Worship for Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Epiphany of our Lord
Theme: Revealed to the Whole World
1st Lesson: Ephesians 3:1-12
3:1 Christ Jesus made me his prisoner, so that I could help you Gentiles. 2You have surely heard about God's kindness in choosing me to help you. 3In fact, this letter tells you a little about how God has shown me his mysterious ways. 4As you read the letter, you will also find out how well I really do understand the mystery about Christ. 5No one knew about this mystery until God's Spirit told it to his holy apostles and prophets. 6And the mystery is this: Because of Christ Jesus, the good news has given the Gentiles a share in the promises that God gave to the Jews. God has also let the Gentiles be part of the same body.
7God treated me with kindness. His power worked in me, and it became my job to spread the good news. 8I am the least important of all God's people. But God was kind and chose me to tell the Gentiles that because of Christ there are blessings that cannot be measured. 9God, who created everything, wanted me to help everyone understand the mysterious plan that had always been hidden in his mind. 10Then God would use the church to show the powers and authorities in the spiritual world that he has many different kinds of wisdom.
11God did this according to his eternal plan. And he was able to do what he had planned because of all that Christ Jesus our Lord had done. 12Christ now gives us courage and confidence, so that we can come to God by faith.
Morning Prayers
O God of light and peace, whose glory, shining in the child of
dispel the darkness that shrouds our path, that we may come to kneel before Christ in true worship, offer him our hearts and souls,
and return from his presence to live as he has taught.
God of revelation,
as we gather in praise for the gracious mystery of your Son, we remember the many needs of your church and your world.
We pray for:
· the sick
· those who grieve
· those who govern
· those who serve
· those whose resources are not enough
· those who do not know your belonging
Guide us on the path of salvation, O God,
that the radiance and power of your Holy Spirit
working in the world will gather together all peoples and nations in one community
to offer you worship and proclaim your splendor. Amen.
Second Lesson: Matthew 2:1-12
When Jesus was born in the village of Bethlehem in Judea, Herod was king. During this time some wise mena from the east came to 
3When King Herod heard about this, he was worried, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem. 4Herod brought together the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses and asked them, "Where will the Messiah be born?" 5They told him, "He will be born in Bethlehem, just as the prophet wrote,6'Bethlehem in the land of Judea,
you are very important among the towns of Judea.
From your town will come a leader,who will be like a shepherd for my people 7Herod secretly called in the wise men and asked them when they had first seen the star. 8He told them, "Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, let me know. I want to go and worship him too." 9The wise men listened to what the king said and then left. And the star they had seen in the east went on ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10They were thrilled and excited to see the star. 11When the men went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother, they knelt down and worshiped him. They took out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrhc and gave them to him. 12Later they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they went back home by another road.
About ten years ago, our family visited the Mashantucket Pequot museum in Connecticut. The Pequot tribe was nearly wiped off the face of the earth by Kate’s ancestors, but they got even. They built what is now one of the five biggest casinos in the world called Foxwoods.
And they took a tiny billion or two from what they’ve taken back from us and built this massive museum to tell the story of their tribe. When you have your own museum, you can tell the story any way you want.
About twenty five years ago, Kate and I went to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. When you have your own library, you get to tell the story any way you want. The war in Vietnam can be depicted as a “disappointment.”
There’s a Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle which tells the story of the settling of the Northwest by Scandinavians, and a National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia--both designed to recount the history of America in their own way.
An article this past week in the New York Times by Edward Rothstein describes an even more recent trend in the “me, me, me,” museum and exhibit syndrome. There’s now an exhibit at the New York Hall of Science on Muslim inventions. And a new exhibit on the ruins of the original “President’s House” in Philadelphia retells the story of the first ten years of the Presidency of the United States from the perspective of the slaves who were owned by George Washington.
Please hear me: I think it’s absolutely crucial for us to hear these voices which may have been silenced or muted in the past--after all, it is winners who write the official version of history. We need to hear the stories of the non-winners--the folks on the margins.
The problem then becomes not which is true, but what “center” is it that holds us all together?
Paul, in the Ephesian letter before us today looks at the incarnation of God in flesh as the center that holds everything together. God chose the nation of Israel to be a “light to the nations.”
In other words, Abraham and his descendants were chosen--not because they were “special,” but for the mission of showing God’s love to the rest of the world. But, the plan failed miserably--or if you’re a predestinarian-gone-to-seed, like some folks I know, the failure of that plan was intended by God to pave the way for Jesus to come into the world.
Either way, the Epiphany of Our Lord, and the reading from Matthew which is associated with it are significant. What they signify is the revelation, the revealing, of Christ to the whole world.
The tradition of the church is that the first “foreign missionaries” are the magi who came with gifts to Joseph and Mary’s home in Bethlehem. While we don’t know their number, we sing “We Three Kings” because three gifts were described. And we have given the three magi names and assigned them to the corners of the earth. The tradition is that they left
While we can’t know the objective facts of this event, we can look at the significance. In this event, as Paul describes it, the whole world (Gentiles--eqnasin--which literally means others as in other nations) is now a part of the body that is connected to God. The promises of God, made to the Jewish people, are now the promises to everyone.
In Galatians, Paul sums it up in one sentence, “28Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman. 29So if you belong to Christ, you are now part of Abraham's family, and you will be given what God has promised.”
In other words, this Epiphany event was supposed to unify the world--so that no matter how we tell our own stories, Jesus Our Christ is at the center of them all.
So why should care and think about this? We often think of this event as compelling us to bring our gifts to the Christ child. That’s fine, but we should consider this: we are the eqnasin--the others the Gentiles. We are the recipients of the gifts of the magi, in that we are those to whom Christ had been revealed. We not only know of Jesus Christ, but have been brought into the family of God through him.
So, the greatest gift we can give to Christ is to continue the spreading of the Good News--to take the joy of the magi and continue to share it with a world that is hurting. We are called to Bethlehem (here) to see the child, and then to go joyfully into the world (out there) to continue to reveal the Good News to the whole world and parts of Ohio.
But, talk is cheap. The Pequots, the Indian nation with the casino and museum we started our sermon with, were told the Good News by the Christians who came into their territory four centuries ago. But, very few of them became Christians--because in their view, those who called themselves by Christ’s name were not very Christ-like. Christians, at least as the Pequots saw them, didn’t act like Christians.
Talk is cheap. Mohandas Gandi, whom the Indian people gave the title Mahatma, was a follower of Jesus Christ--yet he never became a Christian. Why? Because he knew too many of us.
Talk is cheap. Malcolm Little was the son of a minister who didn’t see that being Christian made people better. He ended up embracing Islam and became known as Malcolm X.
There’s a whole bunch of people out there--hurting people--who need to have Jesus revealed to them. The magi and Paul are dead and gone. That leaves us--not only to tell this wonderful story of Jesus--but to live it out. To let the Christ-Child be so embodied in us that our lives will show our neighbors that Christianity is not made up of empty words, but of changed lives.
What difference does it make to you that Jesus has been revealed to you--by Magi, scripture, church? What difference does it make in your life?
What do you think--or maybe, what do your neighbors think?
For today’s offering, cash or checks preferred, gold accepted. Frankincense and myrrh, not so much.
Instead of gold and frankincense and myrrh, we bring to you, O God, the treasures you have first given to us - our hearts, minds and bodies, to be used in your service. We offer these gifts - of money and our lives - as signs of our total giving, praying that they will be used to herald the coming of your kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The Light has pierced our darkness.
Go in the name of God -
Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, to follow that
light.
