The First Sunday of Christmas

 

Psalm 148
Matthew 1:18-25

One of the personal readings I do every Christmas is from W. H. Auden’s epic poem, A Christmas Oratorio: For the Time Being.
The part that is particularly apropos for today begins:
“Well, so that is that.
Now we must dismantle the tree,
putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes –
some have gotten broken –
and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school.
There are enough left-overs to do, warmed up, for the rest of the week –
not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
stayed up so late,
attempted – quite unsuccessfully – to love all of our relatives,
and, in general
Grossly overestimated our powers.”
W. H. Auden wrote these words in England during the early 1940's, but they pretty much describe what most of us are feeling right about now, don’t they?

Like all the others around us, we celebrated Christmas.  
It wasn’t too hard to catch the Christmas spirit and we entertained, and went to family gatherings, and exchanged gifts, and shopped until we dropped, and sent a few cards, and read a few cards, and we listened to the glorious music of the season, and perhaps even read a story or two, and we decorated, and we visited.

And, now, after weeks of doing this, we are beginning to feel like we’ve done it now.  
As W. H. Auden says, “So that is that.”
Now, its time to move on.

And, then we come to church.
And the preacher is still talking about it.
Of course, for weeks now, when we’ve come to church we been expecting to sing Christmas carols and such, but the preacher kept talking about something called Advent.
And now, we can’t take down the decorations because Christmas is not just one day, but twelve!
And, the church says, the season of Christmas lasts until January 6 – what is called the day of Epiphany.  
Again, the church seems out of synch with the rest of world – and that makes us somewhat uneasy.
After all, no one we know will be celebrating 12 days of Christmas – much less anything called Epiphany.  
[I’ve never heard a store around here advertising Epiphany sales.]  
But, it is a fact that in many cultures and many countries in the world, Epiphany is a much bigger celebration than Christmas day.
[And, we will celebrate Epiphany right here in this very room next Sunday, you won’t want to miss it.]

In weeks past you have heard me say that I believe that Christmas is at the very heart of our faith.  
The stories of our faith that have been passed down through the ages to us speak to the very essence what Christianity is – how we relate to the creator of the universe and how we relate to others around us.

We looked at the fact that we really do not know the actual day Jesus was born – apparently it was just not important to those early believers.  Jesus never talked about it.  The Disciples never sang happy birthday to Jesus.  And no one ever shared pictures of the baby Jesus.  It was not important to them.  

What was important was what they believed was his message and the authority he must have to be delivering the message so clearly and so forcefully.

And, so we need to know, that no matter how good hearing and singing and believing certain things makes us feel –
the real meaning of the season has nothing to do
with gifts, or trinkets, or lights, or candles, or trees, or parties, or dinners, or children, or movies, or shopping, or cards, or Santa, or crosses for that matter.

Christmas is for adults.

The key to understanding Christmas is Emmanuel.
Emmanuel is this Hebrew word that means, “God Is With Us”.

It is significant that we recall and remember that at this time in history – during the heyday of the Roman Empire,
in this particular part of world – an out of the way, nondescript place of no significance to anybody –
the ultimate authority of the universe, the Creator of all that is, broke through the barriers – the walls of the cosmic egg – and came to live among, alongside, and with us mortal beings.  
God is no longer confined to the highest heavens, or to the other side of the wall, or to behind the curtain of the holy of holies.  
No, this is about Emmanuel.

God is with us, we say.  
At Christmas we remember the message and we celebrate the exact point when it happened in history.  
But, the kicker is, the real message is, that it didn’t just happen once and that was it.  
God did not simply open the door and say here I am and then leave.
Emmanuel, we say.  God is with us, we say.
That’s what we remember through the Christmas stories.
And, Emmanuel, we believe.
God is with us – still.  Today.  And tomorrow, and all of our tomorrows –  Every second of every minute of every hour or every day.
Emmanuel.

W. H. Auden continues his poem:
“Once again, as in previous years,
we have seen the actual vision
and failed to do more than entertain it as an agreeable possibility,
once again we have sent him away,
begging though to remain his disobedient servant.
The promising child who cannot keep his word for long.
The Christmas feast is already a fading memory,
and already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought of Lend and Good Friday which cannot, after all no, now be very far off.
But, for the time being, here we all are,
back in the moderate Aristotelian city
of darning and the eight-fifteen,
where Euclid’s geometry and Newton’s mechanics would account for our experience.”
______________________
“And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it . . . .
. . . . at your marriage all it occasions shall dance for joy.”

