January 6, 2002
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Gift of a Lifetime Epiphany Sunday Today is Epiphany. It is as the song says, the twelfth day of Christmas, it is the day Christmas is celebrated in Orthodox Christian churches, and it is the day on which presents are exchanged in Mexico and other Latin American countries. For all of the church, Epiphany is the season to celebrate the coming into the world of God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ. And it is the day we hear again the familiar story of the Magi, who we know as the three wise men, as they come to the baby Jesus bearing gifts. What they brought were the gifts of a lifetime. What is your gift of a lifetime? What is it that, when you imagine it, helps your soul to soar? I have been doing some thinking about what a gift of a lifetime might be. It likely depends on our stage of life. For children, the gift of lifetime may be for a two-wheel bike. I was telling someone Friday night that my sisters and I had two bicycles among the three of us. The gift that would have made me happy was pink bike with the long handlebars and the banana seat. I never got it. So I was really glad that when I graduated from high school my graduation gift from my parents was my class ring and a 10 speed of my very own. I rode that bicycle through my college years all the way through seminary. For “tweeners”, that group of people who are no longer children, but not yet teenagers, and for teens, the gift of a lifetime may be going to their first concert with friends. It might be that first unchaperoned date, a car of one’s own, a room with a lock and key, parents that do not nag, education with no tests. For young adults, it may be a great job, a cool car, a wonderful place to live, and finding the love that lasts a lifetime. In the middle years, it may be for more time with loved ones, for healthy families and right relationships, financial security, and meaningful employment. And for seniors, the gift of their long lifetime may be for a life free from worry about health, about money, about emotional and physical security. The Magi were looking for a king, and so they went to another king, Herod to get the information they needed. “King Herod, where is the newly born king of the Jews?” “The what of who?” “The kings of the Jews. Look we saw his star rising and we have come to worship and honor him. Can you help us find him?” “What star? What are you talking about? There was some talk about some sign in the sky, but I haven’t been outside in a while and I do not know what you are talking about.” Maybe the sign was not a star at all, but a meteor, some say it was Haley’s Comet. Whatever it was, they saw some sky sign that had never been seen before. We may not ever know exactly what it was. What we do know is that in that in that sky God provided a cosmic landmark for them. The gift to the Wise Men, their gift of a lifetime comes when they realize that the gift of Jesus is an inclusive gift. He is available for everyone. What is interesting is that these visitors from the East were Gentiles. If they had been from the Jewish tradition that had long-expected the Messiah to come, if they had been temple priests, we would understand. Then we would say that they had come to worship the One for whom they had been waiting. But these were people from another part of the world, who saw a sign in the night sky and decided to follow it. We prize our diversity here, and really understand that it is a gift of God to us, and a gift for us to share. Then there were signs in the sky. Now we can ask ourselves what signs do we need to say that something significant and good and worthy of our worship has happened? We talked at the One to One Focus Group Retreat yesterday about what it is that will inspire us and stir up our best passions. For me, my spiritual passions are stirred by the knowledge that God never gives up on me (or you), keeps me moving, it excites and motivates me. It helps me to know that I am embraced by God, not because of anything I’ve done, but because of God’s grace and forgiveness in my life. The gospel singer Yolanda Adams sings about it: “Not because I’ve been so faithful - not because I’ve always obeyed - it’s not because I trusted him to be with me all the way. But it’s because He loves me so dearly - He was there to answer my call - there always to protect me - for he’s kept me in the midst of it all.” (written by Kevin Bond; Bonded Music Publishing) In the midst of it all, the sign was good news for the Magi, but for Herod the king, the sign of the Messiah’s birth was bad news, there was just no room for another king. It was not the gift of a lifetime, but rather a threat to the power he believed he had. Herod was afraid. Fear can be a good thing. It can keep us alert and away from unnecessary danger. Fear can help us think and feel our way through situations and then decide whether we are where we need to be. On the other hand, fear can effect our perspective. It can prevent us from receiving the gifts of God. It can make us withdraw instead of opening up to God’s possibilities. Herod’s fear led him to a kind of panic. And as many of us do when we are afraid, he spread his fear and panic to the whole city. Now all of Jerusalem is stirred up and scared. Herod learns from the priests that the prophet Micah has said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Remember Herod is seized by fear, and so what could have become a pilgrimage, a journey of spiritual