OT Reading: Isaiah 60:1-9
NT Reading: Matthew 2:1-12
The actual title of this sermon is "Decisions, Decisions," but its subtitle is "Let Every Circumstance be an Opportunity to Shine." By the time you are finished reading, I hope you see the connection. In the liturgical calendar, this Sunday was Epiphany.
Epiphany means a sudden appearance of a great light, a revelation from God. Matthew, Luke and John use “light” to significant a Divine message to the people. Matthew tells us the Magi followed the light of a star to Jesus, on the way revealing to King Herod the existence of the new King before seeing Jesus with their own eyes.
Luke (2:22-40)
uses Simeon’s song in the temple to proclaim in Jesus he has seen
in Jesus a great light that is the revelation to all people. Simeon says Jesus
will cause the rise and fall of many in Israel and reveal the inner thoughts of
many. (Lest you think I ignored it, this passage pointedly included both a man,
Simeon, and a woman, Hannah, who were revealing the Christ event.)
John
calls Jesus the true Light. In each Gospel “light” symbolizes the revelation of
God’s plan for Jesus in the World. That is why we call this Sunday Epiphany.
For most of us, the Magi
are one of the principal players in the Christmas story. Like many of you, I
recall my brother and I when we were children placing the wise men around our
Christmas crèche under the tree with the sheep and cattle, Joseph, Mary and the
infant Jesus even though as I later learned in adulthood that the Magi were not
at the birth scene, but visited perhaps 2 years later. But timing is not
really an issue with Matthew. The Magi are Matthew’s way to signify the
revelation of Jesus’ presence in the World.
With our focus on the birth
scene in this story, I wonder how many have in the front of our mind Herod’s
meeting with the Magi? The revelation of the Magi was also to Herod,
Rome’s installed Jewish King, arguably as important as the actual visit to the
baby Jesus.
Epiphany on another level
is a story about decisions. Herod was a Jewish puppet leader
who curried the favor of Rome but kept his collusion hidden in darkness. After
the visit with the Magi, King Herod understands this is the King of Jews who is
the shepherd of the people of Israel. King Herod had the opportunity to shine
and be part of this great transformation of the world of his people by God. But
he knew the words of Micah repeated in Luke
1:52-53, (I quote the The Message paraphrase translation but the
link is to the more direct translation of the Greek: ) “52He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of
the mud. 53 The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were
left out in the cold.”
The news of the new king
didn’t sit well with Herod so he decided to
use the opportunity of the Magi’s visit to try to kill this new king,
this new light, fearing him as a rival. Herod faced an opportunity to shine and
chose darkness over light.
The Magi also faced a
decision when they saw the child. They understood by revelation who Jesus is.
Knowing Herod’s intent, they decided to return home avoiding Herod. The
Magi seized this opportunity to pay homage to the baby Jesus as an opportunity to
shine by protecting the child’s location.
Epiphany is a time is
discover and seize our opportunities to shine as a continuing revelation of
Hope to the world.
The Why of Hope. In my
last sermon I talked of the ”Why of hope.” I pointed out that we often look at
the growth and survival of our congregation is the context of what
are we going to do to stabilize or expand it, often overlooking the basic
question “Why are we here?” or “Why are we worshipping?”
I maintained this sequence
“what, how, why” is backwards to a constructive presence of Christianity in the
World. Before we decide what to do, we need to clearly understand
literally why we worship God. With that answer in hand, we can ask “How
do we send that message of faith to the world? Put another way, John says
only God will bring people to faithful worship. That changes the “how” question
to “How can God use us, our faith and our worship experience, as a beacon to
the community?” Answering that question is a challenge that requires
discernment, or illumination.
The Problem of Darkness. We
understand the problem of darkness when intentional sin is involved. We hide
our sins in the darkness behind closed doors, or in the privacy of our thoughts
deluding ourselves that our sin isn't visible to us, the world, or God. But the
problem of darkness I want to emphasize today is not intentional sin but the
darkness of being unaware of our power as Christians and a congregation. I’m
not tossing stones raising this question. Even if I wanted to, I don’t know you
well enough and tossing stones and it usually only closes minds. But I am
talking about the comfort that dulls our awareness. It afflicts us all,
sometimes by singing hymns repetitively until they becomes a rote exercise
where we are dulled to the meaning of the lyrics. Any ritual of worship taken
for granted can fall victim to this problem. Even communion can fall victim if
we do not come to the table with thankful and open hearts.
Discernment. Discernment
and faith is the weapon that heals that kind of blindness to our gifts.
We find the answer to “How we do use our gifts to proclaim it as a
proclamation to the world of the Good News by discernment.
We discover how to
proclaim our good gifts through discerning God’s calling for our actions.
Discernment is simply a short cut way to say we use prayerful contemplation,
discussion of our history and present, reading and listening for the
illumination of the Holy Spirit (there I go using a “light” word again).
Discernment is a conversation with God about our faith that we will discover
the answer to the question, “How should we be a light in the world?” With that
answer, we can go after the “what question.”
Discernment requires us to
step outside our comfort zone and answer the question, how do we honor God?
You need to know the why, how and possibly ideas of the what because your
new pastor will want to know your idea of the why and how of Christian living
in New Hope Presbyterian Church to work with you on what to do.
The How of Hope is finding
an opportunity to shine in every circumstance. Today I’m
really talking about the “How of Hope;” how to discern opportunities to shine
in the world and go do it. The one essential power behind discernment is hope
or faith.
