This Sunday, we’re having a family Epiphany party for Sunday School, so we’re celebrating Epiphany in worship rather than the baptism of Jesus. Here’s the sermon for January 8, 2016. The readings are Isaiah 1:1-6 and Matthew 2:1-15, the story of the wise men seeking Jesus.
How many of you have seen the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One? Without giving away any spoilers, there is a small group of rebel fighters facing overwhelming odds, in a pretty much impossible situation. Someone asks what chance they have, and the main character responds, “We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope.”
In our first reading from Isaiah, the prophet uses language of light to give hope to the people of Israel.
About 70 years earlier, the tribes of Israel had been conquered by the Babylonian Empire and taken into exile. After the Persians defeated the Babylonians, the Israelites were allowed to return back to their homeland. At first, they returned with great enthusiasm and joy, but then, well, it didn’t work out the way they expected.
Rebuilding the temple and the city walls of Jerusalem was much harder than they expected, and the work got bogged down. For years and even decades, they’d looked forward to returning home, and then life was just as hard once they got there.
Into that gloomy, dark situation, Isaiah writes, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” He’s calling them to get over being discouraged, to see the possibilities God has for them, to rebel against the darkness. He’s reminding them that they have hope.
The holidays can be a little like that for us. We go through this big buildup to get ready for Christmas. In church, it’s the season of Advent, of watching, waiting, preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus. In our culture, it’s shopping, baking, cleaning, anticipating family gatherings and presents. We’re told over and over how it’s the happiest season, the most wonderful time of the year.
And sometimes, it is. I hope your holiday season was wonderful. But for many, the holidays can be hard. There are memories of loved ones who aren’t there, things don’t turn out the way you expect, and maybe your holidays aren’t quite the way you want them to be.
Even if your Christmas celebration was great, there can be a bit of a letdown afterwards. For me this year, the season of Christmas going on for twelve days seemed like a great thing until about day five. And then there was a sort of “now what?” I sort of…stopped feeling Christmasy. Christmas happened, it was nice, now what?
The people of Israel return from exile, they’re excited, and then they got to Israel and it turns out they still have problems. The poor are still suffering, the nation is still under attack from violent neighbors, and they need a new goal, a new purpose. Now what?
Going back to the Star Wars movie, there’s a point where the main character, Jyn Erso, doesn’t want to get involved in the rebellion against the evil empire. Someone asks her about her apathy, how she can stand what’s happening around her and not get involved. She responds, “It’s not a problem if you don’t look up.”
I think that’s where the Israelites were. They didn’t have anything to look forward to, and they were willing to just tolerate things the way they were. They didn’t see anything hopeful happening, just more of the same.
“It’s not a problem if you don’t look up.” Just sort of withdraw into yourself, focus on something less important, and whatever’s going on won’t hurt as much. Those others can worry about themselves. Let’s just get through life, mind our own business, keep our heads down. They didn’t see the possibility that God had more in store for them.
To that disillusionment, the prophet says, “Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.”
These people, the remnants of a broken nation, will be the ones to unite everyone under God. The other nations will come bringing gifts. God will restore the people of Israel. There is hope.
But they need to look up and see it. They need to rebel against the darkness, they need to dare to believe it’s possible.
Hope requires imagination. If you look up, you can see it. Verse 5: “Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice.”
Following Jesus, living life not for yourself, but for others, giving of yourself to help those in need, all of that involves taking risks. Believing in Jesus means relying on someone other than yourself, something you can’t control. It’s not a problem if you don’t look up, but we’re supposed to look up.
Following Jesus and building God’s kingdom is risky business. As Christians, we need a holy imagination, a willingness to believe in the possibility of God’s kingdom. We need to look up.
Today, we’re celebrating Epiphany. That’s probably not a word you use much, at least I don’t, but it means to realize something, to understand. The image of the Epiphany season is light breaking in, revealing something. On Epiphany, we lift up our eyes, and we understand. We realize the new hope we have in Christ, the promise of God with us, coming to dwell among us.
Matthew tells us of these magi, wise men, kings from the east. We don’t know a lot about them, only that they’re from the East, and they’re on a quest. They’re probably astrologers, but we’re not sure, and if you actually read the Bible story, you’ll notice it doesn’t say there are three of them. We imagine there are three because of the three gifts, but it doesn’t actually say how many.
Also, if you have a nativity scene at home, it probably has the wise men in it, probably three of them, and so you probably picture them at the manger on Christmas night, or maybe 12 days later.
Again, the Bible doesn’t actually tell us when they arrived. Their journey was likely much longer, perhaps up to two years.
The wise men are a fulfillment of the prophecy from Isaiah, people from other nations bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the one who will be the king of Israel. They’re also a great example of hope. Think about what kind of imagination and hope it would take to travel following a star hoping there’s a king at the end of their journey.
They’re rebelling too. King Herod—a real king, backed by the power and might of the Roman Empire—tries to deceive them, to get them to reveal the location of this supposed Messiah, and they refuse to cooperate. Enlightened by warning in a dream, they sneak back home by another route. That act of rebellion takes faith as well.
Looking at a star, they saw God’s light breaking into the world, and they dared to believe it. These people from far away, these outsiders, saw what the local rulers didn’t understand. They dared to imagine the promise was true: the Messiah—the savior—had come. They had that holy imagination.
We today need that same faith. We’re not called to leave home and travel to find the Messiah, but we are called to worship like the wise men did. We are called to believe God’s kingdom is possible, and even more than possible, that it is both here and still coming.
The Messiah has come to us. We’re called to believe, to look up and see the light breaking into our dark world.
This believing, this imagining, isn’t some kind of delusion, or fantasy. Rather, it’s an act of faith. It takes courage, and wisdom, and community.
This week, and throughout this season of Epiphany, dare to imagine the world God is bringing into reality. Dare to imagine what God’s kingdom looks like among us. Everything we do is built on hope, on hope that does not disappoint.
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Amen.