By Another Road

Merry Christmas.  This is the twelfth day of Christmas. This is Epiphany Sunday.  I love epiphany Sunday because it is still Christmas while Christmas is by and large done for most people.  You can see we have most of the decorations taken down but we still have the nativity scene here.  The epiphany is the celebration of the visitation of the wise men.  People from the east came and the divinity of Jesus was revealed to them.  Jesus was born as a Jew in a Jewish land but at a very young age (under 2) the non-Jewish world (the bible calls us “gentiles”) was let in on the miracle of his birth.

What does this mean?  I mean, so what? I struggled with the importance of this day for a long time. A man who I knew, who has since passed away, said that this is the most important holiday of the year. I didn’t get it.  So some guys came and brought gifts.  Is this a historical record a sort of review of the gust book of visitors to the young Jesus? Jesus divine nature was revealed to the gentiles.  Okay did they start a church?  Doesn’t say that.  Was their lives changed?  Doesn’t say that either. It did say that they went home by a different road.

When I struggle with scripture, I often find clarity in my conversations with people who have a love for God and faith in Jesus.  If you have ever been part of a bible study you probably have experienced this.  A question comes up, it is dealt with on a surface level then someone says something that sparks a conversation.  What comes next is a God-thing.  The Holy Spirit begins to work in and through the conversation and a truth emerges that no one can lay claim to as an individual.  It is in the community that we hear from the voice of God.  I often try to seek out the wisdom of others.  I may be the pastor of this this church but that doesn’t mean I have all the answers. The wisdom is in the gathering. Think about those people in our gathering, now and those who have gone who you would consider good strong Christian people.  What is it about them that is so special?   I thought about this and some traits came to mind.  Knowledge, compassion, self-sacrificing love.  I thought of the fruits of the spirit. All good things but it seems like there was something more. The intangible, the indescribable part that I try to grasp at is that those wonderful people reveal Christ in them. They let the love of Christ flow through them.  They unfiltered, uninhibited, and unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God

Scripture says that wise men came asking, "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."  When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 

There are people who are, and have been since his birth, afraid of Jesus.  Why?

Why would a king be afraid of a baby?

Why are people threatened by the Good News about Jesus Christ? Jesus was born into this world.  That was the easy part.  Everybody who ever amounted to anything was born.  Everybody who failed to reach their potential was also born.  Having life is indeed a miracle and a gift of God but let’s be honest, that’s the easy part.  The hard part is living.  It wasn’t that Jesus was born of a virgin that troubled Herod.  The troubling part to Herod was that this baby was born to be king of the Jews.  Herod thought that was his job. And he didn’t want to share.

So Herod gathered some intelligence. He did some investigating all because he wanted to honor the new baby but we really know that he wanted to destroy the threat to his rule. He told the wise men to report back to him when they found him.

The wise men found Jesus.  And they worshiped him. They presented him with gifts of Gold, frankincense and myrrh. They must have stayed more than your typical visit to a baby because they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. Perhaps they told Joseph about their dream. Perhaps Joseph had his dream about the same time and began the preparations to flee to Egypt.  Perhaps it was the gifts they brought that sustained the Holy family during their time as refugees.  Whatever happened at that visit by the wise men from the east, life was certainly different afterwards.  Not only did Joseph, Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt, the wise men took a different route back to their home country. Jesus was just a baby and He was already changing things.  Jesus was disrupting the order of things.  Of course babies do that anyway.  But this baby was different.  The wise men, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds all knew that this was God in the flesh. There was an ever-widening circle of people who being let in on this wonderful news. 

What if his identity, his nature was never revealed?  What if God came and was silent?  What would have changed?  We cannot possibly know. The thing is, it was the epiphany, the revealing of his divinity that changed and is continuing to change the world.  When you came to believe that Jesus was the son of God and put your trust in him, the Holy Spirit took up residence in you.  Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Christ was born in you. At your baptism you died to your flesh and were born of the Spirit. 

The epiphany is God’s divinity revealed in Jesus Christ after he was born.  If Jesus was born in you at your baptism don’t you think it’s time for an epiphany?  Don’t you think it’s time for you to reveal the Christ that is living in you? 

Let me tell you. Some people won’t like it.  There are Herods out there that will try to kill it as soon as you reveal it.  Christ’s message is radical.  Christ’s presence in this world is disruptive.  Folks that have a stake in keeping things just as they are will try to silence you and discourage you.  But you don’t have to take abuse.  Take a different road. You are not in this alone. This is a body of Christ’s believers.  Next week is the celebration of Jesus baptism.  A perfect time to be baptized into God’s holy church.  If you feel God’s call to live the life he has intended for you, I invite you to see me about beginning your journey.  If you are already baptized and are not yet a member of this gathering, I invite you to take a deeper, more public commitment to this body of believers and become a member. 

How is it with you today?  God lives in each of us. The question we face as a believer is how much of God are we willing to reveal in our lives.  How much are you willing to reveal?