Arise, Shine!
Texts: Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12
It’s good to be back. Over the holidays, my friend Keith in Calgary sent me an article called “100 things we didn’t know this time last year.” It’s essentially a list of trivia, but I’ll share a few of them with you.
8. Devout Orthodox Jews are three times as likely to jaywalk as other people, according to an Israeli survey reported in the New Scientist. The researchers say it’s possibly because religious people have less fear of death.
23. In the United States, it is possible to subpoena a dog.
42. Britain’s smallest church, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, opens just once a year. It measures 4m by 3.6m and has one pew.
They’re not particularly earth shattering, but it does give one pause to think. What are those things that we didn’t know this time last year. I have my own list, and I can share at least a few:
I didn’t know that I would be living in a home in Mississauga.
I didn’t know that I would be standing in this Pulpit… I knew it was a possibility, but I didn’t know for sure.
I didn’t know that diapers could ever be considered “cute.”
For many of us the past year contains these moments of realization, where we begin to see something in a new way. These moments of Epiphany, of seeing things in a new way, is so appropriate for this time of year.
After all, it is January 8th, and normally by now all the Christmas decorations are down and have been stowed away for next year. The trees are gone or out on the sidewalk, the lights have either come down, or at very least they’ve been shut off for the season, awaiting their actually removal come spring. By now the Christmas decorations in the malls have given way to preparations for Valentine’s Day, with Hallmark™ leading the charge. Anything Christmas-like seems far too “early” in this Second Sunday in the New Year. Yet if we were part of Eastern Christian traditions, the Christmas celebrations would just be getting off the ground. Sarah and I were in a Candy Shop this past Thursday where we wished someone who was Ukrainian Orthodox a merry Christmas.
In the western church, today is the first Sunday in the Season of Epiphany, drawing that link between Christmas and the rest of the church year. In the church that I served in Cornwall, on Christmas Eve, the senior minister always set up the Nativity Set with all of the actors in the stable, except three: the wise men… the Magi. They were present in the Sanctuary on Christmas Eve, but they stood in the frame of a stained glass window some thirty feet distant. The Sunday after Christmas they would move closer, on top of the Piano; the Sunday before Epiphany they would finally arrive at the stable. It was a way to visually remind people that not all of the stories that we tell at Christmas happened at the same time.
The visit of the Magi is celebrated on January 6th, the twelfth day after Christmas. The visit of these travellers from the east is symbolic of the revealing of Christ to the world. It didn’t happen right away, but would take some time before the wise men would knock on the door bearing their gifts. These travellers would come from far lands, revealing something powerful and pervasive about this new child to the entire world. Suddenly people would see this child born in a manger in a wonderful new way.
The story is familiar to us… but we tend to blend the stories from Matthew and Luke together, adding and embellishing with our own details. The visit of the Magi is worth taking on its own. We have no other details about who they were and where they came from. We don’t even know how many of them there were… Matthew’s telling of it simply says that wise men or Magi from the East show up on King Herod’s doorstep asking for the child who has been born King of the Jews. They say something cryptic about observing his rising star.
In the story, Herod is predictably alarmed, but plays along… and along with his advisors helps to discern that these astrologers should be making their way to Bethlehem. The Magi continue on their journey, seeing both the star and finding the child. It’s interesting that they find the child in a house, and not in a stable as Luke describes… some time has passed since the night of the child’s birth. They enter the house and offer their gifts… Gold… Frankincense… Myrrh.
The story is so familiar that we miss the really subtle strokes that Matthew is trying to make. Beyond the more obvious quoting of the prophet Micah, locating Bethlehem as the birthplace, Matthew echoes the words of Isaiah 60 throughout the early part of this story.
See if this sounds familiar:
For Matthew, the visit of the Magi is indeed an Epiphany. This link to Isaiah is especially important… No longer is the Christ child revealed to a select few, shepherds, and innkeepers. The very nations come and gather to see the child, the courts of the rich and powerful are brought to their knees. The glory of the Lord is revealed for all to see. Things will never be the same again. Epiphany… we see things in a new way… and our lives will never be the same.
Seeing things in a new way is what Epiphany is about. For the next eight weeks, all of the stories and scripture that we will be hearing are all about those moments of seeing God in our midst where we have not seen before. More often than not, it’s a discovery that God has in fact been there all along, and we have simply not seen. These moments of epiphany happen not only in the Bible, but are constantly happening in our own lives. By definition, an epiphany is a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence.
Our challenge is to allow ourselves to be open to them… to be able to see those things, those moments in our lives where all those things we have taken for granted suddenly look and feel different. This can be in a spectacular way, but more often than not it may be from something more mundane. It can be anything from seeing the northern lights… to changing my daughter’s diaper. Ultimately, seeing something in a new light changes the way we act and behave, these moments of Epiphany can have life-changing results.
Arise, shine, for your light has come!
Happy Epiphany!
Amen.
