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Epiphany
Happy New Year!
As we finish 2009 and begin 2010, we just can’t get away from Top 10 lists of both the year and the decade. They are everywhere –
· Top 10 Reality Shows of the decade
· The Top 10 music videos of 2009
· The Top 10 news stories of the decade
There is something about the turning of the calendar year that prompts us to spend so much time reflecting on what has happened in the past. Conversely, however, we spend relatively little time reflecting on what is to come. While we may make New Year’s Resolutions, they tend not to last very long, and we don’t expect them to. We don’t think a lot about the future.
In part, we don’t because it’s so hard to know what the future holds. But something in our human nature desperately wants to know what is going to happen in the days, weeks and months to come. Throughout human history, men and women have turned to nature, science, psychology and now, extensive computer models to determine what the future holds.
· In China, fortune tellers would read tea leaves left in the bottom of cups of tea.
· Farmers and hunters would study the thickness or thinness of animal hides to foretell the weather.
· Our teenagers play with Magic 8 balls and Ouija boards.
· In business and medicine and science, we now use algorithms and high powered computers to make elaborate computer models and projections about future behavior based on past events.
· And some today still go to the ancient practice of astrology, the study of the position of the stars, to tell the future.
That’s where we meet the main characters in today’s Gospel lesson – men who used astrology to tell the future. These magi or wise men were court magicians or astrologers from countries east of Jerusalem – probably from the area of Babylon, or present-day Iraq. They were specially trained in astrology, or the study of the stars, which was regarded as a science in the time of Jesus. By studying the night skies, they came closer to telling the future than anyone else.
And one evening, when they were conducting their nightly study, they saw a once-in-a-lifetime event – a star that heralded the birth of a new king. This star was such a life-changing appearance that it spurred these men into making a perilous journey that would change the course of their lives.
This story is so familiar that we often overlook the details. Let’s start with what we don’t know about these wise men. The Scripture never tells us how many magi there were, or that they even traveled together before they came to Jerusalem. What we translate as “they came to Jerusalem” means in the original Greek “they started to show up in Jerusalem.” One appeared, then another, and soon, there was critical mass of these magi all over the city.
What do we know about them? Given their prominence in their home countries, they likely didn’t travel alone, as we typically depict them in manger and crčche scenes. They probably had caravans that went along with them, prepared for a journey of weeks or months.
We know that they encountered a jealous and sly king in Herod. We know that they took a journey that could have lasted two years start to finish, because Herod ordered all boys two and younger killed. We also know that as wise as they might have been, they didn’t know what to expect as they started their journey, what they would encounter, and how their lives would change.
Doesn’t this parallel our own lives? Try as we might, none of us can tell at the beginning of our journey through a new year what we will encounter or how our lives will change. As we think back over 2009 or over the first nine years of this millennium, who among us would have anticipated or desired the events that have occurred? As we leave 2009, some of us may be grateful. I’ve heard more than one person say they are glad to leave this year behind. For many of us, it has brought heartache and pain – failed relationships, death of loved ones, layoffs, financial distress, illness, surgery, chronic illness. The uncertainty of this past year has almost been too much to bear.
As we approach this new year, this new beginning, we are reminded that we still don’t have the ability to tell the future. But, like these magi, we do have the ability to see and follow a star, the light of Christ, no matter how bright or how dim that light may seem right now. Following the light of Christ means surrendering ourselves to the unknown, doing things for Jesus we never dreamed of, and becoming changed in the process.
The magi in taking on this journey had to surrender themselves to the unknown. And by the end of the journey they were changed – changed not by their encounter with the powerful King Herod in a palace but by a tiny boy and his peasant mother in a home that was probably a combination lean-to and carpentry workshop. In that small home, they fell down on their knees and worshiped the Light that had come to take over the darkness of their world. They fell on their knees into the dirt, not the lushness of a woven rug. They handed over their extravagant gifts to a couple who hardly had two nickels to rub together. They left in tune with God’s direction – direction that came not from the night sky but from a dream where God’s voice was loud and clear.
Today, this first Lord’s Day of 2010, we have the opportunity to be like these wise men, to surrender ourselves to a journey we cannot anticipate and to be ready to be changed. There’s a difference, however, in going willy-nilly and truly surrendering. When we surrender ourselves to following the light of Christ, we intentionally put aside the practices or behaviors that keep us in darkness or that hide the light. When we surrender ourselves, we are focused on the light, focused on Jesus, even if he feels far away. When we surrender ourselves to our journey with God, we cast our lots with others. The magi made it to Jerusalem on their own, but then they sought the wisdom of others to complete their journey. We gather as a community for support, for guidance and for companionship as we follow Jesus.
As we begin this year, how is God calling you to truly surrender yourself to the leading of the Light of Christ? What is blocking your light and keeping you in darkness? Where do you need the Light of Christ to guide and lead you this new year? As we begin this new year’s journey, let us offer to God that which blocks us, truly surrender to be changed, and follow the Light of Christ, always going before us, showing us the way. Amen.