Fr. Philip Sang: The Greatest Gift: The Love of God is for Everybody

Sermon delivered on Epiphany Sunday, January 6, 2013, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

Lectionary Texts: Isaiah 60.1-6; Psalm 72.1-15; Ephesians 3.1-12; Matthew 2.1-12.

In the name of God; the father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen

Happy New Year St. Augustine’s! This is the day that the Lord Has made we will rejoice and be Glad in it.

As Anglicans and as Liturgical as we are, I believe we know better that today is Epiphany. It is a privilege and honor for me to bring the word of God to us today being my birthday.

For the past two weeks we have been in the mood of celebrating Christmas and, yes, we are still in the mood of Christmas today as well, as we celebrate Epiphany.

The word Epiphany comes from the Greek word for “manifestation” and means to show or reveal. Epiphany became the festival celebrated to commemorate the coming of God in Christ to the Gentiles and thus to all people. Epiphany became the festival in the life of the Church to celebrate the universality of the Gospel. By sharing in worship in the season of Epiphany, we are joining ourselves with disciples of Christ all over the world who are offering thanks and gratitude to God for becoming a human being and dwelling among and with human beings as one of us.

The birth and manifestation of Jesus are significant aspects of the incarnation — the en-fleshment of God, or rather how God came to dwell as completely as possible in a human being.

Thus the worship season of Epiphany developed within the life of the Christian Church to highlight the revelation of God through Jesus of Nazareth. The biblical story that served as the focal point for this was the visit of the Magi to Jerusalem and Bethlehem in search of the one born king whose star the Magi had seen rise in the East.

The early church found in Matthew’s record some aspects about the life of Jesus that it felt should be emphasized. Thus Eastern Christianity developed a strong emphasis on the birth of Jesus and highlighted the visit of the Magi as an event rich with symbolism. It came to be called the celebration of Epiphany. Actually it is an older celebration than Christmas. By the fourth century, Epiphany had come to rank with Easter and Pentecost as one of the three great festivals of the Eastern Church and its vigil was a day commonly chosen for the baptism of converts. Indeed, Epiphany meant the good news of God’s love was for everybody.

Isaiah prophesied of the manifestation of the light to the world. In our first lesson today, the chapter read;

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 on 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.

Isaiah’s prophesy about the light to come was that the light was going to be the center of attraction not only to the Jews but to the whole world as well. The world was to come to the light. And the psalmist also says:

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall pay tribute; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring gifts. All kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall do him service.

This part of the psalm has come to be associated with the coming of the wise men or rather the magi to visit the new born king Jesus, and presenting gifts to him

Let us focus a little bit on the Magi and gifts they brought. who are the magi? We know some information but not a lot about the magi. What we do know is interesting. We are told that the magi are from the East. These magi were not Jews but Arabs from the land of Babylon or ancient Persia which is modern day Iran / Iraq. They were probably followers of Zoroaster.

We have been accustomed to calling these magi, kings, or wise men but Matthew calls them Magi. Calling them kings probably came from Psalm 72:10, which speaks of the kings of Tarshish rendering tribute and Sheba bringing gifts. Isaiah 60:6 speaks of the people of Sheba bringing gold and frankincense which are two of the three gifts the magi bring when they visit Jesus.

These gifts would seem inappropriate for a human child…we would expect clothes and toys. These gifts are for a King. Gold is one of the few acceptable gifts for a king. Frankincense is a gift for a priest, and myrrh is used as an anointing oil, and is also used for anointing bodies for burial.

These gifts tell us who Jesus is to us; He is our king, He is the High priest and he was anointed to die on our behalf. The greatest gift we have ever had has Christians.

Paul offered himself as an instrument of God to the Gentiles. In his letter to the Ephesians 3:1-12 says, I am a prisoner of Christ for the sake of you the Gentiles. He unfolded the mystery hidden in former generations and was not made known to humankind, this mystery had now been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: the mystery is that, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Church, Epiphany and the beginning of the new year is an excellent time to give.. The irony of what happens to so many of us during the Christmas season is that we busy ourselves so much with shopping, buying, wrapping, and decorating that we give little or no time and energy to giving to God.

The big gift that God gives is Himself and we are invited to give ourselves to God in kind. Epiphany is a time to worship the God who poured Himself into a baby born in Bethlehem. Think about the Magi, despite the fact that they brought gifts, they worshipped King Jesus. Epiphany is the time to continue and carry through the Christian year what we began in Advent. With eager anticipation we awaited the greatest gift, the coming of God to us. God has acted. Paul too acted by taking the good News to the Gentile and becoming a gift to them. We are invited to respond, how do we respond to this act of God? We are the big gifts that matter, offering ourselves to God to become His representatives in the world.

Behold! The manifestation of the King of Kings who shall be the path to salvation and eternal life has come! The joy is ours as we each reflect and joyfully accept Jesus into our hearts!

He has been Revealed, he is being proclaimed, and he is being believed by the whole world!

In the Name of God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.