Epiphany

Epiphany  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  57:42
0 ratings
· 12 views
Files
Notes
Transcript

The Hallmark Nativity

It is unwise to call the magi wise:
These are pagan magicians!
Astrology- Message of the stars
New age spirituality
Astronomy - Law of the stars
You and I may not follow astronomy but we do look to the voices of celebrity, the Hollywood stars to inform us and console us.
This last week- On the day of Epiphany, when we the church were celebrating that leaders of foreign lands came to King Herod looking for the worlds true King our nations capital building was breeched by her own citizens seeking to affirm their parties leadership.
The violence of this summer used similar tactics and is equally as appalling.
Each week we pray the kyrie - For the peace of the whole world and for the unity of all let us pray.
The earliest known creed of the Church is Christos Kyrios, Christ is Lord.
The lesson we should take away today is that Christ came to rule all peoples not with force but by mercy. This is an appalling thought. That the King should lay helplessly in a manger as people seek hope and truth is so appalling that later magi sought to fill our Kings mouth.
The Quran records Jesus speaking to defend His position of power even while he was an infant:
“Jesus declared, “I am truly a servant of Allah. He has destined me to be given the Scripture and to be a prophet.” 19:30
A syriac book called the revelation of the magi, oddly also in ch. 19 records the infant telling the magi (12 of them) that their job is now to be his witnesses in the east about his death and resurrection etc. You can buy a copy of the book for $75 on amazon.
The point is we are uncomfortable with even perceived weakness. A supernatural star, confronting false leaders and great kingdoms absolutely. But a worshiping a baby is contrary to our idea of a power worth lending our allegiance to.
To all of us who have entrusted our hopes to any ideology, movement or philosophy, Epiphany should be a call for us to wisely call those things a false religion, false hope and even idols.
In regard to the wisdom and ways of the world we are pagans. We should be foreigners to these paths of modern enlightenment.
This is a call for us to kneel in repentance at the cradle of life knowing that when that infant does come again it will not be with weakness or even flags but true power and majesty. No show of strength will stand before Him.
The kingdom of God was inaugurated in humility - this is a lesson we must learn before we learn strength.
Romans 5:6 ESV
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Because of this we must identify with weakness for in weakness, wisdom is revealed. This is a recurrent theme in the gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 11:25 ESV
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;
Jesus came as a little child to save us who cannot save ourselves. By His incarnation He made the fallen stand upright and the proud kneel. The desecrated become sacred and the dispossessed gain value.
The word sacred has been used quite a bit lately “Sacred Election, sacred building, hallowed halls”
- to hallow is to make holy or sacred.
Sacred- Holy or set apart for special purpose (From the Catechism - resources website
We seem to have lost focus of this idea:
Catholicism makes designated people and space holy and sacred
Really hard to find the line (Protest on capital steps but not indoors?)
Some of Calvinism tries to make everything holy and sacred but fights against iconoclasm and neuters beauty thus making holiness an idea but always out of reach or purely up to the eye of the beholder.
If everything is holy but nothing is right then NOTHING is sacred! (The sad nihilist tendencies of our world) - Nothing has sacred worth.
Christ made and makes all things holy by taking on flesh and then inviting outsiders in.
Isaiah 6:1–3 ESV
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
The story of Epiphany is that outsiders are now insiders. That the unclean are now clean and grafted in. Our Epistle lesson tells us as much:
Ephesians 3:6 ESV
This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
When we encounter the Holy God we recognize all of creation and all creatures are meant to be very good otherwise they cannot stand. In Christ you are holy. This is true wisdom.
When the wise men left, after seeing a helpless child, they didn’t go back to Herod and worship Him as king.
They had seen the source of all hope and joy.
They returned a different way. They had seen the light of the nations and undoubtedly left the darkness of Herod behind.
In the light of Christ coming to you- evaluate what darkness is God calling you out of?
You have a new King, a merciful and benevolent God who has great gifts to bestow on you- mainly life, light and hope.
May you, like the wise men return home another way. May you return home with Joy and hope for God’s light has shown upon us all- the wise and the weak, the pagan and the priest. Christ is Lord. Amen.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more