Day 28 - An Opportunity to Shine - Epiphany

Today We Observe Epiphany. 

 The word means a sudden appearance. You probably have heard or remarked yourself when you had a sudden realization about some matter of importance, “I had an epiphany yesterday,” or remarked after explaining something for the nth time, "She finally saw the light!" More particularly drawing on its Greek origin, epiphany means a sudden appearance of a bright light, or by extension, a revelation of God. Epiphany celebrates the day our tradition holds that the Magi(wisemen) visited Jesus. 

What kind of revelation caused a group of Gentiles called magi to take a difficult trek with from deep in Iraq or Persia to find the infant Jesus? 

 The Path to From Advent Season to Epiphany. 

 I do not know how often you read the bible or how closely. Most folks don’t read it as closely as they used to and now even our children and grandchildren read it even less. I encourage you to set a time to read it daily, especially the readings for Sundays. The Revised Common Lectionary (Internet) is a good place to start. It provides readings for daily worship and preaching on Sundays. 

 Each Sunday from Advent to Epiphany the lectionary has explored the question, “Why did Jesus come to earth?” If you will indulge me, let’s do a quick review of what has happened since Advent began. 

The advent season began not with a reading of his birth, but with Jesus just before the arrest and crucifixion talking about the future beyond the cross, (Luke 21:34-35) “…Take care that your hearts are not dulled by…the anxieties of day-to-day life. Don’t let that day (of the coming of the Son of Man) fall upon you like a trap.” 

 Zechariah, father of unborn John the Baptist, and filled with the Holy Spirit proclaims his son will tell the people (Luke 1:78-79) that “ By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, (Jesus Christ will come) to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” … “To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” [Those who sit in darkness is a euphemism for Gentiles.] 

 Following that the Baptist himself speaks a more somber message (Luke 7:17): “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 

 We heard Mary’s beautiful song recalling Micah (Lk1:50-52) : “His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.

 Each Sunday we received a hint to the answer to the question, “Why did Jesus come to earth?” We will get final answer in his own words to the question the last Sunday of the month. 

 Today we have the visit of the magi. You may wonder, “How does the story of the visit of the Magi answer the question of why Jesus came to earth?” 

 The Magi and A Great Light. 

 Our word magic comes from magi, but the magi weren’t magicians or Jews by the way but Gentile people of knowledge of the practical world that most people did not have. When they used this knowledge it seemed to most that they accomplished seemingly mysterious things. They just knew how the world worked; we might even call them astrologers, but  a more accurate description might be scientists of their day. 

 They knew following this great light, a star of some kind in the sky would lead them to Jesus, the new king of the Jews. But scientific knowledge and rationality can't explain this light and foreknowledge to know where to go and what to find. 

 How could the magi in Iraq or Persia know this light led to a new king of the Jews except by a revelation of the Holy Spirit? 

 Thus, Epiphany honors the day of revelation that Jesus has brought light into the world of the darkness of Gentiles. The magi signify that Jesus came into the world as the great light of salvation for all who live in darkness… 

 The Problem of Darkness. 

 We all have a problem with darkness, especially if sin is involved. What we do behind closed doors, in the cover of night, or in the privacy of our thoughts is not visible to the world and therefore, we can delude ourselves it isn't visible to us or to God. We prefer to use darkness to hide our inner self from others rather than use our public deportment as a light to others. That love of darkness blinds us, leaving us hopelessly lost from grace in the world of our fellow people. 

 A knock on the door in the middle of the night or your phone ringing is hardly ever a welcome sign of good news. Herod and the Jewish religious leaders certainly took the visit of the Magi saying a new King of the Jews was in Bethlehem that way. 

Herod was a Jewish puppet leader who curried the favor of Rome but kept the collusion hidden from his people. He and his minions knew the words of Micah that Mary proclaimed (Luke 1:52- 53, The Message Translation): “He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud.  The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold.” 

No, the news of a new king didn’t sit well with the tyrant Herod. He killed many young boys trying to extinguish that light because he had his foot on his people’s neck, pressing them further down into the darkness of oppression. 

 The Good News: Misery Can Be An Opportunity to Shine. 

 If someone needed darkness as much as Herod, it was Paul. How much easier for Paul the preacher if he could hide his history of pursuing Christians to their death – you remember reading in Acts that he held the coats of the high priest and the others that stoned Stephen to death for proclaiming the Gospel story. 

 The light of the Holy Spirit caught Paul on the road to Damascus. That light illumined his soul and he “owned up” to his past and embraced the forgiveness and freedom of faith. 

Rather than hide his infamy in the darkness of the past he talked about it and made it part of his own testimony about the Good News. In Ephesians Paul said he was the least of the saints because of his past. Paul used his weakness as strength. 

He used his grievous, miserable past of persecuting Christians to demonstrate by his new life and testimony to the Gentiles that he was forgiven in the Good News. Those congregations he started, most all of them small and struggling, grew strong and became lights shining on a hill pointing the way to new life. 

 Listen to Jesus in Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

 …Why did Jesus come to earth?... Today we learn he came to bring underserved grace… light to people who love darkness - an unjustified, freely given light that takes us into the congregation of citizens of Heaven, just as it led the magi to the King. 

 Because this gift is so precious, can we do any less in every circumstance of our life than to strive constantly to live as Christ lived ? 

 It is a wonderful and glorious opportunity for us here at Soddy-Daisy First Presbyterian Church to know that we have been given the grace to take every circumstance of our lives, every blessing and every hardship as an opportunity to shine with the light of Christ in the world. In that way even our hardships can be a blessing. 

 Friends, “Why did Jesus come to earth?” Jesus came to bring this Good News: Take every circumstance as an opportunity to shine as Christ does to the world.   Amen.