Arise, Shine! 

Isaiah 60:1-3

 

January 4, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

            Now what?

            The feasting is over.  The champagne bottles are empty.  Cities around the world now have to clean up their New Years parties. 

Tomorrow we start the diet to lose the weight we so quickly put on in December.  The choir’s song “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Morn” will change to “I Hear the Bills from Christmas Morn” as we now have to pay for our gift giving.  There are only a few weekends left of football.

So now what?

December is about hopes and dreams.  January is about reality. 

We observe Epiphany this Sunday in the church calendar, traditionally the day when the Magi arrive at the manger scene in Bethlehem to honor the new born king with their gifts marking the end of the 12 days of Christmas.

Along the way they became embroiled in the corrupt politics of Herod the Great.  No sooner had they visited the baby than they high tailed it for home!

December is about hopes and dreams.  January is about reality. 

Four hundred years before the birth of Jesus, in the post-exile period when Israel is rebuilding after its destruction by the armies of Babylon, the prophet Isaiah foresees on the horizon of history a time when Jerusalem and its Temple will be “a light to the nations”.    In the original language this word will become the root for our English word “ethnic” and “ethnicity”.  In other words, God’s light will shine on all peoples, races and nations across all boundaries.  The prophet will say:  “For I know their works and their thoughts and I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory.” (Isa. 66:18, note Acts 2:1-13)

These words are assigned for Epiphany because the Magi were not Jewish.

These astronomers or astrologers followed the romantic dream of a star in the east.  They were searching for “the Kings of the Jews”, although they were not Jewish themselves.  In fact, the Jewish faith abhorred their profession. The Magi were considered pagan and unclean by the orthodox.  Yet in another one of God’s countless surprises, these gentile magicians are sent as the Welcoming Committee for the Messiah.

God’s activity in history is not only for the chosen few.  If we ever feel smug and secure in our status as Protestants or Americans or as members of the righteous middle class, beware.  God is not exclusive.  As much as certain churches, preachers and religions will try to convince the world that their particular expression is the only way to heaven, God sent pagan soothsayers to worship the new born Messiah, while the righteous and holy were afraid of the news.  That star in the east shines over all people and nations.  We have no patent on God.

The Magi come to find a King.  But this one would rule not by force and power but by love.  He would hold children on his lap and claim they were closest to God.  He would eat and work with street people and the homeless.  His army would not march to victory until after he had died, disgraced and abandoned.

We sing “Jesus is King” with visions of Presidents, Generals, CEOs.  The Magi searched for one of these.  But reality was a babe in a manger.

Although it brought them great joy, the Magi’s journey brought great animosity and violence to others.  The Good News of Jesus’ birth was met with hostility by the political and religious establishment of his day.

 Good News has enemies.  That’s reality.

 Fred Craddock writes, “It is no mystery why One who gave himself to loving the poor and neglected of the earth, would be killed; there are institutions and persons who have other plans for the poor and neglected.”

The vested interests of the “Herods of the world” have and will always resist the Magi’s Good News; so the Gandhi’s and the Martin Luther Kings are assassinated.  Just when the Cold War is over, new enemies spring up in Iraq and Afghanistan, demanding the Pentagon’s money and our children’s courage.

 The Magi followed the romantic dream of a star.  And it lead them into deep reality.

 Do you remember Bret Harte’s story “The Luck of Roaring Camp” (Harvard Classics Shelf Fiction 1917), in which he tells of Roaring Camp, the meanest and toughest mining camp in California.   Murder and theft were common.  It was a place inhabited exclusively by men, with one exception.  Her name was Cherokee Sal.  She died while giving birth to a baby girl.

 Without a mother to care for the child, these rough men were suddenly thrust into the awkward role of providing for the needs of the little girl.  They began by placing her in a box with some old rags.  But that didn’t seem right, so they sent one of the men 80 miles over the mountains to buy a rosewood cradle.   Another man traveled all the way to Sacramento to purchase some silk and lace blankets which they used to make the baby comfortable and warm.

Seeing the beautiful cradle with the new blankets made the men realize just how dirty the floor of the cabin was, so they scrubbed the floor on their hands and knees until it was clean.   Then they noticed the dirty walls and windows of the cabin.  So they washed the walls, windows and ceiling and put up curtains.  The change in the baby’s surroundings was amazing.   But not just in the cabin.  The men, who had been used to loud, angry talk and occasional fighting, had to give up their bad habits because the little girl could not get her sleep in the ruckus.

When the good weather came, they would take the little girl in her cradle and set her by the entrance to the mine so that they would see her when they came up the shaft.   Somebody noticed how dirty things were so they planted flowers and made a nice garden there.  It was all quite lovely.  The miners would bring the little girl shiny stones they happened to find in the mine.

But, that was not all.  When some of the men would pick the baby up to hold her, they realized just how dirty they were.  It wasn’t long that the general story was sold out of soap and shaving gear.  

That baby changed everything.

One could say the same for the baby born in the Bethlehem manger.  The light of his love and grace continues to expose the darkness of our world and illumine the pathways out of it.  Like the rough hewn miners of Roaring Camp Christ’s light still offers each of us transformation.

 

After fifty years of war, destruction and slavery Isaiah could see the day when Israel and Jerusalem would be restored and its light would shine to all peoples.  That day came with Jesus’ birth.

 Whatever reality we will face this New Year…..good or bad….Emmanuel, God is with us.

 As we take Holy Communion together this morning to start off that New Year our prayer is that Christ’s light will continue to surround us, guide us and keep us and those we love from all harm.

Amen.