"An Event of Cosmic Proportions" January 6, 2012

John 1: 1-18 Isaiah 60:1-6 Matthew 2:1-12 Christopher & Jonathan Niebuhr in our Sunday School had a great grandfather who was H. Richard Niebuhr, and Niebuhr said something quite enlightening about “Epiphany.” When reading a book, you come across a sentence which makes you rethink and reframe everything you had read until this point, and provides a new orientation for everything to come, that is an “epiphany.” Throughout the Old Testament, there have been THEOPHANIES, Noah's Rainbow, Moses' Burning Bush, Balaam's Talking Burrow, experiences of the Divine, of the Miraculous in our midst. In the New Testament, the THEOPHANIES and EPIPHANIES, where the experience of God in Christ changes everything. When I was in Seminary, we had an Advisor who was brilliant and highly respected, who happened to be from Japan. In part because he had a thick accent, more because what he said was so spiritually profound, his lectures made you listen intently. Suddenly, the third in lecture, he used a word he had used over and over in earlier lectures but pronounced the word differently, and suddenly, everything he had said made sense, that one word changed everything, everything we heard him say, changed the way we thought. Two years ago, we asked this congregation for words that identify who we are as a Church. To someone who had no experience with this Church, who knew nothing of being Presbyterian, or being Christian, or of any religion; what words describe and identify who we are? COMPASSION, CARING, FORGIVENESS, RELEVANT, MISSIONAL, CHILDREN, MUSIC, BIBLICAL, FUN all were used. This is the same assignment, the Gospel of John is attempting to fulfill. Who is Jesus? What does the Christ of God represent? LIGHT, LIFE, GLORY, WONDER, THE WORD OF GOD. These words are incarnate and real in him. Forever after when thinking of LIGHT and LIFE we do not imagine a bulb, or an illumination, but Jesus. For the last Century, when we imagined a lightbulb, we imagined an Incandescent, and more recently, we have experienced and become familiar with something that lasts longer, is more brilliant and uses less electricity. When reading THE WORD OF GOD, throughout the Old Testament, if asked How you know the Word of God, we would have said LAW/ Commandment, but now when hearing THE WORD OF GOD we envision The Christ, his GRACE, his COMPASSION the LOVE of GOD which nothing could restrain, contain or kill. We have so many Words and Images in our culture. Every year, there is a new edition of the Dictionary because there are new words that have come into our vocabulary that define reality as we experience it. However, these words from John continue to define and describe a part of reality too familiar to us all... A PEOPLE WHO HAVE LIVED IN DARKESS, A People of Deep Dark Secrets, who have seen a great light. Last evening there was report of 4 people shot to death in Aurora, Colorado. Hearing SHOT in AURORA, COLORADO, brings back a shooting in a Movie Theater in Aurora, brings back the shooting at a High School in Columbine, Colorado, the shooting of teachers and children in Connecticut. I want to be able to celebrate the Packers Win over the Vikings. I want to be able to celebrate that our leaders found a way to avert The Fiscal Cliff on New Year's Eve. But we are a people who have dwelt in deep darkness, in hate and hostility for so long, we cannot remember any other way of being. It is to such a People, that Isaiah prophesies an event of Cosmic Proportions. “Arise, Shine, For your light has come! And the Glory of the Lord has risen upon you! For darkness covers the Earth, and thick darkness the peoples; BUT the LORD will arise upon you, and His glory appear over you. Nations shall come to Your light and KINGS to the brightness of your dawn.” Isaiah's vision was that one day, this people in bondage, oppressed and hopeless, a people with an ancient heritage, would become a light calling others, calling all the world to God. There is a drama to these words. There is a Drama to everything we have done in worship this morning. Because LIFE itself is a Drama, sometimes a Farce, sometimes Divine Comedy, but a Drama of God effecting a COSMIC SHIFT that the world can never go backward. There was a time, long long ago, when the Church attempted to add to the story, to fill in all the details. So the Isaiah's “NATIONS and KINGS will come to Your LIGHT” became Wisemen following a Star to Bethlehem. Not only that but there were three of them, because there were three gifts, and one was named Melchior who was Ancient and from the Far East; another was very young from Northern Europe and named Gaspar; the third from Africa was named Balthasar. The Greeks believed that the birth of a great King announced a new era, a change in the universe, and with this a new Star in the sky. This was a creative interpretation of Isaiah and of Matthew, but what the Word actually describes is that Nations and Kings had been searching for Salvation all their lives. From distant places the Light drew them to Jerusalem, perhaps Comets, Meteors that can appear each night at the same time. But when they reached that Capital City of Power and Governance they could not find the light. They were told that the Book of Micah says the Savior would be born at Bethlehem, so they went to Bethlehem, and arriving at Bethlehem, they found the light emanating from and shining down upon a common stable. The core of this story is that NATIONS & KINGS HAVE SOUGHT SALVATION and found it in CHRIST who is the embodiment of LIGHT and LIFE, COMPASSION, GRACE and FORGIVENESS. While the Wise brought gifts identified with being A KING, MAKING OFFERINGS TO GOD and ANNOINTING A SAVIOR WHO WOULD DIE FOR THEIR PEOPLE, what the Story emphasizes is that the wise went from this place out into the world.Would that we could take away from CHRISTMAS, NEW YEARS and THE EPIPHANY of the Savior living differently. That we accepted this as a AN EVENT of COSMIC PROPORTION that changes everything. Instead of being angry, that they got something we didn't, that they have power that we fear; instead to live out FORGIVENESS or COMPASSION or PEACE. No one of us needs to be all things to all people, but if we each manifested one of these gifts: How different might our world be?