For us, Emmanuel is something to be continually discovered – something continually to be celebrated.  Emmanuel!
Our God is with us,  we say.

But, often we lose sight of the significance of Emmanuel.
Often we lose cognizance of the presence of Emmanuel.
We lose touch with this most basic of beliefs – Emmanuel.
What would it mean for us to live as though we actually believed Emmanuel?
Keep Christ in Christmas we say.
And that’s fine, but so often, like the rest of the world, we tend to put Christ away with the baby Jesus and the rest of the decorations.

Friends, the truth of the matter is that we cannot confine Christ  to Christmas.  
The Emmanuel we seek, the Emmanuel we proclaim,
the Emmanuel we celebrate is basic and primary to the faith we hold – and yet is so misunderstood.

The Gospel of John tells us: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. “
That means that Christ is where we are -
whether we want it to be or not,
whether we recognize it or not.

The Christ is there.
It cannot be held in the manger.
It cannot be held within the family.
It cannot be held within the church.
It comes to us everywhere;
It is with us everywhere.
Oh  that we might see it,
Oh that we might recognize it,
Oh that we might serve it where we are.

To be sure, there are places that none of us want to be, aren’t there?
But, there are no places that Christ isn’t.
Our Christ wants to be with us,
wherever we are,
whether someplace exalted and beautiful and holy,
or someplace humble and humdrum and ordinary. "No palace too great, no cottage to small."

Teresa Hooley wrote a striking little verse called "Christ in Woolworth's."
(Does anyone here remember  Woolworth's – Woolworth’s  was what we used to call a five and dime, a place where you could find a variety of items at cheap prices.)
The verse went like this:

“I did not think to find You there-
Crucifixes, large and small,
[a dime and a nickle], on a tray,
Among the artificial pearls,
Paste rings, tin watches, beads of glass.
It seemed so strange to find You there
Fingered by people coarse and crass,
Who had no reverence at all.
Yet - what is that You would say:
"For these I hang upon my cross,
For these the agony and loss,
Though heedlessly they pass me by."
Dear Lord, forgive such fools as I,Who thought it strange to find You there,
When you are with us everywhere.”

Folks, it is right for us to do what we are doing today.  
We can’t keep Christ confined to Christmas day.
Emmanuel!
Christ  is present  with you everywhere, every day.
Let us not stop looking for it.
Let us not stop celebrating it.
We sing:
He hath opened heaven’s door,
And we are blest forevermore.
Christ  was born for this!
Christ  was born for this!  

In every moment of this coming year;
even in Woolworth's – or Reasors, or in Walmart; even at home and at work.
Look for, and celebrate Emmanuel – God with us. Everywhere.
Amen

Reclaiming Mothers' Day

 

If there ever was a holiday that needs reclamation it is Mothers’ Day!

Churches all over the United States report attendance on Mothers’ Day as one of the top three of the year - surpassing Christmas and/or Easter in some cases.

But, what is celebrated and valued is no longer a common-cultural experience for most people.

Significant numbers of our congregation have not had a positive mothering experience - for one reason or another. 
And, of course, a number of our congregation are male and could never experience motherhood.
Other increasing numbers of folks have experienced a loss that precluded them from ever experiencing motherhood.
Others, through choice, or through no fault of their own, have never and will never experience motherhood.
And, still others experience mothering through persons not typical to a culture of 100 years ago. 

It turns out that mothering is a very sensitive issue to very large numbers of people - and it takes a skillful preacher to be sensitive to their issues and craft a sermon that speaks to the needs of all in this day and age.

It is interesting to note that the one person responsible for creating and encourage the widespread adoption of a nationally recognized mother’s day, Anna Jarvis, lived long enough to see what was happening and spent her latter years trying to change the emphasis. 

As we think of a way of celebrating Mother’s Day in a new way, there is much to give fodder to our thought.

