|
|
“Lighting the Way”
Matthew 2:1-12
A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
Some of you
may not know this, but the department of Homeland Security has been quite busy
lately. Reports are circulating that a
number of individuals have been taken into custody in the nation’s capital for
suspicious activities. Officials off the record have hinted that they are on
the lookout for 3 men that seem to be of Middle Eastern descent. The NSA picked
up cell phone conversations that contained designated marker words for terror
activities. These phrases included such words as “capitol”, “packages” and
“leader.”
It has also been reported that the suspects had an unusually large amount of gold bullion and two containers of powdery substances in their possession. Officials suspect that the packages might include poison, bomb materials or hallucinogenic drugs since the suspects claimed to see a bright star in the east that motivated there journey. People familiar with the case say that the suspect claim to be traveling magicians, astronomers or academics – it was unclear due to lack of adequate translators. While it was speculation whether their background may be Saudi Arabian or Iraqi, there was as of yet no clear tie to Al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
Officials will not confirm or deny
that they have the three in their custody and some report that they have alluded captive by utilizing an escape route known only to
them. A Homeland Security official stated that “we don’t know how they got in
the country or there real purpose here but it was suspicious enough to
investigate and raise the “Threat Level Advisory.” The official refused to
comment as to whether upon capture if the suspects would be transferred to Guantonamo or subject to coercive techniques – “we
certainly intend to get to the bottom of this no matter what it takes.”
In other news, military officials
denied rumors that a strike team has been sent to a Middle Eastern country as a
deterrent to prevent further suspicious activity.
In truth, I lifted this off the
Internet this past week, but imagine if something like this happened these
days. We would write off the reporters
of such things.
And yet, here we are on the 8th
of January curiously perched in our pews because of the magic and the mystery
of the story. We have at some level been
caught up in the imagination of the light that shone in the darkness that
night.
Think about this: what lights your
way so you can make it through the muck and mire and gray snow of this
existence? Where is your vision-bearer? Where is the light that keeps you coming
back? What does the light of inspiration
look like? How does it dance in your
imagination and help you to think about and act upon a different reality?
That’s what Christianity is really
about. It is doing unthinkable things,
preposterous things, counter-intuitive things, even subversive things all
because we have seen a light. Doing such
things, believing such things, acting upon our convictions is exactly what
scares those in positions of domination.
It is what scares people, because it sets people free. It inspires others to think about their
possibilities of hope instead of their dark cave of despair.
According to the first chapter of
Genesis, God’s first words were “let there be light.” And with those words, the creation process
began.
When the people were in slavery in
When the Hebrew people had lost
their homeland and were in exile, God said through the prophet Isaiah as
recorded in the 60th chapter, “Arise, shine, for your light has come
and the glory of God has risen upon you.
And these people returned from their exile to rebuild
When hope seemed to be lost
throughout the land, while King Herod reveled in his own luxury and the Roman
occupiers used all sorts of double-speak for how the Hebrew people would be
even more free or at least happy under their Pax Romana rule, a light shone
over a
The Gospel of John says that in
Jesus “was the light of all people. The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
Light is what it’s about. The days are getting brighter day by day now
that the solstice has passed.
But what it is really about is the
light that shines in the darkness and gives us the inspiration to take the
steps we need to take, to make and maybe even keep those New Year’s
resolutions.
The familiar story from the second
chapter of Matthew’s Gospel tells of the Magi following such a light. It made
them do some pretty nutty things. It so filled them with wonder that they went
to a distant land. It so confounded them that they gave awkward impractical
gifts to the holy family. It even made them defy the wishes of the host king.
How rude. And yet that
is probably why they are called wise men. They saw through Herod’s trickery and they
did the politically unwise thing of going home a different way.
And yet, such is the way of
Epiphanies—those moments of clarity when things seem to make sense and all that
we thought made sense appears absurd or trivial in its clarity.
Think of those moments of clarity
you have had. How did they make you different? Did they make things easier or
did they offer more challenges. And yet, the challenges are so much easier to
address when we have a clarity of vision and purpose
under girding them.
There is so much confusing
information out there, but there is evidence that light is here, even in this
very room.
Light refracted in just the right
manner creates a prism and a rainbow of hues.
I see parts of that rainbow right
here.
The miracle of our congregation is
one aspect of this light.
During the Christmas Season we gave
literally thousands of dollars to support our sister church in Nicaragua’s
elementary school, the Ronald McDonald House, two battered women’s shelters,
four individual families, the people displaced by Hurricanes. We also served meals at Loaves and Fishes on
December 30th, and others of us delivered meals in December. We did this because we saw the light.
While people were busy buying gifts
and becoming the ultimate consumers, the people of UBC did Christmas right by
welcoming a refugee homeless family from
There are those who would prefer
that our light didn’t shine so dang brightly.
There is a scene in that great
baseball movie “The Natural” where the owner of the ball club likes to lurk in
the darkness. He holds his clandestine
meetings under the cover of darkness. It
keeps him in control. The hero of the
story, in Christ-like fashion turns on the light of the owner’s office and in
effect refuses to live in a way that is not a way of light.
Oh the light shines and when it
does, it exposes those who would prefer to lurk in the shadows, unhindered by
pesky light. The Prophet Isaiah says in
the 58th chapter that those inspired by the light ought to be
“repairers of the breach and restorers of streets to live in.”
Inspired by the light, we might say
the truth to those in power.
We might just say that the war in
wrong.
We might just say that marriage
rights ought to be available to all people.
We might just say that the ethnic
targeting of individuals in the guise of cutting down on illegal immigration is
nothing more than racial harassment.
We might just say that everyone
ought to be paid a living wage.
We might just say that our waters
need to be protected.
We might just say that Jesus in
fact has an opinion issues of poverty and race and sex and discrimination, and
that the one who shines as that light always, ALWAYS,
ALWAYS sided with the poor
and the outcast.
We might just be inspired by the
light and remember that Jesus said that the first shall be last and the last
shall be first.
We just might remember the light
and get behind the movements that will make a difference in then world.
We just might remember the light
and tell the hard truth to those who need to hear it, even if it is a truth we
need to tell ourselves.
Sisters and brothers, on Epiphany,
we remember the light. We remember our
moments of inspiration and those clear moments when we knew the right thing to
do.
On Epiphany, in this New Year, you
can be one of the ones who lights the way.
You can be the bearer of the
light. We can all be that bearer of
light, because each and every one of is has that light in our very hearts.