Epiphany 4 - 3 February 2019 - Year C

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the13th Chapter of St Pauls First Letter to the Corinthians: Verses 1-13

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.

But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Our text is a very popular passage of Scripture. It speaks about love, and does so beautifully. Of course, the text is used often at weddings, because it is (incorrectly) understood as praising the value of romantic, human love.

Even though it sounds great, this love is something that is scarcely, if ever, seen among humankind, it is no more than a human ideal! What is often missed, and perhaps actively ignored, is that this text was first written to a community that was having a very difficult time staying together.

From an emotional human point of view the whole context of this passage just sounds good. A more in-depth study of this text reveals that it is what St. Paul calls "A still more excellent way" – a love “beyond measuring” It is the way of Agape love. This Agape love (Ancient Greek: ἀγάπη, agápē), is the highest form of love, selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love, the love of God for all human kind, that is beyond all human understanding.

The first thing our text says, in the first three verses is, "without Love, I am nothing!" None of the things I can do have any power or importance without love. Hearing this, there is something within each of us that cries out, "Surely something I do counts, somehow." But Paul says that without love, the sort of love that God has and shows toward us, none of it matters - it is useless and possibly even counter-productive. Even the best we have and do and intend is nothing without a genuine, God-like love.

It was important for the Church in Corinth to hear of the love “beyond measure”, because at the time,  measuring themselves, their abilities, and their status relative to one another seems to have become something of an obsession within the Corinthian church. Paul wanted to move them past all of this to a way that is “beyond measuring.” Love is the shape of life that has been set free from the competition that is disrupting the Corinthian church. In fact the very same message comes to us today from Paul; how often in our modern day churches do private agendas, personal jealousy and positions of power become the priority over the “Word and Sacrament” ministry comissioned by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ himself.

The Corinthians were actively pursuing some of the things that Paul mentions in the opening verses of chapter 13 such as speaking in tongues and knowing “mysteries.” There may be nothing wrong with such things in themselves, but if in the process people forget about loving their brothers and sisters, such things end up being worthless. Without love, it does not matter what budgets, buildings, or missional strategies we have. Such things do not give the church the shape that God desires. We may pursue various forms of spirituality, or proper doctrine, or activism in the name of justice. However, in our pursuit of these otherwise fine things, we must not forget that the church is called to be a community that practices love.

As the last element in this parade of love’s activities is the claim that it does not end (literally, “it does not fail”). Paul names 3 things which are of central value to the church: faith, hope, and love (verse 13). These three vital elements form a brief summary of the life of the church, repeated elsewhere in the New Testament (1 Thessalonians 1:3, 5:8; Colossians 1:4-5; Hebrews 10:22-24; 1 Peter 1:21-22). Faith will one day become sight, and hope will end in fulfillment (Romans 8:24-25). Love will still remain, however, because God’s love will not fall, fail, or falter. We are drawn into that love of God, and we are remade by that love so that we become lovers.

What is really important is that Paul never says that such love feels good, and this is where the typical use of this chapter goes off the rails. Such misunderstanding creates trouble not only for expectations regarding the day-to-day realities of marriage, but also for the realities of the church. Because of our disordered assumptions about what love actually is, we often act as though the mission of the church is to gather like-minded and likeable people together. We think that in such a community it will be easy for us to love or, more honestly, to “feel the love.” But true love is not measured by how good it makes us feel. In the context of 1 Corinthians, it would be better to say that the measure of love is its capacity for tension and disagreement among worshipping Christians without division – without the anger of human frailty that invites the evil one into our midst with his plans of chaos.