Consider the first call for a mother’s day came from Julia Ward Howe, who dreamed of an international gathering of mothers pledging to protect their sons and daughters by ending all war.

And, most recently, a group of folks in the US call for Mothers for Action to work for peace on Mothers’ Day.

For years, after giving nod to the fact that all of us have mothers, I have proceeded to give homage to the roll of women in our church and in our faith.  The preacher doesn’t have to look far for sermon points to lift up the role of women.

Taking a clue from the original call for a mothers’ day, we would do well to consider mustering interest in supporting a “cause” near and dear to mothers’ hearts:

Promote awareness of working mother’s issues.
Support a local women’s center.
Get involved in a Big Brothers / Big Sisters project.
Go to a nearby Senior Citizens Center
Support or start a day care center for working women

We received a special offering on Mothers’ Day to support Baby Manna in Philadelphia which supplies baby formula for poor mothers in Southeast Pennsylvania.

The Birthday of a Whole New World

Isaiah 25:6-9
Mark 16:1-8

Friends, Easter is the birthday of a whole new
world – 
a whole new life – 
a whole new way of living – 
a whole new way of looking at the world –
a whole new religion!

    Every year now, for some twenty centuries,
Christian people have come together at this time of
year to celebrate the single most important event of their history!

     It was quite natural for the first Christians to
tie this Easter event with the traditional Passover
Celebration –  which had been celebrated each year for centuries to remind people of their unique history and of their unique relationship with their God.

    You understand, it wasn't until after the Resurrection that the disciple's eyes were opened and they saw for the very first time that what they had been experiencing with this man from Nazareth was indeed a whole new thing. 
It was after the Resurrection that they began to call him the Christ and saw him to be the fulfillment of the Passover –  the promise that had been made each year over and over again for centuries. 
So they began to meet together each week at dawn to celebrate Easter – 
the coming of the new time – 
the new week –
remembering the fulfillment of the Passover.

    In order to understand the full significance of what they were celebrating, I think we have to go back  to the Hebrew poetic expression of God's relationship with people. 

Again, we are all familiar with the creation stories in Genesis. 
The familiar story with its rhythmical structure of seven days occurs in chapter 1. 
And chapter 2 of Genesis begins another story of creation. 
Now, really, both of these accounts were actually written fairly late in Jewish history –
most probably at the time of King David,
when for the first time people had the leisure to sit down and write the stories that had been handed down by word of mouth for centuries.

   Verse 7 of the second chapter of Genesis appears to express one of the earliest, most primitive concepts of  the Jew's relationship to God. 
Here, God is pictured as a potter: 
Then the Lord God formed (molded) a man from the dust of the ground, and breathed (a loud breath) into his nostrils the breath of life. 
Thus man became alive!  (Gen2:v7)

    It seems that from the beginning,
they understood every person's breath is God-given –  life itself – 
for the human is critically related to Yahweh,the God that shared his breath – 
the symbol for life itself. 
You see, the thing that made the body alive was God. 
God was intimately related to your life experience. [Therefore, a life without God was an absurd proposition.]

    Actually, by the time these stories were written down (at King David's court) the understandings of God had changed somewhat. 
I’ve talked about this before. 
Through the years a concept of God developed that they could put in a box. 

At a risk of over-simplifying it:
you may recall that they were a nomadic people, they traveled a lot –
they traveled through lands occupied by people with other religions. 
They saw that these religions had their holy places:
they had holy mountains,
there were holy caves,
and there holy wells. 
Well, having no geographical references for themselves these wandering Jews knew that their God could not be confined to geography. 
Their God was a traveling God – 
but they came to feel that he needed a home –
God needed a place to be,
a place to rest. 
So they built him an ark, a throne, so he could be comfortable. 
And they carried this ark wherever they went. 
It became a symbol of assurance:  that God was with them as long as they had the box for him. 
(We have a lot of stories about people stealing the ark. So history began to be recorded in terms of who has the box –  who had God on their side.  God was wherever the ark was.)

    This, then, became a real issue with David as he set out to bring together two nations of people  –  each with their own traditions and history. 
David thought: The way to unite the country is to unite their religion. 
So, let's build a house to put the ark in. 
It will be a temple and will stand in the capital city as a symbol of God's presence in our new nation and people will always know where they can come to meet the Lord. 
We'll put his box there and everyone will come to know that's where he sits!