Discernment will reveal
many opportunities to shine than we appreciate. Our challenge… is
focusing on particular
Opportunities may be as
simple as writing a welcoming note to a visitor or inviting a young couple to
worship with us. Both can have far-reaching consequences. That invited person
may begin a cascade by inviting their friends to worship. Opportunities always
abound. You have to keep your eyes open. Let me tell you a story about faith
and opportunity to shine.
In my volunteer time after
Katrina I heard a man’s story about Christian faith and action in
Pearlington, a small hamlet on the Pearl River about a mile or so from the
Gulf. Like almost every one, Buddy’s house was inundated and almost
washed away, he and his family barely survived the storm. One day I asked him
why he didn’t leave before the storm and his story poured out.
Buddy stayed behind not by
choice, but by necessity. He realized the danger very early in the morning with
a few hours to get out before the high winds of the approaching storm began
felling the trees blocking all exit roads. But there was no time to collect his
mother, sister, a cousin and four of her kids. When the force of the storm
began to hit the area he gets a call from his friend Howard who lives a few
blocks away. Howard can barely walk even with a walker and he was frantic
because the fire department promised to evacuate him but abandoned him as time
ran out.
“So, Mr. Henry, then I surely couldn’t leave
Howard and my family. I got over to Howard’s in my truck as fast as I could and
drove him back over to my house. Even with a chain saw it took me over an hour
to there and back with all the falling trees. We all got back to my house where
we intended to wait Katrina out.
"The wind was
snapping trees like matchsticks. It was terrifying. When the eye came over us and
the sun came out, we all went outside. The road north to I-10 was fully blocked
by trees and debris. There was no way to drive out, no electricity for well
water and no cell phone service to call somebody for help. We were stuck.
"While I’m standing
there looking southwest towards the Gulf and the Pearl River, all the sudden a
couple hundred yards away this wall of water rises and slowly rolls towards me
pushing broken trees and all sorts of trash before it. I turned around and
started running towards my house, yelling ‘get everybody in the house, get in
the house!’
“The water was up already to mid-calf when I
was half-way to the house and I was starting to think maybe the house and I
wouldn’t make it. I kept my fishing boat in the front yard, so I started
yelling to the family, ‘Get in the boat! Get in the boat!’ But mother yelled
‘no way, how do we get Howard in?’ They got him in.
“By the time I swam to the boat all I could do
was hang on in water over head deep. I managed to swim the boat over to the submerged
porch floor and we got all eight people on it except me. It was raining like
crazy and I decided we had to risk getting into the house because the boat was
too dangerous with that many people and the water was still rising. But now the
water was too high to get in the first floor, so we stayed in the boat, and
were able to climb onto the porch roof with the idea to break in a dormer
window to get in the attic - but we had no hammer.
“I knew my submerged truck was parked in the
yard over by the oak. I started swimming towards the oak where the truck ought
to be. My family was screaming because they thought I was caught in the
current and washing away. My feet bumped the open door or roof of my truck. I
took a deep breath and dived. I managed to grab the doorframe and pull myself
into the bed of the truck fighting the heavy current. I felt my tool chest,
fumbled the clasp open and felt and grabbed my crow bar and surfaced. Then I
shoved the bar under my belt and pushed off against the trunk of the tree and
swam to the boat.
“We got the boat tight up against the porch
roof. I climbed on the roof and forced the dormer open with my crow bar. My
cousin and I lifted Howard out of the boat and everybody else scrambled up and
into the attic about the time the wind started really picking up again.
We waited out Katrina in
the darkness of the attic. We couldn’t even stand up. It was the most
frightening experience I’ve ever had, the howling wind, trees cracking,
shingles tearing off the roof and the water was still slowly rising. All
sorts of things were floating and blowing by on the water and you could hear
the furniture bumping the walls and ceiling downstairs. We were paralyzed
by fear. My mother kept crying for us all throughout the whole eight or ten hours
we were in the attic, ‘“God help us, We are all going to die.’
Buddy took a deep breath
and continued.
"When the water and
wind subsided we got down out of the attic into the house. Everything was
covered by a foul smelling sludge. Outside everything was thrown about and
scattered. The damage was just unbelievable.
It took almost two hours
but I walked over and checked out Howard’s house. I should say to Howard’s lot.
His house was off the foundation and crushed.
“Mr. Henry, Howard
would have died if he’s stayed in it. That is when I knew I was supposed to
stay. Because I stayed, I saved Howard’s life.
Here we were three years
later and tears still welled in the reddened edges of his eyes as he finished
the story.
“But there is a little more, Mr. Henry. A few
days later I was cleaning out all the filth in my living room when my neighbor
Joe came over to talk. I guess he wanted to compare the damage in my
house to his.
“Joe was looking at my living room wall where
I had a crucifix that amazingly managed to stay put through all the water. The
high water mark on the wall just touched Christ’s outstretched arms on the
cross.
"Joe said, 'That
crucifix is something else.' Then he asked me, 'Buddy, are you going to put it
back on the wall after you are done cleaning up this place?'
“Yes, I sure am.
'Well, Buddy, how about
putting him a little closer to the floor this time.'"
After all the misery,
terror of death, and loss of everything they owned, Buddy and Joe found an
unreasonable faith in Christ through that crucifix that drove his actions.
Buddy did not set out to
be a hero, to put others’ lives ahead of his own. When the circumstance
presented itself, Buddy acted. It is easy to say he decided to stay, but there
likely was no hesitation and conscious “I am going to stay” thought process
when he swam for his toolbox, or when he got in his truck to get over to
Howard’s.
I’m sure Buddy has done
some things he should not have done, we were in deep Mississippi where a lot of
things have been done in darkness. But deep inside, Buddy has a spark of faith.
His decision to stay was made long ago when that spark of faith ignited.
Grace and Peace.
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