Jesus' love brings the Table to the margins: 4th after epiphany

The first reading is Jeremiah 1:4-10.

The second reading is 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

The holy gospel according to Luke (4:21-30).

²¹Then Jesus began to say to all in the synagogue in Nazareth,

      “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

²²All spoke well of him

      and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

They said,

      “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

²³Jesus said to them,

      “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb,

            ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’

      And you will say,

            ‘Do here also in your hometown

                  the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”

²⁴And he said,

      “Truly I tell you,

            no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.

      ²⁵But the truth is,

            there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah,

                  when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,

                  and there was a severe famine over all the land;

                        ²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them

                              except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.

            ²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha,

                  and none of them was cleansed

                        except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸When they heard this,

      all in the synagogue were filled with rage.

      ²⁹They got up,

            drove Jesus out of the town,

                  and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built,

                        so that they might hurl him off the cliff.

                              ³⁰But Jesus passed through the midst of them

                                    and went on his way.

The gospel of the Lord.

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Today we celebrate God’s love.  Specifically we celebrate God’s love for people and communities that churches have not always loved.  We celebrate God’s claim on our lives as God tells Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  God knows each of us intimately and has known us even before we’ve known ourselves.

While our culture is changing, it still has a ways to go.  It takes many of us in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community years and even decades to come out to ourselves and to others, to accept the love that God has for all of us.  It takes time because the assumption is that we are straight, not gay or bi, cisgender—that is, people whose deepest sense of self matches society’s expectations of them from birth, not transgender or queer.  It takes time because communities of faith and groups in our culture still say that we are not welcome, we are not loved.  But those messages are not the messages of God.  God’s message is love.

What a comfort that for all of us in our lives as sinners and saints, in our brokenness and the ways that we fall short, in the ways society declares us not good enough, God knows us all and loves us completely.  And precisely in the ways we are different—our diversity of sexual orientation, our diversity of gender identity and expression, our diversity in immigration status.  The ways that we are different from the norm, excluded, ignored, or pushed down       are ways that God is uniquely at work in and through us.

Jeremiah thinks he is unable to do what God is calling him to do because he is “only a child.”  What is God’s response? “Do not say, ‘I am only a child’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, ⁸Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”  Because it’s about more than what the world and even some churches see and say. 

It’s about God’s love, which comes before and will last long after everything else.  It is God’s love that gathers us here for worship.  It is God’s love that nourishes us at the Table with bread, wine, and Word.  It is God’s love that sends us out, following Jesus into the needs and messy-ness in the world.

It is God’s love that comes to us in Jesus.  And no matter what else we might do, it is, as Paul points out, only with God’s love that any of it has meaning.  Knowledge, faith, generosity…none of it holds meaning without love, and, love transforms all of it. 

This transformative love can only be known in community.  The love Paul talks about is a love in community, love that is bigger and deeper than the many things that have been dividing the people in Corinth and the people in our own country.  In the community in Corinth, each person and group wants to be best and in striving for that, they lose the love that grounds them and guides them; they lose the love that brings them together to listen and learn from each other.

This love is what Jesus is talking about in the gospel as well.  It is this love that pushes Jesus into the world.  That guides his claim not to be sent to the people already within his community, but to those outside, to the widows in the Zeraphaths of the world and the Namaans in the Syrias of the world.  And it is that love that also pushes us out the doors into the world—into ESL classes and backpack programs, witnessing to God’s love through our actions and through our relationships.

It doesn’t come without risk; the crowd in the synagogue gets so consumed with rage that Jesus is not there to support and affirm their own personal faith, righteousness, or agenda, that it’s like a switch flicks and they lose all of the wonder and love they had just moments ago been expressing for Jesus.

When they realize that Jesus is there for the others that they aren’t concerned about, they don’t just leave him and look for another who might focus solely on them, the way they want; they are so offended that they are consumed with rage!  They drive Jesus to the edge of the cliff to hurl him off!

Too frequently that is what happens when people, especially those with power or privilege, are confronted with the reality that we are not actually at the center.  That God’s love might also center on others.  This is clear in reactions to the #BlackLivesMatter movement and in reactions to increasing rights and protections for LGBTQ folks.  Neither of these groups put themselves against white or straight and cisgender people. 

