"the Challenge Of Epiphany"

“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.