When Jesus Moves In
A Sermon for Epiphany Sunday 2025
Isaiah 60:1-6, John 1:10-18 and Matthew 2:1-12 | Epiphany Sunday | January 5, 2025 | First Christian Church, Roseville, MN
God, you wonderfully created, and wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature. Grant that we may share in the life of the One who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
I’ve always loved Epiphany. One of my favorite hymns is We Three Kings, even though the Magi weren’t probably kings or there were three of them. As a little kid at a Lutheran day school back in Michigan in the '70s, I saw the display case during this season. It was one of those “incorrect” manger scenes with Mary, Joseph, Jesus the Shepherd, and the Wise Men. Of course, the Wise Men didn’t show up until sometime later, but I was seven so I didn’t know or didn’t care. I was transfixed by these three guys probably because one of them looked like me. So here was this one black guy that was part of the scene! Again, we have no idea what was the ethnic makeup of the Magi, but there was something cool that these strangers were different. I’ve also been held captive, but the stories my Mom would tell about Epiphany. That celebration was and still is big in Puerto Rico and when Mom was little, she would put hay underneath her bed for the camels of the Wise Men, kind of a cooler version of leaving cookies for Santa. So, this story of the visit of the Magi has always been a wonderful story to me.
There is a lot of mystery surrounding these men. We don’t know where they came from except that they came from the East. Some think they might have been Persian, which is modern-day Iran. We don’t really know about how they knew about Jesus, though there is talk about how the religion of Zoroastrianism also talked of a virgin giving birth.
What we know is that they show up in Jerusalem one day in the court of King Herod, the Vassal King of Israel. You know how before there were maps on our phones, and even before there was mapquest, people might stop in a gas station and ask for directions? This is the high-end version of this, but instead of going to Joe’s Gas Station, it’s Herod.
Epiphany is about the revelation, the manifestation of Christ in our world. Christ has come to the world and that’s important to remember. So much of our talk is about how we get to God, but Epiphany reminds us that it is the other way around. God comes to us. God comes in the form of weakness, as a helpless little baby. We don’t go to God, but God comes to us.
Anyway, the Wise Men ask where is the King of the Jews? They want to worship him. If anyone would know about this, it would have to be the King, right?
This troubled Herod and for reasons that aren’t clear so does all of Jerusalem. We know why Herod is worried because there’s already a King of the Jews and he doesn’t want it to be this baby. The scholars around him tell him what’s up and where this baby might be located. Herod shakes his head and starts scheming. He’s got a rival and he thinks something needs to be done about this child. But he doesn’t tell the Wise Men this. Instead, he tells them where the child might be and then tells them to relay where the child is so that he can worship the kid as well.
In this story, there are two important messages here. The first is the message of worship. What did the Wise Men want to do with Jesus? They wanted to worship him. They brought gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but the aim was to simply worship this child. There is something important here about the aspect of worship. In our modern age, we might wonder what in the world is worship for? What is its value? In a time when we seem to value activity, worship doesn’t seem to do much of anything. Herod isn’t interested in worship even though he says he is. He’s just interested in power. It would be tempting to just think that Herod is gonna Herod and that we have nothing in common with Herod, except that we do. Just like Herod, we aren’t interested in worship. What value is there in just coming to worship some pooping baby? What value is it to get up early on a Sunday to worship? How does it change the world?
The late Presbyterian pastor Eugene Peterson believed that worship goes against the power plays of the world and let’s be honest in this politically polarized day, we are all about political power plays. He says the following:
“But nothing happens in worship. In a political world where the power brokers are maneuvering their way to influence and control, where every word is a counter for gaining a following or shaping a response, how can people who are serious about their lives even think of gathering simply to be in adoration, to sing songs, to say and be who they are in God? Is this not neglecting moral duty? Is this not to abandon the field to the enemy? We are apt to think so - until we find that these nonactions of worship are the very acts that are backed up by the leadership of the Lamb, who is in the thick of history inaugurating the Kingdom in his nativity and consummating his rule in the crucifixion and resurrection. If worship is not a waste of time for the Lamb, it cannot be for us (Rev. 14:1-5).
Especially in this day and age where we are worried about rulers and principalities, it is important to remember this. Spending time in worship with God as the Wise Men did is about how God is invading our world changing, showing another way to act in our world. Worship is also a time of wonder and praise. The Wise Men were curious filled with wonder about who this king could be. That wonder continued when they met him face to face. Worship should be more than a duty, but a time of wonder when we come in contact with the God who came as a baby and who will save us from sin and death. The Design of the Christian Church, our Affirmation of Faith says that worship helps us remember the saving powers of Jesus when it says, “At the Table of the Lord we celebrate with thanksgiving the saving acts and presence of Christ.”
Verse 14 in the passage from John reminds us how God has entered into time and space. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” The Message version which happens to be written by Eugene Peterson, translates the phrase “dwelt among us” as this: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”
Jesus has moved into the neighborhood. Jesus has moved into our lives and our world. We worship because it reminds us that Jesus is here among us and for us. We sing, hear Scripture, join in communion and pass the peace because we know Jesus is here, revealed to all of us. The question is how we will respond to this event. Will we act like Herod and try to game the system in order to control and get God out of the way? Or do we stop and just worship Jesus for who he is and what he will do in our lives in the life of the world?
Jesus has moved into our world. As we begin this new year, and enter this season of Epiphany, how do we enter into worship of the one who frees us? Let’s be on the lookout for Jesus outside the walls of this church and let us worship him inside these walls. Thanks be to God. Amen.