There can be no doubt, this text is difficult, it is a chapter with the purpose of helping us to understand the divine complexity of the boundless love of God for mankind. It is a text that instructs us that there is no reference to human romantic notions. It is a text that also remains fundamental to Jesus role in our salvation. This description of love was never meant to be a burden placed upon us. Which human being can love so selflessly as this chapter’s description? Who through their own efforts can set aside their own human nature in their efforts to take on the nature of God? From the Garden of Eden we have been and will always continue to be sinners at the mercy of God’s grace

There is no doubt that Paul certainly expects that this love will be lived out by the church for all time; that’s the whole purpose of this chapter. The really good news here for all humankind is that we are not left to our own devices. We are not alone on our journey to salvation. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ died for all people for all time, He lived a life as a human being and He knows our challenges, he was tempted in the desert and He knows our temptations, He died on the cross carrying the burden of our sins, and whilst he lived a perfect life, he certainly knew our sins when He cried out on the cross. Now the curtain in the temple is torn and we have access to the total forgiveness of sins that are ours through His resurrection. In Verse 12 of our text St Paul affirms that we have already been fully known by God. John 3:16 tells us “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come”.The ‘Spirit of truth’ has come at our Baptism; we have the Lord of the universe living in our hearts and souls.

In faith we can go forward knowing that we are not simply left to our own capacity for love. We can love because God has already fully known us and loved us anyway, and is working to make our lives and our communities look more and more like this busy, active, tireless love. “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love”.Amen.

The love and grace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Epiphany 3 – 27 January 2019 – Year C

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 4^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses:14–30:

¹⁴ And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵ And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 

¹⁶And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 

because he has anointed me 

to proclaim good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives 

and recovering of sight to the blind, 

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²² And all spoke well of him and marvelled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” ²³ And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” ²⁴ And he said, “Truly, I say to you,  no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. ²⁵ But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, ²⁶ and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. ²⁹ And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. ³⁰ But passing through their midst, he went away. 

There are still a few weeks remaining in the Epiphany season.  As we come to this part of the season, we notice a sad change in the tone of the Gospel for the day.  Epiphany begins as the magi rejoice in the star as it leads them to the new born king. The Gospel for First Sunday after Epiphany gives an account of the witness of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ Baptism: “This is my beloved Son.”  Last week, we have the joyful epiphany of Jesus to the disciples and the servants as Jesus rescues a wedding from social embarrassment by converting more than a hundred gallons of water into wine.  So far everything is great.  Jesus is a smash hit.

Something changed when Jesus returned to Nazareth.  Today’s Gospel informs us that many people became angry when Jesus revealed Himself.  The people in Nazareth were so angry that they were ready to toss Jesus over a cliff. Normally, tossing someone over a cliff was a prelude to stoning.  The stones did more damage to the victim when they were thrown down from a height. That, and the wild scavengers could come and feast on the body without endangering the town after the victim was dead. What did Jesus do that made the gentle-folk of Nazareth want to kill Him?

The context of today’s Gospel tells us that the events in today’s Gospel happened a short time after Jesus was baptised in the Jordan and then tempted in the wilderness. Although He has a following, He has not yet officially called anyone to be an Apostle.  On the other hand, He has been authorised to read and teach in the synagogues.  So Jesus returned to Nazareth as the young rabbi who was causing quite a stir in the rest of Galilee.  It was very natural for the synagogue ruler to invite this young rabbi to teach on the Sabbath.

According to the lectionary, the reading for the day was from Isaiah 61. ^{[Isaiah 61:1,2a]}“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour.”  If you examine the context of these words in Isaiah, you will notice that even though Isaiah ministered over 700 years before Jesus was even born, He still followed Jesus’ instructions to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Isaiah has just finished an account of the many sins of Israel.  He has called them to repent.  Then, in chapter 60, Isaiah begins a proclamation of forgiveness.  The captives and the prisoners in this prophecy are not just the captives and prisoners of the political enemies of Israel, but they are also the captives and prisoners of sin.  So the words that Jesus read that day were from the middle of that great proclamation of the forgiveness of sin that Isaiah proclaimed to all of Israel. So, the people gathered in that synagogue were waiting for Jesus to explain this prophecy that the Holy Spirit gave to Isaiah over 700 years ago.

[Jesus] rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Basically, Jesus pointed to Himself as the fulfillment of this prophecy of forgiveness.  Jesus is the bearer of good news.  Jesus is the binder of the broken heart.  Jesus is the liberator of the captive.  Jesus is the opener of the prison.  Jesus is the bringer of the Year of Jubilee.  Jesus identified Himself as the forgiveness that Isaiah, by the power of the Holy Spirit, spoke of in his message to Israel.  Jesus identified Himself as the Kingdom of God come down to earth to save people from sin.