Like Jesus, they lift up those who have been left out; and in reaction, those “on the inside” are filled with rage—inspired by a fear of losing their power and privilege, losing their special place. 

The reaction is clear today in increased violence against LGBTQ people, especially those who are transgender and especially people of color, who are the most vulnerable in the community.  Just this week a transgender Latina named Monica was shot and killed in Austin, TX, the first reported death in this country of a transgender person this year; and it is clear in threats and violence against people and communities of color struggling for rights and for safety. 

These attacks and threats and continued degradation and dismissal happen, quite frequently, from people who profess themselves to be Christians, followers of Christ.

But in doing these things, they miss Jesus’ point.  He has not come to replace the folks in Nazareth, and he has not come to replace white people or folks who are straight.  Jesus comes in love for the love and dignity of all people and when some are denied that love, that dignity, that respect by society or by the church, then Jesus’ love is poured out all that much more on them.

That is what we celebrate today.  Jesus, out of God’s immense love, not only makes a space, an opening, at the Table for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions, for people of all immigration statuses and all cultures, but that Jesus also brings the Table to those who are oppressed and marginalized. 

That God’s love shows up especially at the margins and especially in the people it is so easy for us to disrespect, ignore, and exclude.  But that’s where Jesus goes, oftentimes unnoticed by the ones inside, the ones filled with rage, blood pumping in their ears, rushing to the cliff’s edge. 

…And Jesus goes on his way.  Jesus goes to those who are overlooked.  Jesus goes to the ones we tell him not to bother with.  Jesus goes to the margins.  And creates the space there so that we can follow him.  So that we can find his love outpoured, the community he creates, the relationships and love that transform us all.

Thanks be to God.

the holy spirit is stirring: 3rd after epiphany

The first reading for today was Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10.

The holy gospel according to Luke (4:14-21)

¹⁴Then Jesus,

      filled with the power of the Spirit,

            returned to Galilee,

            and a report about him spread

                  through all the surrounding country.

                           ¹⁵He began to teach in their synagogues

                        and was praised by everyone.                   (glorified)

¹⁶When he came to Nazareth,

      where he had been brought up,

            he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day,

                  as was his custom.                       

            He stood up to read,

                  ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

                        He unrolled the scroll

                        and found the place where it was written:                        

                              ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

                                    because the Lord has anointed me

                                          to bring good news to the poor.            (beat down)

                                    The Lord has sent me to proclaim

                                          release to the captives

                                                and recovery of sight to the blind,

                                          to let the oppressed go free,

                                                ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”     

            ²⁰And he rolled up the scroll,

                  gave it back to the attendant,

                        and sat down.

                              The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

            ²¹Then he began to say to them,

                  “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The gospel of the Lord.

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About every 500 or so years, the Holy Spirit digs deep and stirs up the church.  It is a time of great change as people once again dig into the Bible, discovering new and different things about it as well as their faith.  As Ezra and the leaders in Jerusalem do in our first reading, these times of renewal bring new interpretations of the Bible, new ways of examining and exploring our faith—our relationship with God in new contexts and communities. 

As we look at the state of the church and churches today, it is not surprising that next year we will celebrate the 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.  While stirrings of the Holy Spirit began well before and continued long afterwards, the event we point to as the beginning is Martin Luther posting his 95 theses at the church in Wittenberg.

Now in the life of congregations and individuals, there are renewals and stirrings of the Holy Spirit with much more frequency than every 500 years, considering most congregations—especially on this continent—don’t or haven’t lived that long, and people certainly don’t.  The Holy Spirit stirs in smaller ways all the time, whether it’s in different congregations coming to worship together, public and prophetic witnesses to God’s love, or a commitment to feeding those without enough, filling the backpacks, just to name a few.

The Holy Spirit is always at work and in our time it is at work in new ways.  The Protestant Reformation of the 1500s was tied-in also with the European Enlightenment.  It brought with it a shift in faith to believing doctrine;             answering “what” questions—what do you believe, or think—about Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, the church, the Bible. 

