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Scripture Reading:
NRS Matthew 2:1 In the time of
King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East
came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, "Where is the child who has been
born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to
pay him homage." 3 When King Herod heard this, he was
frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all
the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the
Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of
Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6 'And you,
Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of
Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people
Israel.'" 7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and
learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then
he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the
child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay
him homage." 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and
there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it
stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that
the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering
the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and
paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of
gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream
not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
Today we celebrate Epiphany, the moment when we get it or the arrival of
the Magi. I like Epiphany as the moment in which we get it, sort of like a V8
moment. We thought we knew exactly what the answer was and suddenly we are
faced with a new reality, a new understanding and it changes everything. I
believe that is the reason we have this story. It has meanings that are right
in front of us and then innuendo so that we can understand the complete story.
The Magi are the people who spend their lives looking into the heavens for a
sign. Imagine if you will that you have been born into the family of Magi and
you spend your entire life learning about the celestial movements, what they
are, what we call certain stars that connect together and what they mean. Since
the time of Daniel, we believe that the Magi have been looking for a certain connection;
a certain alignment if you will that proclaims an event that the people of Israel
have been looking for since the beginning of the world. Generations have come
and gone looking into the heavens, sharing the messages of the stars with those
around them and yet they have not seen this one sign that Daniel has them
looking for. Maybe as much as four to seven hundred years have passed since the
time of Daniel and they still search the heavens for the sign. And then like a
V8 moment, there it is. What would you do? I suspect you would wake everyone in
the house to let them know. The excitement would be overwhelming. After all
this time the prophecy is true and the sign is in the heavens. What do we do
next? Where do we go? How do we get there?
Maybe you have had you whole life mapped out for you and suddenly
everything is changed and now you are faced with a new and different reality.
Has that happened to you? Most of us at one time or another thought we were
going to be something else, do something else, be somewhere our whole lives and
suddenly it all changes. The dream evaporates because we find we cannot do what
we wanted to do or something gets in the way. The job suddenly evaporates and
we face unemployment, job searching and moving to a new location. All of these
things have epiphany moments, that moment when we realize that what we thought
is no longer and now we face new realities and opportunities.
The Magi brings
gifts to Christ and year after year we rehash what they are and their
significance. But this year I want to focus on verse 12. NRS Matthew 2:12
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their
own country by another road. They have a dream. Now mind you, to get the
Magi, all of them to agree to go a different way I suspect that more than one
of them had a dream. So they leave Bethlehem and go home a different way than
they had come. What did they follow? How did they know where to go or how to
get home? Remember that they are people who study the sky so they likely could
use celestial tracking to get home. But they had to go a different way. And all
because of an encounter with the living God! That is what I want to focus on
this morning.
I enjoy Richard
Rohr’s Daily meditation that I get every morning on my e-mail. He is out there
somewhat and it causes me often to ponder what I know and believe and explore
new thoughts and new understandings. Friday he focused on Love, in fact he has
been focusing on love all week. I want to read you some of it.
“You cannot earn God. You cannot prove
yourself worthy of God. Knowing God's presence is simply a matter of awareness,
of enjoying the now, of deepening one's own presence. There are moments when it
happens. Then life makes sense.”
“Jesus pushes seeing to the social
edge. Can you see the image of Christ in the least of your brothers and
sisters? He uses that as his only description of the final judgment (Matthew
25). Nothing about commandments, nothing about church attendance--simply a
matter of our ability to see. Can we see Christ in the "nobodies" who
can't play our game of success? In those who cannot reward us in return? When
we can see the image of God where we are not accustomed to seeing the image of
God, then we see with eyes not our own.”
“The Christian vision is that the
world is a temple. If that is true, then our enemies are sacred, too. Who else
created them but God? The ability to respect the outsider is probably the
litmus test of true seeing. And it doesn't stop with human beings and enemies
and the least of the brothers and sisters. It moves to frogs and pansies and
weeds. Everything becomes enchanting with true sight. One God, one world, one
truth, one suffering, and one love. All we can do is participate.”
“Spirituality is about seeing. It's
about intimate relationship with things rather than achieving results or
meeting requirements. Once you see fully, the rest follows. You don't need to
push the river, because you are already in the river. God's life of love is
being lived within you, and you must simply learn how to say yes to that life.”
I believe
that when we encounter Jesus in our lives, we cannot help but be changed.
Nicodemus meets with Jesus and that encounter changes him profoundly. What do
you mean I have to be born from above with the power of the Holy Spirit within
me to get to heaven? Is that even possible, to be “born again?” Who can forget
the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus? What a profound encounter he
has with the risen Jesus. Who are you that you would persecute those who follow
me, Jesus asks him. I think in that moment Saul who now uses his Roman name
Paul would say he was profoundly changed. Following Jesus’ crucifixion, his
disciples were devastated. They had forsaken him in the Garden of Gethsemane to
save their own lives. But after they met the resurrected Christ, they were
radically changed. Suddenly, they were willing to give their lives to tell
Jesus’ story to the world. Many were tortured and killed because they
proclaimed Jesus was alive.
Skeptics and
enemies were also transformed. Jesus’ younger brother, James, didn’t think
Jesus was anybody special. But after his resurrected brother appeared to him,
James not only believed Jesus was Lord but became the leader of the Jerusalem
church and died a martyr in 62 AD.
Roman
governor Plinius Secundus wrote in his letters that Christians were
people who loved the truth at any cost. Although he was ordered to torture and
execute them for refusing to curse Jesus, he was continually amazed and
impressed with their firm commitments “not to do any wicked deeds, never to
commit any fraud, theft, adultery, never to falsify their word, not to deny a
trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up.” For centuries, true
Christians around the world have stood as shining examples of the standards of
truth and love established by Jesus of Nazareth.
Similarly,
the late C.S. Lewis, professor at Oxford University in England, was an agnostic
who denied the deity of Christ for years. But he, too, in intellectual honesty,
submitted to Jesus as his God and Savior after studying the overwhelming
evidence for his deity. Over the years, he wrote many books to uphold the
ideals of Christianity, including Mere Christianity and The
Screwtape Letters.
When we meet
Jesus we encounter the true experience of love that God want us to know. Jesus
loved people not because they deserved it or somehow were worthy of the
experience. Jesus loved people because as the divine human experience, God
wanted the world to know that they are loved beyond measure. I am profoundly
impacted by the fact that dog spelled backwards is God. A dog loves its master
without hesitation. I even see that in our cat Morris towards Bonnie. God loves
us in ways we cannot imagine. God calls us to love one another in the same way.
When we do there is no hatred, no separation, no war, no genocide, no suicide,
no deceptions, twisted perceptions, perverted truth, injustice, inequality, no
prejudice, no homelessness, no... no...no..Just God! Just God! No racism,
classicism, sexism, militarism...Just God! Just God! Jesus is calling you on a
journey – it may not be the way you intended your life to go, but it is the way
that Jesus wants your life to go.
And in a
dream they were told to go another way.
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