It is not surprising that the people in the synagogue were blown away by Jesus’ words.  You can’t just walk into the synagogue and claim to be the fulfillment of prophecy.  If you make a false claim to be the fulfillment of prophecy, you have just committed blasphemy.  Blasphemy is a stoning offense.  It is not surprising that the people in the synagogue were astonished at what Jesus said.

As bewildered as the people are, Jesus has not finished His sermon.  His teaching about prophecy was not complete.  Prophecy is not only fulfilled, but it is also rejected. All the prophets of the Bible had two characteristics: 1). they spoke the truth that God gave to them; 2). their audience rejected the truth that God gave to them.  In fact, most of the prophets died because they spoke the truth of God’s Word to the people.

Jesus gave two examples: Elijah and Elisha.  Elijah stayed with a Gentile widow during a great famine.  Elisha healed a general of the Gentile Syrians who were the sworn enemies of Israel..  In both cases Israel rejected the prophets of God, and in both cases God sent His prophets to bless Gentiles.

After Jesus taught about rejection, the people of Nazareth demonstrated His teaching. Instead of recognising their own hardness of heart and repenting, they acted to kill Jesus.  That is when they tried to throw Him from the cliff.

Let’s just stop for a moment and think about this.  Jesus preached a two-part sermon.  In the first part of the sermon, He claimed to be the Kingdom of God come down to earth.  In the second part of the sermon, He spoke of the historical rejection of the prophets. This second part made the people angry enough to kill?

Anyone who lied about fulfilling prophecy deserved to die by stoning.  The people who heard Jesus’ sermon should have investigated Him based on His claim to be the fulfillment of the prophecy.  If Jesus can provide evidence that He really is the fulfillment of the prophecy, then the people should fall on their faces and worship Him.  If Jesus can’t do that, then stoning is the correct response.  Never the less, at Jesus’ claim to fulfil the prophets, the people only got bewildered.

On the other hand, when Jesus reminded them of the well documented sins of their ancestors, they were ready to kill Him.  The very scrolls in that synagogue held the record that what Jesus said was the truth. The facts of this rejection were regularly taught in all the synagogues.

The failure of the people of Nazareth was that they didn’t care that Jesus might have committed blasphemy.  Instead, they were angry that Jesus had told them the truth about their own sin.

This problem is not restricted to Nazareth.  It is part of our sinful nature to be quite tolerant of people who make some really outrageous claims for their spirituality.  On the other hand, we are all set to fire up when someone points out the obvious truth of our own sin, especially if that sin is one of our favourite things.  Our sinful nature wants to reject the very Word of God when we hear the clear proclamation of our deepest, darkest, most favourite sin.

It is a very sad thing to reject God’s message of sin in our lives.  Rejecting God’s message of sin means that we also reject God’s message of salvation.  As the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write to Timothy, ^{[1 Timothy 1:15]}“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”  If we say that we are not sinners, then we are saying that Jesus is not for us.  The true heart of the Gospel message is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinnersand we all qualify.

Jesus was telling the truth when He claimed to be the fulfillment of the prophets.  All we need do is think back to His baptism.  There the Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove as an exact fulfillment of the words of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me.”  God the Father also witnessed to Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophets as He said to Jesus,^{[Luke 3:22]}“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Jesus wants to give us the gifts that He purchased for us with His holy life, His suffering, and His death.  He wants to give the gifts that He authenticated with His resurrection from the dead.  He wants to tell us how His death on the cross has freed us from our captivity, opened our eyes to His salvation, and liberated us from sin’s oppression.

He comes to us as He came to the people of Nazareth in their synagogue.  He has given us His teachings in the words of the Bible.  He has promised that when we hear His words, the Holy Spirit will work in us to establish and strengthen our belief in Him. He has promised to put the very name of God on us in Holy Baptism.  He has promised to come to us in His very body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. The gifts that Jesus offered to the people in Nazareth will be ours.