Through the gift of critical thinking, belief became more about thoughts and ideas than the origin of the word.  In Greek, the word for belief, πιστευω, means trust.  So in the Reformation, and afterward, trust in God has been shifting to become thoughts about God.

Since then, we have been exploring what we think with energy and excitement and we as the church have been teaching people what to think about God—which is part of why we have so many different denominations.  We all want to have a set of beliefs that everybody adheres to, that make us unique from Methodists, Episcopalians, Catholics, or even just other Presbyterians and Lutherans. 

But in recent years, we’ve also been realizing that it’s not working the way it used to.  The cultural assumption that people will go to church, or at least come back when they have families and children, is no longer a safe assumption.  It’s not that people no longer care, it’s that we’re looking for deeper meaning everywhere. 

If we want a social club, we can find that in other places.  If we want meaning, sometimes we look to the church and sometimes we don’t or we can’t find it there.  And sometimes we feel like we don’t fit in, like our views and perspectives don’t match the rest of the church or denomination. 

The task for the church now is to follow in Ezra’s footsteps, to heed Jesus’ call to deeper faith and renewal.  The Holy Spirit is stirring up new questions about faith and life.

It’s no longer a question of what you believe, but instead, how does your belief—your trust in God—impact you, your life, and the world?  How do you live out your faith?  Where and how do you search for deeper meaning?  What is your response to God’s love in your life or to the pain and injustice in the world?

With all of the advances in science and technology, we are still filled with questions about God and the universe.  And communities of faith are beginning to wonder and explore these questions together.

We wonder at a God whose Word speaks the whole cosmos into being when we see pictures in space of stars exploding into life and planets like ours orbiting other stars.  We wonder at a God whose Spirit comes to us not with easy answers, but with new questions.

As much as I love deep theological conversations—and believe me, I do—the sacraments, God’s means of grace: baptism and communion are about life and action.  Our baptism is a call each of us receives from God to live into and in response to God’s love.  Communion nourishes us in new life to follow Jesus into the world.  Communion brings us all together—from all the struggles we face in life—with the great cloud of witnesses, past and present, to become what we receive.  To become the body of Christ in the world.

So we gather each week, explorers, questioners, dreamers, doubters, and followers.  We gather seeking God, seeking deeper meaning for our lives.  We gather, stirred by the Holy Spirit.  And we hear Jesus’ words,                “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  The Lord has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The Spirit of the Lord is stirring things up.  Jesus, God’s chosen, brings good news to all who are beat down[1] by life, who don’t fit in, don’t have a place in society.  Jesus brings release, freedom for captives, especially captives of war—an end to war; release from all that oppresses, all that holds us bound in sin, from war and violence to spiritual, emotional, and mental brokenness.  Jesus brings that freedom and release as the Holy Spirit stirs us up to new life, new questions, new wonders and wanderings.  How is the Holy Spirit stirring in you?  How is the Holy Spirit stirring in us?

We have one more week of the same kind of homework we’ve been doing throughout the season of Epiphany.  One more week of intentionality as a community of faith of asking God how God is at work and calling us in this community.  This week spend your time in prayer in public spaces—at the library, post office, school, or city hall; in a business you frequent.  Again pray, “God, show me how you are at work.” And “God, show me how you are calling me.” And “God, show me how you are calling us.”  And let me and the community know how the Spirit is stirring in you.

Amen. 

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[1] Much of the interpretation and translation for Jesus’ words in the gospel, quoting and paraphrasing Isaiah, come from: http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2016/01/epiphany-3-luke-4-14-21.html

god pours out extravagant love for abundant life: 2nd after epiphany

While not specifically referenced, the first reading, Isaiah 62:1-5, and the second reading, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, really fit well with the sermon for today.

The holy gospel according to John (2:1-11)

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee,

      and the mother of Jesus was there.

            ²Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

      ³When the wine gave out,

            the mother of Jesus said to him,

                  “They have no wine.”

            ⁴And Jesus said to her,

                  “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?

                        My hour has not yet come.”

            ⁵His mother said to the servants,

                  “Do whatever he tells you.”

