We are still
in the midst of the 12 Days of Christmas.
On Wednesday of this week, on January 6, Christmastide will end and we
have the Feast of the Epiphany. On the 6th,
we remember the story of the visit of the Magi from the East, the wise men who
came to visit Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The Magi followed the Christmas star all the
way to Bethlehem, a journey that took many months. Jesus was between 6 months and 2 years old
when they arrived. Next Sunday, we jump
ahead in the story of Jesus’ life and will focus on his baptism…his adult
baptism.
Since we are not having a worship service
on Wednesday, I decided we should focus today on the story that surrounds the Epiphany:
the visit of the wise men; Herod’s panic; the escape to Egypt; Mary, Joseph and
Jesus’ exile there; and their eventual return to Nazareth.
Please
listen to the story as it is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2.
Scripture Reading Matthew 2
2 After
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King
Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
2 and
asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his
star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When
King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
4 When he
had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he
asked them where the Messiah was to be born.
5 “In
Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has
written:
7 Then
Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star
had appeared.
8 He sent
them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as
you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After
they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen
when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child
was.
10 When
they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
11 On
coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed
down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him
with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
12 And
having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned
to their country by another route.
The Escape to
Egypt
13 When
they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a
dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to
Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child
to kill him.”
14 So he
got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,
15 where
he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had
said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 When
Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he
gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two
years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
17 Then
what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
The Return to
Nazareth
19 After
Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in
Egypt
20 and
said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for
those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he
got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
22 But
when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father
Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he
withdrew to the district of Galilee,
23 and he
went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was
said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Here ends this reading of the Word of God
for the people of God; thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Understanding
Gracious God, through weak human words give
us grace to hear your true and living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Message “Another Road”
In some
countries, gifts are not exchanged on Christmas day. Instead, families wait until Epiphany. Gifts are given until in honor of the gifts
the Magi gave baby Jesus and his family.
Spanish children receive presents during the “Fiesta de Los Tres Reyes
Magos” or the Festival of the three Magical Kings. On Epiphany Eve, children leave their shoes
out for the kings to fill with candy. In
the morning, when the children wake up, they find both the candy filled shoes
and gifts stacked around them.
The Magi from the East were Jesus’
first non-Jewish visitors. We don’t know
exactly where in the East they hailed from…perhaps Persia, where Zoroastrian
believers were very engaged with studying astronomy and the starts in the night
sky. They would have reveled at the
appearance of the Christmas star…it was a sign of greatness. Although we picture the Magi as three wise
men, we don’t know how many people journeyed to meet Jesus. We just know they brought three types of
gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Many
different types of people wanted to meet the special baby….last week, we
recalled baby Jesus’ presentation at the Temple and the adoration he received from
faithful Jewish believers Simeon and Anna.
This week, we recall the visit of Jesus’ first Gentile believers, the
wise men from the East.
In contrast to visits from magical
kings, in Eastern Europe and Germany, many families participate in a house
blessing on Epiphany. They want their
home and its residents to be fortified and protected for the next year, and
Epiphany always comes 12 days after Christmas in the first week of the
year. The house blessing is both a New Year
and Epiphany practice. In this year of
recovery from the ravages of Covid-19, we all can be inspired by this
tradition. We are all eager to protect
our homes and families from disaster.
After the families pray and ask God to
protect and bless their home, they write above their doors with Chalk. You may have driven past homes where the
residents have done this. This year,
they will write in chalk the symbols “20 + C + M + B +21”. The 20 at the
beginning and the 21 at the end are for 2021.
And, the C + M + B can stand for two things: C M B can stand for the names given the Magi
in a 5th century legend – Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. C M B can also stand for the abbreviation for
the Latin statement: Christus Mansionem Benedicat – which means “May Christ
bless this dwelling.”
I live with an 11 year old, so we have
a bin of chalk in our craft closet. On Wednesday
of this week, I am going to drag our step stool out of our house and chalk “20
+ C + M + B +21” above our doors. I want
us to be reminded that Christ will bless our home in 2021. I want us to be reminded that Christ will
bless our church in 2021. And, our
community. And, our country. And, the people of our world. Even if you don’t deface your front doors
with chalk, let’s all pray and ask God to bless our households on Wednesday as
we remember the visit of the wise men – men with wealth and privilege – who visited
Jesus and his family in their humble home and blessed them.
2020 was one of the most difficult years
most of us have faced. We lived our
pandemic year. Now that we are in 2021,
we will be coming out of pandemic…coming up for light. It is like we have been swimming under water
and we are coming up to breathe in the fresh air of 2021. We are beginning new lives as we exfoliate
the dead skin of 202o 0ff of our skin.
The Magi came to pay homage to Jesus
and to welcome the king of the Jews and the redeemer of all of humanity into
the world. And, in their quest to honor
a king, they also saved the life of a king.
They were warned in a dream not to go back to King Herod and tell him
where the baby was living. So, they
snuck back to Persia and avoided King Herod.
After they left, God communicated to Joseph in a dream and told him to
flee to Egypt with Jesus and Mary. The Magi
found Jesus and honored him as the king of the Jews. And, yet they protected him by not telling
the authorities how to find him, giving his family time to flee to safety.
Our work as Christians is to invite
Jesus into our hearts and to tell others about him. Unlike the Magi, we don’t
have to keep his whereabouts a secret. Part
of our work is to tell others we are believers and why we believe. God may communicate with people in dreams,
and we are to communicate to people with our words and our actions. We are blessed to live in a place where we
can safely share our faith. We are fortunate
to live in a country where our government is not hostile to Christianity. With that freedom comes the responsibility to
tell others about our faith. There are
many hurting people who need to hear the message of hope and love we find in
our faith in God.
Despite experiencing a pretty strange
2020, we got through it. We have faith
our future will be better than our past.
Our faith is a story of resilience and courage in the midst of difficult
situations. God supports and strengthens
God’s people so we can endure hard times.
Mary and Joseph are a case in point – they were constantly in
danger. And, they had the responsibility
of protecting a vulnerable child. Although
forces worked against them, they also had collaborators who helped them. God
gave them the courage, the grit and the support to endure the challenges they
faced and overcome them.
God gives us the same grit, courage and
support to take on the challenges we face.
Although the crisis is not yet over, we are getting through it. In a few short months, we will be
vaccinated. In a few short months, our
worry and caution will be lifted. So,
take heart….Christ will bless us in 2021.
We can proclaim it with our words and even chalk it above our
doors. God gives us strength, endurance,
and assistance in the midst of our trials.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment