January 4, 2009

Three Journeys Of Epiphany

Pastor Phil Holtan

Grace to you and peace, from God our father, and our lord and savior Jesus Christ.

I’d like to take you on three Journeys today, the first a journey with the wise men, the second, with Jesus beginning at his baptism and the third, your own journey into this New Year, with great opportunities and significant obstacles ahead.

In this Epiphany season, we travel with the Wise men. We’ve heard this story often before, but did you know that this story says they began their journey by studying and learning.

I remember when I first heard astronomer Karlis Kaufmanis of the University of Minnesota tell the story of the magi. He himself was a Latvian displaced person, a sort of wise man from the East, and he spent many years of his life studying the story of the Christmas star and what it meant as an astronomer. He concluded that these magi were the very best and brightest of their tradition, maybe from Iraq or Iran, life long students of the sciences of astronomy and astrology, some of the wisest scholars of the East. They had to study and know a lot to recognize the sign of the star, for it was a complex sign, not just a new brightest star in the sky. Their science started their journey, that is, their careful observation of physical phenomenon, and their interpretation of it through their own wisdom of astrology. Kaufmanis thinks it was a very rare triple conjunction of the planets, in the constellation of the Jews, which for someone who knew these things, would announce that a king was born to the Jews. The magi acted on this knowledge and made an incredibly long journey, from one end of the Fertile Crescent to another. Then for the next step of their journey, they had to consult with scholars of scripture in Jerusalem who helped them finish their quest. It was those two actions of study that led them to the birthplace of Jesus where finally, they found and worshipped the new savior.

And when they found the baby, the language is extravagant. The magi didn’t just rejoice, or even just rejoice with joy, but they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. They were overwhelmed with joy. God led them to the one whom he sent, Jesus, and there they found great joy. They had an epiphany. Do you know what that means? An epiphany is a revelation, a strong experience of God’s presence, an intense encounter with the divine.

What starts us on a journey? Once at a student led chapel at Concordia, one of the students, Aaron, prayed a prayer that lit a light bulb in my head. He prayed something like this, “every journey of faith begins with an epiphany, so Lord, may our study and worship, our life of faith lead us to an epiphany, a revelation of God’s light that will lead us on the journey of our life.” Aaron was a wise man to say that. Epiphanies start our journeys, and renew them.

For the wise men, it was the study of science and scripture that sparked the epiphany, as God revealed to them the journey God wanted them to take. And it led them to Jesus and to new wholeness and salvation in their lives. What a journey that was for the wise men, and that is our first journey for today.

The gospel text for next Sunday from Mark tells of another epiphany and another journey begun. It says that in those days, Jesus came down from Galilee to the dusty desert, to the Jordan, where he was baptized by John. We know so very little of what happened after Jesus’ birth at Christmas. We know of a journey to Egypt to escape Herod’s killing squads. We hear about the episode in the temple when he was 12 and then the simple statement that he grew in wisdom and years and in favor with God and with people. We hear an offhand comment that Jesus was the son of Joseph the carpenter in Nazareth, which meant he had probably been doing carpentry until maybe his 30th year, well into middle age in those days when life was short.

And then this baptism is the first event we know from Jesus’ adult life. But there’s nothing more about how Jesus came to be here, how he was drawn to this particular spot, to be baptized by John, and drawn into his ministry of preaching, teaching, healing and feeding the people.

Jesus wasn’t the only one to be baptized by John. It sounds like there were hundreds or thousands of others there, but there were three unique events that happened at Jesus’ baptism.

First, as Jesus came out of the water, it says the heavens were ripped open, second, the Spirit descended like a dove unto Jesus, and third, a voice from heaven said, you are my own son, my beloved, with you I am well pleased.

We could spend lots of time with these three signs, for in the careful writing of the gospel writer Mark, each word brims with meaning. The sky ripped open suggest that God has escaped from the heavens, just as at the crucifixion at the other end of the gospel. God escaped from the Holy of Holies in the temple, that sacred place where God has been kept at a safe distance. God is now at large. God has truly broken through into people’s lives through this Jesus. God couldn’t be kept in a little box, but God busted out.

And the diving doves and spirit? In the very next chapter of Luke, after his baptism, Jesus says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, release to captives, new sight for the blind. Somehow the Spirit is in the driver’s seat now, and sure enough, just a few verses after his baptism, it says Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil.