    And the temple was built, and became the house of God. 
His box was placed in one end of the building and a curtain was put in front of it – the reredos. 
It was called the “Holy of Holies”. 
[The curtain was loaded with symbolism –
it protected the people from perishing should they see the Lord face-to-face. 
It served the function of keeping God's presence shielded from the people.]

    Now, all of this had become quite institutionalized by the time of Jesus. 
The temple with its curtain, and the ark, was an important part of the religion. 
For the Jew, there was no question what one had to do in order to be religious, to fulfill the law. 
Leaders, Rabbis, spent their entire lives studying the law – 
and as new situations and questions came up, they wrote new rules to amplify the old law. 
The Rabbis were the authority and it was unquestioned  (except maybe for a few splinter groups from time to time.).

    Of particular significance is that Jesus came preaching and teaching on his own authority – 
far outside the established authority of his tradition. 
They would say to him:
you totally disregard our tradition. 
How can you go around preaching such contemporariness?

    And he would say: 
It seems to me that I don't come to put an end to your traditional ways, so much as I come to fulfill the promises of our tradition. 
For instance, look at me. 
I live in the same relation with my Father (your God) as described in the ancient poem of our tradition. 
I live and breath because God lives and breathes in me. 
God is in me as long as I'm alive.
As long as I breathe, he dwells in me and I dwell in him – so, in this sense, my body is more of a temple in the traditional sense, than that building is where you go to worship and hope to find God. 
This is what I preach. 
And whenever the religious law encourages this understanding – it is valid – and whenever it hinders it, it is invalid. 
You think you know how to be religious? 
You don't! 
Your organization gets in the way of your faith!

The New Testament writers took great pains to point out to us that Jesus came to fulfill the scripture – 
he quotes the Old Testament and interprets the tradition anew. 
His respect for tradition and history is not questioned. 
Neither is his authority, 
and his authority is unquestionably contemporary to his time.

    Now today, ironically, most of us Christians have the same concepts and attitudes about our Church and our  religion as the Jews did about their  temple and their  religion at the time of Jesus, don’t we?
 
We have fostered the concept that the church building is God's House – 
we should come here hoping to find God – 
and we should enter, then,  with appropriate reverence
and appreciate the use of music, prayers and ceremony that will uplift our hearts and inspire our souls so our faith may grow. 

There are things we expect from our religion, aren’t there? – 
and there are things we are comfortable with – 
and we identify those things as "traditional" when the tradition may be not really be very old.

    In a real sense,  my call as a laborer among God's people is to seriously come to grips with tradition (religion) that goes back beyond the past 50 or 60 years, even beyond the past 400 years, and beyond the past 2000 years – 
attempting to see the contemporary situation our fathers and mothers in the faith faced,
and how they expressed themselves the way they did (and why they did it that way). 
And then, facing the situation today, [the world around us in the year 2021],
attempt to react in the same manner and express the same faith – 
the same hope for life – 
that was expressed in those old situations. 
This manner informs the things we do here in our worship service on Sunday mornings.

The Easter story is one of encouragement,
of hope,
of enabling dreams and visions of what could be – 
if only.... 

For the story is that Jesus lived as a Son of God –  God lived inside the physical confines of the man Jesus of Nazareth. 
And that was the message the disciples were finally beginning to understand – until Good Friday. 
[Now understand that at this point, Jesus was no different than a dozen other God-men in religious history.]

    But, the significant difference comes when Jesus dies. 
There, on the cross, we are told, he gives a loud cry –
all that was in his lungs comes out. 
He dies. 
The presence of God escapes from his body. 
Jesus the man, then, is lifeless – 
the body is dead
(and later disappears). 
God left the confines of this "body temple."

    Not only that, but each Gospel writer carefully records the message that, when this happened
the curtain in the temple was torn in two – from the top to the bottom. 
God came out of the stone temple –
through the curtain.
No more to be separated and encapsulated in a box or a house. 
No.  He's not there any more.
He is no longer in the body of the man from Nazareth. 
And he is no longer in his box in the temple!

    Where did he go?

