by The Rev. Sally Juarez
SCRIPTURE READINGS Matthew 2:1-12
Transcribed from the sermon preached on JANUARY 7, 2024
2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’[b] ”
7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Today we are celebrating “Epiphany”.
The word epiphany means an appearance or manifestation, particularly of a divine being—but more commonly, it is used to mean an illuminating discovery, especially one that comes unexpectedly. We have all heard people say (or perhaps we have even said this ourselves) It came to me as an epiphany….or….it was an epiphany to me or I had an epiphany! So, we use the term to mean the illumination of something that hits us unexpectedly.
Epiphany, (from Greek epiphaneia, “manifestation”), It was Christian holiday of the early church commemorating the first manifestation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, represented by the Magi, and the manifestation of his divinity, as it occurred at his baptism in the Jordan River and at his first miracle, at Cana in Galilee. Epiphany is one of the three principal and oldest festival days of the Christian church (the other two are Easter and Pentecost. The celebration of Christmas came later). Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, and other Western churches all observe the feast of Epiphany on January 6.
In the Biblical story that we heard from Matthew this morning, we are given the narrative of the three “wise men” or magi who follow a star to find Joseph and Mary and the Baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And these royal visitors bow down and worship the baby, who is being called the King of the Jews; and they bring him gifts befitting of a king.
The story is sublime, rich in poetic imagery. The tableau of the three kings, deservedly has landed on the face of Christmas cards since Hallmark had its own birth! It is an iconic image for the season.
If we look at the story through the lens of biblical exegesis, by biblical scholarship, we would say…..
“Epiphany marks the first manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles. It signals that God loves Gentiles as well as Jews—that God’s plan of salvation includes Gentiles too.”
Well, the church has embraced Gentiles for centuries. Most Christians today are Gentiles so this is hardly an epiphany story to us today. We understand that the Epiphany applies to the wise men, these mysterious royals who come from the East who are guided to the place where a Holy child is said to be cradled in a manger and they recognize, they are hit with the reality that this baby really is the long anticipated Messiah. So, on one level, perhaps it is their epiphany that we celebrate on this particular Sunday.
But Epiphany is much more than this one discovery: It is a celebration of the breaking down of dividing walls—the end of hostilities between groups of people. We are reminded of this in Ephesians 2:14:
14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
Epiphany invites us to begin again, to start anew with old relationships that have gone awry to have a new look at those whom we have found it unsatisfying to be in relationship with…to give them and ourselves a new beginning.
I think this is an important message to hear right now, at this time when we are hearing about such harsh challenges to the Peace of Christ today, especially in the “Holy Land” where our Christian story has it’s birth. The challenges to peace in the Middle East is the topic on the news on a daily basis. I think this is why the Epiphany story is particularly timely and relevant for us today.
Epiphany challenges us to reconsider all the people whom we see as outside the pale—outside the boundaries of God’s love. Now I think that most Christian would say that there is no one who is outside the boundaries of God’s love, but what boundaries do we keep locked up inside our hearts? Epiphany challenges us to abandon our tribalism (racially, nationally, denominationally, gender specifically, etc.) and to expand our tents to welcome even those whom we would prefer not to love. It is a burning issue, because loving those outside our own tribe can be very difficult—but Christ makes it possible. It is that Christ first loved us that we are enabled to love others. Christ’s love makes it possible for us to be our biggest selves. That is the Epiphany message and it is a message that the world needs to hear particularly at this time in human history with all the conflicts that are raging in the world.
So the beautiful God-given gift in the Epiphany message is that through Christ we are able to be much bigger, much more inclusive, more kind and loving than we could ever be without Christ…without the gifts of Epiphany. The poet might say, those were the real gifts brought by the three wise men.
A few Sundays ago, Max told us he was not going to preach the way he was taught in Seminary; well, I think I echo him; I am sort of doing the same thing today with Epiphany because I tend to see this story through the lens of poetry.