      ⁶Now standing there were six stone water jars

            for the Jewish rites of purification,

                  each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

      ⁷Jesus said to them,

            “Fill the jars with water.”

                  And they filled them up to the brim.

      ⁸He said to them,

            “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.”

                  So they took it.

                        ⁹When the steward tasted the water that had become wine,

                              and did not know where it came from

                                    (though the servants who had drawn the water knew),

                              the steward called the bridegroom

                              ¹⁰and said to him,

                                    “Everyone serves the good wine first,

                                          and then the inferior wine

                                                after the guests have become drunk.

                                          But you have kept the good wine until now.”

¹¹Jesus did this,

      the first of his signs,

            in Cana of Galilee,

                  and revealed his glory;

                        and his disciples believed in him.

The gospel of the Lord.

-----

The story of Jesus at the wedding in Cana is one of my favorites.  It is so unreasonable!  So irrational!  Why would God come and provide wine, of all things, to a celebration where people are already so far into the wine previously provided that it’s run out?

Why does Jesus choose, for his first sign, turning water into wine, saving the happy couple from embarrassment or shame?  What does it mean?  Much of the time, when I think about God, I think about God’s love for all of us, but I forget that it’s not just love—regular, ordinary, hanging out with family and friends love—it’s extravagant love.  It’s over the top, head over heals, to the moon—no to the cross—and back   love.

For you, for me, for everyone.  God’s love is so extravagant, that God provides everything we need.  God creates earth, this complex combination of countless eco systems, to produce all the food we need.  The oxygen, the water—everything we need is provided for us.   

Now, the fact that we as humans waste food and give preference for things like food and water to some over others instead of sharing equally as any has need does not mean there’s not enough.  It just means that we’re not quite as in-tune with God’s vision of life—and not just the surviving the daily trials kind of life, but abundant life.

Out of God’s extravagant love for all of us, God’s wish and hope for us all is abundant life.  Not the excessive, hoarding and collecting until it all runs out kind, just the abundant—enough for everyone—kind of life.

And that’s why there’s so much wine!  (about 150 gallons of it!)  and it’s soo good.  Not because God wants us to become drunks or alcoholics, but because God’s extravagant love spills out into God’s desire for abundant life for all people and all of creation.  God wants us to enjoy the gifts of creation, to enjoy life.  Smell the roses, have the party.

That is God’s vision that we feed on in communion.  God provides what we need in life and we get a foretaste in communion where we receive bread—nourishment and sustenance for the journey—and wine or juice—festive celebration for the journey as well.  Communion is both a nourishing experience and a celebratory one.  It is a new economy—God’s new economy as God in Jesus says to everyone, “Come and eat.”

At communion, all are welcome at God’s Table, all are fed with the bread of life—the bread of heaven—and the cup of salvation—covenant and celebration.  It is the Table where there is no clothing too inappropriate, no action too cruel, no skin too light or too dark, no experience too controversial, no life and no person too far gone to be welcomed with open arms.

Because it is precisely our whole selves, our whole beings, that God loves, and loves together.  It is our diversity, our uniquenesses, that make us who we are individually and together.  The abundance of diversity that God creates and loves excessively.

This past Thursday some of us gathered together and tried to watch the “Confronting Racism” webcast, the second part of a webcast series Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and William B. Horne II, a member of the ELCA Church Council, are leading to encourage us all to… confront racism—to learn about it and how it impacts us and others.  We had some technical difficulties, so here’s the shameless plug to join us on the 27^th at 6:30 to try again.

But like our less than ideal distribution of food in the world—where some have too much and others have too little, racism keeps us from living into God’s abundance.  It keeps some people from making it to the Table.  This country was built economically and physically by people who were enslaved—largely, though not exclusively, folks who were kidnapped in Africa and sold as property.

Now, slavery still happens today in sweatshops and brothels all over the United States and the world, which is another topic entirely.  And racism, this concept created to reinforce the supposed “rightness” of slavery, also continues today. 

It continues when people of color are more likely to be killed, more likely to be arrested and jailed (for the same crime), and less likely to receive equal pay than their white counterparts. 

