On this Day of Epiphany, here is part of last Januarys Epiphany sermon: Epiphany, the season of the Magi, is the definitive turning point that is first described by Isaiah. In Epiphany it becomes clear that God’s attention and love is not limited to Israel, but it is accessible and available for all people, and that’s important to us because we are the “all people”, we are the outsiders. Isaiah reminded the people of Israel that even in times of captivity God had been with them in a special way. But even a casual reading of Jewish history, or a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington where Debi and I were in November, would convince you that God’s view of “Special” was not in any preferential treatment, it was special only because God was using Israel as a “show and tell” project to reach out to others. God was saying to Israel “I will work with you, and all of the outsiders – the people of Rome and Athens and Clover Hill – they will watch you, and they will realize how they are meant to live. You will be the gift that I give and as you follow me, so they will follow you.” This is why we, as Christians, don’t throw out the Old Testament, for it is in the Old Testament that we find God modeling the life of the community on a grand scale. The OT answers such questions as: how should nations behave? What is the role of the faith community and the political powers? When and where do we need to say to our government “no, you can’t do that” or “yes, you must do that” or, far more importantly, “have you no shame?” This was the role of God’s people, Israel, in the Old Testament, to live in such a way that those who saw them had their eyes opened and they were freed from the prisons in which they were living. In Epiphany we see that God has stretched the old borders and limits to include Persian astrologers – followers of a heathen religion that was an abomination to God’s people - those Magi that we place in our little manger scenes, they were the outsiders, they were us. There is no one else in the Epiphany story for us to identify with, is there? All of the others, even crazy King Herod, were already a part of God’s people, they weren’t outsiders, they didn’t see a star, they didn’t need a star. We do, and because we are outsiders, we saddle up with the pagan Magi, follow the star and ride to the light that God has provided . . .
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 15:53:24 +0000
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