Sermon for the Week of the Epiphany of Our Lord: January 3, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

When this week we celebrate our Lord’s Epiphany, it’s almost too easy for us to fix our attention on either the Magi themselves or the gifts they bring, rather than the One who received their gifts. How many of these wise men were there? Were they really kings from Africa, Iran, or China? What was the going rate for the values of gold, frankincense and myrrh on the commodities market? We are curious not only because the Magi and their gifts were unique, exotic and mysterious, but also because that’s where we sinners in our fallen state naturally focus in. What I mean is that when we pay attention to the Magi, the gifts, the sacrifices they make to bring them, or simply, the manner in which they worship the little boy Savior, then that provides us an opportunity to elevate our offering, our stewardship, our sacrifice, and the way we worship Jesus.

But the gold, frankincense and myrrh aren’t really at the heart and center of the Magi’s visit, because our offering, our self-sacrifice and the way we worship, even the way we pray, should never be the heart and center of the Gospel message. What is most important is what Our Lord does and who He is. That God chooses to assume human flesh, bear our sin and be the whole world’s Savior, those things alone ought to elicit from us an offering and sacrifice – a glorious heartfelt worship which matches and exceeds anything the wise men may have brought to Jesus. And it’s not just how we respond to Jesus’ gift of Himself, because ultimately our response, offering and worship mean nothing and get us nowhere. To be sure, these things are good, simply because they are nothing other than the life and love of Jesus lived out through us in a way that simply receives what He chooses to give.

That’s the lesson of the Magi – that the focus must be taken off of them and directed toward Jesus alone. They would agree with John the Baptist: He must increase, we must decrease. The Magi and their gifts remind us that our offering and worship are not an equal this-for-that response to anything, but simply a reflection of what God is doing in and for us. The account of the Magi calls us away from our paltry contributions and our frenzied way of worship, and turns our heads around instead to the Gift of the Christ Child who is at work in us – not in what we do, but in who He is and what He gives and bestows by His Gospel in preaching and the God-given Sacraments. Consider how Herod wanted to worship Jesus – not by receiving from Him, not by exalting the gift He brings, not in the Liturgy of the Gospel, but in a way which he only thinks is good and right. Herod’s selfish worship began when he heard the confession of the Magi. However, instead of drawing him to Christ to receive His gifts, Herod’s heart was hardened so that his false “faith” rested not in the promise of the Gospel, but in what he determined was a threat to his own position and power. And that led not only to Herod’s destruction but also to the needless, heartless massacre of many innocent children.

In contrast, the wise men weren’t concerned at all with their worship or their gifts, but only with God’s grace and kindness. And that grace and kindness of God appeared to them not as an idea, a sensational feeling, or a grand hope of good things to come for the present world. Rather, God’s Love arrived in human flesh, in the Person of the vulnerable poverty-wrapped Child as He lay in the arms of the Virgin Mary. The grace and kindness of God, you see, isn’t an attitude, but a Person. And it’s not just any Person, but the very Son of God come down from heaven to become the sin that you and I are – and to be the Savior you and I could never hope to be for ourselves.

So, the worship of the Magi wasn’t only that they heard that Scriptural Word, but that they took it to heart and received it as the living, Word in the flesh that it truly is. The Magi believed that the promise of God is both resident in the infant Christ, and also given through His human flesh. And so they set out to find Him, not because they were curious, not because they needed to be fully convinced, and not even because they were willing to give up all they had for the sake of this Child. No, the Magi set out to make the long journey to Bethlehem – following the star in the East – so that they might worship God’s epiphany, which is the same as saying His appearance and arrival – His manifestation and incarnation in the Baby, Jesus, God and man in one Person.

And now it’s time to ask, what was their worship? It may have appeared as though their worship was to give gifts – but really, their worship was to receive. The Magi desired nothing more than to take in everything the Baby Jesus offers – everything the Baby Jesus is. Their faith is what led them to follow the star and not to be dissuaded. Their faith led them to receive this Child as He came for them – and for us all – in the flesh and blood of man. May our faith always lead us always in that same direction! It would be much better for us that we would not be dazzled and drawn away by so many other intriguing, but quickly fading forms of worship! Oh, that we could also have the kind of faith that’s satisfied and gratified not with what pleases us, but simply with what Our Lord is pleased to give and plant within us without measure!

By the preaching of this same Gospel which the wise men heard, and by the leading of the same star and light of the Holy Spirit, you and I have been given this true, right-worshipping faith – a faith which pays attention to the shepherding of Our Lord in the Ten Commandments and leads us away from our own sinful lusts and desires, our own self-pleasuring, and our own self-gratifying ways of worship. This is a faith which calls us to the Christ Child, that gathers us with the Magi, with saints and angels around wherever He chooses to be, that enlightens us so that we trust the Gospel promise more than the Law threat, that cradles us within His body, the Church, and unites us with Him in such a tight, close union that with His flesh and blood He makes a home, lives and dwells within us.

And with that faith comes the Life of Christ in you, a life that gifts you not with money, valuables or deeds, but with your whole life and being as a holy, lively and reasonable sacrifice to God. The sacrifice of God in Christ is now being reflected and lived through you as your God-pleasing worship – as the only proper response to the knowledge that in Christ everything in your life is a yes and an amen to the gifts God desires to give you every day. That’s the lesson of the Magi and the proper focus of the Epiphany Feast. May it be so all through the year and for all the days of our lives, until we meet Jesus face-to-face.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

White Parament

Readings:
Isaiah 60:1-6 Arise, shine; For your light has come!
Psalm 24 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Eph. 3:1–12 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs
Matt. 2:1–15 wise men from the East came to Jerusalem