A New Beginning

Do you still have your Christmas decorations up? I hope so, for this is our celebration of Epiphany, a most important part of the Christmas season! There are lights in the front yard of my world… I have a simple, lighted nativity towards the front of my yard—for all the world to see--or at least everyone that passes by—and closer to my house, I have a large pine tree on which I place several sets of net lights—you know, those grids of lights that are all spread out to cover a large area quickly. They’re lights that I hurriedly place, because I can’t reach very high on the tree, even with a ladder, without endangering myself. Well, I’ve learned to not worry about how those net lights look.

It was just a few years ago when I discovered that it didn’t matter how I fussed with those lights. I couldn’t make them look like I wanted, so I decided maybe God could just provide the message. I hoped. The first year I stopped worrying about them, I realized they looked like an angel in flight. Actually, most years since they’ve looked like an angel or angels in one form or another. Another year, they took the shape of a dove—the Holy Spirit. This year, I looked at my lights after I’d quickly put them up—and lo and behold, there’s a large crown. I never thought of that before! What a surprise, a crown for the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords! I loved it. Every year, there’s a message of some kind—for me and for the world that sees my display--and I’ve been learning more about how we can see things!

Friends, it’s the beginning of a New Year; how are things looking to you? Are you making resolutions… maybe a new start? Have you thought about the possibility, or, have you given up doing that because those changes we try to make in our lives never really seem to last… because we soon go back to our old ways?

Jacob Riis once said “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

And so preachers keep preaching, and wise men keep seeing and keep spreading the word, and Stephen Ministers and all good people of the church keep helping, in the ways that they do… For over 2,000 years, we’ve been doing it, hoping to make a difference—some year, somewhere… And God keeps sending messages, through God’s people and through the world…

(start first slide show of beautiful pictures of the world)

For God so loved the world… that the light came into the world, scripture reveals. Ralph Waldo Emerson reflected that “When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive.” Do we all see that beauty and see what God loves so much, as we open our eyes to see this world? Do we want to preserve it—and make it a better place than how we found it? Do we see the beauty of God’s people and all the possibilities of what people can do, how we can co-create with God, whether it’s castles or cathedrals created to glorify God or other ways to create more beauty, or to feed more people, even the spiritually hungry…? Do we thank God for the world and that we are alive?

Can we see, as did the wise men of so long ago, the hope and promise in this world, of all that God loved so much, when God gave us that wonderful baby that was named Jesus—that baby that did change the world? Would WE have followed the star that led to the baby, then—and now?

While the scriptures tell the story of the light that came into the world, the scriptures also tell the story of the world… So we have the gift of the world, and the gift of all the possibilities for that world, wrapped into that Christmas event, surrounded by scripture.

The prophet Isaiah saw it, oh so long ago. He had a vision shared in Isaiah 60:1-6: (read)

That vision was surrounded by a collection of songs, songs that reflected the renewal that would come, renewal for the whole world—a new beginning! The people had been through some really tough times up ‘til that point. Children and Gentiles—the non-Jews were called Gentiles—had been marginalized in society, treated as somehow different. Yet Isaiah was prophesying and giving the people eyes to see the future. An unknown writer once observed that “Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” Isaiah saw that and the people were beginning to catch on to what God is all about—and has been since the beginning of the world. LOVE begins to tremble in human hearts and grow…

Those words “Arise, shine; for your light has come” announce an epiphany, the awareness of God’s light coming into the world, promising redemption for the children of Israel and a major change in human history that would lead to the restoration of Jerusalem—a NEW Jerusalem!

Isaiah shares, for the first time, that this message of renewal is for all of us as well as all of Judea, where it is centered. It’s for all the nations who are non-Jews, as well as the Jews—that’s the whole world, friends, and he even includes kids with the Gentiles, in this epiphany that is a learning experience. Kids and non-Jews? That’s a first, overcoming the past, again.

The Psalmist joins in song and a prayer for guidance and support as he, too, is caught up in the vision, in chapter 72, vs. 1—7 and 10—14: (read) Thus ends the reading.

I was reminded of a time I was on a long, bumpy camel ride in the far northwestern part of India, near the Pakistan border, wondering why I was there in my discomfort, when suddenly the oasis, the place of festival appeared, in the middle of the desert, and we had a grand time of celebration…

The Psalmist, most likely a king such as Solomon, prays in anticipation of this new King, perhaps preparing for an expected coronation, or a wedding, but certainly a festival of some kind. It’s considered a royal Psalm, written by a very wise man.

How amazing that children were lifted up in anticipation of this new King, for all that we’ve heard for the past two weeks in our sanctuaries and in all of our Christmas celebrations are of the birth of this King that came to us in the form of a baby.

The joy to the world is that Jesus the Christ was born in a manger in Bethlehem. It was a simple birth, to an unlikely couple, certainly not a royal event such as one might have expected… and who could ever have guessed that the Savior of the world would come in the form of a baby, born in the primitive, rural setting that this child was?