Looking at a biblical passage exegetically, the way you are taught in seminary, is a scholar’s approach and it’s a head-trip! Doing the historical, the textual, the form, the source criticisms ( and a who lot of other criticisms) are all very important to understand what we are reading when we study the Bible or any passage from it; these are the scholarly approaches to reading the Bible and I would be lost without them, but I want to suggest that we might also include another approach, the poetic one, and see where that leads us. I would say this is a heart approach and I think it is very important that we include it in any study of the Bible and I want to use this heart approach as we look at the Epiphany story from Matthew.
First, I want to remind us that God is a God of self-revelation. God is a God of Epiphany having reveled Herself (unexpectedly) from the beginning of our Biblical journey.
God appeared unexpectedly to ….
to Adam and Eve in the garden
to Abraham and Sarah in the desert
to Moses in a burning bush
to prophets in visions
to those wise men led by a light shining in the dark
to Paul in a blinding flash on the road to Damascus
to all of us in a child born in a stable
who grew to manhood and died on a cross
and who according to our tradition, rose again from the dead. Each one of these are epiphanies! But let’s just focus on this one that comes on January 6th.
We don’t know a lot about these three royal visitors from the account in Matthew. Who were they exactly? Where in the East did they come from? When did the star first appear to them? What about the star compelled them to follow it?
Subsequent traditions embellished the Epiphany narrative. As early as the 3rd century the three visitors from the East were considered to be kings, probably interpreted as the fulfillment of the prophecy in Psalms 72:11 (“May all kings fall down before him”). In about the 8th century the names of three Magi—Bithisarea, Melichior, and Gathaspa—appear in a chronicle known as the Excerpta latina barbari. They have become known most commonly as Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar (or Casper). According to Western church tradition, Balthasar is often represented as a king of Arabia or sometimes Ethiopia, Melchior as a king of Persia, and Gaspar as a king of India.
But if we look through the lens of the story’s poetic imagery, I think we can surmise quite a lot more that actually expands what we can learn from the story.
First of all, these “wise men” are scholars of the skies. They have studied the star-filled heavens and they honor the authority of the stars… enough to stop what they have been doing and follow this particularly bright one. They are willing to go. That is a particularly wondrous thing and it models something essential to all of us who are on a spiritual journey to find God. Each of our own spiritual journeys are dependent upon our willingness to go. We have to put our hearts into it. We usually don’t know exactly where our journey will take us, but it is key that we have willing hearts.
The Magi or the Three Kings are willing to go quite a distance. They travel “afar.” And these Wise Men are themselves said to be “kings”, but they follow the star so they can bow down and honor the one who is being called the “king of the Jews.” I think we can say that these three royal ones are humble beings. (Botticelli drawings at American Legion Museum exhibit in SF)
Traditionally, the Magi are depicted as persons of material wealth, as evidenced by the costly gifts they bring to the Christ child, but they follow the star, bearing these costly gifts….. seeking their own spiritual enrichment. I think there is poetic irony in this.
The magi provide a powerful illustration of what the journey of faith, and the journey of life, can look like when we focus our intentions and attention in the right places. Willingness, observing, action, seeking guidance, responding with gratitude, and continued openness; these sound almost like a list of ways to be more faithful. The magi help give us tools that can help us find our own stars to follow towards the epiphanies God has in store for us in the coming year. Epiphany strikes me as one of the Christian observances that is uniquely personal and individual to each one of us.
So, finding and following our own stars towards epiphanies is one side of the coin. The other side is about being a light for others to follow. To be God’s light in the world, we have to be willing to shine the same way God shines with love and caring and mercy and forgiveness for our neighbors – and our enemies. Willingness is key to the epiphany spiritual journey and practice.
The poetic imagery of light and darkness is so prevalent in the Bible and is central to Epiphany. The wise men were following the light in the midst of darkness. Elsewhere, through Isaiah for example, God told the people that they were chosen to be a covenant to the people, a light to the nations so that the blind would see and the prisoners would be brought out of the darkness.
Paul was told that he was singled out to carry the light of Christ to the Gentiles.
