Epiphany,
1-3-2016
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, amen.
Last week, during the combined post-Christmas Sunday
school, in between making coffee-filter angels and decorating cupcakes, Miss
Julie reminded us that it’s still Christmas! It’s Christmas until the wise men
arrive to see Jesus on the day that we call Epiphany. To which Mr. Pennenga
jokingly responded, “Gesundheit!” But, he does kind of have a point– today
we’re celebrating a day in the church year that sounds more like a sneeze than
a holiday.
But in a way, that’s Epiphany in a nutshell. Or at
least, this is how we tend to think about epiphanies in general – as flashes of
insight or revelations that come upon us suddenly and catch us by surprise,
like a sneeze. And most of the time, like sneezes, they overtakes us whether we
want them to or not.
You all have probably heard one of the most famous
epiphany stories in all of English literature. It’s a story that begins with a
man that seems to have everything going for him – his business has been
successful and his is very wealthy. But there is one small problem, in the fact
that he “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old
sinner!” and nobody likes him. Oh yeah, and he hates Christmas. “Bah, humbug,”
is his favorite saying on the subject.
 |
| My favorite Scrooge |
Then one night, on Christmas Eve, this man is visited by
his long dead business partner, covered in the heavy chains he forged in life
in every act of unkindness. He has come to warn his friend that he will be
visited by three spirits – the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and
Christmas yet to come.
And visit them they do, and if you want to know how that
all works out, you can watch one of the dozens of movie versions or even read
the original book by Charles Dickens. But, I don’t think I’m spoiling too much,
though, to say that he was a changed man, and became known for his generosity
to the poor, and keeping Christmas all the year through. The true meaning of
Christmas had caught him, and refused to let him go, and the experience changed
his life forever. And people were utterly amazed at his transformation.
This very church is named after someone who had one of
the most dramatic, real-life, Ebenezer Scrooge-like epiphanies in the history
of Christianity. This super-religious young man began his life with the name of
Saul. In the days of the early Christian church, the followers of Jesus were
hunted down, arrested, and prevented from talking about Jesus. One such
follower of Jesus was Stephen, who was hauled out and stoned to death after
preaching before the high priest, becoming the first ever Christian martyr. Saul was present and watched the stoning with
satisfaction as he held all the cloaks for the people doing the actual stoning.
From that moment on, Saul became infamous for his relentless harassment of the
early church, hauling both men and women to prison for believing in Jesus.
But persecuting Christians in Jerusalem wasn’t enough for
him. He wanted to stamp out these heretical followers of Jesus all over. But on
his way to a neighboring city, a bright light flashed from heaven and Saul fell
to the ground, made completely blind. In that moment, Saul was visited, not by
three Christmas Ghosts, but by Jesus himself.
Later, after another disciple reluctantly heals Saul’s
eyesight, Saul began to be just as zealous in preaching FOR the gospel of Jesus
as he was preaching AGAINST it. And people were utterly amazing at his
transformation.
This Saul, who then became Paul, wrote over half of what
we have of the New Testament, planting churches like it was going out of style,
then writing to them when they would inevitably have problems. In his letter to
the church in Ephesus, he mentions his own personal epiphany so that he can
share the most amazing epiphany of all – that Jesus came not just to those who
are considered to be God’s “insiders,” but to the outsiders as well.
These outsiders – the non-Jews – originally
thought to be outside of God’s grace, are now to receive the news of the
“boundless riches of Christ,” to become heirs along with the insiders, to be members of the same body, and to be
sharers in the promise of Jesus Christ.
And so Paul, this super-strictly-religious Jew who once
persecuted Christians, became the champion of the inclusion of non-Jews in the
early Christian church.
But epiphanies did not stop at Paul. The light that first
dawned in a manger on Christmas keeps shining and keeps showing up even in the
most unlikely places. Like, about a month ago, when Time Magazine announced
their Person of the Year.
The 2015 Person of the Year is the Pro- Immigrant, Anti-Wall
leader of Germany, Angela Merkel, one of only four women who have held the
title of Time Person of the Year in its 100 year history. She has been in the
news recently for opening Germany’s doors to one million refugees while other
European nations around her close ranks and build walls.
Under her leadership,
immigrants are welcomed and treated like human beings. This is from the same country
that over fifty years ago was better known for the death of millions of people
and starting a world war. If you think about it, the transformation is pretty
amazing.
I see the fact that it is Angela Merkel on the cover of
Time Magazine, and not the face of another, more famous person who is Pro-Wall
and Anti-Immigrant, as a light that shines forth in this very dark world.
Contrary to what the world wants us to believe, this
light is not just for some – the rich, the powerful, the successful, the
privileged, the educated, the popular, the loudest, or the most opinionated. This
light cannot be controlled, manipulated, or bought by the highest bidder. It
shines where it will, often in and through the most unlikely of us.
This is the great Epiphany that dawned upon the earth in
a manger, and led the wise men by the light of a star – the revelation that the
outsiders were no longer on the outside. That nothing can divide us any longer
from the light of the love that is shining on us through the face of Jesus, the
word made flesh.
That light continued to shine all through Jesus’ life, as he opened his arms to the outsiders– the poor, women, children, immigrants,
foreigners, the sick, the unwanted and undesirable.
That light could not be extinguished, no matter how hard the “insiders” tried. And
yes, they did try, all through
Jesus’ life. Herod couldn’t extinguish the light. The religious leaders and
Roman authorities couldn’t extinguish the light. Saul couldn’t extinguish the
light. Our tendency to build walls and keep people out can’t extinguish the
light. Not even evil and sin and death could keep that light from shining.
To those who are in the inside, this news is terrifying.
But to those on the outside, this news is life itself. And, truth be told, as
much as we would like to believe we are on the inside, belonging to the
in-crowd, we have all experienced
being on the outside, looking in. We are all
in need of being in the light of God’s love. And thanks to Jesus, we will never
be outside of that love.
But there are still
plenty of people on the outside.
There are still plenty of walls to
be taken down. There is still plenty of darkness in this world.
The work of shining this light in the darkness of the
world continues. It is a task that Jesus started, that Paul kept going, and now
is ours to continue. We may not have a bright and clear star to follow, or
experience our own dramatic, life-changing epiphanies, but the light of Christ
goes with us as he calls us to shine his light. Even if that leads us to some
dark places. Even if that means taking on the “insiders” to bring in the
“outsiders.” So that someday the inside is so big that there IS no more
“outside.” AMEN.