Jesus truly is the fulfillment of God’s promises.  He is the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah.  He has preached the Good News of the Kingdom of God.  He has shown us the light of His salvation.  With His life, suffering, and death on the cross, He has freed those oppressed by sin.  With His resurrection, He offers the Lord’s favour to us.  He gives these things to us through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith.  God has promised all these things to us and today they are fulfilled in our hearing. Amen

The peace and love of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

The Baptism of Our Lord – 13 January 2019 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 3^rdChapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 15–22:

¹⁵ As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, ¹⁶John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 

¹⁸ So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. ¹⁹ But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, ²⁰ added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison. 

²¹ Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” 

We are now in the season of the Epiphany of our Lord. The epiphany of our Lord is all about the many ways that our Lord, Jesus Christ reveals Himself to people.  The first Gospel for the season of the Epiphany of our Lord is about our Lord revealing Himself to some magi by means of a sign in the heavens … a star that led them to the Christ-child.  This week the Gospel tells us that God the Father tore the heavens open in order to talk about Jesus as Jesus submitted to a baptism by John in the Jordan.  The gospel also tells us that the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove.  Today’s gospel is an epiphany not just of Jesus, but also of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is on His journey to the cross.  He journeyed from His throne in Heaven to take on our humanity as a single cell in Mary’s womb.  He grew in her womb just like any other human baby and on Christmas we celebrated His birth.  He lived His life under the law just like any other human being.  The only difference is that He kept the law perfectly.  He never sinned.

The entire time that He grew both inside and outside of His mother, He carried our sin … your sin and mine.  Up until the events in today’s Gospel, He had carried them privately … quietly.  Very few people knew who He was.  When it was time for Him to go public, He came to the Jordan River … to John the Baptist. He came to be baptised.

Now Luke 3 tells us that John was ‘proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’, and the natural question is, “Why did Jesus have John baptise Him?”  Jesus never sinned.  He didn’t need to repent, and He didn’t need forgiveness of sins.  What was Jesus doing in the water with John?

The best answer to this question that I know of is an excerpt from the prayer that the Rev Dr Martin Luther wrote for the rite of baptism.  “Through the Baptism in the Jordan of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, You sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood and a lavish washing away of sin.”  You see, Jesus submitted to baptism in order to stand with us in order to save us from our sin.  In the water of John’s baptism Jesus publicly proclaimed that He carried our sin.  When JESUS is baptised, the sins that were washed away from sinners all stick to Him.  At His Baptism, Jesus comes to be a sinner covered with our sins.  And not just one person's sins.  He comes to take on EVERY person's sins ever!

In the Gospel according to Luke that we just heard, both God the Father and God the Holy Spirit acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God chosen to earn salvation for us.  Today’s Gospel proclaims, ^{(Luke 3:21–22)}“Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” This reverses the results of sin that God proclaimed after the first sin when He said,^{(Genesis 3:22–24)}“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” So, in Adam, it is our sin that closed off the way to paradise.  The account of Jesus’ baptism informs us that, in Jesus, the way to paradise is open once again.  For, as Jesus prayed, the heavens opened once again.  The Holy Spirit descended on Him, and the Father declared Jesus to be His beloved Son … the Messiah … the one anointed to earn salvation for all people.

As Jesus journeyed to the cross, His baptism by John is a major milestone.  This event is second in importance only to the crucifixion and resurrection.  The Holy Spirit anointed the Christ in both His humanity and His divinity.  God the Father acknowledges Him as His Son.  His ministry of carrying our sins to the cross became public knowledge.

One of the demonstrations of the importance of this event comes after Jesus ascended.  Judas the betrayer had hung himself, and the remainder of Jesus’ disciples came together to choose a replacement for him.  Peter reminded the others of the qualifications for the replacement.  He said, ^{(Acts 1:21–22)}“One of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” Many of the men Jesus chose were originally disciples of John.  Like them, the replacement for Judas must be able to bear witness to the baptism of Jesus by John.  The baptism of Jesus forms the beginning point of the witness.