    The message was – into Galilee –
back into the world where his followers lived and interacted, as he said he would. 
And his disciples were to go there. 
That's where they would find him. 
Where he said they would:
feeding the hungry,
clothing the poor,
healing the sick,
involved in making the life around them more human,
more hopeful,
more enabling.
They were to join him in his work, and when they did, they knew and experienced the Presence of Christ – just like the old days – even better than the old days!

    You see, Easter tells us of a whole new way of religion –  a whole new way of religion that's new to us even 2000 years later! 
The question should be put to each of us today: "Why do you come looking among the dead for the one who lives?"

    You are looking in the wrong place. 
If you want to see the presence of Christ today, get up! 
Get out of here...

    Go.   Go into Galilee. 
Go back home. 
Look around you. 
Go into your worlds and into your neighborhoods. 
Go amongst your friends and family,
the people you encounter during your daily do.
Go find the poor and hungry and needy.
There you will see him. 
Join him in his work. 
Then, then, come back and celebrate Easter every Sunday –
because you enjoy it,
and because you can't wait to share your experiences of the risen Christ with the others in your Church. 
Oh what a church that would be!

   Maybe that kind of church was lost forever in the
2nd century.  Maybe.
But I continue to see glimpses of it with you –
and I continue to stand before you to testify that I've seen this happening here at this church.

    And although some say it is not in the realm of probability for us –
I am going to continue to work and to preach for the possibility. 
For I am convinced that we are at the beginning of a whole new world...
the birthday of love and wings
where the ears of ears can awake
and the eyes of our eyes can open
and we can participate in it.

    Friends, the resurrection is for you and for me – 
and we can participate in it – 
by living in a new day in a new way.

    Alleluia!  And amen!


 [The congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, experienced the essence of this sermon during worship on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006]

Lent Begins: Take Time for A Time Out

 

Lent is a fascinating time in the church year that Presbyterians are only beginning to appreciate.

The main purpose of Lent is to encourage us to take a time out.

We are told that before Jesus began his ministry he took a time out.
He went off by himself – for 40 days – and 40 nights.

Jesus must of thought that this was completely necessary for him to do.
He did this to get his head right,
to get more completely in tune with God’s will and purpose for his life.

For centuries the church has said it was important to remember what Jesus did here,
and it important for us to take a time out as well.

Jesus took 40 days for his time out,
the church said we should take 40 days each year before Easter for our time out –
a time out from the routine of our regular normal life to consciously focus on getting our heads on right,
to get more in tune with what God is concerned about and wants for us to do with the rest of the days of our lives.

Lent is a fascinating time in the church year that Presbyterians are only beginning to appreciate.
Used to be, as you know, we never observed Lent in Presbyterian churches.
But, today we see this time as an opportunity to attend to the parts of our lives that we often neglect.
During this time before Easter we are challenged to open ourselves in new ways to the Spirit’s transforming power – not unlike Jesus did at the beginning of his ministry.

From the very earliest times, Christians took time out before Easter to reflect on their faith, cultivate it, and prepare for a most joyous celebration of Easter.

Remembering that Jesus took 40 days off to prepare for the beginning of his ministry, the church sets aside these 40 days prior to Easter for us to get ready.

This is a time for us to explore the mysteries of the universe,
looking beneath the surface –
within ourselves –
examining our own motives and desires,
and ascertaining exactly what our commitment is:
to what,
to whom,
and what it means.

Lent is meant to remind us that the days are getting longer now –
Spring is right around the corner here in the Northern Hemisphere.
Actually, the word Lent comes from an ancient word that meant "springtime," –
that period of the calendar during which the days lengthen.
Because the church season always fell at that time of year, the name came to apply there as well.

Although we can’t readily see it with these sub-freezing temperatures, buried under snow, all around us new life is preparing to break out as soon as the weather turns.
Signs of life are preparing to bud right before our eyes.
And, our task during this season is to prepare ourselves to see these signs when they occur.

Like I have said before, I believe we need Lent!

Lent encourages us to look within ourselves to see how we have confused popular cultural values with Christian faith.
Through sustained focus on the life and ministry of Jesus, Lent can help us resist the pressures of this culture.
Lent can remind us that we are called to continue his ministry:
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

Consequently, Lent prepares us for an Easter that is more than bunnies and eggs –
an Easter that begins a whole new reality –
a whole new world.