Christ told his disciples that he was the light that had been sent into the world and he told his disciples that we are meant to be the light of the world and that we are to let our light shine so that everyone might see and give glory to God.
So following the light or being the light is a key poetic image in the Bible and is nowhere more clear and explicit than in the Epiphany story in Matthew.
Star Words: A spiritual practice at Epiphany
The practice of handing out Epiphany star words has been a familiar one in other denominations for years, but it has only recently been growing in popularity in Presbyterian churches. The stars each with a different “star word” written on one side of them provide a word to focus on or pray over that might help one listen more intently to the Spirit’s whisper.
So today we are going to receive a star word and we will each keep it with us until next Epiphany. As a spiritual practice we will pray over our word. We will keep is close to our hearts. We will be watchful of how it leads us and how and when we are influenced to follow. We will notice the times it comes up for us…the times it is shining brightly, the times it leads or influences our thinking and our doing.
So, I invite you to come forward during the singing of the hymn at the end of my sermon or after you receive Communion and pick up a star from one of the table at the left or right of the cancel. First, I want to share a story about star words as spiritual guides for the coming year.
By Donna Frischknecht Jackson | Presbyterians Today
Stars connect a congregation
The Rev. Adriene Thorne, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York, was not familiar with the practice of star words until meeting the Rev. Dr. April Stace. Stace, an ordained minister in the American Baptist Church and author of “White Knuckle Love,” recently came to First Presbyterian as its minister of formation and education. One of the first things she did was suggest Epiphany star words.
In January 2019, with more than 200 stars in baskets, the children of the church moved up and down the aisles handing them out.
“It was a deeply moving experience,” said Thorne, recalling how people reacted and interacted with the words as the stars became conversation starters. Thorne remembers how in the first year she would see stars left behind in the pews and those in the congregation who knew whom the star belonged to would pick it up and hand it to them.
“You would hear in the church sentences like, ‘You left ‘forgiveness’ on the pew; here you go,’” laughed Thorne.
Thorne also noticed how the star words were providing a “point of connection” for her and the congregation. During pastoral visits, the star words would often come up.
“We would be talking, and the person would say, ‘I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because my word for the year was … ,’” said Thorne.
For the pastor herself, her star words these past two years have been thought-provoking. In 2019, Thorne’s word was “fun.” (Thorne tells everyone that the star words aren’t magical, but mystical. “Approach this practice with the belief that the word has found you,” she said.) The busy minister and mother didn’t think much about the word until her then-9-year-old daughter wrote “be” in front of “fun.”
“Be fun” not only meant more mother-daughter time, but it also led Thorne to recommit to the passions that had fallen by the wayside, as often happens in parish ministry. Once a professional dancer who had performed with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and was once a Radio City Rockette, Thorne felt the Spirit nudging her to return to her art. The following year’s star word would also be an eye-opener: “recreation,” or as Thorne’s eyes saw it — “re-creation.”
“Isn’t that what we had to do in 2020?” asked Thorne. “We had to reimagine life together and not just in the church. We were called to start putting back together broken pieces in new ways that are both beautiful and sustainable,” she said. “‘Recreate’ was a perfect word to receive.”
What will this year’s words hold for Presbyterians? What will they hold for us at St. John’s? Whatever the words may be, one thing is sure: When opened to the Spirit, an unassuming paper star with an equally unassuming word on it can guide one just as powerfully as that celestial ball of fire shining in the sky did for the Magi so many years ago. AMEN
Loving God, we give thanks for the spiritual practice that come with the star words of Epiphany. We long to hear the whisperings of the Holy and we pray that our hearts and minds may be open and receptive. May we clear the noise and clutter of our busy brains so that we can be willing to follow the invitations that our words make during this new year. Help us to stay tuned in and attentive. Help us to be watchful and observing. Help us to energize into action, when it is called for. Help us to seek guidance when we need to. And may we always respond with gratitude to your Holy promptings so that we live our daily lives in the light of your will.