Today’s reading from the Gospel according to Luke informs us of this incredible epiphany.  The heavens were opened.  God the Son was in the water.  God the Holy Spirit descended like a dove.  God the Father spoke to the crowds.  John the Baptist witnessed this epiphany along with his followers, and some of those followers would later become Jesus’ disciples.

However, not all the witnesses of this epiphany were friendly witnesses.  This epiphany was also a message to the devil and all his evil angels.  God the Son has taken up human flesh.  He is bringing the battle to the earth.  This is the one who will crush the serpent’s head.  Jesus, full of the Spirit, is ready to battle the temptations of the devil in the wilderness.  He will fight for us, brothers and sisters in Christ,and He will win.

In a few Sundays when the season of Lent starts, we will read the temptation that the devil brought against Jesus.  Two of the temptations begin with the words, ^{(Matt. 4; Luke 4)}“If you are the Son of God …”.  The other temptation asks Jesus to worship the devil as God.  All three temptations attack the identity of Jesus as God … the identity that the Father proclaimed at Jesus’ baptism.

Jesus endured the full fire of Satan’s temptation.  He endured not only the temptation in the wilderness, but Satan never really stopped tempting Jesus.  He tempted him through His friends and followers.  He continued to tempt Jesus even as Jesus was hanging on the cross.  As Jesus hung on the cross those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, ^{(Matthew 27:39–40)}“You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Even as Jesus hung on the cross, the passers by were still challenging the words that the Father proclaimed in this morning’s Gospel. Jesus endured these temptations as we never will.  Jesus’ perfect perseverance under Satan’s fiery temptation was part of the mission to open heaven for us.

The epiphany we heard about this morning also marks Jesus as the target of God’s wrath.  The Apostle Paul writes,^{(Romans 6:6)} “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” Jesus took your place.  He was the target of God’s wrath – a wrath that was so severe that Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?”  Jesus suffered the original baptism of fire for us.  He fulfilled John’s prophecy of baptism by fire in order to open heaven for us.

Jesus blazed a trail through death that leads to life. He conquered death and rose from the dead.  Through His triumph, the way to heaven is open.

Here at His baptism, Jesus took our place under the burden of our sin.  As our substitute, He carried out God’s plan perfectly.  The mission that Jesus began at His baptism was successful.  He opened a way to heaven.  He offers to join us to Himself through baptism.  The Holy Spirit gives us the faith that receives that offer. God the Father adopts us into His family by that faith.  When the time comes for us to leave this world, the heavens will open, the angels will carry us home and we will hear the Father say, “You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased.”  Amen

The love and peace of our Great triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Epiphany of Our Lord – 6 January 2019 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 2^nd Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 1 – 12.

The Visit of the Wise Men

2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men¹ from the east came to Jerusalem, ² saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” ³ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

⁶  “                 ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

⁷ Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” ⁹ After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ¹¹ And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

I have no idea what you think of Woody Allen, but today’s Gospel reminds me of something he said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans.” - I believe the original is an old Yiddish proverb “We plan, God laughs.” but you get the idea. I don’t know if Woody knew it or not, but his words agree with the Psalms: ^{[Psalm 33:10]} “The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He frustrates the plans of the peoples”.  The Epiphany account of the magi very much demonstrates the truth in those words.  You see, the account of the visit of the magi shows God working very directly to change people’s plans.

I suppose we could take that all the way back to the visit that the angel Gabriel paid to a young virgin named Mary.  Mary did plan to have children … someday … after she married Joseph.  God had other plans. ^{[Isaiah 7:14]}  “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”. 

Then there is the place of the birth.  Did Mary plan to give birth to the child in Bethlehem?  God did. ^{[Micah 5:2]} “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days”.

Then there are the magi.  Who knows what they had planned when they noticed that there was a new light in the sky … a light unlike any light they had seen before … a light that caused them to set out in search of a newborn king.  They planned to find the king in Jerusalem, but He wasn’t there.

