THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY, YEAR A
SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NORWAY, MAINE
THE REV. ANNE GL STANLEY
6 JANUARY 2008
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
“We three kings of orient are, bearing gifts we traverse afar…” Kings? Where did that come from? Three? How did we get that idea?
There are many myths that have grown up around this beloved story from Matthew’s gospel, the only gospel that tells the story. And what a great story, full of rich symbolism and high intrigue: travelers from far away who come to worship the new king they’d heard about. But the baby wasn’t in the palace, as they’d thought. Herod, the king there, was jealous and threatened by this new rival. “Where is he?” Herod wanted to know. The visitors found the baby in his own humble home; they did not report back to Herod but instead tricked that old king by slipping away by a different route. High drama.
After the twelve days of Christmas, the Feast of the Epiphany doesn’t often fall on a Sunday. But we’ve got it today. We begin this new season with the first epiphany or manifestation or revelation of Jesus as the Holy One of God to these visitors, who heard the angel, who followed the star, who saw the baby and who left, believing. They offered gifts and they received a gift—the glory of God revealed. Today is where it all begins, and for the next four Sundays we will hear of some of the other epiphanies, when the man, Jesus, is revealed, appearing openly in one way or another: at his baptism, with the public testimony of John the Baptist, at Jesus’ appearance to the first disciples and at Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain. But today in Bethlehem is the first epiphany. To echo a few of the more successful candidates, after last week’s caucuses, as they spoke about Iowa, “This is where it all begins!”
Back to the visitors...Why three of them? Likely to match up with the three gifts they carried: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Why “kings?” Who knows for sure? That label most likely came much later in our tradition. The Bible calls them not kings but “wise men,” because they knew mysterious things about the heavens. In actual fact, these men were star-gazers, fortune-tellers, astrologers, interpreters of dreams. “Magi,” from whom we get the word “magician.” And they were pagans. Way outside official Judaism, Gentiles totally beyond the pale. Outsiders to be wary of. In no way, a royal deputation. Not even close. Certainly not the sort to be received into the presence of the Holy One of God. Certainly not the sort to bask in the welcoming light of God’s glory.
But of course, Matthew’s message proclaims exactly that! It’s precisely Jesus’ message-to-come: that the good news of God is a gift to the entire world, not simply to religious or national insiders. The glow of God’s welcome reaches out to strangers and outsiders and those beyond the pale, even weird pagan star-gazers. Everyone has open access to God, as the Letter to the Ephesians puts it, everyone shares God’s promises. In God’s plan there are no foreigners.
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you…you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice.” The old prophet Isaiah sang of power and glory of God when he told of the joyful return of the Israelites from their miserable time of exile. “Lift up your eyes and look around.”
How do we respond to the good news? What witness do we bear to the glory of God revealed to us? What light shines through us? “Arise, shine…” The Magi heard and saw and believed and went home by another way, another route. Having heard the story and seen the evidence, what other way do we choose to follow?
How do we proclaim the praise of the Lord?
We are struggling with two big things locally. Right in our midst. The first has to do with homeless youth. You may have read about them in the local paper last week. Homeless teenagers. Can you imagine? Several years ago I sat on a team which included the superintendant of schools, some teachers, a philanthropist and others to ponder that very thing. We considered establishing a shelter for teens but various things got in the way of that plan. The problem is so multi-layered it’s hard to know what to do, except for little patchwork things. Poverty is part of the problem. Stressful home lives, with abuse, drugs are another. Some teens are kicked out of their homes, others run away. Most often they’d rather drift from couch to couch of friends they know than to be placed in a foster home with strangers. Many of them sleep outdoors, one even in a snow hole. These kids shower and get warm at school. Most of them want to make something of themselves. The school is well aware of the situation and knows who the children are. The people running study halls give special time for those students to take their showers.
There is help for these kids—the article points to several programs and groups that pitch in, from Christmas for Teens and places where clothes and coats are provided to the Hillside Café at school, funded by a non-profit, where the youth have a warm place to stay after school, find food, receive toiletries and companionship. But night comes and off they go.
The second thing going on in our midst has to do with heating fuel, and the struggle many, many people in our communities are having with getting enough to heat their dwellings. One woman recently told me she had left her oven on with the door open, in order to stay even close to warm. People come to our churches and we scrounge around among ourselves checking on how much this church can give, how much that one can. “We’re plum out,” one pastor wrote me. We pool our resources and while we organize each situation, and we have to check the validity of each petitioner, the people in question wait. The problem is often complex: lack of money to buy fuel, badly insulated houses or trailers, competing pressures on how to spend meager incomes, poor budgeting and lack of planning. The Outreach budget of Christ Church contributes $500 a year to my discretionary fund; other donations come from weddings and funeral honoraria and other gifts from individuals. My fund now holds about $300. Churches aren’t social service agencies. Our job is to make sure that agencies exist to take care of the needs of the poor. The vocal advocacy of churches is our witness to the light of Christ. But when official resources are no longer adequate, the churches must help directly.
How do people see the churches and other houses of worship? What is our witness? As people walk or drive by our buildings, what goes through their minds? How do churches work together with the rest of the community? How do we all, as communities, as a country, become beacons of hope for those on the fringes? How do others see us? Including the rest of the world? Do we have a unifying national ethic of hope? How do we serve as a light to the strangers among us? Who move among us, often ignored, even more often unnoticed? Needing to be warm, to be fed, and to be loved? How do we let the light shine through us? How do we gather as a community to heal the strife and ignorance and poverty and injustice that has such a stranglehold on life nowadays? To be a refuge? To provide solace?
How do we receive the Magi who come to us, allowing everyone to share the promise of God’s merciful care?
Oh God, help us to see and receive the Magi among us. Give us the heart of Jesus so we can share with all around us the promise of your merciful care.