A little girl and her mother were looking at the creche. The mother was explaining that the Wise Men were presenting their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the newborn King. The little girl looked in great adoration at the babe in the manger, then turning to her mother, thoughtfully asked, “Why didn’t they bring him a bed?”
Happy Epiphany to all of you! It’s been a wonderful Christmas, which ends today with the great Feast of the Epiphany. Rarely does Epiphany fall on a Sunday, so we’re fortunate this year that it does, for many more will experience this important feast as a result.
Have you ever had an epiphany? Have you ever had an experience in which something of the nature of God or of his creation was revealed to you? If you have, the result was that your mind was expanded. You understood in a greater way the purposes of God, or better yet, you understood in a greater way God’s purpose for your life, what he intends for you to do and to be. I find corporate worship frequently to be a time for epiphanies, times when God makes something quite clear or when I understand something in a new way.
Long ago, most likely in what today is called Iran, there were some astrologers who, in watching the heavens, noticed the appearance of an unusually brilliant star. These astrologers, whom St. Matthew called wise men, were also familiar enough with Hebrew prophecy to know that the Jews were looking for the messiah to come and reign as king. We can’t be certain what star it was that they saw, but in 6 B.C. three planets—Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars–appeared as one brilliant object in the sky. That could have been the star the wise men saw. If so, of course, that would make our present dating a little off by six years, having Jesus being born about 6 B.C., but that actually is believed by scholars to be the case for other reasons as well. At any rate, the wise men had an epiphany: they saw something of the purposes of God as they looked at the heavens, and that epiphany led them to take decisive action. They were led to want to worship the One born King of the Jews.
The significance of the visit of the wise men, or Magi, is that these Gentiles are a sign that this child in Bethlehem was to be not just the Messiah for the Jews, but the Savior of the world. While St. Matthew doesn’t tell us how many Magi there were, tradition has it that there were three, apparently because there were three gifts. Tradition has also given them names: Casper, Melchior, and Balthasar. Three different races were they as well, one being black, one white, and one brown. How old were they? Some say one was young, one old, and one middle-aged. And why gold, frankincense, and myrrh? Gold is for the universal kingship of Christ, as the hymn states it, “over us all to reign.” Frankincense proclaims his divinity. And myrrh, the spice used to anoint the dead, foreshadows his death to atone for the sins of the whole world.
The hymn-writer Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith says this about the gifts:
“Strange are the gifts that the Wise Men bring
To so small a Child, to so strange a King.
Sovereign gold, but his brow was torn
When they hailed him King, with a crown of thorn;
Frankincense, that they might provide
Perpetual praise to a God who died;
But none so strange as the myrrh they gave
To anoint the clothes of a three-day grave.”
The implication of the visit of these strange Gentiles from the East is clear: Christ is for all people and the mission of the Church is to do what Jesus commissioned us to do—preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Feast of the Epiphany is thus a celebration of the universality of the Gospel, but not only that. It’s also a proclamation that Christ is not just a Savior, not just a messiah, but the Savior of the world. Such a message flies in the face of popular wisdom today, which would have us believe that all religions teach the same thing and that there are different messiahs for different religions, Muhammed for Islam, Buddha for Buddhism, and so on. While Christians should always acknowledge that truth is certainly to be found in all religions, the path to salvation is Jesus Christ.
One might say that when the Magi set out for Bethlehem, they were about to discover a whole new world, a world more wonderful than anything they could imagine, a world with the pure, unbounded love of God as its base, love so amazing that this child would take the sin of the world upon himself and die for that sin. They had an inkling that this child was very special, as their gifts indicated.
But I wonder what their lives were like after their visit to Bethlehem? That’s the critical question. Like the Magi, we will meet Christ this day at the Altar and take him into our lives once again, when we receive him in his Body and Blood. Will we allow him there to reign? Will his love rule our hearts, guide our words, direct our actions, or will it be as if we simply hadn’t known him, as if he really isn’t the Lord of our lives? As one Epiphany hymn states so beautifully, “May all who seek to praise aright through purer lives show forth your light. To you, the King of glory, now all faithful hearts adoring bow.”
Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredric A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
The Epiphany
6 January 2019