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January 5:
January 5, 2014 (Epiphany)
Call: Matthew 2: 1-12
Text: Isaiah 60: 1-6; Ephesians 3: 1-12
Read: W&S #11
Access Granted
We are in a new year
With all the opportunities that it is sure to provide
And With all the surprises it most certainly has in store for us.
And so I say, "Happy New Year"
And I offer that greeting
as a person who has already experienced one of the year's surprises.
For I ended 2013 And I began 2014
in a motel in Lowville, NY.
Now while I did spend some of 2013 away from home,
the motels I slept in during the past calendar year were in
major cities
like Omaha, Washington, and New York
significant cities
like Syracuse and Utica and Elkhart, Indiana
resort areas
like Portsmouth, Maine and Lake George, NY
locations of historical importance
like Ottawa Illinois
where Lincoln and Douglas debated
and Fremont Ohio
where President Hayes lived.
But Lowville, NY?
That does not fall into any of those categories
However, when the New Year's Eve snow storm
Made it nearly impossible for us to see
And truly impossible for us to stop any place sooner,
Lowville, NY
Provided us with the sanctuary that we needed.
We had never planned to sleep in a hotel in Lowville
But with what was thrown out before us on our trip home
We were forced to adapt
And we are mighty glad that we did.
I did not recognize it during my unexpected stay in Lewis County
But adapting was what Mary and Joseph did
When faced with the fact that there was no room at the inn
They had not planned to stay in the stable, but they did
And look what happened there.
I mention this because
adapting is exactly what the Jewish people had to do
when it became clear
That the gentiles (persons who were not Jewish)
had been granted access to God's family.
And this morning's three scriptures
Not only summarize the Advent to Epiphany season
They progressively proclaim loudly and clearly
The inclusion of persons other than Jews in God's family
The earliest of the three scriptures
The words spoken through Isaiah [Isaiah 60: 1-6]
Alert us to the fact that this inclusion
Was a part of God's plan long before the manger birth
The people of Israel and their messiah
Were to shine as a light Why?
To cause other nations and their kings to come to that light
The people of Israel and their messiah
Were to see
And they were to be radiant that others might see
Those nations drawn to and guided by this light
were to bring gold and frankincense
As a means of proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
Centuries before the birth of Jesus
God, through Isaiah,
Was telling the people of Israel
That their job was to shine brightly
In order to bring other nations (that is the gentiles)
To God so that they might proclaim that God was lord.
When the messiah was born
His praises were (as Luke tells of Christmas)
sung by heavenly angels
and his story was told by humble shepherds
Mary, the child's mother
Who had been told by Gabriel of the wondrous child she was to bear and deliver
Heard the angels and saw the shepherds
And as we heard Luke tell us on Christmas Eve, she
"treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart."
And then, some time later,
The magi or wise men from the East
Men who were respected But who were not Jewish
were drawn by the light
and they brought gifts as praise for the Lord.
Including the gold and frankincense
that Isaiah had said they would bring
The gifts also included myrrh
A funeral spice
A sign of the child's early death
And as they did, Mary who had been pondering
what she had seen and heard at the child's birth
Recognized
That the gifts these strangers from the East had brought
Confirmed Isaiah's and Gabriel's words
That: Her son was to be Lord and King
Not just of the Jewish people
But of all nations
Of Jews and gentiles alike.
But because Mary recognized it
Doesn't mean that everyone did.
Too many people
Failed to see that Jesus was the anointed deliverer
Because he was not a royal military man
And of course, that was what they thought they needed
And equally unfortunately
Even many who saw Jesus as the messiah
Interpreted his birth as being only for the Jewish people
After all, The child himself was Jewish
The promises had been made to the people of Israel
The people of Israel were the covenant people
God had covenanted with them to and through
Abraham, and Moses, and David
And so these people
Despite accepting Christ as the promised messiah
Failed to understand that their very purpose
Had been set out in Isaiah's words
To be a light to draw people to God and the messiah.
This caused tensions and divisions within the early church.
And this is where Paul
and his blunt, straight forward way of expressing himself comes in. [Ephesians 3: 1-12]
What Paul told the Christians at Ephesus was, in essence,
"The reason that I am a prisoner for Christ
Is that Christ has called me as his instrument
In announcing to the church
That the gentiles have joined the Jewish people
As equal heirs and members of the same body"
The gentiles, in other words,
are just as much a part of God's family
as were those biologically descended from Abraham.
The gentiles share equally with us
In God's promise in Christ Jesus.
The gentiles are to be part of the church
In order that the wisdom of God in its rich variety
May now be made known
This was and is a part of the eternal purpose
That God the father has carried out in Jesus the son
In whom we and the gentiles (Paul proclaimed)
Are granted access to God.
And if I was surprised to begin 2014 in Lowville, NY
Many of the Jewish people
Who had for years prayed for the coming of the messiah
Were even more surprised
To find that the gentiles were their equal
And that they were to be a part of the church
A church of rich variety
A church of Christ's brothers and sisters
A church which like Christ himself
Can shine brightly enough
To attract others to its Lord.
But like Marge and I on New Year's Eve They had to adapt
And they had to see this not only as a surprise,
But also as an opportunity
As you and I conclude the Advent to Epiphany season,
we as a congregation have to adapt to the days ahead
and have to see the opportunities
After next week's look at the humility in Christ's baptism
We will explore a series of scriptures
Which tell us how to be a church.
I pray that we use the opportunity provided by those scriptures
To shine our lights more brightly
And thus attract more followers to Christ
If we do so we can, like Mary, experience an Epiphany
In other words we can snap our fingers and say,
"By George, I think I've got it."
And we can and will, like our dancers this morning
"go tell it on the mountain."