Sermon - Epiphany

Living into who you Are

          During the Christmas Holiday, we took the girls to see the new Disney movie – Moana.  Now, I had no intention of going to see the movie and leave saying – hmmm, that just make a good sermon for Epiphany.  But, it does have some parallel themes within the story. 

          Moana is the young daughter of the Island chief, and it will be her role to become the next chief of her people.   From the time she is a young child, she and the other children have learned the myths and legends of her people.  One such legend is about a demigod, Maui, who has stolen the heart of the Goddess Te Fiti.  Ever since the heart was stolen, Islands throughout the region have experienced diminished fish and dying plants causing stress on the Island People.  Life, on Moana’s Island is wonderful, until one day.  One day the fisher men return home with no fish and the crops have some sort of disease.  There is a sudden awareness that something is wrong. 

          Moana must seek out the demigod Maui and convince him to return the heart to Te Fiti.  So, as her adventure begins, it begins with the night sky.  Maui can be found out at sea underneath his constellation of a fishing hook.  It is the star, or rather stars that will guide Moana on her way.  Does this sound like any story we know from the Bible?  A star, guiding people?  Last week, we talked about Epiphany as the celebration of God inviting all people of the world, into the covenant of God’s love, grace, and salvation, symbolicaly marked by the arrival of the three wise men who followed the star from distant lands to Christ Child. 

          So, off Moana goes, on her journey away from her homeland to seek the location of Maui so she can save her people.  When she arrives to the Island where Maui lives, she encounters the demigod with an announcement.  “Maui, shape shifter, demi God of the wind and sea, I am” but before she can finish She is corrected by Maui–“it’s actually Maui, shape shifter, demi God of the wind and sea, hero of men”.  Moana tries again and is interrupted once again, hero of men and women, hero of all people.  Finally, Moana can make her declaration:  "I am Moana of Motunui. You will board my boat and restore the heart to Te Fiti."  Throughout the movie, the viewer will find Moana struggling with her purpose and role in life, but she never waivers on her identity.  Over and over and over again she declares:  “I am Moana of Motunui, you will board my canoe, and restore the heart to Te Fiti.” 

          Is there power in names?  In identities?  In being able to declare who we are?  Well, yes of course there is.  When someone is married, at the end of the wedding, they are pronounced husband and wife and introduced no longer as single people but as Mr and Mrs.  This week, we have the inauguration, we put ritual around naming especially when it comes to naming people into positions of authority.  Would you go to see a physician if you knew they were not a doctor?  Names can give authority, and help us know who to trust. 

          Epiphany is more than the invitation of the world into God’s covenant, it also involves the naming of God in the world.  If all the world is invited to be a part of God’s community, they must know the name of God at work in the world.  Last week was actually the Baptism of our Lord Sunday, the Sunday in which we were supposed to recognize and celebrate John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the Jordon.  But, with the way the liturgical calendar fell, we would have missed the wise men altogether, so, I pushed the baptism of the Lord to today. 

In the season of Epiphany, God’s light in the world is named.  We are using the lighthouse as a symbol for God’s light shining into the world.  A light house serves no purpose if the light cannot be seen.  And so, in being able to see the light the light is given names.  

Jesus is named by John, in several ways, one of which is his quoting of the prophet Isaiah, to prepare the way of the Lord.  He then refers to Jesus as the one who is more powerful than I.  But then, as Jesus is baptized, and comes up from the water, a voice from heaven clearly defines for the people who this Jesus is.  suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,^[d] with whom I am well pleased.”  Just as in the Advent and Christmas stories, the angels clearly name who Jesus is, now, as Jesus has reached adulthood and is to begin his earthly ministry, he is named once again.  He is not named as the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, or the Good shepherd, but This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. 

          One definition of Epiphany is:  a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essentialmeaning of 

something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace  occurrence or experience.

          I remember learning about this in my English literature class, a moment in the plot when the main character has an aha moment, when something clicks and it makes sense, the lightbulb turns on.  These aha moments happen as we encounter the divine in our lives.  It can happen in Bible Study or worship, it can happen while volunteering or serving others.  It can happen in a moment of possible coincidence but not seeing it as a coincidence but rather a Spirit led moment.  These are Epiphanies in our daily lives, sacred in breakings. 

