The Epiphany
January 13, 2008
The Rev. Kristin Krantz

Isaiah 60:1-6
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

Gracious God, take our minds and think through them;
take our hands and work through them;
take our hearts and set them on fire.
Amen.

Today we celebrate the Epiphany – the feast commemorating the revelation of Jesus to all humanity and specifically the visit of the magi, or wise ones. Epiphany comes from the Greek word meaning “to reveal” or “to make known.” This day ends the twelve days of Christmas and begins a new liturgical season that will last until Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

Okay, that’s interesting and all, and I felt like I should include it, but before you go doze off you should know that what I really want to talk about today is how hard it is to fully grasp the things that God would reveal or make known to us. It’s as if we are each given a piece to a gigantic puzzle and our piece alone can be, well, rather puzzling. And yet we each have a piece, a journey to make, a part to play in God’s revelation.

This I believe, it is our life journeys, our faith journeys, all the wild stars we follow, all of our stumbling and all of our determination, all the choices we make and surely our mere presence at the end of the journey, that brings even the tiniest bit of God’s revelation to enter this world – and it in the sharing of our stories and our piece of God’s revelation that God’s compassion, justice and reconciliation transform the world.

So here we are twelve days after the birth of Jesus and we’re celebrating the arrival of the wise men after their long and now infamous journey. I'm wondering, have you heard the one about the wise women? You see, if it had been three wise women instead of three wise men, they would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts.

All joking aside, though, for all of their faith in following that wild star, faith in the science of their day and in their calculations, faith in all the holy texts they studied, have you ever noticed that the wise ones got it wrong?

Where did they go? No, not to Bethlehem! They went to Jerusalem first.

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. These are the ancient words of Isaiah, words that were spoken to exiles returning to Jerusalem nearly 600 years before the birth of Jesus. They found a shell of a city and despaired, but the poet wrote of hope: Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn….they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

The wise ones surely knew of this ancient text, had studied it among many other texts when they saw the rising of that wild star and searched for its meaning. And so they went to Jerusalem, believing that the fulfillment of revelation awaited them there. Upon arriving in Jerusalem they began asking, “Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews?” A question like that is bound to get attention of the current King, because after all, a new king is a threat to the old one. And so Herod called together all of his scholars and he too asked where to find the child.

And do you know what they told him? Those wise ones were using the wrong text. It’s not Isaiah that tells of the birth of the Messiah, it’s actually the prophet Micah. 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.

The wise ones got it wrong. They followed that wild star such a great distance, but not far enough. There were nine miles off, because as the biblical scholar Walter Bruggeman points out, Bethlehem is nine miles south of Jerusalem. These wise ones made their journey based on everything they could glean from God’s revelation to them in the rising of that wild star. They had their piece of the puzzle, but it was only after they asked the question where that they got another piece of the revelation that spurred on their journey.

Where? Such a simple question and yet so loaded with meaning. This question the wise ones ask is the first word of any human character in the Gospel of Matthew – and you bet that’s significant. It was significant to the writer of Matthew because he was trying to establish how Jesus, who was from Nazareth, fulfilled the scripture telling of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem.

But it is significant to us because it shows us that when we make mistakes, when our journey doesn’t lead us to what we thought it was going to, we need not get stuck there. It is when we question that we embrace the possibility of revelation. If the wise ones hadn’t questioned the rising of that wild star they never would have started their journey in the first place.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

How many times in our life journeys, in our faith journeys, how many times have we been nine miles off? Our grasp of the revelation of God leads us only so far and then what? What do we do when we find ourselves nine miles off? The answer is in our original response – we must continue to follow our wild stars, stumbling yet determined that our presence at the end of the journey will make a difference, will help to bring God’s reconciling love and justice into the world.

Because the wise ones show us that it’s about action, about the choices we make to follow the wild stars that matter. They had it wrong, but they made the choice to act, made the choice to undertake a journey of a lifetime. They made the choice to question.

On the other hand, Matthew shows us that the scholars of the day, those chief priests and scribes, have the correct scriptural data but choose not to act on their knowledge. They don’t question. They don’t journey. It is the wise ones act; the religious leaders only hear. Matthew, at this very beginning of his gospel, is already setting up the powers that be against Jesus, but this jab at action vs. inaction is more than just stage dressing.

It is also a warning to all of us that when we get too comfortable – too comfortable in our power, our intellectual prowess, our material goods – that we too can slip into inaction. We stop questioning. We don’t have time for the journey. We hear God’s call but we choose not to follow.

Bringing God’s revelation into the world is about action, it’s about the choices we make, right or wrong, the stumbling and the course corrections – it’s about the sharing of our piece of the puzzle and making the journey. And so it was that Herod chose action in his own way. He called the wise ones to him, sharing his piece of the puzzle, sending them to Bethlehem. And so the wise ones followed that wild star once again and travelled nine miles further.

Upon arriving in Bethlehem they entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother and knelt down and paid him homage, presenting their offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And they worshipped him! Perhaps that is the greatest action we too can take – to worship. To be overwhelmed with joy that we too have arrived at the house and discovered the baby that brings the fullness of God’s revelation. The one whose compassion for those on the margins, whose thirst for justice and whose power to love will transform the world. The one who teaches us what it means to question and to take action.

Worship is our beginning and ending point. It is our gathering to retell the stories of old, as well as our own stories, that prepares us for our journeys, readies our hearts and minds to follow the wild stars. And once we’ve reached the end of our journeys, after finding ourselves nine miles off and questioning and traveling on, it is our presence and worship that matter. It is our presence and worship that bring God’s revelation – God’s compassion, justice and reconciliation to transform the world. The presence of the wise ones following the birth of Jesus is a proclamation that all who seek Christ are a part of God’s revelation. We too are called to be wise ones, for when we seek Christ we are following that wild star – that ancient sign that invites wonder and choice – choice to journey and choice to be a part of God’s revelation.

~AMEN~