It happens when the cultural histories of communities of color are not taught accurately in schools, when some people think that Native Americans are all dead, and when some people think slaves came over from Africa, instead of people              who were kidnapped and sold into slavery.

Racism is a complex system and it is a structural sin that keeps us all from abundant life.  It keeps us from truly joining all our broken bodies together to receive Christ’s broken body, God’s extravagant, loving grace. 

Because it’s an all or nothing kind of thing and God is in the business of choosing all. 

God’s love pours out over our full diversity.  This weekend is Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend and we celebrate, not just today, but especially today, his vision of the beloved community.  King’s dream for our country was one where “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together” where all people “will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”[1] Where all people, black, white, anglo, latino, are celebrated for the ways God makes us unique—the gifts the Spirit gives us.

King’s is a dream worthy of God’s extravagant love—a dream that lives into God’s vision of abundance for us all.  It is not easy.  King followed Jesus to the cross, followed God’s vision of abundance and it cost him his life at the hand of racism.   

It is not easy, but it is possible, and it starts here.  It starts at the cross where we confess our sins, our shortcomings, our brokenness, and receive forgiveness—as we did at the beginning of worship today.  And it starts here with bread and wine—the body and blood of Christ we will soon receive, poured out in extravagant love for abundant life for every single person and all of creation.

Thanks be to God.

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[1] from MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech

God claims you and Jesus as beloved children: Baptism of Our Lord

The first reading was from Isaiah 43:1-7.

The holy gospel according to Luke (3:15-17, 21-22).

¹⁵As the people were filled with expectation,

      and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John,

            whether he might be the Messiah,

                  ¹⁶John answered all of them by saying,

                        “I baptize you with water;

                              but one who is more powerful than I is coming;

                                    I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.

                        He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

                              ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand,

                                    to clear his threshing floor

                                    and to gather the wheat into his granary;

                                          but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

²¹Now when all the people were baptized,

      and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,

            the heaven was opened,

                  ²²and the Holy Spirit descended upon him

                        in bodily form like a dove.

                  And a voice came from heaven,

                        “You are my Son,

                              the Beloved;

                                    with you I am well pleased.”

The gospel of the Lord.

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Today we celebrate not only Jesus’ baptism, but ours as well because in your baptism, God joined you to Christ.  As you were submerged in water or it was poured over you, God joined you to Jesus in his death and as you came back up or were dried off, you began a life-long journey joined also to Christ in the resurrection. 

After a person is baptized, pastors of many denominations proclaim them sealed by the Holy Spirit and mark them with a cross on the forehead.  As they do this, God’s own words echo in theirs, saying “You are my child, the beloved; with you I am well-pleased.”

That is what God is up to—always.  In our baptisms, God claims us as God’s own and names us all “Beloved Child.”  The gift of grace is that God loves us before we ever have any hope of earning it.  God chooses us and loves us and there is nothing we can do about it!

Since we cannot earn it and we cannot lose it, all we can do is respond to God’s love.  That is where our vocation comes from.  It comes as a response to God’s love and the gifts and abilities God gives us.  Where the gladness of God in our hearts meets the needs of the world around us.

Some of us live out our vocation at work, doing a job we get paid for and doing it as well and lovingly as we can.  Some of us work our day jobs so that we can live out our vocations in other ways.  Some live out our vocation in our volunteer work—here with the church, filling backpacks with food and snacks, at school or at the library.  There are countless ways that we can live out our vocation through our volunteer work.  Still others live out their vocation in caring for children and future generations.  Nurturing children in life and faith.

And chances are we don’t just have one thing that we do that we can mark as “vocation” and be done—mission accomplished.  Many of us work at jobs we get paid for, raise children, and maybe even find time to volunteer.  Or maybe volunteering as a family is living out our baptismal calling, our vocation, with respect to family and service in the community. 

No matter what your vocation, it is a life-long thing.  God continuously gives us new opportunities to live into our baptism, to respond to God’s love for all of us and all of creation.  Vocations come and go in our lives, they change just as we change in our understanding of God’s love for us and in our ways of responding to God’s love.

