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Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19, Matthew 2:1-12
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Reverend W. Lee Shaw
Our first Sunday of 2010 and we come to it following days of feasting and celebrating the birth of Jesus and the New Year with our families, friends and faith community. We come to this Sunday a bit worn around the edges from all the festivities; feeling good, but possibly a tad frayed. We also come with fresh resolutions and promises made for the New Year, some kept and some perhaps already dropped.
We have in our reading from St. Matthew the story of a journey, the journey of the magi, the wise men from the east that came to bring gifts to the Christ child. There is a motif of traveling here I cannot ignore. We all travel from time to time, some to a greater degree than others. My guess is that our travels be it within Utah or across the country or over the ocean brings us new awareness, new wisdom, and new perspectives in many areas. I know it does for me.
We can perhaps see parts of ourselves in the Gospel reading, of setting out to find Christ in our lives, to seek him, to serve him and to worship him. In some way we have seen a star “rising” and we know we must follow it. Something has touched us to seek Christ or a deeper relationship with Christ in our life. Along the way we can get distracted as the magi did with old King Herod. We are all subject to sidetracks and delays. King Herod may represent for us a variety of those temptations in so many areas, temptations that keep us from the journey.
But we do set out again. We push off and return to the journey for Christ. We bring with us our own baggage as well as what we treasure, all of those pieces of ourselves we will offer to God.
As in the Biblical record, there is no time frame for our journey. It is open and open-ended for each of us in our own way, along our own path. As we follow our sense of the “star” we eventually will come to the place we have sought. Here we “enter the house” and find what we have sought. Now perhaps the “house” is literally a structure, a church or a home. Perhaps the “house” is an internal design of our soul and heart finding the Christ in our life. Perhaps it is a combination of these and so many other aspects of our journey. Each journey to Christ is unique and individual. No one can tell you how to do it. Others can give you assistance, counsel and guidance, but the journey is yours alone.
This is where we pause. We know we have come into a new reality, a new place for ourselves and the holy. In a real way we know we are on sacred ground. Here it is that we offer “our selves, our souls and bodies” as a reasonable gift to the Christ we have sought. It is here we kneel and offer our gifts, our worship, our very selves. In all of our wisdom, we now kneel in silent reverence. I am reminded of the words of our first bishop, Daniel Tuttle, ‘We have a faith not afraid to reason and reason not ashamed to adore.” There comes a time in all of our seeking of the Christ that our only response can be that of silent adoration.
Then we leave. We know we must continue the journey with this new awareness of the Christ. But as the magi, those wise men of old, we return by a different road. Our lives have been changed. We go by a different road, a new path, a new direction because of our encounter with the divine.
But here is the good news of the Epiphany: it is never ended. Our journey continues. We keep finding the Christ in a new way, new language, new vision, a new experience of the holy. Our journey continues. Our pilgrimage is ongoing in seeking and finding Christ again for the first time.
I find this to be the message of the season of the Epiphany, which we will officially begin on Wednesday, January 6, it is a journey to and into the Christ. It is a pilgrimage of renewal and refreshment in faith and hope.
May this new year of 2010, especially as we enter this Epiphanytide, be an occasion for you to renew your journey in Christ. May this be a time for you to meet Jesus again for the first time. May you live into the words of the Collect for today: “Grant that we may share the divine life with him who humbled himself to share our humanity.”
May the light of Christ be your guide through these days of 2010 as you seek to love and serve the Lord.