I was recently reminded that the church calendar is not always as fluid as we would like it to be.  The church liturgical year began on December 3 with the season of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation. It’s a time of patient waiting for the birth of the Christ-child. Sometimes the actual dates make it a challenge to plan for as Bryan and I were recently reminded. You see this planning conundrum showed itself on December 24^th which happened to be both the fourth Sunday of Advent but also Christmas Eve. It forces us to ask ourselves, “Do we axe the fourth Sunday of Advent that morning and go straight into Christmas Eve and into the birthing mode or do we dally in Advent just a bit longer highlighting the need for patient waiting for Jesus’ birth?”

This year we tarried a bit longer.  For the morning of December 24^th, we followed the recommended texts and hymns for the morning of the fourth Sunday of Advent and those are not what you would call Christmassy texts and carols. Advent Four is still about waiting patiently for the birth. As every parent knows, you can’t rush a birth. When a woman enters into labor, she quickly learns the baby has a mind of its own and will be born when it is ready. That’s the power of Advent.  We have to wait for when the Christ is ready to come. So, for the person who sent us a cordial email over the weekend expressing your gross disappointment about the lack of Christmas carols and birth texts on the morning of December 24^th, I feel your pain. Mary and baby Jesus weren’t ready yet.

This morning poses a similar dilemma for those of us who order worship. The Christian liturgical calendar has two celebrations over two consecutive days. Yesterday, after the twelve days of Christmas, the Church celebrated Epiphany, and the Sunday after Epiphany, the Church celebrates Jesus’ baptism. So, we are forced to wrestle with – do we commemorate Epiphany, or do we celebrate Jesus’ baptism? This year, I chose Epiphany. So, for those of you who were looking forward to remembering Jesus’ baptism this morning and singing all those wonderfully well-known baptism hymns, I apologize!  We are looking at the arrival of the Magi this morning because oftentimes this particular Sunday is “Three Kings Sunday.  Listen to the Word of the Lord from Matthew 1:1-12.

Matthew 2:1-12

^2.1 In 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.

Already in Jesus’ Story, we see how things get off to a rocky start. It’s a rocky start in our cultural misreading of this Story but it’s also a rocky start for Jesus amid Story time; you see, unbeknownst to Jesus at that time, even as a little boy, he is causing political problems. Culturally, we have misread this text and it’s a wonderful reminder to us that we need to carefully read Scripture as opposed to thinking we already know the Story whereby we don’t really pay attention to the details because “We get the gist of it already.” Just as Herod didn’t know his Jewish scriptures, too many of us are light on our own knowledge of our Christian texts.

To begin with, how many Kings are there in the Story? Three? No, there are only two mentioned – Herod and the newborn King of the Jews. The Persians following the star were not kings but were magi, readers of the stars and nature. They were astrologers.

Next, our Nativity scenes have Jesus in the manger, the cows are lowing and the sheep “baa’ing” and there are the shepherds gathered around the Holy Family and the manger like Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and Lion were around Dorothy’s bed in the Wizard of Oz. Matthew makes it clear that Jesus and his parents were in a house by the time the Magi arrived, not in the manger. The Holy Family was moving on up!

Finally, the time it takes for people walking from today’s country of Iran to Bethlehem would take several months to complete. We have in our imagination that Jesus was still wrapped in swaddling clothes by the time the Magi arrived. In all likelihood, he would have been wearing Huggies by the time they got there.  

An epiphany is a fancy word for a special revelation of something. It’s that moment we have an a-ha experience when we see something we have seen all along but see it in a totally different way. The first epiphany was seen by the Magi as early as when they were still in Persia. Their epiphany was a star that revealed to them there was a birth of a new King in the west.

The second epiphany in our Story is when King Herod realized in his oh-fudge moment there was a political rival afoot. Jesus, just a toddler, was already causing ripples of uneasiness in the established system and empire. He was just a child and he was already making people uncomfortable. Not only was King Herod frightened at the news of this new king, but we read in verse 3 that all Jerusalem was frightened along with him! The everyday Jewish man and woman knew that news of a new Jewish King would bring fierce retribution from Caesar and all of Rome. Jesus, oblivious of it all in his little house in Bethlehem, was already making his people uneasy and causing a fuss. In verse 16 of this same chapter, we read how Herod out of his fear and insecurity sends troops with orders to kill every child two years of age or younger in and around the area of Bethlehem to mitigate the rise of this so-called newborn king.

The Magi’s appearance in Matthew’s gospel does two things. One, it is a celebration that non-Jewish Gentiles from other countries recognized God’s special arrival in the child Jesus. Two, the Magi’s appearance flips over all the finely set carefully planned Christmas tables and causes a mess. You see, when the people hear about and see Jesus, it demands a response from them. From us.  

Yesterday during prayer, I was reflecting upon January 6^th and what happened three years ago at our nation’s capital. One politician over the weekend called those who have been convicted for their crimes at the Capital “political hostages” as opposed to criminals who tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in our nation. And then it hit me: January 6^th fell and continues to fall on Epiphany, the day of the revealing of our God among us in Jesus. Three years ago, it revealed the tearing fabric of our democracy and the spiritual shallowness our nation has achieved. I am scared to think about what Epiphany will reveal next year about our country and how we understand what it means to be neighbors to one another.

This morning is the invitation to come to the Lord’s Table and receive the precious meal which is an epiphanal moment for us. Through this meal, Jesus reveals to us that we are to love one another as much as God does – and that means giving one’s life and fidelity to what matters most: first to God but then to neighbor. But this meal is also an invitation for you, like the Magi, to look for signs of what epiphany is going to look like in 2025. As they took out on an arduous adventure to seek the newborn king, we are invited to be fed and then released on an adventure in guaranteeing we are spreading as much of God’s graciousness to as many others as we possibly can; we do this so that by this time next year, we will have shown the world what a “Christian nation” really looks like because what we have now is not revealing that at all. Come to the Table and be fed.

In the Name of the One who is, was, and is to come. Amen.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801, and may not be reproduced or repurposed without permission from the author. All rights reserved.