          The baptism of Jesus was just that, a sacred in-breaking into the world as Jesus participates in the human act of repentance and spiritually cleansing himself.  There is an aha moment of John proclaiming that he is the one Isaiah speaks of, there is the aha moment of him humbling himself in allowing John to baptize him, and there is the aha moment of God naming him.  If people did not make the connection through John the Baptist, if people could care less about the prophet Isaiah because they did not grow up Jewish and had no connection to these prophecies, they got it because God names him.  Both Jews and Gentiles are once again given the opportunity to know who Jesus is, the Lord spoken of by Isaiah and the Son of God given also to the Gentiles.  The light of God shines through the words of the prophets, through the actions of one who prepares the way, and in the voice of God.

          How do you name God in your life?  God the Father, God the mother, God the source of light and love?  Jesus, son of David, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the son of God?  The prince of peace, the Good shepherd.  It goes on and on, there are so many names listed throughout scripture. 

          Moana needs the demigod Maui to save her people by returning the heart to Te Fiti.  She is able to name who Maui is and she is able to name who she is.  In the on-line study that I have been using, it shares that the season of Epiphany is about Whose we are and Who we are.  Who do we belong to:  the son of God, and who are we:  children of the covenant.   Would we be able to approach God with the confidence of naming God followed by a proclamation of who we are?  God, creator of the wind and sea, giver of all life, redeemer of all people.  I am Carie, I am X and Y – child of the covenant, holy and beloved.  My family, my neighbors, my community, my world needs your salvation.  Board our boat, as we seek to make things right.  God, healer of the world, giver of salvation: we are FPCS a church that seeks to partner with our community near and far to joyfully share the message and love of Jesus, be with us as we pray for one another and share our gifts and resources with the greater community.  Let us continue the journey of Epiphany with confidence, by claiming our own names within God’s family and by naming the ways in which we encounter God in the world around us. 

Epiphany - sermon

“A Light to the Nations”

            Without blinking an eye, Christmas has come and gone already.  I took the ornaments off the tree yesterday and put many of the other decorations as well.  It feels so emptying, the celebration is over and now to clean up.  But, in the church calendar year, the message of Christmas is not over, this is the season of Epiphany, the season of naming and understanding the light that God has sent into the world. 

            In the early church, Epiphany was celebrated as the big holy day rather than Christmas.  It was celebrated on Jan. 6 as the wise men, arrive to the Christ child.  This was an important event in the life of the early church since it signified God’s presence, God’s salvation, extended beyond the Hebrew people to all people, to all nations.  The arrival of the magi signifies that the nations beyond Israel are not only invited into God’s grace, but have accepted that invitation and have come.  All of these generations later, the message and love of God has traveled the world.  It has been received by people of all nations. 

            So, does Epiphany still have a message for us today?  If the gift of God’s light, love, joy, and peace has been extended and received throughout the world, what message might it be for us today?  Just as we celebrate Christmas as the birth of God’s love and salvation in this world, we can celebrate Epiphany as the naming of how God’s light is shining, is shining, not was shining, but is shining. 

            The wise men followed a star, there was light in the night sky to guide them.  The Gospel of John speaks of Jesus as the light of the world, a light that shines through the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.  Epiphany is the time where the church celebrated the full inclusion of all people into God’s love, but it is also about light.  It is about how God’s light shines, and how it shines in the darkness. 

            If the star had not shone through the night sky, the wise men would never have found the Christ child.  They needed a map, a guide, a constant to ensure them they were headed in the right direction.  We too, we too need a map, a guide, a constant to ensure that we are headed in the right direction.  In a way, Epiphany reminds us that life is a journey, not a destination.  We may have lived in one place all of our lives, but we are still on a journey.  Life throws all kinds of obstacles in our way, and we need a map, a guide, a constant to remind us that we are still headed in the right direction.  The wise men had a star, God sent us a light that shines in the darkness, known as Jesus Christ, do we trust in that light to guide us through the dark nights? 

