January 3, 2021: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Today we celebrate Epiphany – the visit of the Magi. The feast of the Epiphany is January 6th, but we are celebrating it today. And it is this feast day that ends our Christmastide – our twelve days of Christmas. So, as I say every year, if your tree is still up, you are doing it right!
Now every year we tell the story of the Magi who travel from the East to bring gifts to the Christ child, and it is good to remember once again where we got this story. Matthew, the only gospel account of this visitation, never tells us how many there were, or even if they were all men, but since Matthew mentions three gifts, later Christian tradition came to identify three kings (even though there is no mention of them being royalty either). In the late sixth century Armenian Infancy Gospel, the Magi are even given names-Melkon or Melchior, Balthasar, and Gaspar. But just as we don’t really know the names of the people who wrote the gospels, we also don’t know the names of these folks. So, we could just as easily call them Harry, Ron, and Hermoine.
While most folks have these sages in their mangers, it actually took them about 2 years to get to the Holy Family. As we heard today, Jesus was not a baby anymore, but a child, and living in a house. So, not so wise, right? I mean, why not pull over at the next Camel refilling station to get some directions, but nooooooo….maybe this proves they were men after all?
At any rate, this would also explain why King Herod decided to kill all those male children age 2 and under.
Well, even if they were late, and brought really weird gifts to a young child, each year we like to tell the story of their visit…
Loud Knock Heard From The Back
Ceremonial Music Plays As King Approaches
King 1 presents Mother Diana with gift.
Mother Diana opens the box, inside is a book, and a scroll.
Mother Diana reads the scroll aloud –
“Don’t judge a book by its cover – nor Christmas by the trappings. We get so caught up in what we think Christmas is supposed to be, or in the case of this past year, what it used to be for us. Yet, the greatest gift is the simple one inside.
[Opens the box]
The first Christmas was simple too, as was yours in 2020. Yet what Christmas is on the outside isn’t what matters at all.
The truth is – The celebration may change, but the gift never does – it is always to you and to me – and it is always the greatest gift of all – the Word made flesh in Jesus.”
Mother Diana rolls up the scroll and says…
“…what neat and wonderful gift, thank you great sage! Now, as I was saying…”
Ceremonial Music Plays As King Approaches
King 2 presents Mother Diana with gift.
Mother Diana opens the box, inside is an ornament, and a scroll.
Mother Diana reads the scroll aloud –
“We saw a star and followed it to the Christ child, and that journey has been told from generation to generation. The real story is much larger than your hymns would suggest. We had a long way to travel, and it was not always an easy journey. There was many a dark and cold night along the way. Yet, we knew that if we followed His light, we would abide with him. It wouldn’t mean trouble would not be present, not at all. We had to go back home by another way to avoid the evil Herod – both for the safety of the Christ Child, and our own. Yet we didn’t need a star to guide us back, for his light was now in our hearts.
The truth is – We have said goodbye to 2020, and while many say they want to forget this past year, this ornament invites you to remember it. Your journey through 2020 was life changing in ways good and bad, but through it all, the light of Christ called you forward, gave you strength, and guided you home.”
Mother Diana rolls up the scroll and says,
“…thank you great sage for this most insightful gift. I will hang it on my tree as soon as I get home”
Ceremonial Music Plays As King Approaches
King 3 presents Mother Diana with gift.
Mother Diana opens the box, inside is a wand, a pair of glasses, and a scroll.
Mother Diana reads the scroll aloud –
[Mother Diana pulls out the wand & plays with it, then reads the scroll]
“We were Magi not Kings – astrologers really, or to some – magicians! But unlike Harry Potter, we didn’t carry wands, and while we may have been magicians, it doesn’t take magic to see God at work in the world. It just takes a different way of looking at the world – through the lens of faith. Now, point the wand at the box, and say “Accio Occulus!”
[Pull out the glasses]
The first Christmas was proclaimed by angels, but angels don’t just appear to shepherds – they abound around us all the time, but we often fail to see or acknowledge them.
[Put on the glasses – Oh my gosh! There are angels everywhere!]
You see now, what was once hidden. Through the lens of one who follows Jesus, we are able to see God at work all over the world…and to follow where God leads us.
The truth is – God doesn’t ask us to be extraordinary, or wise, or kings, or even magicians. God just asks us to be the ordinary people we are, who are capable of extraordinary things when we embody the light of Christ in the world.”
“…thank you great sage, for these totally awesome, and kind of fun, gifts. Lumos!”
Wow!
Now where was I….how did all these angels get on my iPad…oh, wait…[takes off glasses] Never mind….
A Christmas book with the baby Jesus inside, a 2020 ornament with all the events we experienced on it, a wand, and glasses that allow one to see angels…these Magi have given us something to really think about, haven’t they?
You know, the magi were a fascinating bunch, and their gifts always are insightful. The first gifts to the Christ child may have seemed impractical, but they were part of why we call this the Epiphany, which comes from the Greek word ἐπιφάνεια, which means manifestation or appearing. In their gifts of great expense – gold, frankincense, and myrrh – they were revealing who Jesus was – King, God, and Sacrifice, as the song goes. Gold for a king, incense for a deity, and myrrh to anoint the dead.
What are the gifts today revealing to us now?
They first gave us something to remind us of what Christmas was all about – or really – who it is all about. On the outside, the book of Christmas was beautiful, as are all the lights of trees and on town squares, the candlelit churches, the hymns of praise, the brightly colored presents under the tree, the delicious aroma of cookies baking or of roasts cooking, and the joy of children of all ages. Yet this year it all looked and felt so very different. This year, things were kept very simple – just to our immediate families (or should have been) – small, quiet, and in many ways like the first Christmas – without the straw and barn animals (unless, of course, you live on a farm).
