A Sermon Preached By

The Rev. Dr. Peter W. Shidemantle

A Epiphany, January 6, 2008

PEBBLE HILL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

5299 Jamesville Rd., DeWitt, NY  13214

Phone:  315-446-0960     FAX:  446-0672

phillchu@twcny.rr.com     http://pebblehill.presbychurch.org

          For Christmas my family gave me a Garmin StreetPilot c340 GPS navigation device.  That’s one of those gizmos that uses global satellite technology you put in your car to map out where you are and how to get to where you want to go.  My family knows, first hand, my tendency to get lost.  For a few years now they have been promising - or is it, threatening? - to get me one of these things.  It’s a pretty expensive gift, so I know they are serious.  I can’t not use it.  If they have anything to do with it, I am going to find my way without getting lost.  Apparently, they’ve had enough - not to say I’m not grateful!

            The Magi from the east who came to worship the new-born king had their own global positioning system.  They followed the stars, actually one particular star.  And as the story of their journey unfolds it becomes clear that the star that guided them held both promise and threat - promise for the wise ones who came to worship him, and threat for king Herod and the religious officials, indeed, “all of Jerusalem,” according to Matthew.  For Herod, and all those under his authority, who had grown accustomed to being on the receiving end of his fits of jealous rage, for which he was known - he even had his own sons executed to keep them from inheriting his throne  - the presence of God’s light shining in the night over the holy child drove them into fear and darkness.  There would be no king but Herod himself!  But for those who sought the face of God - that is, the showing, or the Epiphany of God - there was blessing.  This is the way it has always been.  The radiance of God present in the world has this double effect.  On those who oppose it, fear and darkness descends; to those who seek it, their hearts are filled with awe and gratitude. 

            These two reactions to the light are what this story is about, and it is a large part of the plot of the story of the world as a whole, and the story of our lives as well.

            The dark undertones of fear and jealousy and hatred are present from the very beginning of the life of the blessed Son of God, and this story and what follows in Matthew’s gospel about King Herod’s slaughtering of the innocents depicts it graphically.  Deceit and treachery surround the holy one from the time of his birth into the world of flesh and blood.  It is so tempting to pass over this in our post-Christmas let-down, when we wish that the glow of Christmas would just shine on a little longer.  But that is precisely the point of Epiphany: it does!  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it - but neither has the darkness gone away. 

            Fredrick Buechner has a wonderful sermon in which he asks what it would be like if, one dark night, the stars were aligned in such a way that they came together to spell the unmistakable message from God -  “I exist.”  And this message remained there, emblazened across the dark sky, night after night, season after season, year after year.  At first all of the people would surely be amazed and would drop to their knees at this astounding good news.  But over time people would grow accustomed to the message being there, and after a time would make very little of it at all.

            As someone has said, “It isn’t the light that we see but the light that we follow that makes us wise.”  One can be most certain about God’s existence, about church doctrines, about where they are sure God stands on the issues of the day, and not walk in the light.  Wisdom is needed because it is not easy to navigate our way in the dark.  Unfortunately, perhaps, the way is not often so clearly mapped out as a GPS would provide, but unless we’re willing to risk getting lost from time to time, we won’t be on any kind of journey at all, and the light we think we remember seeing won’t budge for us beyond where we’ve grown accustomed to seeing it, and even that fades over time.  The true light that enlightens the world is always out ahead of us, as the women are told on the morning of Jesus’s resurrection: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?  He isn’t here.  He’s gone ahead of you . . . just as he said he would.”

            There is a kind of worldly wisdom that helps us make our way in this world.  It is good to be wise in this way, as even Jesus himself implied when he counseled his followers to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.  But even more there is a divine wisdom that allows for what the world perceives as foolishness - and we can be foolish without being complete fools.  We can get lost sometimes without being hopelessly lost.  The wise men made a lot of mistakes.  Being wise is not always the same as being smart.  Waltzing straight into Jerusalem while Herod was on the throne to ask about the newborn king of the Jews was one example.  We should never underestimate the Herod’s of the world.  But sometimes we do.  Sometimes we will look at the stars and miss what is right in front of our noses.  We will forget, perhaps, that we have only part of the truth, and that we have to rely on others to fill in other parts of the picture, as the Wise Men did.

            But what the Magi have most to teach us about the way of wisdom in following the light, the light of Christ, is what they model for us in the gifts they bring to him.  They come to worship and adore him - and as part of that worship and adoration they bring gifts. 

            They brought gold.  Gold symbolizes royalty; it’s what was brought to a king.  The king was the authority who controlled all the power structures to which people belonged and on which they depended.  Gold was brought as tribute, as acknowledgment of the king’s rule and authority over everything within his domain.  Criticism of the king’s regime was not allowed.  Gold brought to the Christ child challenges the ultimate authority of any earthly ruler.  Whenever the early Christians proclaimed Christ as Lord, what was said at the same time, if not in words, was that Ceasar is not Lord.  We all belong to power structures on which we depend.  We are part of political and economic systems that lock in the advantage of some over others, that often benefit the few over the well-being of the many, and tribute is exacted.  Christ does not demand our tribute, but invites it – the tribute of our time and our treasure that acknowledges who is Lord and who is not, and the kingdom to which we truly belong.

            They brought frankincense, which indicates a priest – the incense used by the one appointed to mediate the presence of God to the people in the temple of the Lord – but now God’s presence is acknowledged as being for all the world, out under the canopy of the stars of the night.  Just so, we are invited by the Christ child to tiptoe out from under the sacred canopies that we construct to keep God small and our devotion confined to who we want God to be for us and risk the journey toward who God wants us to be for God.

            They brought the gift of myrrh, the spice used to anoint a body in preparation for burial.  It was likely what Mary brought to anoint Jesus’ body after his crucifixion.  But she never got to use it, for death couldn’t hold him.  This tribute brought to the Christ child invites our hearts to lighten as death loosens its hold on us as well.  We don’t need to be afraid.  We don’t need to let death take hold of our drives and desires.  We bring it no tribute.  We acknowledge its truth, and journey through it toward life.

            Christmas may be over for another year, but on this day of the Epiphany of the Lord we are invited once again to follow the star at its rising.  It will lead us only if we follow.  We can only know the life that Christ gives as we offer our own.  It is in seeking the Lord that we are found.  As we gather at his table this morning we are invited to receive what is more precious than gold, and more fragrant than frankincense.

            To the glory of God.  Amen. 

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