Where Do I Look for Light?

O.K., we have to start with some straight talk about Epiphany. January 6 (and the Sunday before it) is a day that the Church has set aside to recognize the revelation of the light of God in human flesh. The word Epiphany means “manifestation” and it is an ancient Christian festival that now marks the end of the Christmas season.

Why January 6th? There was an old pagan winter solstice celebration on that date in Egypt and the new Christians may have been trying to claim that day to tell a new message. Just as the solstice marks the time when the light begins to grow again and the days get longer, so Christians want to say that Jesus came into the darkness of the world and began to bring new light.

Over time Epiphany began to be associated with the visit of the magi to worship Jesus. Now here’s where we need to clear up some misconceptions. First of all, I called them magi. In tradition, over time, we started calling them kings. We even gave them names – Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. But we don’t know how many there were or what their names really were. The word ‘magi’ tells us they were astrologers, probably followers of some Mesopotamian religion that searched the stars for signs. We like to put them in the manger scene on Christmas, but Luke is the one who tells about the manger and he doesn’t mention the magi. Matthew is the one who tells us about them and he says they came to the house where Mary and Joseph and the baby lived, so they could have come much later.

We like to put them in the manger, though, because it is important that we get the witnesses right. And we are fascinated by these exotic figures that travel from the East following a star to the place where Jesus was born. We are fascinated, but they must have been a surprise and a disturbance to the faithful Jews of Jesus’ day. Foreigners? Bringing gifts to a new-born child?

Not that the rest of the Christmas story wasn’t surprising. A young virgin giving birth to the son of God…now that’s something you don’t see every day! A host of angels bringing heavenly messages. A bunch of shepherds bearing witness! All of those things were surprising, sure, but the Jews of the day would have some way of understanding them and why God might use them. A young girl giving birth to a divinely-promised son? Why that had happened to old Sarah and Rebecca and Hannah in the Hebrew Scriptures. Angels bringing messages from heaven? That was a great part of Jewish tradition dating back to Sodom and Gomorrah and Jacob’s ladder. And shepherds? Well, they weren’t the most respected people in the community, but great King David – the greatest king in Israel’s history – he had started out as a shepherd.

All of these folks were surprising, but they were still within the fold – still part of God’s people. But these wise men – studying the stars and signs, offering gifts from far-off lands – where did they come from? They wandered in off of somebody else’s story! They certainly weren’t Jewish. What could God be doing by bringing foreigners to worship the savior of Israel? What’s going on here?

So here’s the rub – Christmas for us is a celebration of the incarnation of God in Christ, but it was also a crisis in how we understand God. For the early Church it was something that caused great splits and divisions. It still gnaws at us today. What did God mean by doing something so scandalous as throwing the doors open to other nations – Gentiles as the Jews called them?

The question is: If the good news of salvation is suddenly opened to all people – not just the Jews – by the coming of Jesus – what does that say about God? Did God intend this from all time and only make it plain in Jesus – or did God change God’s mind about being Israel’s God and Israel’s alone? Or is the God of Jesus another God altogether?

The early Church fought about this a lot. The wise men couldn’t be ignored. They made clear that Jesus was not just a local hero. He was someone of universal importance. So for the Jews and the new Christians the question was – what do we do with all these foreigners?

There was no question that the Christian movement had Jewish roots. Jesus taught in the synagogue and the Temple. He was circumcised according to Jewish Law. He was presented at the Temple with a sacrifice. He studied under Jewish religious leaders.

The new Christians began meeting as part of the Jewish synagogues, but they found themselves faced with the same hostility Jesus found to his teaching. Soon they were meeting separately.

At the same time the apostles were finding a great response among the Gentiles. So a great conference was held in Jerusalem to decide if the new converts had to become Jewish in addition to accepting Christ. The conference is recorded in the book of Acts, chapter 15 and the answer they determined upon was: “No – the Gentiles should be welcomed without restriction.” As Peter put it, “Why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?” [Acts 15:10]. It was grace through Jesus that would save people – not Jewish customs.

Obviously the Church did expand beyond Israel. It continued to grow among Gentiles and eventually they began to ask why they needed to keep any of their Jewish heritage. If Jesus changed things so radically, why do we hold on to the Old Testament? In the 2nd century folks like Marcion decided that what was in the Old Testament was the revelation of a different God altogether. So he made his own collection of Scriptures. He took Luke and ten letters of Paul and started a new movement.