And the voice from heaven- harks back to the OT language. “My son” seems to come from Psalm 2, and well pleased, from Isaiah 43 and 42, where it describes a servant in whom God will place the Spirit to bring justice to the nations, a beloved and promised son, like Isaac, offered as a sacrifice by his father. Behind every word lie memories and bible stories that these people steeped in their people’s history would remember. Like the wise men, you have to know some things. You have to study some to get this entire story.

There is much we don’t know here, but we do know the result. Jesus’ journey really began with that day’s epiphany at his baptism. God’s revelation of Jesus’ identity at his baptism somehow set his course, to teach, heal and somehow die. He is the promised one, the Messiah King whom God calls son. He is the spirit filled servant who will bring forth justice, the beloved son chosen for the sacrifice.

God called him this day to the journey of the next maybe three years that changed the world and our faith forever. This epiphany, this revealing by God, started the journey of our Lord that resulted in our salvation. On this day, hair still dripping wet from his baptism, Jesus found his vocation, the course for life that God gave him. And Jesus’ journey to the cross has everything to do with our life now, for we follow him on the way.

And that’s where I would like to begin the third journey: our journey of faith. Our road into the New Year. That’s the journey you are on in your life, the one we’re all on in our church, people charting their own course as they follow the savior, just as the wise men did.

And if Jesus’ career began to take shape at his baptism, so do our careers of faith. In baptism, God’s love for us takes shape in our lives. We have been saved, redeemed by the cross, and now, that love of God hits the road.

For each of the baptized have a calling, not just a job, but a mission to which God sends us, just as God sent Jesus. I have learned a lot here at Calvary, because a number of you have such clear callings to specific ministries. And then your passions have created our ministries- like TWIGS, community Outreach, quilters, Fishermen, altar guild, our choirs, youth and family ministry, Habitat, Common Hope, gifts and ministries, children’s ministry, and the list goes on and on. God called you and you make ministry happen. And some of those are individual and hidden ministries, because I know you all have those, and some are more organized and visible ministries. We continue to ask God to raise up people like you, and ministries that you feel called to make happen.

One of the reasons this is an interesting few weeks of the year, early in January, is that we are aware of starting off on a new journey, into a new year.

I think that’s why we make New Year’s Resolutions, to exercise, or read the bible, or spend more time with our kids, drink or eat less, lots of different goals we set for our year.

What orients our resolutions? I think health is important in many, faith too, family. Good things mostly. I don’t think people determine to lie more, or embezzle some money for the New Year, but rather to push back against those temptations and impulses.

What keeps us moving on the right path?

I have heard a story from both the Zen and the Native American tradition, that we have two wolves in each of us, love and hate, good and evil. And when we ask which will win? The answer is--The one we feed more. The one we tend and encourage will thrive, and the other will shrink.

You have the opportunity this year, to turn your life around. We call it repentance. To turn us from unworthy goals to higher, to reset us to our default settings. The ones that God gave for us in our creation. To love God and enjoy him forever. To love our neighbors as ourselves. To do that, we need to practice some. Daily prayer, even better, constant prayer, checking in with God throughout the day with our feelings, our desires for others, confessions, thanks. Regular worship and fellowship with other believers. Conversation about faith with those who share our faith and can help us grow even stronger.

We may make resolutions to study- that’s part of the Wise men story, that they knew the way to the manger because they had studied their own field well. I invite you to join in the bible study programs we have, to read the Bible in a year, or at least a regular portion each day. That study will undergird any journey of faith you make this year.

So, it’s Epiphany, a time to encounter God and start a new journey. What if by our study in the Bible and our faithful practice of our faith, we felt God calling us to follow him. That’s the wise men’s story. Their careful study of their field of science and scripture pointed the way.

Our second journey was Jesus’ journey, and that adventure began at the river with his hair dripping wet from his Baptism. That’s where our journey begins too, the third journey. For at our baptisms, we have been claimed as God’s children and called to a life of mission. And so in this New Year, we are called to faithfully practice our faith so we can live Christ’s life, to serve, to love, to do justice, even to lose ourselves for others.

Let us pray: Every journey of faith begins with an epiphany, so Lord, may our study and worship, our life of faith lead us to an epiphany, a revelation of God’s light that will lead us on the journeys of our lives. Amen