Epiphany 2014.
Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12.
Each Christmas when my children were small we would bring out the stable and set it up minus the baby; of course, and minus the kings.
The three statues representing the wise men would begin their journey around the rooms of the house; sometimes moving from window sill to table and back to window sill to ensure that they moved somewhere new every day.
On Christmas Day, with due ceremony, the baby was put in the stable, but the kings continued their journey.
They arrived at the stable on January 6… Epiphany and stayed there while the tree was taken down the cards checked for new addresses and then as the last act of Christmas were packed away again until the next Christmas.
The wise men were the first gentiles to see the new born King. They travelled from afar, met royalty, and when they arrived at the place where the Christ child was, they offered him gifts from their own culture even though they knew hardly anything about him.
And then they returned to their own country. No doubt telling people they met on their journey of the baby they had seen who was a great God willing to become a humble poor baby relying on humans for his survival; no doubt speaking in their own language; no doubt being the first evangelists even though they were not Jews or even Christians. God used these wise men to spread the Good news.
We too are Gentiles, We too come to worship the king. We do it week by week. But do we like the wise men leave this place and tell those we meet about Christ? Do we take the news of the baby born in Bethlehem to our friends and relatives and talk about him in our own language? Or do we pack him away like the Christmas decorations to be brought out at a time of our choosing?
Make your New Year Resolution to tell someone each week of the love God has for us all,
Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, God’s love has no boundaries, and God uses people whatever their faith, or none, their colour, their creed, to make sure the love spreads through the world. Be part of it this year.
AMEN
Rev’d Edwina Wallace.