The Church rejected Marcion and his interpretation. We believe that there is only one God who was revealed to Israel and through Jesus. We believe this because of passages like the one we find in our Ephesians reading today. Paul was trying to answer the questions of the Ephesian Christians and he gets to this passage and it all comes out of him in this tumble of words that can be rather confusing. In the Greek it’s all one run-on sentence, but here’s a rough translation.

Paul says, “Look, you Gentiles, this whole change has taken about for your sake. It looks like heresy to the Jews because it is so different, but it is for your sake and theirs that Christ came. It’s a mystery why God chose to do it this way. It’s a mystery earlier people weren’t given to understand, but now the Holy Spirit has come to give new understanding to apostles and prophets like me. And because it comes you can be reconciled to God through Christ.

“God had it planned from the beginning and it has always been available. It’s not really new at all. But Jesus makes it clear and because of him we all have access to this mysterious God.”

Jesus makes it clear. He came to tear down walls, not to build new ones. The same God who created us is the God who saves us. And the unapproachable, unknowable God has become approachable and knowable through the baby of Bethlehem’s manger worshipped by Gentile wise men.

Maybe we think the wise men aren’t as surprising to us as they were to the faithful Jews of Jesus’ day. We’ve been seeing them in their bathrobes in our Christmas pageants for so long that we think they are as natural as the stars in the sky. We say to ourselves, “Of course the gospel is available to everyone. Of course, they should be there.”

There are ways, however, that we close the doors to those who are seeking. We are still building walls. We are still keeping the wise men out.

How do we do it? When we forget that the Church does not exist for itself but for those who are not here, then we are keeping the magi out. When we use obscure language to talk about our faith and do not explain it, we alienate those who want to know what it is that we are talking about. When we use language like ‘we’ like I’m doing right now and assume that we’re all on the inside instead of recognizing that many of us, even in this sanctuary are still seeking, then we are keeping the magi out.

There is a video making the rounds on the internet these days that imagines what Starbucks would be like if it marketed itself like the church does. In the video a couple comes to Starbucks for the first time and is bewildered by what they fine. They have to drive past parking spaces reserved for the manager and assistant manager in order to find a place to park. They are bewildered by the insider coffee language that the store clerks use. There is a long list of announcements about things they know nothing about that they have to sit through before they can order their coffee. You can see the parallels.

Here’s what I believe and I believe it because I have walked with people who have been seeking God for a long time. I’ve seen it at Taize in France where young people from all over the world come to sing chants and sit in silence to pray – not because they have bought the whole “Christian thing” but because they suspect there may still be some power worth exploring. I’ve seen it on mission trips when disillusioned people with very little connection to God suddenly discover that they have been claimed just because they made themselves available to serve others. I saw it on Christmas Eve as people made their way here – some because they had come here often but some because something called them back to church or called them for the first time.

What God shows us in Jesus is that there is a great openness in the heart of God that is large enough to welcome every soul. What Jesus shows us in laying his life out on the cross is that God will go to death itself to find a way to bring us home. What the broken bread of the communion table shows us is that it is precisely as walls are broken down that the path to life becomes clear.

What the magi show us is that people, all people, are still searching for hope and salvation and light in the midst of the darkness. And when they find it they are willing to place their best, their treasure, their very lives at its service. Hope. Salvation. Life. We know all these things in Jesus – the baby in the manger who came to save the world. What are you holding back to give? And who are you holding back from seeing what Jesus means to you? Thanks be to God.

Ephesians 3:1-12
For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on your behalf, you Gentiles – for surely you have heard of the management of God’s grace which was given to me for you, because the mystery was made known to me by revelation, just as I wrote above in a few words, in accordance with which you will be able, upon reading, to perceive my grounding in the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the children of humanity in another time, but now has been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. So that the Gentiles may be fellow heirs and members of the same body and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel of which I have been made a servant according to the gift of God’s grace given me by the working of his power.
To me! The least of all the saints! This grace was given to me to bring the Gentiles the good news of the unfathomable richness of Christ and to enlighten everyone as to what is the plan of the mystery which has been hidden for ages in God by whom all things were created. Now it comes forth that it might be made known to the rulers and authorities in heaven through the Church – the Church being the multifaceted wisdom of God. Now it comes forth according to the eternal plan which he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have courage and trust to approach God by faith.