And baptism is just the beginning.  As God promises in Isaiah, God will be with you—is with you now!  Through the waters and the flames, God will be with you.  As that hanging on the wall points out, and as you all know so well, God’s baptismal promise is not that life will be easy, God’s promise is to be with you through it all.

As God claims us in baptism and calls us beloved.  God is well-pleased with us just as we are and God knows us deeply.  As John says, Jesus is ready “to clear his threshing floor,” but first God is going about digging away the chaff and finding the kernels within the stock of wheat—the kernels of our truest selves, made together in God’s image. 

Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire, giving life to the kernels of wheat that make us who we are and burning the chaff that has protected those kernels and yet is no longer needed.  The chaff that is meant for protection, but can turn into walls that we put up protecting ourselves from others, keeping our heart and our most vulnerable thoughts and feelings safe.  Then Jesus comes in, separating away the chaff and burning it, sending it back into the world, and caring for those kernels of wheat, pouring the Holy Spirit out on us in baptism.

We are baptized once, yet each day we have the opportunity to renew our baptismal covenant with God—through the water that washes our hands and face each morning, or our dishes or vegetables at night.  The snow outside or frost on our windows can be our reminder of God’s baptismal promises.  And as we daily die and rise, renewing our baptism, God continues to separate the chaff, which surrounds and protects, from the kernel of our truest selves.

That kernel of abundant love—God’s whole being—is poured into us.  In our baptism we receive God’s grace and our response to that comes in how we live.  Our baptismal calling is to live into those kernels of God’s abundant love in all we do.

It looks different for each of us, but our vocations connect us with the world, they connect us to something bigger than ourselves, serving a greater purpose.  They bring out our kernels and foster love in this world.  So as we continue our Epiphany practice of "glimpsing God," this week we'll be praying where we live out our vocation.  It can be where we work or volunteer or spend much of our day. 

Take five minutes to stand or walk slowly and look around your work, your home, or the place you volunteer, praying "God, show me how you are at work." and "God, show me how you are calling me." and "God, show me how you are calling us."  Feel free to do this in more than one place as many of us live out our vocation in more than one place or way.  Then take a minute to jot down any notes you might have and share them (via email, phone call, or note) with me this week or with everyone next Sunday on the posters that are set up.

God showers you with love and grace at your baptism.  The gift of vocation is that it is your way to respond to God’s love.

Thanks be to God.

god manifests the glory of christ in those outside the church: epiphany sunday

The first reading is Isaiah 60:1-6.

The second reading is Ephesians 3:1-12.

The holy gospel according to Matthew (2:1-12)

In the time of King Herod,

       after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,

              wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking,

                     “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?

                            For we observed his star at its rising,

                                   and have come to pay him homage.”

       ³When King Herod heard this,

              he was frightened,

              and all Jerusalem with him;

              ⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people,

                     he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

                     ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea;

                            for so it has been written by the prophet:

                                   ⁶‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

                                          are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

                                                 for from you shall come a ruler

                                                       who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”

       ⁷Then Herod secretly called for the wise men

              and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.

                     ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying,

                            “Go and search diligently for the child;

                                   and when you have found him,

                                          bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

⁹When they had heard the king,

       they set out;

              and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising,

                     until it stopped over the place where the child was.

                            ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped,

                                   they were overwhelmed with joy.

                            ¹¹On entering the house,

                                   they saw the child with Mary his mother;

                                          and they knelt down and paid him homage.

                                   Then, opening their treasure chests,

                                          they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

                            ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,

                                   they left for their own country by another road.

The gospel of the lord.

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Epiphany is the season when we celebrate God’s glory being made manifest.  Rev. William EdwardFlippin, Jr. points out that the Greek epiphaneia translates as “manifest, show forth, or make clear.”  As we hear in today’s reading from Ephesians, Paul’s work and his call as an apostle is to make God in Christ known to the Gentiles—who were, at the time, the ones outside the faith.  They were not Jews like Paul and most of Jesus’ followers and yet they are among the first to recognize Jesus for who he is: the King of the Jews.

