Epiphany is one of my favorite seasons in the church year, likely because of the focus on light in the darkness and the hopefulness captured by the start of Jesus’ ministry as we work our way through the liturgical year. We started the season with the arrival of the Magi at the manger this past Sunday. I am sharing my homily from this Sunday, or as close as I can get to it, since I didn’t preach from the full text. I look forward to encountering Jesus again and again, and I hope you do, too.
Epiphany Sermon
Christ Church, Frederica
January 6, 2019
I don’t know about you, but if I didn’t have Google Maps, I wouldn’t get anywhere. I seem to remember some kind of map that was printed on this thin material that you would have to fold up somehow… And the other wonderful thing about online directions is that you can click one button and have return directions printed out for you – it is difficult to remember to reverse all of the turns and directions when you try to get back from some place. It is my reliance upon these new technologies and conveniences that makes the story of the Magi a bit more astounding for me.
These Magi, the three wise men, as they’ve come to be known, came from the East to Jerusalem, following a star that had appeared in the heavens. Now, navigating by stars and heavenly bodies is how humans got around for a long time before the first maps. In fact, early maps of the stars were far more accurate than early land maps. Even so, it couldn’t have been easy to navigate by stars, although if someone was going to do it well in the first century, it would have been the Magi. They were likely Zoroastrian priests (could have been three or more of them), who were experts in astrology – expertise that would later influence mathematics and astronomy. These wise men were perhaps the best equipped to make such a journey at a time when roads certainly weren’t marked and there wasn’t an abundance of maps at the local Parker’s. And they got close – they managed to make their way to Jerusalem before stopping to ask for directions. Finding yourself directly under a star is tricky business – Jerusalem – Bethlehem – eh?!?
They asked Herod if he knew of the baby, which of course he didn’t – but like any paranoid ego-maniac, he didn’t let on. He found out where the Messiah would come from and sent the Magi on their way with a polite request for the knowledge they collected – so that he could pay respects, why else would he want to know? …and off they went. They did find the child and his parents and paid their respects with various important gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh. Once this was complete, they were on their way home again – but they didn’t simply reverse their directions – it says that they went home by another road. They were aware of Herod’s plot and realized that to keep this child safe, they could not go back the way they came. So after having found their way there, they found a completely different route home – all without Google Maps.
They left by another road. This is a subtle but important part of this story. The experience of leaving by a different road is not unique to the Magi. It is something which many of us can probably relate to. There are many sorts of experiences that we enter into in a very specific way and leave it completely different, moments when we are not the same after an event as we were before it. Some of my own experiences include moments of increased responsibility or learning – like getting a pet to take care of, or learning specific and helpful information in school. Having such experiences, I learned to make different – usually better choices as a result. The dog circling quickly with wide eyes and a wagging tail isn’t always just saying hi – you clean up a few messes and you learn that lesson. Every time I have sat through a graduation ceremony, I have walked out of the assembly much different that I entered the learning process some years before. There are just some experiences that do not leave us unchanged – from those experiences forward, we are in essence, taking another road.
Moments of great loss can function in the same way. The experience of loving and then losing someone can affect us a great deal. These life-changing experiences cause us to take a different road in ways that we’d rather not have to deal with. Grief is not always a brief episode that we recover from – sometimes it is a companion that stays with us for a long time – we are never the same afterwards. But moments of great joy are the same as well. Marriages, births of children, special achievements – all of these affect us in positive ways and also make us forever different. I made certain decisions and did certain things before I was a husband and a dad, and now I travel on other roads – certainly not a bad thing.
But the experiences that can be most profound are those not unlike the Magi themselves. Religious encounters are life changing. The Magi came looking for the Messiah – and having found him, they were forever changed – after experiencing Jesus, they could not return the way they came. Physically, they had to change their path because they knew they would tip off Herod to the baby’s location. But in order for them to be concerned about the well-being of this child, they had to have a spiritual encounter as well – which meant that their lives would also take a different path from the moment they stepped away from the stable, not just their camels. An encounter with the holy – with God in flesh – certainly changes us and opens our eyes to new paths.
If we’ve really lived into Christmas this season, our lives are changed. There is more to be done than to put away the Christmas presents, write our thank you notes and take down the lights and the trees. If we have encountered the Christ child – God made human for our sake – realizing the relationship with God we’re offered - modeled on the Father-Son relationship they shared, then certainly we are different. We understand that we are in community with one another – if we realize this, then certainly we are different. We know that to offer gifts to the Christ child is to care for those around us and love one another as God loves us. The incarnation has meaning beyond a calendar date that we remember every year – it is a moment in history – the world’s history, and our history – after which point nothing was the same - LOVE.
There is a moment when we realize this – when we really and truly encounter God when there is transformation within us. Surely our baptism, which for many here likely took place in our childhood – our adoption into the household of God – planted a seed within us about who and what this relationship between God and humans can mean. But for many of us, there is also a moment that is much more personal when we found our opportunity to meet God and realize that we were doing so. It could have been in combination with one of the things mentioned earlier – tragedy, great joy, or purely a religious moment… Regardless of when it was, it was a moment that undoubtedly changed us and we’ve never been the same since – we have taken different roads since that moment.
What’s most exciting about this experience of God, is that it can happen again and again. There is not just one moment in life when we encounter God – there are many. Each of them is unique and special, and each changes us yet again. And the Christmas remembrance is not just to remind us that God chose to come and be among us – it is also to give us the chance to make the choice for God as well. Like the Magi, we came to the manger this holiday season to see and celebrate the birth of the baby. But we don’t stay there – we aren’t fortunate enough to be able to stay in that moment forever. At some point, we have to leave and go on to whatever is next for us. But leaving is not the same as leaving behind.
Today is Epiphany – we leave the manger with the Magi and go on to other things and other places. We leave it differently than we arrived. We probably don’t have a road map that spells out how we get from here to there, but we probably didn’t follow a map to find our way here in the first place. Our gift to the Christ child is to take what he has given us – his gift of life and love – and let it be our new guide – our map – our shining star in the East. We came on the only road we knew – we encountered God – and now we leave by another road.
Tom+
We thank thee O God, that thou didst give thy Son Jesus Christ to be the light of the world, and that in him thou hast revealed thy glory and the wonder of thy saving love. Help us to love thee who hast so loved us; strengthen us for the service of thy kingdom; and grant that the light of Christ may so shine throughout the world that people everywhere may be drawn to him who is the Savior and Lord of all, and the whole earth be filled with thy glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.