What's God Up To? - Epiphany Sunday
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
January 05, 2025
To those with insider information, the Wise Men are not
the intended recipients of the royal announcement. The announcement is for the
chosen who pore over the scriptures and know all the rituals. Some might say
the visitors from afar were spiritually lost even more than geographically off
course. They follow stars. Some might ask, “Are you sure you belong here?” Yet here they are at the head of the Gospel
according to Matthew. And it would seem they are an apparently welcome presence
at the side of the Son of God, of Immanuel. There they are getting as
included in the “us” of “God with us” as those who await a “Messiah born
for us.” We’re not told what ever happened to the Magi after they follow the
star, bumble into Herod’s court, persist in looking for the King that has been
born before going home a different way.
This is no conversion story so far as we can
tell. For all we know they went back to Persia and did their funky
astrology for the rest of their mortal days.[1] The parting gift they gave Jesus was to go home another way and not indulge
Herod, giving the Holy Family time to escape.
In all of this, what is God up to? Or maybe more
accurately in this time of Epiphany, what is God choosing to reveal?
The gospel of Matthew, written for a primarily Jewish audience,
gives us a clear vantage point. That whatever we think God’s vision is, we are
going to be radically re-oriented if we look at the revelations about Jesus. One
of those revelations is that if “Immanuel” means “God with us,” we must ask
just who constitutes the “us”.
Matthew gives the opening salvo of an answer. After
introducing Jesus’ geneaology, which includes men and women, and includes
murderers, adulterers, prostitutes, liars, schemers and idolaters, we are
introduced to a group (no one knows how many) of astrologers from Baghdad whose
pseudo-science and quasi-religion was overtly condemned by Scripture as foreign.
These Magi were anything but “wise”, at best a joke and at worst detested by
any person with a holy bone in their body among the people of Israel. Yet they,
followers of stars, have seen something new in the sky, as if somehow something
divine is speaking anew. And as they journey, the gift they bring that we do
not talk about is their curiosity.
They bumble into the court of the most paranoid man who
had ever occupied a throne of power to inquire after a newborn king in the
neighborhood. When Herod heard this, he was frightened, Scripture tells
us. That’s not really surprising. These people he occupies can’t go thinking
they have their own ruler. But then we hear that “all Jerusalem is frightened with
him.” And maybe this is because Herod is known for being the cruel ruler he
will show himself be.
Here is the next surprise. When Herod calls in the
experts-calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he
inquired of them where their Messiah, the “king of the Jews” was to be
born. If there was other conversation here, we don’t know it. I really
feel like there should have been. Because otherwise it’s like he asked Siri who
answered,
“In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
‘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.’ ”
It’s like the those who say they are awaiting a savior,
are sitting, reading and someone comes in saying, “Hey I heard someone was
asking about where our savior would be born because they think this has
happened” and without even looking up, they say, “Oh yeah, it’s supposed happen
in Bethlehem,” and they just turn the page. Not even so much as “why do you
ask?”
Herod calls the Magi back to tell them where to go and
feigns to share their interest. But what about those chief priests and scribes,
and the people of Jerusalem who have been waiting so desperately for a Messiah?
Shouldn’t they be packing their bags and telling the Magi, “Hey! Wait for me-
can I hitch a ride on that camel?”
Instead, they go right on thinking what odd ducks those foreigners are. And
there is nothing new to see.
In generations of broken and fractured people and
seemingly endless oppression, Jesus is a cycle breaker showing that whole
systems of history do not have to be predictive of the future. Cycles can be
broken, systems replaced and whole nations healed.[2]
What God reveals in this opening of Jesus’ story is a God
who draws and is drawn to those whose lives were the most fractured or
considered unworthy or even reviled even as those God hoped to reach seem
oblivious.
The second revelation is that Jesus is calling us to look
up. We can all get caught in our own script with its predictable worries and
endings. Scripture tells us that Jesus is the light not only symbolized by the
star, but a light shining in the deepest shadows. In the Greek, this word for
such shadows is skotia.
It is not only about light versus the absence of it,
skotia also is about being enlightened versus remaining ignorant. The irony of
the church over time is the same as the irony of this tale of the Magi and the
religious experts.
Herod consults the insiders who have perpetuated a way of
creating “outsiders.” All those folk God chooses to reveal as worthy recipients
of this holy message. The insiders become so focused upon creating “outsiders”
this that their inward focus leads to their ignorance of what God is up to
where they do not expect it. The real shocker is that God would be revealed to
the Gentiles too. For our purposes, “gentiles” is a good catch all for
“everyone who is not the people of Israel practicing Judaism in 1st century Palestine.” The irony is that over time, the Gentiles then, once the
“outsiders” will go on to create their own “outsiders.” And we have the same
capacity today for how we perceive everyone who is not doing what we do how we
do it.
In classic literature, we speak of protagonists and
antagonists- good folk and bad folk. It would be a mistake to hear this story
and take God’s reversal to mean “Magi good, religious leaders bad.” All had the
same opportunity to react to the star and to the news. But when some focused
too much upon what was being revealed by the other, they completely missed what
God most wanted them to see. Quite literally, they missed the chance to look
up.
Maybe instead of continuing to try to curate our “best
selves” or demonize others to project that we have our lives all pulled
together, we could take our cues from the Magi for how to journey toward Jesus
amidst what God is revealing.
Be curious. Take a look around and ask what you do not
know but want to. Get comfortable with mistakes or changes in course. Seek the
divine. It may send you home by a different way, but that is the final point.
Jesus isn’t looking for you to show up as “shiny happy
people.” Part of our enlightenment is seeing that we are being loved as we are,
guided into where God knows the best awaits us, and where God longs to continue
to show up in those most unexpected people and places. And in the beginning of
this season of Epiphany, to believe that God will do just that, and to look up
and look around for the light.
Amen.
[1] Scott Hoezee, Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[2] Russell Moore, Christianity Today cited in New York Times, December 24, 2024.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2025 All rights
reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written
permission.
Sermon Text: Matthew 2:1-12
1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in
Bethlehem of Judea, magi from
the east came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, “Where is the
child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and
have come to pay him homage.” 3 When King Herod
heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, 4 and
calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired
of them where the Messiah was
to be born. 5 They 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.’ ”
7 Then
Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time
when the star had appeared. 8 Then 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.” 9 When
they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star
that they had seen in the east, until it stopped over the place where the child
was. 10 When they saw that the star had
stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On
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. 12 And
having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own
country by another road.
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