It was an unlikely announcement—a star in the sky—that led the Gentiles from far away, to come seeking this gift to the whole world. It’s one of Jesus’ disciples, Matthew, who later tells the story of how men came to find him, recorded in the gospel of Matthew 2:1-12: (read)

So who were these so-called wise men from the East? How could a baby be so significant? And why did king Herod, assigned by the Romans to this area, feel so threatened by this birth?

These men we call “wise” were, once again, not Jewish, perhaps not even wise—they might have been magicians, shortening that to Magi, or it is thought they were simply astrologers—those who were used to looking to the heavens for signs and readings, to interpret what was to come, a practice that was not accepted by many… Certainly they were questionable and for the most part, distrusted… Scriptures warned against believing in people like this… So, here we are once again, another event, even an epiphany, in the hands of the most unlikely people! And—they’re bringing gifts! They’re open, they’re accepting, they’re praising and anticipating—everything the Jewish people should be, we’re led to believe, for this birth that has happened right in their midst. Yet they are wise men, from far away, probably the Persia of that time--clearly not trusted “insiders.” Yet they are seeing… and believing… and leaving to tell others, avoiding the route of Herod as they return to their far away lands. It’s an epiphany—a learning experience; a new way of seeing, for the whole world.

Jesus Christ, born into a world in need and an epiphany to appreciate the meaning of this for all of us. How does this come alive for us today? How is Christ newly born in our hearts? Epiphanies—and our experiences of them can be many—are learning situations, so I’ve called on one of our retired teachers, still an educator as he teaches Spanish and Stephen Ministry classes, to share a simple story. Here’s Bill Price. (Bill, a retired school teacher, shares the story of a parent-teacher conference in which he highly praises a student/son to his parents. He’s actually made a mistake and is praising another young man, but neither the parents or the student ever figure this out—and the formerly bad student turns completely around to become what was actually said about “him”)

On behalf of all of us, Bill, we thank you for a situation where a young person could believe in himself for all he is and all he can become. There’s an epiphany right here, isn’t there, friends? More important than the fact that he thought others believed in him is the way in which he then suddenly believed in himself and in what he could become. No one else knew that at the time, not even his parents, but all involved certainly had an epiphany as the situation developed.

And yet God always believed in this young man and all he could become. That message came through Jesus’ birth, through Christ, as he revealed himself to us. Let’s listen to that message in the words that the apostle Paul shared with the young church at Ephesus, words that Paul, a follower of Christ, most likely wrote in prison—another very unlikely setting for an unconventional message. Our scripture reading is from Ephesians 3:1-12: (read)

You saw Stephen Ministers and Leaders commissioned today, joining a much larger group of those already serving. More than anything, these Stephen Ministers are trained to believe in the people they are paired with, to care for and support those persons as they go through whatever difficulties they have in their lives. More than anything, Stephen Ministers attempt to understand and listen to people and love them, as Christ would have them. They create the setting that God might more fully work through them and use them, that the people being served might be healed. And somehow, we often end up being healed together…

That is the message of the birth of Christ and of the wise men who came and saw—and then went out to share that message with the world where they were, that the whole world might know… as our Stephen Ministers have shared and will share wherever they may be. I encourage you to consider Stephen Ministry in your future, but consider also accepting the care of others when you do have a need. And of course, you can carry this same loving and accepting message wherever you might serve.

(start a 2nd slide show, of the heart symbol, formed by an individual’s hands and changing to show it in different ways)

Our epiphany today, as we re-tell the story of old, is to be a part of the fulfillment that comes when we see in a new way and internalize the reality of Christ in our lives. May Christ be born anew in each of our hearts to rid us of all those things that hold us back. May we believe in the new beginning we can have through Christ. May we believe in all we can become through Him. May we not limit ourselves, for Christ does not limit us, and any attempt to limit ourselves is an attempt to limit Christ. May we look at others in the same way—not just for what they appear to be, or for any judgments we might make, but for how and the way in which they were created by Christ, and for all their lack of limitations because of all that Christ has given all of us—for all that they can become in Christ. May we see all the peoples of the world in the same way—our family members, friends and neighbors, children and non-Christians, Jews and Gentiles—whoever they might be and wherever they might be, in all the nations of the world.

How wide open are our church doors? How open are our hearts? What will “outsiders” see and sense, when they enter our doors? Let a new beginning for us become a new beginning for all those whose lives we touch, and for our church as we together reach out to our community and the world, especially in this New Year. Let us offer our gifts to the Christ child, that gift of God’s love to all people. May the stories of Christmas come to us once again, through the people whose lives we touch, that we may all be changed. May God’s grace work fully in our lives!

(Communion)

Benediction: Remember the waters of your baptism, and your place in the community of faith. Believe in Christ and the way he has been revealed to us through his birth and his baptism. As we once again accept him into our hearts, let us all become the people of the epiphany that he would have us be, believing and growing, discovering and knowing, as we are and as we can become, that the world might know Christ. Amen.

Sermon delived by Rev. Carol Mumford on January 4, 2009.