Sermon: 1 January 2023 Epiphany CCSL#11
Theme: 15k’s
Reading: Matthew 2.1-12
Let us pray:
O Saviour Christ, in whose way of love lies the secret of all life, and the hope of all people, we pray for quiet courage to match this hour. We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age; but let its problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us, its injustices anger us, its possibilities inspire us, and its vigour renew us, for your Kingdom’s sake. Amen
It’s good to be at church on New Year’s Day. But because as I get older, I value my sleep too much and I knew I had to be up early to lead worship this morning, I didn’t stay up to see in the New Year. This didn’t stop me reflecting upon the speed by which our society moves from event to event, with no real thought to what is really happening. Two months out from Christmas and all the decorations were up and the push was on for us to buy, buy, and buy. Yet, come the day, and it’s all over and we’re on to the next shopping event. If you stop and ponder it, it seems crass and ugly and once more points to the underlying rationale of our society; that it’s just about the money.
No matter how much we hate and loathe the way things are, we need to remember that we don’t control what happens in the wider world; We don’t control the big screen; the main stories and narratives that dominate society today – that it’s the rich and the beautiful that matter and if you are not either of these you are nothing and of no value. That we live in a consumer culture where you’re okay if you can buy and it’s bye-bye if you can’t.
No, we have the treasures of our faith. A faith into which it will be my delight to baptise Teddy ANDREWS (@9am) later in this service. One of the treasures of the Christian life, the life we lead as people of God, is the Christian year. The discipline of keeping this Christian year helps flex and grow our spiritual muscles; helps us grow into mature followers of Christ.
Today for many in the Church universal is the festival of the Epiphany. While technically it is on 6 January, today is the closest Sunday before and therefor for many traditionally the celebration is today. It marks the end of the twelve days of Christmas, the time to bring down Christmas decorations and the start of the season of Epiphany. Epiphany means a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something, as in “I’ve just had an epiphany that to lose weight you need to exercise and eat right.” But seriously for us as followers of Christ the Epiphany is the celebration of the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi.
That’s God revelation of God’s self in the baby Jesus is for all of creation. Not just the Jews; not just religious people; but for all people and for all creation. Now we can talk about theories of salvation and what happens when this baby grows up. We can talk about what happens at Easter time and we can believe that Jesus died for my sins and therefore be saved regardless of the complexities that simple statement raises. But what about today –Epiphany – the seemingly simple revelation of mystery of God made flesh for all to see. The mystery that Paul talks about today in the passage from Ephesians: “that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
We need today to resist the urge to race ahead with the story; resisting the urge of our society to race ahead to the next commercial opportunity; resisting the urge of some of our Christian brothers and sisters to reduce the whole Gospel into a simple one-line answer to life’s entire problems and focus on the finer details of this story for a moment.
And for this I am indebted to Walter Brueggeman, one of the finest Old Testaments Scholars of the last forty years. Brueggeman argues that Matthew is not the first one to imagine rich wise guys from the East coming to Jerusalem. Matthew picks up Isaiah’s story from our first reading today. When the Jews get back from the exile they find things a mess yet the poet Isaiah invites them to look up, to hope and to expect everything to change. "Rise, shine, for your light has come." Isaiah anticipates that Jerusalem will become a beehive of productivity and prosperity, a new centre of international trade. "Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn." Caravans loaded with trade goods will come from Asia and bring prosperity. This is cause for celebration. God has promised to make the city work effectively in peace and a promise from God is very sure.
Like Matthew, the wise men know about Isaiah 60. They know they are to go to Jerusalem and to take rare spices, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Most important, they know that they will find the new king of all peace and prosperity. But when Herod (the current king in Jerusalem) hears of these plans, he is frightened. A new king is a threat to the old king and the old order.
Then a strange thing happens. In his panic, Herod arranges a consultation with the leading, and says to them,
"Tell me about Isaiah 60. What is all this business about camels and gold and frankincense and myrrh?" The scholars tell him: You have the wrong text. And the wise men outside your window are using the wrong text. Isaiah 60 will mislead you because it suggests that Jerusalem will prosper and have great urban wealth and be restored as the centre of the global economy. In that scenario, the rich can recover their former power and prestige and nothing will really change.
Herod does not like that verdict and asks, defiantly, "Well, do you have a better text?" The scholars are afraid of the angry king, but tell him, with much trepidation, that the right text is Micah 5:2-4:
But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah . . . from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old . . .
This is the voice of a peasant hope for the future, a voice that is not impressed with high towers and great arenas, banks and urban achievements. It anticipates a different future, as yet unaccomplished, that will organize the peasant land in resistance to imperial threat. Micah anticipates a leader who will bring well-being to his people, not by great political ambition, but by attentiveness to the folks on the ground.
Herod tells the Eastern intellectuals the truth, and the rest is history. They head for Bethlehem, a rural place, dusty, unnoticed and unpretentious. It is, however, the proper place for the birth of the One who will offer an alternative to the arrogant learning of intellectuals and the arrogant power of urban rulers.”
Now for Brueggeman the real story of Epiphany is the story of these two human communities: On the one hand-Jerusalem, with its great pretensions, and on the other Bethlehem, with its modest promises. We can you and I today make a choice between them. Jerusalem with its ‘return to the status quo’; a return to power and dog eat dog and glory in importance where nothing really changes and the rich stay rich or we can choose an alternative that comes in innocence and in a baby and with a hope that confounds our usual ideas.
We can receive life given in vulnerability. It is amazing -- the true insight of epiphany -- that the wise men do not resist this alternative but go on to the village. Rather than hesitate or resist, they reorganize their wealth and learning, and reorient themselves and their lives around a baby with no credentials. Bethlehem is 14½ kilometres south of Jerusalem. The wise men were smart people but they had missed their goal by 14½ kilometres. It is mind-boggling to think how the story might have gone had Herod’s interpreters not remembered Micah 2.
Our task as Brueggeman puts it, is to let the vulnerability of Micah 2 disrupt the self-congratulation of Isaiah 60. Most of us are looking in the wrong place. We are off by 15k. We are now invited to travel those hard, demanding k’s away from self-sufficiency. Epiphany is a good time to take the journey, for the society around us reminds us of the shambles that can come through excessive speed with little true reflection. As Brueggeman writes, “The way beyond is not about security and prosperity but about vulnerability, neighbourliness, generosity, a modest future with spears turned into pruning hooks and swords into ploughshares.”
The wise men made the trip. It would be ironic if the "outsiders" among us made that move and we who are God’s own people resisted. Can we make the trip to imagine ourselves relying on a God who is revealed in a vulnerable tiny baby? 15k’s: so close and yet so far. The Lord be with you.
Walter Brueggeman: “Off by 9 Miles”