            Through this season of Epiphany, we are going to use the imagine of a lighthouse to be our symbol of how God’s light shines out into the world.  In our modern world, we have so many devices to navigate us, we have flashlights, gps, even night vision goggles, but everyone still seems to love lighthouses.   All along the coasts from nation to nation, light shines out in the darkness, warning ships in the sea of they are too close to the shore, as well as welcoming ships home after long journeys at sea. 

            We may be putting all the decorations away, but Christmas is not over, Ephiphany is not an event of the past.  The Christ Child continues to be born in the world and the light continues to shine in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.  For over 2,000 years people have wrestled with the darkness, plagues, wars, famine, extreme poverty, injustice, and oppression.  And for 2,000 years, people have fought the good fight, have risen to leadership, have spoken the voice of God, have embraced God’s light and become a beacon of hope to others. 

            As we embrace God’s gift of the Christ child in our lives, let us also embrace the light, the light of the star that guides, the light that shines in the darkness, the light the rights wrongs, the light that brings purpose and meaning and sacred love into all that we do.

Amen. 

Jan. 1 - sermon - the wise men

There is one last bah humbug to our story – and this time it is not Ebenezer Scrooge – it is someone by the name of King Herod.  When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, it seems like everything just happens, all of the prophesies from Isaiah and the other ancient prophets, just seem to align and it all just naturally falls into place.  But actually, there was road block after road block standing in the way of this birth: an unwed mother, a census close to the time she was to give birth, a long journey, no room in the inn, and now, a King that wants to do everything in his power to make sure this new born king does not rise to power.  Despite all of these road blocks, despite the world saying no to God’s yes, the child is born, and the prophecies are fulfilled, and the word spreads across the region that something amazing is happening. 

And so, as one last prophecy is being fulfilled: arise and shine, Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. They shall bring gold and frankincense,  and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord. These Magi travel from distant lands.  Some say they are kings, some say they are wise, most likely they were astrologers, and it is possible there were more than three.  But whoever they were, they came from afar because they saw something of great interest in the sky and from it, they interpreted the star to signify the birth of the king of the Jews. 

Now, the lands from which they came had once been conquerors of Israel, so some even proclaim that these magi were spies, coming to seek information on the political future of Israel.  Yes, Rome was in control, but lands always seemed to be influx, rulers came and went, and nations rose and fell.  Would this new king be a future threat to their own lands?  It was definitely a day and age where you would not know who to trust.  And so, when these magi arrived in Jerusalem and questioned about the whereabouts of the birth of the king, Herod was greatly disturbed and so was all of Jerusalem. 

In a not so distant past, when the Greeks ruled over the land, there had been an uprising called the Maccabean Revolt, which is now partly celebrated through Holy season of Hanukkah.  Would this king be yet another rebel bringing together the people to try and overthrow the Roman rule?   One commentator writes:  Medes, Babylonians and Persians do not come to David’s town to worship, they come to spy and conquer.Yet on reaching, the place where Jesus is, they do what they say they came to do.  They offer him homage and present him kingly tribute.

Whether they were spies or not, they came, they came because of something in the sky.  How often do we even look at the sky anymore?  Would we even notice of a new star appeared?  Have we paid attention to when Mars or Jupitar are brighter than usual?  Just a a few weeks ago we had a super moon – maybe some of you saw it.  The next really big moon will be in 2034 – some people got some great pictures, but was it really a big deal?  Did people really pay attention.  Or what about Halleys comet – 1986 and returning in 2061  - or a solar eclipse –

As this story unfolds, what we learn is that it is foreigners that are paying attention to signs of God’s work in the world.  Foreigners are on the move and willing to travel and see what is happening at great expense for themselves.  They leave safety and come to the land of their enemies in order to encounter whatever it is that is happening.  They have an amazing openness to themselves.  Perhaps the sign was so intense to them that they were just sure beyond a doubt that this was a journey that they had to make.  And so they came, and God reinforced their journey by speaking to them in a dream. 

The Wise Ones found what they were looking for by following the lighted path. When we trust the “star” that God hung out for us, we move toward life in its fullest and discover joy beyond imagining. What paths is God shining light upon for you? We will take the next month to implement movement toward a brighter future than we can imagine.