And what I have heard from many of you, and from friends, is that hidden away, as though inside this elaborate Christmas book, was a bit of a surprise. So many said that for the first time in years, they were able to feel things long lost amid the usual chaos of planning, cooking, visiting, hosting, wrapping, giving…of loud family gatherings and the stress of ensuring all goes well for everyone. What I heard from them about this year is that the quiet gave them a surprising gift – peace within and all around – and that reconnected them to what Christmas is really all about when you remove the trappings we place around it. They were able to focus on the baby Jesus, the God who chose to dwell among us, the love born to them on Christmas. Something we all need very much right now.
Which brings us to that second gift. The ornament with all the reminders of what happened in 2020. I know many of us would like to forget all of that, but these magi are right – this was a journey that we should remember and tell stories of for generations. No, not that we walked through it backwards, up hill – both ways, in the snow as apparently our parents and grandparents did back and forth to school. But of all the ways God was present with us as we took each step across the wilderness – mourning those we loved but see no longer, tamping down the anxiety about this terrible disease, worrying about the hate and violence erupting everywhere, trying to cope with our fears, our depression, our grief, our isolation & loneliness. We may not have had a star leading us to let us know God was present, but we sure knew it in the courage we seemed to find to meet the day ahead, and in the fellowship we experienced – even while looking different – as we came together as a parish to pray. Yet there was more too, which brings us to one of the last gifts – the glasses.
While the ornament reminds us of our 2020 journey, the glasses show us angels all around us – another sign of God’s presence – another way we know the meaning of Emmanuel – God with us. We sure saw a lot of that this year too, didn’t we? Angels in our midst? Indeed we did – and we didn’t need magic glasses. We saw them in the doctors and nurses working tirelessly to tend to the sick, in the teachers managing multiple types of classrooms – virtual and physical, in parents juggling children’s learning needs and work demands, in clergy finding a way to see to the spiritual needs of parishioners while balancing home life and the pain of not being able to be pastorally present in the usual way, and so many more. Angels were all around, still are, and always will be – we just seemed to be open to seeing them more this past year. No, we didn’t need special glasses to see them, just an open heart.
What’s more – is that we are called to be one too. To be angelos – angels – or messengers – the ones proclaiming the good news today. We may not fly above in the heavens singing, but we can bring about peace on earth and good will to all, if we are only willing to open our hearts to the Christ child born to us today.
Which brings us to our final gift today – the wand.
One of my favorite Harry Potter magic things is the command “Lumos!” – to turn on the light. If you are a Harry Potter fan, then you know that there is a focus on darkness and light, and the power of love. These sages brought this wand to us – not to do spells – but to remind us of who they were – astrologers, scientists, sages…perhaps some might have called them magicians. One thing we do know is that they were strangers – they were not Jews, they were certainly not Christians – that didn’t even exist yet – they weren’t even from the lands near Jerusalem where Jesus would walk. They were foreigners – outsiders – and it was to them that God gave a great sign – the star – guiding them to the Christ child. Just as God announced the birth through the angels to the shepherds, another group of those living on the margins, God also invited those in far off lands to be the ones to know the truth of Jesus first.
If God welcomes in the stranger, the outcast, the ones who speak different languages like the magi, or who are poor like the shepherds – not only welcomes – but gives them the gift of the first invitation to see the incarnation – why then do we find that so hard to do today? Why is it often the very communities that celebrate his birth, that turn their backs on the Jesus who is the stranger to them – the ones, who like Jesus in the verses just after those we heard today, must flee their home to escape death and oppression, the ones who love differently, who speak differently, who worship differently, who are of a different race or gender? There are far too many in the world saying “Nox!” with wands of fear to try to extinguish the light of love and hope.
Yet what is true today, was true then too. It was and is a dark world. But all is not lost, for Christ is born – and signs of that hope, that glorious light, that unconditional love will fill the skies – if we who are baptized into him, are willing to live the life we are called to live – if we, like the magi, carry his light in our hearts.
We don’t need a wand to do what we need to do – what Christ commanded us to do – we just need to remember who we really are. In fact, all of these gifts are to tell us – not who Jesus is, as those first gifts long ago did – but who we are and what we are called to do!
We are the ones who know Christmas for what it is – the birth of Jesus, our light and our life – born to us once more – born that we may have life and have it abundantly.
We are the ones that know that no matter how hard the journey – God is with us – Emmanuel – and because of that, we will have the courage to meet each day grounded in the hope found in Jesus Christ, and guided by his light.
We are the ones who not only hear and see the angels, but strive to be them everywhere – proclaiming the good news of God in Christ by word and by deed – welcoming the stranger, offering food to the hungry, visiting the sick & imprisoned, and following His light where ever it leads.
The magi, once they encountered the living Christ and presented their gifts, went home by another way – and one can safely assume their lives were never the same again. The same is true, or should be, for us, or anyone, who allows him to be born anew in their hearts.
It is isn’t magic, though it can feel magical.
It isn’t an easy journey, though we don’t do it alone.
It is, however, the greatest gift any of us have ever received.
And what we do with that gift will make all the difference in our lives, and in all the world.
Amen.
Based upon a concept by the Rev. Phillip Dana Wilson – Used with permission
For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
January 3, 2021
The Second Sunday of Christmas (Epiphany Readings)
1st Reading – Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-7,10-14
2nd Reading – Ephesians 3:1-12
Gospel – Matthew 2:1-12
