The King Has Come

Sermon for Longs United Methodist Church-January 6th, 2013....Epiphany!

 

 

I had a dream Friday night which resulted in my waking up my entire household belting out the chorus to the song “The King is Coming.”  I was awoken from my dream by some amused, irritated and confused people.  I had dreamed that I was on a college campus that ended up looking much like Disney world.  In the distance a friend and I noticed that there were stars bursting and exploding in the sky. Being that they were very similar to Disney world fireworks we decided not to become too alarmed but still chose to move away from the area to where we could not see these exploding stars.  We rounded the corner of a tall building into what appeared to be some kind of courtyard, people milling around, and going about their business.  Suddenly stars behind us started exploding everywhere with the sound of what downtown Baghdad must sound like at times.  “The end of the World is here” exclaimed my friend as we both broke out into a run and I began to sing the old southern gospel Song the King is Coming.  I awoke from the dream puzzled by its cause.  I realized I had gone to bad right after researching for this sermon.  The texts and the research had much to say about the coming of a King.  Then, I was reminded of my childhood memories growing up in a faith tradition that was all about looking for the second coming of Jesus.  The visions that were handed down of this were very scary much like my dream.  Planes crashing, start exploding, trumpets blaring, cars wrecking, houses disappearing underground, people flying through the sky.  It was not something one really looked forward to, at least I didn’t.  There were a few times in my child hood that Nostradamus had predicted the end of the world much like the latest prediction when the Mayan Calendar ended.  There has been a shift in the scary story now from crashing planes to Zombies.  None the less the images can be scary.  My logic as a young girl during those times was just to sing the King is coming over and over again because the Bible did say that he would come like a thief in the night when no one was expecting.  Therefore if I was singing about it; it wouldn’t happen.  So, reading about the coming of a king coupled with not so suppressed child hood memories made the perfect recipe for an apocalyptic dream that ended with a resounding shout of the “The King is Coming.” 

 

The good news from today’s passages of scripture is the King has already come.  He wasn’t accompanied by crashing planes, Zombies and exploding stars though.  He was born quietly in an outdoor building to a young teenage girl and a carpenter.  He came quietly as an innocent, vulnerable infant.  Not much a picture of a King you might think.  Yet that is what we celebrate today, on Epiphany Sunday!  We celebrate the birth of a King and the revelation of who that King is and what kind of King He would be.  A revelation of who we are as Christ Followers. 

 

Epiphany!  What does that mean?  Why do we celebrate it?  Many of you know that typically as I’m writing a sermon I will put a Facebook prompt out on the world wide web and I have fun reading the responses and incorporating them into my sermon.  This was my Facebook prompt this week.  Epiphany, what is it.  Have you had one, if so tell me about it.  I usually get a pretty decent response out of those postings but I only got three responses to this one and the third one I solicited in person.  I wondered why?  I think possibly it was because no one could really answer it.  For us, epiphany can be somewhat of a mystery or at least very difficult to explain.  Growing up in a different tradition I was an adult before I had ever paid any attention to the word.  So just what does it mean?  One friend suggested it meant a moment when I have a feeling of tremendous clarity of thought. I feel it when everything clicks. It is an "A-HA, it makes sense now" moment! “A Revelation Perhaps.”  Another friend didn’t share what he thought it was but said that he has had an epiphany with the birth of each of his children and that Epiphany’s are accompanied by a paradigm shift.  The Third friend said for her it was like when you try over and over again to get a key to unlock the door and finally everything lines up just right and the lock comes unlocked.  She states she has had many of them and they are definitely inspired and from the Divine but outside of that you can’t explain them to someone else and for them get it.  Different dictionaries give different meanings but all of them agree on a couple of things.  First Epiphany is a festival celebration when the church celebrates the manifestation of God in Christ to the gentiles represented by the Magi.  Secondly that it can be a revelation brought by a deity.  The Early church began celebrating Epiphany around 361 A.D.  The  Greek  epiphaneia derives from the verb "to appear" and means "appearance," "manifestation." In classical Greek it was used of the appearance of dawn, of an enemy in war, but especially of a manifestation of a deity to a worshipper (a theophany).   So to Sum it up:  Epiphany is a day to celebrate God incarnate in Jesus Christ to the entire World.  It is a day to celebrate those moments in our lives when we have revelations of Christ in our lives, when we have been spoken to by God.  The focal passages today give us both an ancient look of epiphany and a Gospel look at Epiphany So let’s take a look. 

 

Our old Testament story takes place after The Kingdom of Judah was captured by the Babylonians and many Jews were taken captive and exiled to Babylon.  In today’s Old Testament passage the prophet Isaiah is giving the Jewish people a word from God.  He brings them a word of hope.  It’s important to note that in the two previous chapters Isaiah has raked the Jews over the coals for their transgressions.  They had turned their backs on God, they had spoken evil things they had not sought true Justice.  They are in the dark both physically and spiritually.  That is their condition.  They sit in the midst of ruins but even in the midst of the ruins God sends a message of hope.  Let’s look at it again. 