As you know, 40 days is almost a sacred number with strong Old Testament associations.
40 days seems to be a long time when you think about it.
[It is more than the 30 days we get to accept the special offer of the day that is in our daily e-mail.]
It seems that God is saying:
“take up to forty days to decide –
40 days to make up your mind –
which side are you going to be on.”

The Gospels say Jesus was given 40 days to decide whose side his life would be spent on.
40 days to come to a decision to align with God or accept the worldly enticements of the Devil that would have derailed his mission.

40 days seems to be God's time for allowing significant decisions to be made.
Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days getting the 10 commandments.
Elijah spent 40 days in the wilderness encountering God.
An extended time was given people of Noah's time to make up their mind before it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.
The 40 days of Lent gives us sufficient time to make up our minds again:
to decide for life – or death,
to decide for God – or the ways of the world around us.

For me, when we get beyond the familiar outward trappings, the main purpose of Lent is to encourage us to take a time out.

For us taking time for a time out is probably the most difficult thing for any of us to conteplate doing.  This year, most of us have been enduring a forced "time out" for over a year (so far). And folks are getting bored.  And we are getting impatient.  "Jesus took 40 days in isolation?  We've already been in isolation for 360 days and still counting."

And yet, here it is.
The call goes out each year during this time before Easter,
and our response is usually no more than an acknowledgment of a quaint – if not somewhat ancient, antiquated tradition – that we may give a passing nod to in church,
but having very little to do with anything in our home, or at work, or how we spend our time.

Most of the days of our lives we are pretty much self absorbed in our lives and our obligations and our health and perhaps in the caring for another or two or three or four or . . .

We live in response to stimuli from outside of ourselves.

Lent calls us to take time for a time out from all of that.

Take time now – just commit to only 40 days – this time leading up to Easter –
take time each day to focus on something other than on what we usually spend our time on.

It is important to take the time.
Jesus did it.
Moses did it.
Isaiah did it.
Many many others did it.
And, today many many others are doing it.
You can do it as well.

Traditionally, Biblically, there are some specific things we can do with this time,
but it what we do is of less importance than to commit to taking the time –
to get closer with our God.

The pattern is,
the experience is,
the promise is,
that when we do,
we become more aware of God’s presence
and more aware of God’s purpose
and more aware of what we are to do with the rest of the days of our lives.

And, of course, that’s the scarey part, isn’t it?
Because we’re not sure we want to discover that we should be doing something we aren’t doing, right?

For years I have been compiling a file of stories of people who after a time out,
changed the direction of their lives because it became clearer to them that this is what God would be having them do.
It’s a thick file containing many many stories.
Someday it would be worth sharing in some way just to see the stories one after the other after an other after an other.

Taking time for a time out can have a powerful affect on a person.
Norman Vincent Peale – and many other preachers – was convinced that by taking time out to concentrate on certain scripture lessons, folks could experience a power and wholeness and wellness that they never knew possible.

Of course, I think that, too.
Each Sunday between now and Easter, I will be focusing on specific practices that have proven to put us more in tune with the ultimate power and purpose of the universe.
Aligning our lives with the moral direction of the universe is probably the most primal of all our activities –
and that is something we cannot do with a compass or a clock.
It is something we can only do in a community like this one.

And to be clear, our best Lenten practices to align our lies with the moral direction of the universe have little or nothing to do with what we usually think of.  The Prefector of our faith, Jesus, actually speaks clearly to us about Lenten practices that help to further the God-vision and purpose of our lives.  And we will look at some of them over the next several days.

Yes, Fasting is involved . . . but, not the fasting we usually think of.

Yes, Prayer is involved . . . but, not the way of prayer we usually think of.

Yes, Singing is involved.  And so is Parading.

For your sake, each day during this time before Easter, take time for a time out.
And be here next week as we explore certain practices proven to lead us in the right direction.
Amen.

This is a portion of a sermon delivered from the pulpit of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, on February 28, 2010, by Clyde E. Griffith.