It’s good to be back. Over the holidays, my friend Keith in Calgary sent me an article called “100 things we didn’t know this time last year.” It’s essentially a list of trivia, but I’ll share a few of them with you.
8. Devout Orthodox Jews are three times as likely to jaywalk as other people, according to an Israeli survey reported in the New Scientist. The researchers say it’s possibly because religious people have less fear of death.
23. In the United States, it is possible to subpoena a dog.
42. Britain’s smallest church, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, opens just once a year. It measures 4m by 3.6m and has one pew.
They’re not particularly earth shattering, but it does give one pause to think. What are those things that we didn’t know this time last year. I have my own list, and I can share at least a few:
I didn’t know that I would be living in a home in Mississauga.
I didn’t know that I would be standing in this Pulpit… I knew it was a possibility, but I didn’t know for sure.
I didn’t know that diapers could ever be considered “cute.”
For many of us the past year contains these moments of realization, where we begin to see something in a new way. These moments of Epiphany, of seeing things in a new way, is so appropriate for this time of year.
After all, it is January 8th, and normally by now all the Christmas decorations are down and have been stowed away for next year. The trees are gone or out on the sidewalk, the lights have either come down, or at very least they’ve been shut off for the season, awaiting their actually removal come spring. By now the Christmas decorations in the malls have given way to preparations for Valentine’s Day, with Hallmark™ leading the charge. Anything Christmas-like seems far too “early” in this Second Sunday in the New Year. Yet if we were part of Eastern Christian traditions, the Christmas celebrations would just be getting off the ground. Sarah and I were in a Candy Shop this past Thursday where we wished someone who was Ukrainian Orthodox a merry Christmas.
In the western church, today is the first Sunday in the Season of Epiphany, drawing that link between Christmas and the rest of the church year. In the church that I served in Cornwall, on Christmas Eve, the senior minister always set up the Nativity Set with all of the actors in the stable, except three: the wise men… the Magi. They were present in the Sanctuary on Christmas Eve, but they stood in the frame of a stained glass window some thirty feet distant. The Sunday after Christmas they would move closer, on top of the Piano; the Sunday before Epiphany they would finally arrive at the stable. It was a way to visually remind people that not all of the stories that we tell at Christmas happened at the same time.
The visit of the Magi is celebrated on January 6th, the twelfth day after Christmas. The visit of these travellers from the east is symbolic of the revealing of Christ to the world. It didn’t happen right away, but would take some time before the wise men would knock on the door bearing their gifts. These travellers would come from far lands, revealing something powerful and pervasive about this new child to the entire world. Suddenly people would see this child born in a manger in a wonderful new way.
The story is familiar to us… but we tend to blend the stories from Matthew and Luke together, adding and embellishing with our own details. The visit of the Magi is worth taking on its own. We have no other details about who they were and where they came from. We don’t even know how many of them there were… Matthew’s telling of it simply says that wise men or Magi from the East show up on King Herod’s doorstep asking for the child who has been born King of the Jews. They say something cryptic about observing his rising star.
In the story, Herod is predictably alarmed, but plays along… and along with his advisors helps to discern that these astrologers should be making their way to Bethlehem. The Magi continue on their journey, seeing both the star and finding the child. It’s interesting that they find the child in a house, and not in a stable as Luke describes… some time has passed since the night of the child’s birth. They enter the house and offer their gifts… Gold… Frankincense… Myrrh.
The story is so familiar that we miss the really subtle strokes that Matthew is trying to make. Beyond the more obvious quoting of the prophet Micah, locating Bethlehem as the birthplace, Matthew echoes the words of Isaiah 60 throughout the early part of this story.
See if this sounds familiar:
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen
upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations
shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your
dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather
together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your
daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms. Then you shall see and be
radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea
shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to
you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of
Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and
frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
For Matthew, the visit of the Magi is indeed an Epiphany. This link to Isaiah is especially important… No longer is the Christ child revealed to a select few, shepherds, and innkeepers. The very nations come and gather to see the child, the courts of the rich and powerful are brought to their knees. The glory of the Lord is revealed for all to see. Things will never be the same again. Epiphany… we see things in a new way… and our lives will never be the same.
Seeing things in a new way is what Epiphany is about. For the next eight weeks, all of the stories and scripture that we will be hearing are all about those moments of seeing God in our midst where we have not seen before. More often than not, it’s a discovery that God has in fact been there all along, and we have simply not seen. These moments of epiphany happen not only in the Bible, but are constantly happening in our own lives. By definition, an epiphany is a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence.
Our challenge is to allow ourselves to be open to them… to be able to see those things, those moments in our lives where all those things we have taken for granted suddenly look and feel different. This can be in a spectacular way, but more often than not it may be from something more mundane. It can be anything from seeing the northern lights… to changing my daughter’s diaper. Ultimately, seeing something in a new light changes the way we act and behave, these moments of Epiphany can have life-changing results.
Arise, shine, for your light has come!
Happy Epiphany!
Amen.
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