Hey youthful folk! It’s Sunday again, and you should be at church — unless you’re Jewish or something. Then you should have been at church yesterday. Or your a worshiper of Luna, and you should go to church tomorrow. In any case, have a sermon where I ask for money … kinda.
Matthew 2:1-12; Ephesians 3:1-12; Psalm 72:1-7,10-14; Isaiah 60:1-6
When I was growing up, Epiphany really only meant one thing – the end of Christmas. We always left our tree and decorations up until, for the sake of practicality, the Saturday after Epiphany. So on that Saturday morning, we’d wake up and start the process of dismantling everything. The lights and ornaments came down; the tree was either boxed up or put out on the street (depending on if it was real or fake). And when all was said and done the house looked like it did before Christmas happened, though with some extra stuff from the presents.
So as far as I was concerned, Epiphany was an ending. It marked the end of Christmas – the end of the celebration. I didn’t think there was any big deal at all about Epiphany. I didn’t even see why the wise men needed their own day. They gave gifts to baby Jesus so I always figured they just showed up on Christmas. I never really paid much attention to the details of Epiphany.
But Epiphany really is more of a beginning than an ending. Epiphany means revelation or manifestation. That must be why our opening hymn uses the word “manifest” so often right? But through most of Christian History, on this day we celebrate not just the wise men’s appearance and gifts, but what they represent. On Christmas, Jesus was born; on Epiphany, he is revealed to the world.
Remember the Christmas story? The first people, other than Mary and Joseph of course, who say the baby Jesus were some, presumably, Jewish shepherds from the area near Bethlehem. We’re used to this. But as best we can tell, the next group to see Jesus were these Magi from the east. Non-Jews; who could have come from anywhere between Babylon and Persia to India. We just know they’re from the East, and they saw a star sitting over Bethlehem.
Now, there’s a lot of debate among people what exactly this star was. So I’m not even going to get into that – if you’re curious you can hunt around on the internet and find all sorts of theories – but I will mention that in ancient times they put a lot of stock into the events of the heavens. If something happened that was unexpected, it was considered to usher in a great even, such as the birth of a king. So these Magi from the east set out to give homage to the new king.
Thinking practically, the best place to look for a newborn king is in a palace, so they first went to Herod’s palace in Jerusalem announcing what they saw. Everyone said, oh yea he’s in Bethlehem, and oddly didn’t do much about it. Herod on the other hand, wanted to make sure there were no threats to his power and ended up killing all the boys under 2 in Bethlehem, but not before God warned the Magi and Joseph to leave the area.
Now these Magi brought gifts with which to anoint Jesus: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. We all know the value of gold, that’s not anything new for us. But myrrh and frankincense are a little more obscure. Both are perfumes made from tree sap. Frankincense was one of the most popular fragrances of the time, and would be a fairly usual gift. Myrrh on the other hand, was worth more than its weight in gold, and was often five times more expensive than the more popular frankincense. Myrrh was typically used to anoint people, and as a perfume used by kings.
These gifts likely took a good amount of sacrifice for the Magi to bring, let alone the journey from their home to Bethlehem. Carrying these gifts they would have been a prime target for bandits, no matter how well defended their caravan would have been. It was not a particularly safe excursion. But they still felt the need to bring gifts to worship the newborn King Jesus.
Today we asked you to bring your pledge cards to the church. In a little while, while we sing our sermon hymn, I’ll invite you to come forward to the altar, and place your gift – your sacrifice of worship – in this bowl. It’s not about what you bring, but about giving back to God out of what he has given us. And in this season, we remember that God has sent us the greatest gift of all, his one and only Son. Let us join the Magi in worshipping him.