Epiphany Sunday

 

Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12

 Well, today is another special day in the church.  
Today we are celebrating Epiphany Sunday.  
 
Some of these words aren't in our everyday vocabulary, but probably should be.  
We learned Emmanuel means "God-With-Us",
and Epiphany means "God has appeared",
God has broken through,
God has revealed a part of itself –  a crack in the cosmic egg has allowed the beyond to be glimpsed –  and everything is changed ever after.  

Epiphany celebrates the visit of the "wise men" to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.  
Of course, the Bible says nothing about the timing of their visit, but tradition has long held that the wise men arrived in Bethlehem on the twelfth day after Jesus' birth.  
The time in between is what is called the "twelve days of Christmas".   
In many cultures around the world, the thirteenth day, Epiphany, when the wise men arrived with gifts to visit the new baby, is celebrated more like we celebrate Christmas.  
Christmas, for them, is a time for going to church.  And, Epiphany is the time for the gathering of the family and the exchange of gifts.

Now, curiously, what we know about these so-called "wise men" is remarkably little.  
The first twelve verses of chapter two of Matthew's gospel, which we just read, are the sum total of the Bible's account of them.  
They are mentioned nowhere else.  

Matthew tells us only that they were "wise men" or to use an older word, "magi" who came to Bethlehem to pay homage to Jesus.  
It isn't stated how many there were.  There could have been two, or three, or four, or twenty –  it doesn't say.  
But, we do know something more about who these guys were.

Actually, the term "wise men" is descriptive of the esteem in which the visitors in our story were widely held.  
Magi is the plural of Magus, the root of our word magic –  the best translation of the word used is probably "court astrologer".  

The group of Magi in question came "from the east".  
They might have been Zoroastrians, Medes, Persians, Arabs, or even Jews.
 We don't really know.  

They were quite knowledgeable about the stars –  in fact it is quite remarkable to study some of the ancient charts that were made as they observed the phenomena of the skies.  
That the stars and the sun and moon and the planets moved in the skies from night to night, was obvious.  
But, they observed patterns to these movements, and could chart where all the different stars and planets, and sun and moon would be in the sky for any particular day of any year –  in fact, for any particular minute and any particular second, of any particular day –  going back in time to day one, and forward ad infinitum.  

They knew their skies.  

They served as court advisers,
making forecasts and predictions for their royal patrons based on their study of the stars.  

We know that Magi often wandered from court to court, and it was not unusual for them to cover great distances in order to attend the birth of a new king, or a coronation, paying their respects and offering gifts.  


It is not surprising, then, that Matthew would mention them as a sort of validation of Jesus' kingship,
or, for that matter, that Herod would regard their arrival as a very serious matter.

Matthew calls these Magi, "wise men."  
These men were wise in several ways, and by remembering them every year, we can only hope that we may gain wisdom from their story.

These wise men were wise, first of all, because they eagerly sought knowledge of the natural realm in which humans live.  

They sought learning in a variety of ways.  
Their search for knowledge,
 their search for learning,
their search for wisdom,
was an insatiable desire.  

They thought nothing of taking off on journeys of long arduous distances to learn of something new and potentially important that might add to their store of knowledge,
 and perhaps, affect their lives.   
To them, ignorance was inhuman.  

They knew the world to be full of life and knowledge to be learned.  
Our Bible affirms that God gives humanity a wonderful world to live in,
to learn about,
to explore,
and to understand
as fully as our God-given minds will allow.  
Truly wise men and women seek to know all they possibly can about the world God has placed in human care.

Secondly, the wise men were wise in that they sought religious knowledge.  
And, it seems that their quest for religious understanding was as deep and as wide as their search for worldly knowledge.

They came from lands far removed from the territory of Israel,
but once they arrived there, they knew to go to Jerusalem in order to find the proper religious authorities –  
those who could help them pinpoint the location of the birth of the new king.  
Jerusalem was not the political capital of the region, nor was it the largest city.  
Yet the wise men knew without asking, to journey there first.  

Obviously, they had studied Hebrew Scriptures prior to their arrival, so that they were well-informed of the religious significance of Jerusalem in Judaism.  There were open-minded persons who sought godly truth down many avenues –  
even from those religions that were foreign to them.  

