Here is my sermon for Sunday, January 6, 2013 - Epiphany
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Kathi Johnson
Epiphany – 6 January 2013
Text: Matthew 2:1-12
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas
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Today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew
gives us the rest of the Christmas story, and then it takes us past the
Christmas story to the story of Epiphany. Epiphany – a funny Greek word for
which one definition is “sudden appearance.” That’s why we use the word
“epiphany” to describe what happens when something suddenly occurs to us, or
when we finally see some solution to a long-standing problem, or when something
for which we are watching is finally revealed.
It must have been amazing – for
those wise men in their far-off land. We don’t know exactly where – the text
says “the East,” which could’ve been someplace in or near modern-day Iraq. But, wherever they were, they saw a star
rising. For them, stars told them of things to come – more specifically, told
of people
to come. These wise men were trained astrologers, and astrologers of ancient
times saw stars rise when many of the great world leaders were born.
It must have been amazing – for
those wise men to get together and discuss their questions about the particular
star they were watching this time. Surely they asked what this meant and for
whom the star was rising. We think of them as three wise men (or kings), but
the text doesn’t tell us that. There might’ve been two, or five, or twenty.
Whatever the case, these wise men got together, formulated their plans, and
traveled to see a king.
It must have been disconcerting –
for Herod, the ruler of Judea – to have these wise men show up and ask for
directions. Paranoid Herod, who saw threats to his power even within his own
family – and was accustomed to eliminating threats. And why shouldn’t he be paranoid,
since the wise men came to pay homage to this other king, and not him? Herod
must have wondered if someone greater than he had in fact been born.
It must have been amazing – for the
young parents, Mary and Joseph. They were the parents of a miracle – the
parents of God! Parents who, up to this point, had spoken with angels, and
experienced their child being born in a stable. We don’t know exactly when the
wise men caught up with the Holy Family – but how amazing to have this group of
wise men bring gifts for their child, and watch them give homage to him. These
wise men - they were so overwhelmed by their joy that they lay down on the
dusty floor to give honor to Jesus. And the gifts they brought – the gold,
frankinscense, and myrrh – such luxury!
It must have been maddening – for
Herod, I mean, to be outsmarted by the dream of the wise men – a dream that warned
them of Herod’s treachery. Do you know this part of the story? In this part of
the story, Herod, consumed with fear of losing his power – consumed with anger
at being outsmarted – consumed to the point of massacring all the children
under age two, just in case one of them was the One meant to take over his
throne.
These events must have been amazing
to all of these different characters in our Christmas story, and now, our
Epiphany story. Jesus – the child born of miraculous circumstances; Jesus – the
child born at a specific place and in a specific time; Jesus – the child now
revealed to the world through the visit of some wise men coming to worship him.
In the Epiphany story, we get to see what happened after the angels and the
shepherds; after the manger and the stable.
Epiphany has always been one of my
favorite holidays (or holy-days). To me, the beauty of the Epiphany story is
how the wise men respond to being in the presence of the Christ Child – they
respond in worship. The respond with amazement. The respond by flinging
themselves down on what was probably a dirt floor in order to honor Jesus.
These events were amazing to them.
I hope that the story is amazing to
us.
We, who have heard the stories of
Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and the angels and the wise men, over and
over again. We, who sing the carols of the season about all these characters,
over and over again. We, who have two thousand years of messy history to buffer
us from the wonder and amazement of these people.
Maybe it is easy for us to keep our
manger scenes tidy – to line up the pieces with great symmetry – a sheep here,
an angel there. But as we do this, I hope we take the time to think about our own
wonder and amazement: that God – that GOD – has come to earth, born of a woman,
raised by a human family, revealed to both shepherds from the hills and wise
men from the East.
I hope that the story is still amazing to
us.
Amen.
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