The wise ones from the East see the star at Jesus’ birth, gather their things, and set off on a journey that will take them up to 2 years to complete, not to mention the risk to their lives inherent in travel at that time.  All this for “the child who has been born king of the Jews.”  It is not their religion, but even so,            they know God is doing something big            in Bethlehem.  And in this way God is already coming to these Gentiles, even before Paul takes up the cause—maybe even before he’s born!

These wise ones are not only recipients and witnesses to God’s glory, made manifest in Christ Jesus, but they also become the epiphany.  God works through them to manifest the glory of Christ.  They witness to Herod about this “child who has been born king of the Jews.”  And, as God frequently does to those in positions of oppressive power, this child king frightens Herod. 

Just as in Harry Potter when Voldemort—the epitome of evil—is threatened by the prophecy of a baby, who turns out to be Harry Potter, Herod is afraid of this child king.  Voldemort chooses to hunt down Harry and with him his whole family, while he is still a baby and, after the wise ones leave “by another road,” Herod orders the slaughter of all male children 2 and under. 

Those who hold oppressive power seem ready to do anything, even what we consider unthinkable, in order to hold onto that power.  Last Monday was the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a day in the church year commemorating the innocent children killed in Herod’s frightened and frightening attempt to keep power.  It is the story that follows today’s in the gospel of Matthew.

That’s the thing about children and babies.  Even as they are quite powerless, dependant on others for life, the powerful will often target them when they are afraid. The Feast of the Holy Innocents not only commemorates those killed millennia ago, but also the children killed still today around the world and in our own country. Just as Hitler went after children and adults during World War II, just as Voldemort targets the young Harry Potter, and Herod goes after any child in the area close to Jesus’ age, children are many times the easiest targets. 

Children are killed as victims of war, of poverty, of racism, and of xenophobia, or fear of others.  They are killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  There are many reasons given for why children are killed, and yet is any reason ever good enough to take the life of a child?  Jesus was targeted his whole life because of who he was.  No child deserves to die.

And yet despite the attempts of King Herod to destroy and oppress, God’s glory is made manifest.  As the wise ones’ presence and gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh demonstrate, God’s glory can stir up opportunity and trouble.  Gold and frankincense are kingly gifts, signs of hope and opportunity, but myrrh is used at burial and foreshadows Jesus’ death and the trouble he will face. 

But as with Voldemort’s attempt to kill Harry, Herod causes horrifying trouble, and yet, that is not the final word.  Harry lives and so does Jesus.  The wise ones stir up hope and affirmation for the Holy Family and for those who have been awaiting news of a Messiah—a king to lift them up out of their oppression.

These outsiders, these wise ones, begin the mission of the church—reaching out and glimpsing God in those outside the church, because God is, indeed, already at work out there.  The gifts of bread and wine that we receive today, like the gift of a visit from the wise ones, sends us into the world, to seek out those who are not like us, to learn from them, to find God with them, and to be transformed by them.

During this season of Epiphany, that’s what we as a faith community, will be up to.   Each week we will have a different, though similar task.  This week: head out to a street corner in Rushford, and one in the town in or near where you live (if you live in Rushford, pick two different street corners).  Take five minutes to, as Isaiah says, “Lift up your eyes and look around.”  Pray. Pray, "God, show me how you are at work." Pray, "God, show me how you are calling me." and "God, show me how you are calling us." 

You don’t need to have high expectations or low ones.  Like the wise ones, we may not know what to expect in this search and THAT IS OK.  The goal is to open ourselves up, take some intentional time to ask God to make manifest the glory of Christ in our community.  So pray,            and then jot down a few notes. 

What stands out?  Did anything happen?  (it’s ok if the answer is no) What do you notice?  Is there anything new you haven’t noticed before?  Did you catch any glimpses of where God is and where God’s leading you or us?  Do this during the week—it can be right after worship today or on your way between a here and a there, or whenever it fits into your schedule two times this week for about five minutes each. 

If you want to email or call me and let me know what, if anything, happened, please do!  Otherwise, bring your notes next Sunday and we’ll take some time to wonder at God’s glory in the community.

Just as the wise ones prepared for their long journey and came from afar, following a star to the child king, may this bread we receive today, the body of Christ, nourish us for the journey this week, and may we too glimpse God’s glory made manifest.

Amen.