our lives better. I’ve never met anyone who resolved to spend more time on the sofa watching bad TV and eating more junk food. Quite the opposite.
Universally, they’re about paying more attention to what matters most. So we make pretty much the same resolutions year after year. Only you can say if your life has actually changed for the better.
Sometimes we have a moment when it feels as though the tumblers have shifted and the key can turn. Most of us welcome epiphanies – encounters with the living Spirit of God. We want to experience a deeper connection with the Presence. We want the witness of scripture to rise off the page and dwell in us. We want the prophetic to be personal.
Today is the Festival of Epiphany – the twelfth day of Christmas, if you will. Across the centuries the church has woven together three separate events – each an appearance or manifestation of God – which is the literal meaning of the word “Epiphany” in the Greek.
One is the arrival of the wise men from a foreign land, seeking the Messiah whom prophets had foretold. Another event appears in all four Gospels as John baptized Jesus, and the voice of God declared: “this is my beloved son.” And the third epiphany was Jesus’ first public miracle at Cana in Galilee, when he turned water into wine at a wedding feast.
Each of these three appearances bore witness that the baby born in a manger was experienced as Messiah by outside witnesses — by the wise men, by John the Baptist, and by the guests at the wedding. Each states that the baby Jesus grew into the adult Christ.
Let’s come back to the Magi. They appeared as if from nowhere as the shepherds headed back to their daily grind. As one author put it so well: “exit shepherds, enter wise men; exit stables, enter palace; exit poverty, enter wealth; exit angels, enter dreams.”
We know little about these astrologers. We don’t know their names or even their number. They came from the East, quite possibly Babylonia, because they had seen the star and knew the prophecies and wanted to be in on the excitement.
But, at its root the story tells us they sought a very different kind of king from the one they found. Their gifts were costly and rare while the recipient was a baby of humble birth. Matthew tells us that Herod summoned the wise men and pretended he wanted to worship the new king as well. In reality, this one who symbolized the whole religious/political establishment wanted the baby killed and ordered every male child under two be murdered.
Who they were, and what they were seeking, was quite different from whom they found and what they witnessed. Even so, these learned astrologers, strangers, non-Jews, who came and found Jesus experienced an Epiphany – an encounter with the living God.
Matthew tells us they bowed down and worshiped the child. And when they returned to their homeland they didn’t go back to Jerusalem to tell Herod. They returned home by another way. They were changed.
Once we’ve been to the manger of the Christ child I suppose we’re either like the magi or like the shepherds. The shepherds went back to their flocks and families and familiar routines. They might have remembered and remarked occasionally about that amazing experience. But life has its way of dragging us back into old habits and familiar ways.
The Magi also went home, but Matthew wants us to know they were profoundly affected. Epiphany invites us to leave Bethlehem behind and follow Christ on his journey. Lent is just around the corner. The cross rises on the horizon, reminding us that Christmas wasn’t just God’s brief visit as a baby. It was God’s total immersion in our human sphere, the world of blood, sweat and tears; the world of insanity and of redemption.
One of my favorite authors is W. H. Auden, the British-born poet, who also composed a Christmas oratorio, titled “For the Time Being.” I don’t think its message needs any more comments from me. In it the Narrator says:
Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes—
Some have got broken—and carrying them up into the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week— Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted — quite unsuccessfully –
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,
The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.
The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought
Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now
Be very far off. But, for the time being, here we all are…
In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God’s Will will be done, that, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.
Then Auden adds a whole Chorus saying together:
He is the Way.
Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.
He is the Truth.
Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.
He is the Life.
Love Him in the World of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.
That’s the true experience of Epiphany – our encounter with the living God. Let’s pray for God’s blessing on us all as we move return home by a different way.