 

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
² See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
³ Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

⁴ “Lift up your eyes and look about you:
All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters are carried on the hip.
⁵ Then you will look and be radiant,
your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come.
⁶ Herds of camels will cover your land,
young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
bearing gold and incense
and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.

There are a couple of things to take hold of here.  First and foremost is the very first verse which comes in the form of a command:  Arise, Shine!  God through Isaiah commands the people to rise out of the ruins and out of the darkness and shine.  What are they to shine?  They are to shine the light that they have received.  That light being the very presence and care of their almighty and awesome God.  How do they shine their light?  Well let’s look back at chapter 58; vs. 6-9.  They read:

 

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

 

God says this is the way to shine your light:  Take care of the oppressed, the underdog, the different.  That is when your light will break forth.  You see we are a light, lighting the way for others to see and reach Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.  We are the way for others to experience Epiphany. 

 

The second thing that is noteworthy here is the mention of other nations coming to the light.  Up to this point God has been viewed as the God of the Jews.  Other nations pay homage to other gods, Yahweh is for the Jews.  But here in this chapter 60 Isaiah says the other nations will come to the light.  The Jews will be a light that draws everyone in for God desires relationship with all of humanity; not just a select few.  ALL! 

 

This notion takes us to the Gospel passage of Epiphany for Today. It is the story of the visit of the Magi to baby Jesus.  A few questions arose for me out of this passage.  What are Magi?  Where did they come from?  How did they know to follow the star?  How did they know what the star would lead them to?  Just what is frankincense and myrrh?  Magi were a class of people who were known as astronomers and astrologists.  They were very well versed in science and math and were considered to be so wise that in their area of the world (the east) only persons who had been Magi could become kings and the magi were who crowned the Kings.  The Magi were not of Jewish heritage; they were Gentiles.  This is very important for here we see again that God is for all.  No longer will there be Jew or Greek.  God is the God of all.  It is these Gentiles that first come to worship Jesus.  How did they know?  It is believed that they were knowledgeable of Jewish scripture.  It is also part of the belief of astrologists that when a baby was born a star for that baby would appear.  Some scholars suggest that the star was not actually a star but was a brilliant light that could only be seen by those truly seeking it.  Such was the light of God’s glory in many other parts of both the Old and New Testament.  There was light that guided the Jews in the wilderness.  Moses’ face radiated with God’s glory when he came down from the mountain.  There are numerous other examples.  So, it is thought that the Magi knew of prophecy and thus when the light they were searching for appeared they set out on a journey to go find the “king of the Jews” that had been born and to honor and worship him.  They find Jesus and they bare gifts and they worship him.  We get a picture here of worship being a true homage to Jesus through kneeling before him and bestowing gifts upon him.  These were some of the same gifts that Queen Sheba had brought to King Solomon when she visited.  Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh were common gifts brought to Kings upon visiting them.  Thus the Magi brought common gifts for paying homage to a King.  Frankincense and Myrrh were used both as infusions into oil to create anointing oil and also was burned as incense during times of sacrifice in order to rid the temple of the odors from the sacrifices.  Frankincense and Myrrh were thus both part of the normal homage for any king and were essential elements used in worshipping Yahweh, the God of the Jews.  We must keep this all in mind as Christians.  We must keep in mind that it was Gentiles that came and worshipped Jesus.  No one has a monopoly on God.  God’s grace is for anyone who will seek to find it such as the Magi.  There are no walls barring anyone from entering into relationship with God.  The Apostle Paul’s very mission was to take the message of the Mystery of God to the Gentiles, the outsiders.  He writes in Ephesians 3:1-12:

 

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

² Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, ³ that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. ⁴ In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, ⁵ which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

⁷ I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. ⁸ Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, ⁹ and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. ¹⁰ His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, ¹¹ according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

 

The last thing we should note in the Gospel passage is that because Herod was seeking Jesus to kill him, the Magi took a different route home in order to avoid the Herod and his men.  Gregory the Great once said “Having come to know Jesus we are forbidden to return by the way we came.  Knowing Jesus changes us, changes our path.  That is epiphany.  It is meeting Jesus and letting Jesus change our path.  It is being open to the light, to the still small voice.  It is those moments of clarity when something about God becomes new and real like it never has before.   

 

One writer summed up the common themes of these passages this way:

 

He stated “The common theme is the manifestation of God to People outside of the Religious Community.  We are to be a light to the nations.  The ultimate purpose of God is the unification of humanity in a truly multicultural community where all distinctions between insiders and outsiders have vanished.  Those distinctions erode with the coming of Christ who was revealed to some who were thought to be on the outside and paradoxically rejected by many who were thought to be on the inside. 

 

So as we start a new year here at Longs United Methodist I want you to ponder these questions both for yourselves and individuals and for us as a church community:   The star guides the Magi to Jesus.  What stars have or are still guiding you to Jesus?  Who are the lights in this dark world?  Who is Looking at you or me or this church to be their star, their guide to Jesus? 

 

As we celebrate Epiphany this day let’s do so with a commitment that these doors will be wide open.  Let’s do so with a commitment to be a light to the Bethel community.  Let’s do so with the full knowledge that God graciously, mysteriously and sometimes defiantly breaks into human lives:  May we do the same. 

 

Thanks be to God!