Year of Epiphanies: Matthew 2:1-12 - Epiphany of Our Lord

¹In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” ³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
 ⁶‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
  are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
 for from you shall come a ruler
  who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ”
  ⁷Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” ⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Sunrises by Rachel Kramer.  Creative commons image on flickr.

“An object at rest tends to stay at rest…”

That’s Newton’s First Law of Motion—one of only a few things I remember from high school Physics class…

But it’s also how I feel at 6:30 most mornings when the alarm clock rings!

Could this also be how we feel as we stand at the start of a new year? 

None of us knows what 2016 is going to bring—but it will bring change.  Some change is good; some change is not…  It is as intimidating as it is inevitable.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the Bible… 

From Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden, to John in exile on the island of Patmos, God’s people are constantly on the move.  This is particularly true at the opening of the New Testament, with the birth of Jesus:

·         With the baby Jesus due any day, Mary and Joseph must journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem because of the census…

·         Shepherds come in from the fields to the manger

·         Now, the Magi journey from the East, following a star that leads them to Jerusalem.  After a brief consultation with the chief priests and scribes, the journey concludes in Bethlehem, where they find Jesus and his mother. 

We call this day Epiphany because God reveals Jesus.  When that happens, people are radically changed.  But change is not in our nature.

I don’t know about you, but looking ahead to 2016, there’s a lot in my life that I don’t want to change.  For starters, I don’t want to suffer any losses this year.  At the same time, I don’t want to have to learn new things or try new things.  I want to be comfortable.  I want to feel in control.  I want to be at rest.

I do, however, want to see change.  I want our schools and streets to be safe again.  I want to see good jobs coming back to the community.  I want to see new people coming to faith in Jesus Christ.  I want to see Jesus. 

God wants this, too.  God wants Jesus to be seen.  That’s God’s plan for 2016.  Jesus will be revealed to us as we worship and break bread together.   He will be revealed in the opening of our Bibles as well as the opening of our doors.  But some things will have to change. 

Change precedes revelation; it results from revelation.   Simply put, our God is too great to be confined in the boundaries of what’s comfortable, familiar, and easy to us.  God is too great to be confined in our private lives, personal knowledge, and present circumstances.  In almost all cases, God will lead you somewhere else to reveal Jesus to you.  That’s how we grow.  Growth is change. 

Sometimes, change will happen that does not come from God.  We all sin and suffer the consequences.  We all experience loss and hardship.  But God can take this change, just the same, and use it to bring you closer to Jesus.  God can take this change and use you to bring Jesus closer to someone else, too!

2016 is going to be a year of epiphanies!  So where will God be leading you?

God leads the shepherds and the Magi back home to tell others about Jesus.  Mary and Joseph, on the other hand, will be forced to flee from home and live as foreigners in Egypt to escape King Herod, who was determined to destroy the baby Jesus.  The Apostle Paul’s mission of revealing Jesus to Gentiles lands him in prison.  And let’s not forget that the life of the baby Jesus will end on the cross. 

All of this reminds us that, no matter what the new year brings; where we find ourselves one year from now, Jesus will be there.  Our challenge, then, is to be attentive: to listen and pray; to trust and obey; to be ready to go where we’ve never been and do what we’ve never done…

It’s a prayer I’d like to share with you:

O God, you have called your servants
to ventures of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths as yet untrodden,
through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage,
not knowing where we go,
but only that your hand is leading us
and your love supporting us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.