January 2, 2011
Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12
Epiphany of the Lord
Covenant Service
Year A
New Year’s is the only holiday that his celebrated in some form or another by every culture. It is also the oldest celebration known to humanity – dating back some 4000 years.
For most of our history, we have been an agricultural people, who needed to plant the crops over and again every year. When the crops were planted, and began to grow again in the spring, the people would celebrate new birth and a chance to start again.
Every culture celebrates some form of New Year, just not at that same time, and in the same way.
We celebrate New Year’s on January 1st – because when the Romans came up with the calendar that was the day they picked as the first day of the year.
Tradition says that January 1st is 8 days after December 25th. Jesus would have been circumcised and named on January 1st. The truth is however that Mary had her baby in the spring. December 25th is the day that the church commemorates Jesus birth. The official name of Christmas is the feast of the incarnation, the day we acknowledge that our light has come and that God is indeed present with us.
Actually, in the early days of the church, more important than Christmas is the season of epiphany. Epiphany means manifestation or appearance. Epiphany is on January 6th – 12 days after Christmas.
This is the day we acknowledge three wise men whom followed a star to Mary and Joseph’s house in Galilee to visit,
Worship and give gifts to a 2 year old. Note that I am speaking of Matthews’s story in chapter 2 and not confusing it with Luke’s manger as we traditionally do.
In spite of all of that long history – the point of the story is that Epiphany is the day that we recognized the glory of God in our lives. Christ was glorified as a King. Finally there was something in the world worth putting everything else aside – and giving our hearts to. Our light has come.
Isaiah 60 says Arise, shines, your light has come, and the glory of the lord has risen upon you.
These are beautiful poetic words with a very dark story behind them. We have been reading the story of Isaiah all year. We know the Israelites were cut off from their land, and then they were taken away, and not allowed to go home. Hundreds of years later, after they had adjusted to life they went home.
Isaiah was excited, hopeful; he gave a call to freedom, joy, peace, and a life they had always wanted, a life living fully the promises of God.
Unfortunately, all that people say was abandonment, destruction, what was stolen from them. They were overwhelmed at all of the work that needed to be done. They saw no way that things would change. More significantly, they had gotten complacent. Used to the way things were, they had adjusted to circumstances, they started to justify failure, and to accept the craziness of life as normal.
Isaiah’s message to them and us was it was time to come out of complacency- time to get up - arise, shine, your light has come.
You are the people of God, the keepers of the light, not only will the light heal the past, but others will see the light and seek you out, they want to be near the light of God too….A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord. They will worship and praise god also.
I don’t want to be long, because we have a lot to do in service today, but I want to share a story, a story that good for a new year…..
There once was a man who lived in a village in Asia. He got married to a wonderful woman, and they had a wonderful son. The man built a house – and built a wonderful life for his family. He was so happy to go to work every day so that he could take care of his family. One day, he went off to work, and returned home to find that his house and his entire village had been destroyed. Thieves had come that day and pillaged the neighborhood and burned down all of the houses. The man was devastated to see that his wife and son had been killed in the horrible fire. In his grief, he ashes of his young son – he picked them up and sewed a cloth holder so that he could keep the ashes with him all of the time. It was the memory of these ashes that inspired him to rebuild his house and his life. He continued to go to work every day, with his shoulder bag of ashes with him. He continued on his life and yet never remarried, because he wanted to stay close to his family which had perished in the fire. But in reality his son did not die in the fire. The thieves had kidnapped him as a toddler so that they could take him home and make him slave. This little boy spent his whole childhood waiting until he would be big enough and strong enough to escape. That day finally came – and he ran for three days back to his village. He would recognize his house anywhere- he knew that his dad had rebuilt the house. Eagerly he ran to the door and knocked - dad it’s me please open the door. His dad was in the house reading a book when he heard the knock. Unlike Mary when she heard the knock at the door – he got defensive. Young man –I don’t know who you are- but this is a very cruel trick for you to play – you are not my son, please go away. The son tried to explain what had really happened, that he had not died, but had been kidnapped. The father’s natural response was to hold onto his bag of ashes – his real son. He told the young man to please go away. Dad – if you will just come and open the door all of this will make sense. The father replied – I don’t know who you are but you really must stop knocking at my door- But dad – I am not going to tell you again – go away! The son went away and lived his life – very sad that he would never have a relationship with his dad. Meanwhile, his dad held onto his bag of ashes and finished reading his book. Living his life never even aware of the opportunity for new life and a new relationship that he had just missed.
What are you holding in your bag?
Arise, shine people for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Time to come out of your complacency and acceptance of the way things are – and prepare for something different. Times to stop complaining about what other people are doing and to live up to the mission that Jesus gave us.
We have the light of the world, and the world is seeking a way out of darkness and looking for the light too. We need to be prepared to let our light shine.
Someone said that the worst thing in life is not in death by dying, it is in choosing to live a dead life.
What is it that it is time to let go of. We need to realize that it takes just as much energy to hold onto the bag of ashes as it does to let it go and get up and answer the door. We have to be willing to come out of our comfort zone and take a risk. Jesus knocks at our door all of the time- a New Year is a good time to get up and answer.
The world uses this as a time to set new goals and to make resolutions. The thing is that we can become so over focused on goals that we set for ourselves, that they box us in and prevent us from realizing God’s will for our lives.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism saw the New Year as a time for us to get in touch with our relationship with God and to commit ourselves in the New Year to listening and living the will of God. God’s will is not always what we want, or even what we think we need – God’s will for our lives is bigger than that.
God’s will is bigger to my service to the church, then my service to others. I serve the church, because I choose to honor God’s will. My goals, my resolutions, my dreams, my hopes, my service, my integrity – are all in keeping with God’s will for my life.
The doors of the church are open….
Now I invite all of us to covenant prayer together….
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