enlightenment and growth becomes a deadly search for the newly born Messiah. He sends the Magi on to Bethlehem where they find the child. When they get there, they were overcome with joy. They do not even get inside before they are so filled with joy that they cannot stand it. They help us understand that one of the gifts of our lifetime is the joy of finding and knowing Jesus. Joy. Not the fear that overwhelmed Herod, but joy. Not the easy nonchalance that says we are too cool and too hip to acknowledge the difference that Jesus makes in our lives, but exuberant laughter, happy tears, can’t keep still joy. Then they gave him presents. These were rich top of the line, Lord and Taylor, Nordstrom kind of gift. You know what they were, gold, frankincense, and myrrh (which by the way is a plant from which kinds of incense and perfume can come and it is often used for the purposes of sexual seduction. When I was little, I wondered what kinds of gifts are these for a baby? I could understand the part where they came and worshiped him. Most of us enjoy holding and playing with new babies. But what’s up with these gifts? Would not a better gift have been a mobile to hang over his crib, or a set of rattles, or some new blankets? Who brings a baby gold, and incense, and a plant that might make perfume? But I came to understand that these truly are gifts of Jesus’ lifetime. Gold represents the sovereignty of Jesus, it is part of a ruler’s attire and it represents the suffering Jesus would undergo. Gold has to be tried, it has to go through fire sometimes. It is a precious metal that knows what it means to go through some stuff. Jesus will come to know the same things. Maybe we know it too. To live in a neighborhood that brings about in us a reluctance to go outside at night, or to live with gunfire and police helicopters overhead is a trying experience. To live in a so-called safe neighborhood where people are not afraid to go outside at night is a good thing. But the residents there know what it is to be tried, to suffer, to be put through the fires of life if inside their home there is physical and emotional abuse creating an atmosphere that steals our sense of safety as surely as do violent streets. Maybe you are secure, but if you know what it is to care for a loved one, to lose to death family members and friends, to know all of the disappointments and disruptions of life, then you know what it is to be tried. Like gold, like Jesus, we will all be tried. What about the other gifts, how are they gifts of a lifetime? Incense was burned by temple priests, no one else. These Gentile visitors knew that Jesus would be a priest, a holy presence to his people. And there was the myrrh, not only was it a precious gift for sensual pleasure, but myrrh was also used to embalm and prepare for burial. It was part of the mixture of spices used to surround the body of Jesus in the few days between his death and his resurrection. It is as one preacher said, “the shadow of the cross was already on him.” In his birth there were hints about his coming death. There is one more gift. The Wise men had the gift of insight. Somehow they had a collective dream that let them know that they should not go back to Jerusalem and Herod. The gospel lesson from last week told us that Herod’s purpose for wanting to find Jesus was not for worship, but in order to kill him. These men who could read a star could also read their own dreams and they knew that they had to find another way home. We can’t always go back the same way we came, that is why I like to have two or three ways of getting someplace. That way if one route is cut off, there is always another way. These wise men remind us that when we feel stuck, when the ways we know aren’t open to us, it is good to have another way. And so they did, and so they gave to us the gift of our lifetimes as we are transformed by God’s gift of love and life in the infant Jesus in Bethlehem. Whatever our gifts of a lifetime, however we go from one place in our spiritual journey to another, I want us to include always the gift of the love of God for us. The gift of the love of God helps us to take the advice given to the Ephesian Christians. Like us they were a diverse group of native born Jews and Gentiles who had come to know Jesus Christ. We can like them, thank God for this church family that does not always agree with each other, but is family nevertheless. We can be constant and passionate in prayer; I pray for this congregation daily, and I hope you are doing the same. As we pray we will find inner strength and outer ministries that show that we are always in a posture of love and care for each other and for the world. We will be rooted - planted deep in the soil of God’s love, and we will be grounded - the foundation on which we stand is solid and unshakable. Then in every dimension of our lives, no matter how wide or high, how long or how deep we will be captured by God ‘s love for us so that all we can do is bask in it as if that love were the resting place for our weary souls. As we discover his love, we will know the fullness of God as completely as we can and we will know that God continues to send us signs in the sky and in each other that beckon us, wait for us, and welcome us in this life all the way into eternity. That my brothers and sisters is the true gift of a lifetime. And for that gift we say today and always, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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