Community Church Sermons

The First Sunday After Epiphany, Year C - January 7, 2000

"In The Darkness, A Face"

Matthew 2:1-12

Doc Whittle, one of our more colorful church members, who had a medical practice here in East Tennessee that spanned the course of - oh - a hundred years or so, recently told me about the little church up in the hills where, at the Christmas pageant one year, the three wise men showed up in a fire truck, and wearing firemen's gear. When people objected and questioned their reasoning for this, the three fellows opened a Bible, and said, "See it says it right here…'The wise men came from aFAR…'"

Well, the wise men of the Orient did come from afar, but not the East Tennessee kind of fire they had in mind. The Bible tells us they came from the East, and most scholars think their beginning point was probably somewhere in Persia which is modern-day Iran. And that's afar - a long, long way from Bethlehem.

And it's not just a matter of distance either.

The East was where the one true God was not worshiped, and the true religion was nowhere to be found. The East was where the true community of faith did not exist. The East was about as Gentile as you can get, and - in the eyes of the Jewish people - about as far away from the promises of God as you can be.

For us, it might be like the street corner where a hopeless alcoholic sits, sipping from a bottle in a paper bag - or like the university classroom where the case against God is argued at every point - or like the new age cult that promises gullible people a ride to heaven on the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet - or like the enclave where people gather to live lifestyles considered by many to be wrong - or like the community where people live in affluence all the while ignoring the poor and needy all around them - or like the heart that feels so very empty, and far away from God.

The East symbolizes great distance from God. As Doc Whittle reports, the wise men came from afar.

And this is why the arrival in Bethlehem of these foreigners is considered to be such an epiphany. Why, according to the theological belief of the day, these are not the kind of people we ought to find included in this purest expression of God's holiness and righteousness.

But there they are, with big smiles on their faces - in the back row - and just to the left of the shepherds - in the group picture Mary and Joseph had taken that night when they were all gathered together around the newborn babe.

Now, the early Christian community considered this event to be an eye-opening epiphany because it demonstrated that the good news of Jesus is for everyone. At the time the Gospel of Matthew was being written, the church was debating the appropriateness of mission to the Gentiles. Some felt that salvation was only for the Jews. Others advanced the new argument that salvation is for the whole world. And Matthew comes down clearly on the side of the latter. He is telling us in this story that the birth of Jesus itself is a sign that the whole world is welcomed to the gift of God's redeeming love.

Jesus is for everyone!

But today I want to go beyond this important epiphany event. Yes, God provided the Church with an epiphany of the Gospel's concern for all humankind. And as a result, the mission field of the Church became the whole world, rather than just a small corner of it. And that's how you and I came to faith. And that is important to understand.

But there is another epiphany in this story. A more personal eye-opening experience. Not the epiphany that came to the Church, but rather the epiphany received by the magi!

What is it that motivated them to fall on their knees and give their lives to Christ as they did at the end of the story?

J.B. Phillips has captured an important textual movement in the passage from Matthew 2. Most of the other translators portray the magi as coming from the East for the express purpose of worshiping the Christ Child. But that's not how the text should be rendered.

Phillips' translation says they came, rather, to pay homage to the one born King of the Jews. And this makes sense! When a new king arrived on the scene, other kings in the area would send emissaries with gifts to honor the new king. The hope was to build good relations between the two nations. It may well be that our wise men were such emissaries - diplomatic ambassadors sent to establish a relationship with the new sovereign. And paying homage is a proper political act, not a religious one.

Then the story continues. The magi eventually find the holy family. And the Bible says, "Entering the house, they SAW the child with Mary his mother, and they bowed down and WORSHIPED him."

Do you get the picture? They came to pay homage to a new political leader, but they ended up falling down and worshiping him instead.

This is a story of people who live as far away from God as you can get, and yet who God draws to the experience of salvation.

And this is important, because many of us have people in our lives who seem very far from God. We worry about them because we know their lives would be so much more powerful and purposeful if they had a relationship with God. We know that they need God's peace going through turbulent times, and God's guidance going through confusing times, and God's strength going through times when their own strength is not enough. We know they need the hopeful gift of eternal life as they come to the end of this life. But, for whatever reason, God is not a real factor for them. God is just a word to them. They are afar from God.

And it doesn't take a genius to figure out that our world is far away from God, too. Why, the number of poor people on our planet continues to increase - more than two-thirds of the world's population lives in abject poverty. Even here in America, poverty is a scandal. There are nations where slave trading is still practiced, and where women and children are terribly abused. There are national leaders who abuse the powers of their office to exploit their own people, and to make war on their neighbors. You don't have to look far to see parts of the world that are devoid of the beauty of God. The world is afar from its Creator, and deeply in need of God's justice and love. And it may seem hopeless to us that this old world will ever become what God dreams it to be.

So the story of the magi is important to us. What was it that melted their hearts? What was it that captured their imagination? What was it that opened their souls? What was it that took their breath away, causing them to fall down and worship the Child?

Well, Matthew puts it plainly: "Entering the house, they SAW the child with Mary his mother…"

I think all it took was seeing a human mother enfolding in her own arms the Creator of the world! There, in the darkness of the world as it often is, they saw a woman's face. And her face was enraptured by the divine child she held to her breast. When she looked at her little baby Jesus - God-Among-Us - there was something about her face! And these wise men experienced an epiphany. There was nothing but love between this mother and her God!

And overcome by that sight of God and Mary connected by nothing but love, the magi knew that they wanted that love, too, and they fell down, and worshiped him.

You see, there is nothing that more powerfully convinces people of their need for God, than the sight of another person who lives in a relationship with God that is characterized by nothing but love. A person whose face radiates grace! A person whose life overflows with mercy. And forgiveness. And encouragement. And hope. A person whose words are aimed at uplifting others, and not putting them down. A person who is so captured by God's love, that love just can't help but ooze out into every relationship, every conversation, every action.

People and nations who live afar from God, need to see faces like Mary's in which are clearly seen the love of God.

And you can be such a face in the world!

But it takes a commitment. A commitment to let your own relationship with God be built upon nothing else but love.

Jesus said it's the greatest commandment of all: to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength - and to love your neighbor as yourself.

If you will make such a commitment, and live it out every day, the people around you will see a face like the magi saw. You will be an epiphany to them! And hearts will open to God!