What's in your Bag?

January 6, 2019 Isaiah 60 What’s in your Bag? Year C Epiphany "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you." Theme: Revelation; light; brokenness; life. Visual Aid: An acorn which has begun to sprout and a plain-looking rock which has been split in two to reveal a bright red interior. (A geode would also be very useful for this sermon.) Lesson: "I have a word I would like to ask you to think about this morning. It may be a new word for many of you. It's 'Epiphany.' Can you all say 'Epiphany'?" Dutifully the children respond in chorus, "Epiphany!" "That's very good. Now, does anyone know what it means?" The children look thoughtful. Then two boys' hands shoot up almost simultaneously. I nod to the first, who says, "I think it has something to do with love." And so it does. "That's true, Tommy," I answer. I nod then to the second boy whose hand is still aloft. "I think it's before Easter," Alex responds. Realizing he must have Epiphany confused with Lent, but not wanting to tell him his answer isn't right, I quickly review his words in my head and reply, "Yes, Epiphany is before Easter. In fact, it's way before Easter. It's just twelve days after Christmas!" Alex grins as if to acknowledge that I appreciate his risking a "wrong" answer in front of the entire congregation. "Epiphany is also called 'Twelfth Night,' " I continue, "coming, as it does, twelve days after Christmas. It is set apart on the church calendar as the day the wise men traditionally arrived at the stable in Bethlehem and found Jesus, the Messiah, the Light of the World. And because Jesus is thought of as the Light coming into human darkness, light is a symbol of Epiphany. "We all need light in our lives, don't we?" Most of the children nod in agreement, but some look doubtful. So I add, "Just think about it for a moment. Think how grumpy many of us get when we have cloudy weather day after day after day. We get grumpy because we aren't getting enough light! Do any of you ever get grumpy?" "Oh no!" David assures me with a big grin. Most of the others laugh as Jonathan announces: "Well, I get grumpy sometimes." "Ah! An honest man! How wonderful!" I respond. "Well," I continue, "all living things need light to survive. I was out walking in the woods yesterday and came across this acorn. Now I know most of you have seen acorns, but we usually don't see them after they have started to sprout. As you can see, the plant inside of this acorn, which would become a big oak tree some day if it were left in the ground to grow, has split the shell. It had to split the shell in order to get to the sunlight. It needs the light to grow. "On another walk a couple of months ago, I found this rock." I hold up an nondescript-looking rock. It's not very pretty, is it? In fact, it's an ugly rock. So you may wonder why I picked it up at all. But you see, it was split into two pieces when I found it." I separate the pieces and hand them to the children to pass around as I continue. "As you can see, the rock is quite pretty on the inside; it's bright red. Now I never would have bothered to pick it up, I never would have seen its beauty, if it hadn't been split open -- to the light. That makes me think about the things in life that split us apart sometimes. Sometimes we get hurt or something we like a lot breaks and we feel hurt. But I wonder if it's not those events in our lives, the ones that split us open, that cause us to grow like the seed, or cause us to reveal our inner beauty like the rock, or cause us to turn toward the Light of Jesus in our pain and hurt. We need light in our lives, and as Christians, we need Jesus, the Light of the World, in our lives in order to be truly alive. As Tommy said, Epiphany has to do with love -- the love of God, who sent his son into the world to bring us light. That's what Epiphany is all about. One more time now, so you don't forget, let's say the word we've been talking about together: 'Epiphany!' Yes, Epiphany. May its Light shine brightly in your lives this week." CSS Publishing Company, Inc, Cows In Church, by B. Kathleen Fannin Isaiah 60:1-6 Common English Bible (CEB) Jerusalem’s coming radiance 60 Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the LORD’s glory has shone upon you. 2 Though darkness covers the earth and gloom the nations, the LORD will shine upon you; God’s glory will appear over you. 3 Nations will come to your light and kings to your dawning radiance. 4 Lift up your eyes and look all around: they are all gathered; they have come to you. Your sons will come from far away, and your daughters on caregivers’ hips. 5 Then you will see and be radiant; your heart will tremble and open wide, because the sea’s abundance will be turned over to you; the nations’ wealth will come to you. 6 Countless camels will cover your land, young camels from Midian and Ephah. They will all come from Sheba, carrying gold and incense, proclaiming the LORD’s praises. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Today is the twelfth day of Christmas – epiphany. Every year we have epiphany Sunday. But rarely is epiphany actually on Sunday. The church has celebrated epiphany much longer than Christmas. Epiphany was the time when you got gifts, because it was the time when Jesus received gifts. – the time when we remember the wise men who followed a star to a place where they would see the messiah. Advent was the season of promise, Christmas is the season of fulfillment, epiphany is the season of salvation and grace. The star has been on our altar all throughout those seasons. Today I will take the star down.- even though the stars are the most important part of the epiphany season. The star represents the light of God come into our lives. In the season of darkness and cold, we rely on the light of God for guidance. Epiphany means manifestation, realization, discovering something that was there all of the time, but you never saw it. In order to have an epiphany in life you have to have light – but not just any light – but God’s light to shine upon your life and give you a new understanding. The scriptures for epiphany are the same, every year. The gospel lesson is about the journey of the wise men to see the new born king. The psalm speaks about the glory or light of God in our lives. Ephesians speaks of the reaction of the gentiles when they learned about the light of God. And we have the old testament lesson – Isaiah 60. I love the message of this verse. Arise my people your light has come, the glory of the light is upon you. That is such a powerful message. It was God’s message to those who had been kicked out of their country – that it was time for them to stop living in darkness, to be encouraged and to see the light of God, to get up take action, to live. Things would get better with God – but this was our moment in history to be a part of life and to make a difference. What a powerful message that is for the church. That our time has come. All those people who left are coming back, all those things that we lost we will retain. There will be a time of reunion for those who we have been cut off from. All we have to do is arise and shine. Sometimes life gets in the way of that. My favorite epiphany story actually comes from asia. 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? In order to hold onto life what it is that you have been holding onto, believing that it was sustaining you? For many of us – we are holding on to the way things are, when a bright new future, a new understanding is knocking at our door, asking to come in and we don’t listen. That is how Jesus comes into our lives- always in unexpected ways, always bringing alternatives that we didn’t think about, calling us to accept things in a brand new way. That is an epiphany – a new realization of life. Arise my people and shine – the glory of the lord is upon you. Arise is both a directive and an invitation from God. The scripture goes on to say that people will come to restore the city of Zion. People will flock to help to make a difference. They are not coming to see you, but to see the God around you. It wont be the light of people that will hold them, but the glory of God present in this place. It says that your children will come back and there will be a reunion. Life in the presence of And we are all invited to take part in that party – we have been through the promise, we have seen the fulfillment, and now it is time for the celebration. We just have to be willing to see the light and to renew our commitment. This year our covenant service will be a modern litany – inviting us to be a part of God’s plan for this church. I also included a bookmark in each bulletin, so that people don’t have to sign the bulletin, but keep the bookmark in your bible. To remind you of your commitment to your relationship with God. And that God always invites us to be active participants in his plan for salvation.