Scripture Lesson

From the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 60:

¹Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
²For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
³Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

⁴Lift 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.
⁵Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
⁶A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

From the Gospal of Matthew, Chapter 2:

¹In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ ³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
⁶“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.” ’

⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ ⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

"Our Light Has Come"

A Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

How many of you still have your Christmas trees up? Not too many. I’m not surprised. After all, it’s almost mid-January. Christmas seems like an ancient memory.

And yet, today we celebrate Epiphany Sunday. The word “epiphany” means appearance or manifestation, and on the Christian Calendar, it is the day we tell the story of Jesus’ appearance to the gentiles, represented by the Wise Men.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking – didn’t we already hear the story of the Wise Men’s visit at Christmas? Yes, you’re right, but that is because tradition and culture have so interwoven the Epiphany story with the Nativity story that we expect to hear them together. However, it is likely that the Wise Men made their visit to the Holy Family two years after Jesus’ birth. Notice that, in this morning’s Gospel lesson, Matthew says they arrive to see Jesus while Mary, Joseph and the “child” – not the baby – are “in the house,” not “in the manger” as the shepherds found him.

And for all we think we know about these visitors from the east, Matthew – the only Gospel to include this story – gives us precious few details – neither their names, nor their professions, nor their native country, not even how many there were. In fact, in his poem “The Three Kings,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gives us more information than Matthew:

Three Kings came riding from far away,
Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar;
Three Wise Men out of the East were they,
And they traveled by night and they slept by day,
For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star.

According to tradition, these kings were learned men – perhaps astronomers from Persia who read the heavens at night, looking for portents in the stars. In the eyes of the Jewish people, their stargazing made them pagan idolaters, the equivalent of tarot card readers. But even though they themselves were not Jewish, the Magi may have been familiar with the books of the Old Testament, such as Micah, who prophesized that from Bethlehem would come forth the “one who is to be ruler in Israel” [5:2]. They may have been familiar with the oracle’s words in the book of Numbers [24:17]: “a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel,” and the prophecies of Daniel [ch. 9], who said that time was right for the birth of the Messiah.

They may also have known that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob spoke through the prophet Isaiah. The prophet had foretold the coming of the Messiah with these words: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.” A light shining in the darkness, a light not just to Israel, but also to the Gentile nations.¹

And so, the Magi set out, following the promises of God told through Isaiah in this morning’s Old Testament lesson: “Arise, shine; for your light has come.” But for all their sophistication and learnedness, they manage to miss their destination by nine miles. Instead of ending up in Bethlehem, they find themselves in Jerusalem, at King Herod’s palace.

Isaiah wrote his words to the people of Israel – people who had once been recipients of God’s covenant with Moses, but who later suffered in the shadows of bondage and exile at the hands of the mighty Assyrians. But when Isaiah writes about “the people who walked in darkness,” he is also talking about us. Because we all walk in darkness of one sort or another – the shadows of separation, sickness, sadness, suffering. Every day we hear of more jobs being lost, of more companies going out of business, of more people in desperate straits. The war in Iraq rages on, and the Middle East is in turmoil. And some of us are dealing with our own illnesses and losses and sense of hopelessness.

And like the Magi, we show up in the wrong places, and look to the wrong things, for the hope and peace and healing we so desperately seek. The Magi are blinded by their own pre-conceived notions of where the ruler of Israel would be born, looking for the King of kings among the prestige, power and wealth of a royal court. But this is looking at life on the horizontal level. It happened to the Wise Men and it happens to us, too; we are inundated by the culture’s message that the secret to our happiness and the answer to our prayers can be found in money and things and control and influence. And this kind of thinking hinders us from discovering what is real and meaningful; it distracts us from finding the hope and meaning and peace we seek; it gets in the way of our finding God.

And listen to Isaiah’s words of hope for all of us who dwell in the shadows – “Your light has come” – and he tells us to “lift up your eyes” – in other words, to look not horizontally, but vertically. Because when we look up and focus on the vertical dimension, we will see the star that shows us the way to Jesus.

In common English usage, the word epiphany describes a moment of sudden insight when we discover the essential meaning of something. An epiphany usually happens when we least expect it, and it is usually initiated by some commonplace occurrence or experience. It is in Bethlehem that the Magi have their epiphany, and so do we. It is there in that humble village, to an ordinary couple, in the commonplace experience of a baby’s birth, that our Light has come. “Lift up your eyes…” Isaiah tells us, “Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice…”

Many of us have, by now, taken down our Christmas decorations and, along with our nativity scenes of the holy family, the shepherds, and the Wise Men, we have also packed away the Christmas story for another year. But the story of Christ, Emmanuel, “God with us” has not ended – it has just begun!

Over the next two weeks, we will join him as he is baptized in the River Jordan. Through the coming months, we will go with him into the wilderness of temptation; we will travel with him as he begins his ministry and makes disciples. We will meditate on his sacrificial love during Lent. We will mourn over his crucifixion and death during Holy Week. We will rejoice in his resurrection at Easter. His Spirit will make us one at Pentecost. And throughout all the weeks in this coming year, his guiding star will be there in the sky, beckoning us to follow.

And the challenge for us throughout this journey will be to focus not on the horizontal, earthly dimension of life, but rather to lift up our eyes, to look vertically, up at the star, which will show us the way to God. It is then that we shall see; it is then that our hearts will thrill and rejoice, for we will know that our Light has come in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.