"In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "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." "
Matthew 2:1-2
Christmas is over for another year. The tree has been stripped and dragged to the curb, the decorations carefully wrapped and boxed up and put away in the attic, the Christmas television ads have all been silenced, and down at the shopping malls you can actually find a parking spot again...within walking distance! You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief as Christmas is packed away again for another year. It's over … except today's lectionary reading just won’t let go! Have you noticed how out of step today's scripture reading is with our culture? The babe and manger are boxed and put away for another year but the scripture lesson just keeps on telling the story of this Messiah that has come. It keeps going and going and if it doesn't stop soon, the child will soon be a grown adult and won't fit into that box with all the Christmas decorations! Now wouldn’t that be a shame?
Do you see what is happening? The church and culture are on diverging pathways after Christmas. The two are in lock-step before and during Christmas, but afterwards our culture wants to pack it all away. Our culture likes to keep Christmas small and manageable. There's evidence of this even in the carols we sing: “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “The Little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay,” “Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “The Little Drummer Boy.” Little means we are in control. Little means we can turn it off and on. Little means it’s not life-changing. So our culture prefers the little picture of Christmas.
Now, to be fair it isn't just Christmas. There is a tendency in our culture to reduce many things in size so that they fit our needs. Movies made for the big screen with surround sound are reduced and reformatted to fit on your little TV screen with a 3" speaker. Large scale trains that once thundered across this great land carrying grain and oil and machinery are reduced in scale so you can now run them in the basement of your own home. Full-length novels written by skilled authors are reduced into Cliff Notes and sold so lazy students can get the gist of the book in a night's read and still pass the English exam. There is a tendency in our culture to reduce many things so that they fit our needs and Christmas is no exception.
But today we must resist that tendency. Today we are called to swim against the current of popular practice. Because as we enter the season of Epiphany, the vision of Christmas doesn't diminish - it explodes in size. Christmas isn't boxed up and put away - it's unleashed! In Epiphany the full magnitude of what we've been given at Christmas is revealed and we have front row seats! I'm not talking about a little biddy baby…I'm talking about God’s plan of salvation for the world. Have you ever really stopped to think of the magnitude of what God is doing for us in Jesus Christ? We need to step back after Christmas and get a glimpse of the length, width and depth of God’s gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. In fact, that’s what Epiphany is all about – stepping back and trying to get our minds around the size of this gift!
We don’t do that sort of thing enough. Some people are even embarrassed to do that - because it involves using our imaginations in our faith-life and somehow we think that sort of activity is frivolous, childish. But that’s what Epiphany is all about…engaging the imagination so that we get a glimpse of the ultimate vision of God in Jesus Christ. It’s not childish – all the prophets engaged in it:
The prophet Micah pictures salvation as a single righteous ruler exercising authority over the entire earth:
“And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord…and they shall live secure for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth: and he shall be the one of peace.” (Micah 5:4) No wonder Herod is afraid when this king is born! This king is going to change the political landscape!
Isaiah pictures salvation even bigger…salvation is complete peace and harmony – not just between nations but with all creation:
“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid…they will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord…” (Isaiah 11:6, 9)
And for the Apostle Paul salvation is even bigger than that! Paul says that it embraces the entire universe…heaven and earth!
“With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Eph. 1:10)
I mention these because it’s good for us to unleash our imaginations and consider the size of our salvation in Christ. Because we tend to do the same thing with salvation that we try to do with Christmas…box it up, keep it small. We tend to think of salvation as some sort of inner experience that is being played out on the small screen of the mind. God is tinkering with our minds…changing the way we think…transforming us from the inside. But Isaiah and Micah and Paul and even the gospel writer John say, “No! Salvation is far bigger than your mind! It’s so big, in fact, that you can’t even get your mind around it! You can’t watch salvation on a 20” Sony Television screen. You need a screen as large as the sky to see it!”
