How does God show up in our world?
How does God become known to human beings?
How did you first learn about God?
How did you first experience God?
These are questions that Epiphany invites us to spend time
with.
We read about the wise men coming from the East,
Following their reading of the night sky
And they find themselves in a political thriller.
Where do we find God showing up in our story?
In the midst of a corrupt politics and deceitful
manipulative interpersonal tactics.
At Epiphany we proclaim the God who is not hidden from the
world God created.
We proclaim a revealed God, a God who shows up in human
history
And becomes the embodied blessing of God in the person of
Jesus Christ
who reveals God’s love for all of humanity.
Wise men from the east represent the implications of the
message of God’s love made visible in Christ.
It will not be for Abraham’s children only.
But the blessing will be a blessing for all people.
This is epiphany, the celebration of universal blessing,
Of grace extended from one body to all bodies.
The promise is made tangible. The word is made flesh.
We proclaim the word made flesh.
As the King James Version of John 1:1 puts it,
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,”
Eugene Peterson puts it this way in his paraphrase:
“The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the
neighborhood.”
The gospel is not a set of philosophical truths by which we
become enlightened.
The gospel is an embodied encounter with the transforming
love of God,
Experienced in real time, in real space, through
conversation,
Through eating together, through working together,
Through healing presence with one another
Through eating the bread and drinking the cup.
We encounter the God who is not distant and then,
But near and now.
In our midst, even within us in the person of the Holy
Spirit.
The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the
neighborhood.
And that neighborhood is one of deceit.
Herod tries to twist the good intentions of the wise men
towards his own malicious ends.
And that neighborhood is one of abusive power.
Herod is threatened by the possible presence of someone who
people may believe is Messiah.
But if Herod is ruling well, if Herod is serving the people
and seeking justice and responding to the needs of the poor, the most
vulnerable under his rule, what need does he have to be afraid that there may
be someone born who people would believe to be Messiah?
It takes someone who knows that his hold on the people’s
support is a very tenuous one,
And largely maintained by fear, and the politics of the
lesser evil.
But Herod is threatened because he knows that he has not
ruled for the people, but for his own interests.
And that leads him to want to quash any upstart, regardless
of how many innocent lives might be destroyed.
The politics of fear of are still alive and well in the
human world.
It is into a neighborhood characterized by Herod’s deceit
and addiction to power,
Into a neighborhood where fear-mongering serves to keep the
people under control.
It is into this neighborhood, crying out for God to heal and
bring justice,
Those Matthew later calls the ones who “hunger and thirst
for righteousness”
It is into this neighborhood that God comes in the person of
Jesus.
And I think we can read this story of the wise men from the
east
as showing the kind of change that Jesus makes.
The wise men come to Bethlehem and in their encounter with
the child and his family,
They are transformed.
They give gifts and receive an even greater gift,
For they behold the blessing of God,
And are given a dream in which they see the truth about the
politics and manipulation of Herod.
And they go away by another road.
This is the foreshadowing of the way that Jesus will
proclaim as gospel.
Repent and believe.
For repent is a word which means, “change the way you think
and feel and act”
Or we might say “go by another road”
This story has a kind of parabolic significance I think.
Wise men from the east represent all of those who have come
to the blessing of God outside of Israel.
I’m included in that community. I find myself in the characters of the wise
men from the east.
And this means that God’s blessing, the word made flesh, has
significance not just for the people of the Hebrew prophets, but for all
people.
And what kind of message is it?
It’s a message that threatens the status quos of the Herods
of the world.
Because it’s a message of grace and truth overcoming fear
and deceit,
It’s a message of love overcoming hate,
It’s a message of gift-giving – especially the greatest
gifts we can give – ourselves
And it’s a message of transformation, of seeing ourselves
and our world in a new light,
Of going by another road, and joining in the resistance to
the powers and principalities,
The Herod character who represents all of the manipulative
and abusive powers of the world
All of the self-seeking and others-exploiting business
practices or political maneuvering.
All of the violence and hatred.
Going by another road.
Resisting evil and seeking good.
And this message is a message not of words, but of lives
lived together.
The prophet says “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and
the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.”
This is said to a whole community not just to individuals.
And we can hear it both ways.
You, yes you, not that person to your right or left, but
you.
You are created in God’s image, and loved with an
everlasting love.
Let God’s light shine in you and through you.
Arise, shine.
And you, yes you, community of friends, of neighbors, yes
you,
Not the bigger town with more businesses or better
amenities,
Not the wealthier community with more resources,
But you.
You are called by the God who gave you life and longs to
bless you and heal you and bring blessing and healing through you,
Let God’s light shine in your life together, in your
forgiving of one another, in your sharing of gifts with one another, in your
praying together, in your learning and seeking truth together.
Arise, shine.
The message of Epiphany is that “The Word became flesh and
blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”
And we, like the wise men, can travel that other road, a
road less traveled,
And we by God’s grace can receive God’s blessing and become
that blessing to all people.
Let’s imagine this as we eat together the bread and drink
together the cup.
We are one body made of up of so many different people,
But sharing in that hunger and thirst for justice and peace,
And as we eat and drink, we share together in the life of
God’s good creation,
We share together also in the promise of the redeeming of
God’s good creation in Christ
By the Holy Spirit’s work in us, among us, and beyond us in
the world
We eat and drink as a sign of this ongoing work of God
The gifts of God for the people of God
That many might know God’s transforming love.
Arise, shine; for your light has come.
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