Sermon for Epiphany 2014

Epiphany Worship: Sunday, January 5, 2014

Matthew 2:1-12

PREACHER: Pastor Carrie Smith

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

On December 25^th, I didn’t get out of my pajamas all day. I also didn’t answer email, do dishes, or go outside even once. It. Was. Glorious. Every day should be Christmas! Amen!

Early on December 26, dressed more respectably, I ventured out to run some errands. I was stopped short, however, by the sight of a neighbor’s Christmas tree, already stripped bare and leaning against the curb. I couldn’t believe it! Now, I realize my perspective may be slightly different (pastors and church musicians experience the weeks of Advent all the way through Christmas Eve as a kind of marathon) but in my view, on December 26, Christmas had just started. I was in no way ready to kick Christmas to the curb. 

One of the problems, of course, is the corporate Christmas machine, which starts pumping holiday cheer into us around Halloween and makes us more than eager to move along to the next holiday by December 26^th. Maybe that’s what my neighbor was feeling. Or maybe they were going on vacation, or their tree was dropping needles, or they needed to get the boxes of ornaments into the basement while the grandkids were around to help. In other words—this isn’t really about my neighbors, is it? If they look past the weeds in my yard, surely I can look past the tree on their curb. Note to self: a great New Year’s Resolution might be to “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” 

OK, but still, the Christmas tree thrown to the curb on December 26^th brings up an important issue for me. I’ve been thinking about how the understanding Christmas as being just one day reinforces the notion that the Christian faith is about honoring, remembering, and reenacting a one-time historical event. Here today, gone tomorrow; a few hours set aside from our busy lives, to tell a story we’ve already heard and to keep traditions we hardly understand.

Truth be told, that is probably the Christmas (and the Christianity) most of our neighbors are celebrating. It’s certainly the Christmas honored at Starbucks, the mall, and Toys R Us! As the church, however, we are always in conflict with this understanding of Christmas, beginning with the four weeks of Advent preparation right through today, the 11^th day of Christmas and the celebration of the Epiphany. Just look around! We’re still singing Christmas carols. The trees are still up. Baby Jesus is still in the manger. And the wise men and camels are just arriving!  

So from the perspective of the church, Christmas isn’t over just because the Christmas sales have started or the Valentine’s candy is on the shelves. For us, as people of faith, Christmas isn’t a one day commemoration of something that happened a long time ago. Christmas, and Christianity, is about an ongoing, cosmic, “happening”: God’s revelation to us through the birth of Jesus, which continues to bring life and light to the world. God did not come once into the world and then leave! And Jesus wasn’t just born once in Bethlehem. Today, and every day, Jesus is born again in us, the community of the faithful. The light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Amen! Merry Christmas!

For us, the church, the miracle of Christmas isn’t over on December 25, and that’s why today, although many of us have by now packed up the trappings of Christmas in our homes, we are celebrating another part of the Christmas story—the Epiphany. Raise your hand if you set up the camels and the wise men in your nativity set right next to the shepherds and the baby Jesus when you took the boxes out... Me too! But

Scripture tells us that the magi, the visitors from a faraway country, arrived about two years after Jesus was born. Not only were they not there on that “silent night”, they also likely never even saw the manger. Mary and Joseph were still in Bethlehem, but Jesus probably had graduated to more standard sleeping arrangements in those two years. Joseph might even have been doing some carpentry work until they could return home. By the time all the characters in our nativity sets were together in the same place, Jesus was a toddler, Mary and Joseph had moved out of the stable, and the foreigners had been traveling for a very long time. It couldn’t have been an easy journey—and their run-in with Herod in Jerusalem certainly didn’t help.

But we all know the part about how when they arrived, exhausted from their journey, they were overwhelmed with great joy. They had an Epiphany, recognizing Jesus for who he was. The magi fell to their knees and worshipped the baby Jesus, offering the gifts from the treasure chests they had been carrying for two whole years.

The celebration of Christmas simply could not be complete without these visitors from afar, whose eyes were opened and whose lives were changed when they encountered Jesus. Today, as we celebrate the end of the Christmas season and the Day of Epiphany, I ask you to consider: Are you here to remember how some wise foreigners got to see Jesus one time, an historic event that we had some fun re-enacting this morning? Or are you here, at the end of Christmas break and on the eve of some bitterly cold weather, because you believe that the miracle of Christmas is ongoing—and that we, too, can see Jesus?

What if, as we take down the trees and put away the nativity sets, kicking Christmas to the curb for one more year, we invite the joy of Epiphany to stick around for a while? What if our New Year’s Resolution is to practice watching for stars, and to be on the lookout for where Christ is born among us, in new and unexpected places?

One beautiful tradition we could borrow from our Christian brothers and sisters in England for just this purpose is called the “Chalking of the Door”. There, on January 6, Christians will gather on the doorstep of their homes with their families to pray and read Scripture. Then, someone takes a piece of chalk and writes above the door “20 + C + M + B + 14” while praying:

“The three Wise Men, C Caspar, M Melchior, and B Balthasar followed the star of God’s Son who became human 20 two thousand 14 and fourteen years ago. ++ May all who come to our home this year rejoice to find Christ living among us; and may we seek and serve, in everyone we meet, that same Jesus who is your incarnate Word, now and forever. Amen.”

(Now, I had thought I would present each of you with a piece of chalk and a printout of these prayers to take home today—but then I had a vision of you on your doorsteps tomorrow in the -50 wind-chill and I thought better of it! Therefore, this liturgy will be posted on the Sermon Blog and in Facebook, and I would encourage you to chalk your doors somewhere around next Friday, when it’s supposed to be above freezing!)

What I love about this “Chalking of the Door” tradition is not just the way it blesses and makes holy our homes for the year, but even more how that simple chalked message – c + m + b – calls to mind the three wise men every time a person goes in or out the door. Every day, many times per day, that simple chalk message reminds the homeowner to be on the lookout for stars pointing to the way to Christ. It serves as a reminder that we can expect to see him in unexpected places—maybe even on our doorstep! And it’s one simple way to keep the “overwhelming joy” of Epiphany alive all year long.

Dear people, while every day may not be Christmas, every day certainly can be Epiphany. Every day when we look up and choose to follow the Christ’s light in the darkness is Epiphany. Every day when we recognize Jesus in our neighbor is Epiphany. Every day when we kneel in the presence of Jesus, God-with-us, offering our treasures in his service, is Epiphany.

And so, as we bring the Christmas season to a close, let us bow our heads and pray an Epiphany blessing on this, our church home:

“The three Wise Men, C Caspar, M Melchior, and B Balthasar followed the star of God’s Son who became human 20 two thousand 14 and fourteen years ago. ++ May all who come to our church home this year rejoice to find Christ living among us; and may we seek and serve, in everyone we meet, that same Jesus who is your incarnate Word, now and forever. Amen.”