(Re)Illuminating our Lives

sermon by Carrie Eikler
Matthew 2:1-12; Isaiah 60:1-6
Epiphany

Reading: "Christmas Day, 1949" (ed. Paul Auster, I Thought my Father was God and Other True Stories from NPR's National Story Project. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2001.)

This story comes from a book called I Thought My Father was God. It is a compilation of stories received as part of a National Public Radio series, where people were invited to send in stories of their lives. They didn’t have to be astonishing, or particularly dramatic. Just true.

This particular story, entitled “Christmas Day, 1949” was written by a woman named Sharon from Tennessee. And as I was reading this over the holidays, I thought of it as an Epiphany story. Today we celebrate epiphany (which actually comes 12 days after Christmas…hence inspiring the Christmas song we all know and love or loathe as the case may be). But even though Epiphany comes on January 6th, this Sunday we celebrate the conclusion of the Christmas season by remembering the visitors who came to Bethlehem from the east, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

So why is this an Epiphany story? OK, it does take place around Christmas time. It is about giving gifts, and maybe the magi were the first holiday gift givers—a comparison I hesitate to make—and it is about unlikely people coming into relationship with one another, if only for a brief time. These are obvious connections. But Epiphany is more than that. It about a revelation, it is about a manifestation. “Ah, I’ve had an epiphany!” we may say. In a sense, Jesus was revealed to the world on epiphany, as the world came to him in the visit of the Magi, the visitors from the far away lands, nothing like the Bethlehem, or Jerusalem, or Nazareth of Jesus’ people.

In this short story of Christmas 1949, two epiphanies happen: the woman writing says “that was the Christmas when my sisters and I learned the joy of making others happy.” A first illumination, a “Eureka!” moment, a transformative event that revealed a deeper meaning and purpose. Many of us have hopefully had this first epiphany in our faith lives, when we discovered what it meant to be a follower of Christ, when we stepped into the waters of baptism, when we felt an internal conversion--when we finally found the Christ-child we have been traveling so long to worship, like the Magi first encountering the baby Jesus. For many of us, that first epiphany is one long discovery, a journey made and not simply a destination found. If you haven’t had that moment or moments such as these yet in your faith life, I pray that you will keep searching.

But there is another epiphany in the story that extends that first illumination, one that is the reality of Christian discipleship. It is articulated by the father when he tries to give the travelers money.

He says “I’ve been broke before, and I know what it’s like when you can’t feed your family.” This epiphany comes when we return to what we have known, in a new way, a way that reminds of where we have been, and where we might be headed. Or, how our experience in the past can teach us about how to respond in the present moment. We live this in the story of the Magi not because it is the first time we have encountered the Christ child, but because we are invited to return—to become re-illumined by what is waiting for us.

But all our stories need re-illuminating, each of our faith needs a little luster restored. Let’s face it. The Magi story is likely an old one to us, sort of the way the Jesus story can start to feel old and stale. Sort of the way our faith lives start to feel old and stale. Reliving the story of the Magi can seem more like Christmas pageantry, just retelling a story that has been solidified through the centuries.

Rick Gardner, a former biblical studies professor of mine writes in a commentary on Matthew regarding the way this story can move from bland to relevant. He writes: “In the church today, the magi play leading roles in the typical annual Christmas pageant. It is debatable, however, whether those pageants let us perceive the full significance of the visit of the magi. What we usually miss is the powerful impact of the contrasting reactions to Jesus’ birth which Matthew portrays. A more faithful script might include a scene focusing on the anxiety of the authorities over the birth of a new leader who would upset the current establishment. Herod would be cast as present day ruler, surrounded by advisers in three-piece suits and clerical garb. The magi in turn might consist of persons today who come from the “outside” and who are looking for a new order—perhaps an ardent feminist, a human rights advocate, maybe even a new age mystic. In such a pageant, the cutting edge of Matthew’s story would again become evident” (Believers Church Bible Commentary: Matthew. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1991)

Perhaps our first epiphanies we have experienced in our faith life border on the sublime, the excitement of finding a child who can save us and the world. Many people talk about their early faith being a “child-like” faith that doesn’t satisfy after a while, a Christmas pageant story of the Magi perhaps. Getting stuck in the initial satisfaction can grow stale and if we dwell with how it grows stale we likely get cynical about our faith. Or, if we are satisfied with simply being happy with what was revealed to us at the beginning of our journey with no commitment to growing in faith, we likely will become terrified like Herod—anything that challenges us will be suspect.

The story of the Magi doesn’t just stop with finding the Christ and with being illuminated. It calls us to return to the world, likely by a different path than we first journeyed. It calls us to remember, like the father in the Christmas Day story, what it was like when we first encountered that experience, and let it move us into deepening faith, and re-illumination.
So we are invited to move out of the pageantry and move into real journey.

As we prepare to move into this new year, perhaps we might look back and ask ourselves some questions about our journey, so it might help guide us into re-illuminating our faith walk in the coming year. If you feel comfortable, I invite you to close your eyes and meditate on these questions that the spirit of Epiphany calls us to ponder

How have you felt distant from God in the past year? Or, how has your faith life felt stale?

How have you felt close to God recently? Or, has your faith life been vibrant at any time this past year?

What is it that needs illuminated in your life at this moment? How can you invite Christ’s light into your life?

Now, hear these words of the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, as a blessing for you, words that spoke of the coming light that would shine into the world, and continues to illuminate our lives: “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.” AMEN