Scripture: Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12; Romans 11:17-24
An Epiphany sermon on Isaiah 60 and Matthew 2 that uses light imagery (the preacher’s matinee-pupil experience and Grosseteste’s Optics) to frame Christ as the true light made bright by the world’s darkness. It corrects popular distortions of the Magi (pagan, not Jewish wise men, number unknown) to argue that Epiphany celebrates the inclusion of the Gentiles in the promise of Abraham. Rejecting supersessionism and its antisemitic history, the preacher uses the grafting of French vines onto Texan rootstock (T.V. Munson) to picture Gentiles grafted in without replacing Israel. The sermon closes by tying Epiphany’s gift to Wesley’s New Year Covenant Service, warning against domesticating the faith, and leading the congregation in the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer.
Illustrations: matinee-pupils-dilated, grosseteste-optics, pogroms-jews-poland, munson-grafting-french-wine, wesley-covenant-service, domesticated-faith-shelf
January 7
Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together; they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried in their nurses’ arms. Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you; the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord. Isaiah 60:1-6
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ” Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. - Matthew 2:1-12
When I was in my twenties, I went to a lot of movies by myself. Part of the reason was that it was convenient. Another reason is that I like to sit at the very front of the movie theater so that all of my peripheral vision is occupied by the screen. The third reason was that I’d like to go during matinee. I had flexible hours because of school, so I was able to go in the middle of the day. It was also cheaper.
One of the striking aspects of going to a matinée is the sense of walking back outside into a sunny place, having our pupils contract so much and so quickly that it can give you a headache. They were fully dilated inside the theater in order to absorb as much light as possible, but there wasn’t a lot of light, and then you step out and it’s overwhelming.
Light language covers all of the scriptures from the very beginning, God created light. We see in John that Jesus is the light which shines out the darkness. The early Christians did not see light as a simple metaphor, but as a conceptual understanding of who God is. The first scientific text in the West on light was by a medieval monk named Robert Grosseteste called Optics. Grosseteste made a major breakthrough in empirical science because of the centrality of light and the scriptural understanding of who God is around light. He wished to take light seriously.
All of that gets us to this day of epiphany. Now, epiphany is one of those Christian holy days that used to be a giant deal before the Reformation. It later drifted away for Protestant churches and cultures. With the rise of the corporatization of Christmas, there became this conflation between the Magi from the East and the Nativity. When we’re talking scripturally, the term we need to use is Magi. There are no wise men. There are no three. There could have been two or ten or twenty. The number three comes from later traditions. Magi is plural for Magus, or magic user, they could have had a number of different meanings. The most important of which though is that they were Pagan. They were not Jews. The Magi are not Jews, which is what makes their appearance so striking. Epiphany marks this celebration where Christ’s salvific action is opened up for all peoples, not just the tribe of Abraham. I honestly think one of the ways and reasons why many Protestants do not place much importance on epiphany is that there was often a conflation between Israel and the church. This almost one-to-one comparison made it that the church is the new Israel, and so the promise of Israel is now the promise of the church. One of the ways this is described is called Supersessionism, that is, the church supersedes Israel. This has led to many dreadful actions by Christians against Jews throughout history. Protestants by no means were the worst culprits in antisemitism. Throughout history, there were pograms against the Jews for centuries. often functioned as there would be a plague in a region and people wanted to blame somebody, so they blamed the Jews. The reason why there were so many Jews in Poland before the Holocaust was because they had already been kicked out of Germany in the 13 hundreds.
But Epiphany offers us an opportunity to look not at super sessionism, but at inclusion. Not a patronizing inclusion which says that Jews are okay for the Christian God, but an inclusion that says that the Gentiles are included in the promise of Abraham. This is because the Magi see in Christ the fulfillment of something spectacular. Paul will talk about this in Romans 12; the reason why he has missions to the Gentiles that they have been grafted on to the tribe of Israel. An agricultural metaphor that our non-agricultural society often misses. My favorite example of grafting is when the Vineyards of France and much of Europe were decimated by phylloxera in the late 19th century, and there was a Texan agronomist, T.V. Munson, who found a wild grape varietal that was resistant to the pest. He brought it over to Europe and started grafting on the old world vines to this Texan grape and the the vineyards survived. French wine was saved. The this Texan earned the Ordre du Mérite agricole, the second highest award in France. French wines were grafted onto the roots that could save them. The wines stayed themselves. They stayed unique. The Pinot noir grown in the Burgundy Valley did not replace the stalk from Bell County, Texas. The stalk did not replace the Pinot noir. Yet together they were healthy.
The light of Epiphany is about this expansion and opening of the promise of Abraham to the world. The word epiphany means appearance or manifestation. The light was so bright for the magi to see because the darkness was so dark in the world. The light was so easy to follow because the darkness was so dark. Their pupils had been so dilated that they were ready to see a glimpse of the true light, no matter how far away or how strange it first seemed. Isaiah sings, arise, shine. For your light has come. There’s been an appearance of hope, of peace, of love. This hope, this love, this peace is not ours to possess. It is a gift offered. Part of the gift is a way of seeing the world as a promise fulfilled. We don’t need to see in the darkness anymore. As well, even when it is dark, we know where the true light comes from. The light that guides us to our eternal home is in the world thanks to the coming of Jesus Christ. We need to be consistently reminded of this. New years is a great time for this reminder. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, would have a special worship surface on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day called a Covenant Service. He would have the people who gathered together make a covenant for the New Year with God. A covenant is deeper than a promise. A covenant goes both ways. You can’t have a one-sided covenant like you can’t have a one-sided marriage. The marriage ceremony doesn’t ask only one partner if they wish to be married. It isn’t valid unless both agree. You both have to say yes to accept the covenant God offers. We see an epiphany of opening up the promise of Abraham to all peoples. We should accept it. We should embrace it to its fullest, and the promise of Jesus Christ is the redemption of our sins, life abundant; salvation. There’s nothing greater. Yet, even still, how great it is. It’s so easy for humans to try and domesticate it this gift of God in Jesus Christ that shines light in the world so bright that the magi see it from miles away. Domesticate the faith, domesticate the church, make it comfortable and palatable. Turn it into three simple rules, or a comforting daily devotion, or a message that affirms everything about us without asking anything of us. We can set it on our shelf next to the picture of the Longhorns or our kids or the chochki we got in Canton or Round Top, but it’s about the transformation of our whole selves. This is what Christ asks of us. This is the light offered to all people. The covenant prayer which John Wesley used helps us to remember that. In a few moments, we are going say a summary of it together. Like anything we say in church, if you don’t feel comfortable with the words, you don’t have to say them. These are not words to mindlessly repeat. They are words to aspire to. We say them together so that we can aspire as the body of Christ to be the kind of people who follow God in this way. Let us pray.
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.