It would seem that one of the largest problems people of faith have in these first days of the twenty-first  century, is ignorance –  
ignorance of Christian history,
ignorance of our Bible,
ignorance of what our faith is really all about.  
It is the sign of wise men that seeks to know all they possibly can of God's revealed truth to humanity, and make a life-long vigorous pursuit of godly truth.  

Thirdly, the wise men proved their wisdom in that they took action in response to both the worldly and the religious knowledge they had obtained.  

They studied the Scriptures,
they observed the world around them,
they saw the star,
and they did something about it!  

They got off their plush Persian pillows,
 got on their camels or horses,
and went off to find the Christ child,
Emmanuel, the manifestation of God, Epiphany.

You know, most of us are so conditioned to inaction.
If it were announced that Jesus was coming to earth tonight, and would be arriving at the local nearby Airport,
I bet that most of us would opt to watch the coverage on television from the comfort of our own living rooms chairs.  
But, you know, we've lost something.  

Our Christian faith demands activity, not passivity.  We can read the Bible religiously,  
we can offer the most sincere prayers imagined,
we can pledge our love to Jesus during our favorite tele-evangelist's altar call,
and we can gripe about how the world is falling apart because of a lack of faith.  

But, our Bible is clear,
our tradition is clear,
our faith is clear,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Christmas,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Emmanuel,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Epiphany,
until we put our faith in action, we don't even know what Easter means.

Christianity has never been a spectator sport.  
It requires active involvement on the part of every person who would dare to claim the matchless title of Christian.  
The apostle James puts it succinctly:
"...be doers of the word, and not merely hearers."  Truly wise men and wise women actively respond to the coming to Jesus Christ into the world.

The wise men proved how really wise they were in that they recognized their goal –  the end –  of all their seeking when they reached it.  

Verse 11 of Matthew 2 says, "On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.  
Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh."   

When they found the Christ child, these wise men knew that their seeking and searching had come to an end.  
Henceforth, here would be the center point for their lives.  
To the babe of Bethlehem belonged all their worship,
all their honor,
and all their gifts.  

They need look no further.  
They had found Emmanuel.

Perhaps you remember the old Russian legend about a woman named Babushka.  
Like too many of us Babushka was always busy, too busy.  
She was a tidy housekeeper, always occupied with the many chores that needed her attention.  

One evening as she is cleaning her house she hears a commotion out on the street.
Looking out her window she sees her neighbors pointing to a star high in the heavens.  
Off in the distance she sees a caravan approaching.

     Babushka is startled to hear a knock at her door.  She opens it to find three richly dressed kings.  They ask her if they could lodge there overnight. After all, she has the finest house in the whole village.  
That night they tell Babushka that they are following a star.
They invite her to go with them in search of the
newborn king.
Babushka makes excuses.  

First she tells them she doesn't have a proper gift.

Besides she has to clean up her house before she does anything.  

As the three kings are leaving she promises to join them the next day after her work is complete.  
And, the kings leave without her.

The next day Babushka cleans her house and finds a proper gift.  
All of a sudden she has the urgent desire to catch up with these men.  
But, now they are a full day's journey ahead of her but, she hopes to catch them.  
Everywhere she goes, she asks if people have seen the three kings.

Finally she tracks them to the village of Bethlehem.
But she is too late.  

The kings have come and gone.  

And the baby they were searching for is gone too.

Babushka missed the kings and the King of Kings.
 
According to legend she continues her search year after year.  

In fact many believe that she can still be seen
in villages at Christmas time, looking for the Christ Child.  

"Is he here?" she asks the villagers, "Is he here?"
     Follow the star.
That's good advice for this first Sunday of a New Year.
Carpe Diem – seize the day.
Get into action.
Don't let life pass you by.

         Brothers and sisters, the example is given to each of us.  
Arise and shine, we are told.  
Like the wise men, seek the babe of Bethlehem.  Open your eyes to Emmanuel.  
Seek the signs of God breaking into our world.  
Be sensitive to the clues we are given.  
Search your night skies for real evidence of Epiphany.  
It took wise men to see God appearing in that Christ child.  
May you, and I, be so wise.  

Amen.     

The congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, experienced a version of this sermon January 6, 2013.