King Herod told the magi to look for the king in Bethlehem, but when the magi set out from Jerusalem, the star showed them the true location of the newborn king.  By now everyone expects the new born king to be in Bethlehem, but if we read the account carefully, it doesn’t really tell us where they found the child.  Maybe they found the child in Bethlehem, maybe they didn’t.  The Bible doesn’t say.

The magi planned to worship the new born king and then return to Herod, but God had other plans.  An angel appeared to them in a dream and warned them to return by another route.

Herod had plans.  Herod planned to rule indefinitely.  Herod murdered friend, family, and enemy alike in order to keep himself on the throne in Jerusalem.  He planned to murder the newborn king.  God had other plans. ^{[Matthew 2:13]} “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him’.”  Herod’s plan failed.  Not only did he not murder the new born king, but he also died … and when he died no one mourned.

Joseph planned to marry Mary and then be the father of her children.  He didn’t plan to be the step dad of a child conceived by the Holy Spirit.  He probably never planned to do any international traveling either … much less to Egypt.

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans.  The entire account of the visit of the magi … indeed the entire historical content of the Bible constantly shows us that God’s plans always come to pass while man’s plans are very much subject to change.

Did Noah plan to build a floating zoo?  Did Joseph plan to get sold into slavery by his brothers and then become Pharaoh’s right hand man?  When Moses planned to deliver Israel from slavery, God sent him out into the desert for forty years.  Then, once Moses turned eighty and gave up on his plan to deliver Israel, God came to him in a burning bush.  Saul planned to travel to Damascus and arrest Christians, but God struck him to the ground in a bright light so that he became Paul the Apostle.  These are but a few examples of God changing people’s plans.

God inspired Isaiah to prophesy, ^{[Isaiah 55:8–9]} “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  We can be very, very glad that God changes plans.  We can be very, very glad that God’s plans for us are not what we expect.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they brought a curse on all of creation.  They expected punishment.  They ran and hid.  They did not expect God to promise a seed who would crush the serpent’s head.  I would have expected God to erase His creation and start over.  He didn’t do that. He sent a saviour, instead.  Instead of punishing His creation or erasing His creation, He redeemed His creation.

Even the way that the redeemer did the redeeming did not fit the expectations of man.  The people who had God’s promises … the people who should have known better … even these people expected a king of earthly power and glory.  Herod most certainly expected a king of power and glory.  That is the reason he was troubled.  If Herod had understood the true nature of the new born king … that His kingdom is not of this world … Herod wouldn’t have cared.

Man’s plans expect a redeemer who makes laws, not one who lives under the law, but the Bible tells us:^{[Galatians 4:4–5]} “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons”.  

Man expects a redeemer of great power and wealth.  Never the less, God’s Word says, ^{[2 Corinthians 8:9]} “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich”.  

Although the prophets foretold the suffering servant of God, even Jesus’ disciples did not expect Jesus to suffer and die.  Even so God’s Word says, ^{[Galatians 3:13]} “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’”

The resurrection did not fit the plans of the Pharisees and the chief priests for we read: ^{[Matthew 27:62–64]} “The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’  Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”

The guards at Jesus’ tomb didn’t plan to see an angel, but God changed their plans. ^{[Matthew 28:2–6]}“An angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.  And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.  But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here, for he has risen, as he said”.  

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans.  Pagan philosophers from a foreign land come to worship the Christ child.  At the same time, the powerful in Jerusalem … the high priests … the scribes … the man on the throne … they haven’t got a clue.  The account of the magi visiting the Christ child once again shows us that our lives are subject to God’s plan … not ours.  As the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write: ^{[Philippians 2:13]} “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure”.  

Fortunately for us, it is God’s good pleasure for us to spend eternity with Him.  His plan is to work our salvation.  As the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write: ^{[Ephesians 1:4]} “He chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him”.  God’s plan of salvation for us has been in place since before He created the world.  It is that plan of salvation that was at work as He revealed the Saviour to the magi by way of the star.  It is that plan of salvation that is still at work in us as He reveals and gives that same salvation to us through His blessed, holy word and sacraments.  It is that plan of salvation that will one day take us from this valley of sorrows to live in His eternal presence in holiness and joy forever.  Amen

The love and peace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen