"Epipha-What?"

Epiphany - Year A (1-5-14)

Sermon Texts: Isaiah 60:1-6; Mathew 2:1-12

Epipha-What?

Today we turn in the church calendar to the day of Epiphany.  We heard Luke’s tale of the manger and the shepherds at Christmas, but today we hear Matthew’s account of the visit of the “magi,” or “wise men,” or as some have read it, “kings.” It may seem a bit awkward to encounter this tale almost two weeks now after Christmas, at least in terms of the narrative we’re most familiar with - throughout our part of the country, people have already started taking down their Christmas decorations.  But Epiphany is an incredibly important day in the life of the church!  In fact, in some countries, this celebration is almost as important of the celebrations of Christmas and Easter.  In Spain, they celebrate the “Dia de los Tres Reyes” to mark the occasion.  Some families actually forgo giving presents on Christmas day to give them during Epiphany, instead.  Rather than hanging stockings for Santa Claus and leaving treats by the tree, children fill their shoes with hay for the wise men’s camels and wake up to find the hay replaced with treats.  Even the advertising and sales are different - instead of posters and artwork of Santa gracing sales flyers for department stores, shoppers are graced with images of three wise men standing around big-screen TV’s, refrigerators, and washing machines.  Towns hold parades for the Day of the Three Kings, giving each one his own float.

These magi have become the subject of Christmas carols, such as “We Three Kings,” which we sang last week in our lessons and carols.  They’re a familiar fixture in our nativity scenes, with some families even moving them from windowsill to windowsill until the day of Epiphany when they are finally placed before the Christ figure.  Somewhere along the line and development of Christian tradition, we decided to give them names: Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior.  In 1951, they even became key figures in an opera by Gian Carlo Menotti, called Amahl and the Night Visitors, in which Menotti gave them character and life.

But what is it that is so appealing about these men from the east?  What is it that makes them so special that they have featured prominently in so many stories, poems, operas and movies?  Is it because our tradition sometimes portrays these men as kings who traveled across the globe to see the humble majesty of the Christ child?  I’m sure that’s possible.  Perhaps people were simply looking for a way to justify giving presents to one another, to have something to cap the 12th day of Christmas and to give cause for bringing the celebrations to a close.  We may never know the whole of how the tradition developed, yet somehow the story of these particular Magi has managed to grow ever so far beyond the story that Matthew’s gospel gives us.

Take a second, though, and consider just how important this visit is.  Whether they were magnificent kings or simply pagan astrologers, whether they numbered three or thirty, these men were drawn by a revelation from God to seek out the child who would be their salvation, just to pay homage to him.  They’re the first Gentile people entrusted with the good news of the gospel.  And they’re the prime example of the lengths to which God will go to give the gift of Christ to all the peoples of the world.  Up until this point, the relationship between God and humanity was almost exclusively limited to the people of Israel and to those who converted and became adopted members of the Israelite people.  Up until this point, God had pretty much only used pagan foreigners as a means for either proclaiming his judgment or for executing it; Babylonians and Assyrians conquer Israel and enslave it when the chosen people of God break their covenantal commitments to their creator.  Alexander the Great comes in and rescues Israel from Babylonian conquest, yet his victory only frees Israel to serve the Greco-Roman empire, to worship God under the vigilant eyes of their masters.  Gentiles were seen as dangerous to the Jewish way of life - they were a threat, a drawing force pulling people away from the true worship of God.  But now, the tables are turned, and these three Magi are among the first people in Matthew’s gospel to whom God reveals the birth of Jesus Christ.  Like the lowly shepherds of Luke’s account, these three learned men are the first apostles of Matthew’s gospel, the first people to declare that Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews, long-awaited Messiah, was born.  Right from the start, it’s clear from Matthew’s gospel that in Jesus Christ, God is continually working through the unexpected.  His genealogy includes Gentile women with speckled reputations.  His earthly Father, Joseph, should have quietly divorced Mary by the customs of Jewish law.  And the announcement of the Messiah’s birth should have come from Israel.

The Gospels can be scary.  They challenge and change our notions of how God works.  They turn our world upside down.  They help us to stay humble, to remember that we should never think that we have the market cornered on God.  As soon as we start to think that, God throws us another curve ball.  Think for a second about how astounding - even how absurd this scene is: These magi - these strange, mystical stargazers who charted the movements of the heavens, who had wild pagan customs, come into Jerusalem proclaiming that the king of the Jews has been born and asking where he is.  And instead of being excited about this announcement, Matthew tells us that both Herod and all Jerusalem were disturbed by the news!  The one for whom they had been waiting has finally arrived and they are disturbed.  God reveals this wonderful new reality to men of a completely different religion.  He reveals it to them through their own religious practices.  They go - in faith - all the way from their homes in the reaches of the East to see this new king, this new Messiah.  And the first people to whom they announce this immediately become afraid and plot to find a way to kill their prophesied savior.  God reaches out to complete strangers through the most unexpected ways, yet God’s own people remain blind to what God is doing.  Herod is so threatened by the news of the Magi that he actually massacres the boys born in Bethlehem and its surrounding areas just to protect his own rule.  Instead of the joy and celebration of the shepherds in Luke at the announcement of the Messiah’s birth, it’s only suspicion and fear that we see in Matthew.

When I think about that difference, I can’t help but wonder if it doesn’t have something to do with the messengers, just as much as the message itself.  The shepherds in the country fields heard this announcement from angels - they were afraid at first, yes, but God had spoken.  A savior was born.  But these Magi - it pushed beyond the bounds of civilized Jerusalem’s comfort.  The message didn’t come the right way - God spoke to Gentiles first.  God was changing it up.  

The fact is, God likes to do that from time to time - just to keep us on our toes.  God likes to change things up, to do things differently.  Not everyone encounters God through a rousing sermon (as humbling as that is to me).  Not everyone believes because they sang a moving hymn, or even because someone invited them to church.  Sometimes, people believe because they studied the night sky.  Because they were welcomed for coffee, board games, and friendship.  Because someone took a moment to give them a comforting word, to offer to hold a crying baby, to offer them a warm meal and a friendly word.  Sometimes, God reaches people in the ways we least expect.  Sometimes, we have the chance to show Christ to people and we don’t even realize that we’re preaching the gospel.  Brothers and sisters, the prophet Isaiah wrote in encouragement, “Arise, shine; for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!”  He tells the people of Israel that they will be the ones to whom people flock, that they will be the light that people see.  This is the same promise that we are given today at Epiphany - the opportunity to be that same light to the rest of the world, pointing to Christ in all that we do. Epiphany presents us with a choice: to be ready for the unexpected, or to greet it with suspicion.  Brothers and sisters, the fact is: we don’t always know just how God is working in our midst.  God doesn’t always give us the clearest set of instructions to help us understand what we’re expected to do or how we’re expected to do it.  Sometimes, all God gives us is a star and a promise.  But sometimes, that’s all we really need.  To God be the glory.  Amen.