“The Challenge of Epiphany”
Matthew 2:1-12
What image comes to your mind when you think of the Magi in Matthew’s Gospel?
Having sat through a number of Christmas plays, it may be hard for us not to think of children wearing bathrobes and Burger King crowns, trying to look as important as possible.
Or we might think of men in long flowing robes, beards and big turbans.
Every year, most of us get at least one Christmas card with this kind of picture on the cover.
They are always in one of two poses: either kneeling at Jesus’ crib or traveling across the desert on camels…like the front of our bulletin for this morning.
In nativity sets they rub elbows with shepherds.
We don’t really know these magi very well, though.
Scholars tell us that they weren’t kings, there weren’t necessarily three of them, and they didn’t come on the night of Jesus’ birth.
It is likely, though, that they were priests of an ancient religion that still exists in Western Iran called Zoroastrianism.
And the Zoroastrians were looking for the Savior; the Messiah just as the Jews were.
And that is one of the most informative things about them—they weren’t Jewish—they were what the Bible calls Gentiles—which is everyone who isn’t Jewish.
They were of a different religion and ethnicity.
And they came seeking Jesus.
(pause)
This is “Epiphany Sunday.”
And the word “Epiphany” means an appearance or manifestation or an illuminating discovery, particularly of a divine being.
Epiphany stands for the first manifestation or unveiling of Jesus to the Gentiles.
It gives us early insight into the fact that God loves Gentiles as well as Jews—that God’s plan of salvation includes Gentiles too.
This would be a dead issue, I suppose, if Epiphany were only about the inclusion of Gentiles in God’s Church; WE here are all Gentiles, after all.
Epiphany is much more, though.
It is the celebration of the breaking down of dividing walls—the end of hostilities between groups of people.
It challenges us to reconsider all the people we see as outside the boundaries of God’s love…
…it challenges us to let go of our “tribalism”—whether it be racial, national, economic…whatever…and to welcome even those whom we would prefer not to love.
Now this is very difficult, but Jesus Christ makes it possible.
Think about it, we human beings are the most intelligent and creative of God’s creatures.
Our achievements in the arts and sciences and many other areas are beyond extraordinary.
And, if we wanted to, we could easily congratulate ourselves on all we have accomplished.
Sadly, though, we humans have a dark side which is also related to our social relationships.
We are arguably as hostile and brutal as any other animal species that exists.
We can be creative and loving; but we can be the exact opposite as well.
Tribalism is not logical.
For example, think about a football game.
The fans of both teams pray for their team to win, hoping God will take sides in a game.
Or think about our tendency to dislike or even hate persons who look or think differently than us, even if it is as simple as that one person is a Democrat and another a Republican.
It’s illogical and sinful.
And I think we can all relate.
Quoting a recent article I read, “Tribalism is the biological loophole that many politicians have banked on for a long time: tapping into our fears and tribal instincts.”
“Tribalism inspired the lynching trees in America, the smokestacks of Auschwitz, and the genocides of Rwanda.”
These amount to tens of millions of lives lost.
Tribalism is anti-life and it is anti-gospel.
And so, at the very beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we find a passage of Scripture about opening God’s Good News to the entire world—no matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like and what religion you are.
That is what these magi, these “outsiders” represent.
A soldier once said, “It is much easier to kill someone you have never met, from a distance.
When you look through the scope, you just see a red dot, not a human.”
The less you know about them, the easier it is to fear them and to hate them.
One of the most radical things about Jesus Christ is His inclusion of people of all races and religions.
For instance, in Matthew Chapter 8, Jesus tells a Roman Centurion “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
In Matthew Chapter 15 Jesus heals a Gentile Canaanite woman’s daughter.
He makes it clear that the barriers that separate people from one another do not separate them from God’s love.
And we are all called to love one another…we are even called to love those who seek to do us harm.
As the writer of Ephesians will later say, “He…has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”
That work started with the magi.
And at the end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells His disciples to “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
Paul will later write: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
This is one of the most unnatural, beautiful and hopeful things announced to human beings and about human beings in the New Testament.
What are we to do about it?
Here we are, the Church of Jesus Christ, but our one hour of worship is the most segregated hour of our entire week.
It is very tribal.
Is there a way that God’s Church can better represent God’s dream for us?
Can people of different races, political views, nationalities and socio-economic circumstances worship together and love one another as brothers and sisters?
I believe we can; and certainly there are examples of this in history…
…but it is not the norm.
That being said, one of the most important goals in life should be to be redeemed, to be saved from the sinful and tribal ways of our human nature.
We are to seek to allow God to transform our propensities to anger, hate and tribalism that often dominate our good and loving thoughts and behaviors.
Look at the example of these magi.
They traveled for nearly two years in order to take the chance that the Savior of the whole entire world was the “one who has been born king of the Jews.”
They went and they worshiped this child of a different race and religion.
The gave Him treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
And they protected Jesus, “having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”
Could it be that Matthew is giving us a hint here, as well, about life for those who have met Jesus Christ?
Nothing is ever the same!
You don’t take the same road any longer.
Instead, you unfold a new map and discover a new way.
When we stand up after kneeling before Jesus, we are called to go on another road.
Worshiping Jesus, not just on Sundays, but at all times, helps offer us the strength, wisdom and motivation we need in order to fight back against tribalism, against hate, prejudice, oppression, bullying, and injustice in whatever forms they present themselves.
Christian Perfection, as defined by John Wesley, is to have a “habitual love for God and neighbor.”
To which, we might ask, “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus supplies us with the answer in the Parable of the Good Samaritan…
…our neighbor is anyone and everyone…
…no matter their religion, ethnicity, nationality—you name it!
This is how Jesus loved and lived.
This is sanity.
And as Christ’s disciples—His followers—His imitators—we are to go down His road, His way, His route for His sake and the sake of all the world.
For the Way of Christ is the only Way that is going somewhere.
We are all human beings.
We are all—red, yellow, black and white—created in God’s image.
We are all equally loved by God.
This is what gives all of our lives sacred worth.
And the things which divide us are trivial, illogical in the face of such profound truth and love.
Think about this: the chief priests and teachers of the law, in our Gospel Lesson for this morning, were all the same race as Jesus.
They know the Scriptures but they do nothing to seek out the Messiah—whom they know is only 5 miles away from them in Bethlehem.
Whereas, these pagan magi eagerly walk for nearly two years in order to seek Him out and worship Him.
Epiphany challenges us to consider who we might think of as unworthy or not as good as us…
…who we might feel prejudice against, even if we know it is illogical…
…and to come up with ways how we, the Church, might reach out to them, invite them, include them for the sake of and through the love of Christ.
There is no logical reason for us to have a hatred or dislike for persons based on any differences such as race, religion, national origin, political opinions—you name it!
If we spend time with others, talk to them, listen to them, eat with them, worship with them, pray with them, we will learn that they are like us: human beings with all the strengths and weaknesses that we have.
We are all the same—sinners in need of grace and salvation, love, forgiveness and relationships.
Jesus Christ can transform our fear of the “other” our “hatred” of the other into love and kinship.
Can we ask God, daily, to enable us to love and treat all humankind the same?
I can think of no better goal as we enter this New Year.