And that’s why Epiphany begins where it does – with the Wise Men, looking up…eyes to the skies: Eastern Magi following a star that proclaimed from heavens an exciting new beginning that was coming into the world in Jesus Christ.
I remember when I was quite young that a new mall opened up in north Toronto…the Jane-Finch Mall. They spent oodles of money on it – I remember they put a huge shiny copper roof on it! And when I first saw it tried to imagine how many pennies it would take to build a copper roof that large, I remember thinking: “Wow - the Taj Mahal Mall!” They opened that mall in style – great advertisements in the paper, great sales, free helium balloons for the kids. But what captured my imagination most of all was that they announced the opening of that mall from the heavens! For several nights they shined three huge spotlights up into the sky from the parking lot of that mall. The beams circled around and around, telling the whole city about this huge event. And I could see those beams of light all the way from my house, more than 15 miles away…announcing to everyone: “Hey - over here, something huge is happening, something very special is going on right now, come and see!” That’s what the Bethlehem star did - it announced the birth of Jesus Christ, only this star shone further out than 15 miles…this star shone for the whole world to see. Jesus Christ, the good news for the whole world: “and they will come from east and west, north and south to sit at the table in the kingdom of God.”
So, Epiphany gives us a glimpse of the magnitude of what God is doing in Jesus Christ. Jesus is more than a cute cuddly baby – he’s the salvation of this world. And that’s good news because our world needs more than a cute cuddly baby – we need a savior. There’s a whole lot of darkness yet to contend with in this age: a lot of uncertainty, a lot of suffering, a lot of hostility, a lot of warring madness in the world. Just pick up the paper on any given day or turn on the six o’clock news and you know what I mean! Things are not as they should be in the world. And some of you are contending with enough personal darkness that you don’t need the news to know what I'm talking about! Things are not as they should be.
But darkness does not have the final word in God's creation. God has already seen to that in the sending of his Son, Jesus Christ. God’s plan for salvation has been set in motion and even now is being worked out in the world. And the darkness of this world is no match for the light that shines in this Messiah. The darkness scatters as this new day dawns.
And the story of the Wise Men following the star is the first sign of this new day that is coming. And what I like best about this story is that it says these Wise Men following the star are from the East…they're from a different country. They represent a different culture, a different way of life, a different religion! They don't know anything about the Bible…never even read the scriptures before (which is why they have to stop for directions to Bethlehem…stars only give you general directions). But the Wise Men show up in Israel because the heavens told them something special was going to happen there…something special for the whole world! Today’s passage bridges between the nations. This passage announces that God’s gift is for all people - every race, creed, and colour. The coming of Jesus Christ is a unifying event that links the USA, Russia, and China, Iraq, Iran, and Israel and Palestine.
It is a bridge between the nations and God knows we need more bridges right now because there are far too many walls. Terrorism and the fear of terrorism in the world today have led to a circling of the wagons mentality in many nations. Walls are back in vogue. But walls can never bring salvation. So thank God for Epiphany where our minds are stretched as we consider the length, width, and depth of our salvation in Jesus Christ.
I received an email from Dick Knowles over the holidays telling me that his mother passed away on Christmas day. She was staying with Dick and Doreen and had just retired to her room. Not what anyone would wish for on Christmas Day. The funeral was held a few days later and the same pastor who buried Dick’s father was there to do the funeral for his mother. He said, “You mother’s passing was you father’s Christmas present in heaven.” Isn’t that a great way to think of it? Epiphany - don’t think of it as losing her; think of it as your father gaining her. So death isn’t a wall between us and our loved ones, it’s a bridge between the earthly and heavenly community.
This is the season of Epiphany – it doesn’t mark the end of Christmas, it proclaims its fulfillment. The savior has come and those who behold this savior are changed…transformed. The Magi beheld Jesus and they were transformed. In the words of Matthew, “they went home another way.” Perhaps as we come to the table we will see him ourselves and go home another way too.
Amen