Epiphany 2020

Lectionary readings: Isaiah 60:1-6 and Ephesians 3:1-12 and Matthew 2:1-12

Matthew and Luke record events surrounding Jesus’ birth and infancy. Luke tells us about shepherds; and Mary treasuring the words they spoke in her heart, keeping them close together under guard in order to take them out at a later time. Matthew tells us that her son shall be a ruler who is to shepherd God’s people Israel; and about exotic visitors who opened their treasure-chest and offered up gold, frankincense and myrrh. Today we celebrate the Epiphany, the visit of the Magi. In our crib, the shepherds have returned to their flock, making room for the Gentiles; but there are wandering sheep and treasure-troves in both Matthew and Luke.

We don’t know how many men, potentially woman, perhaps even children followed the star. We don’t know the size of the delegation, or the community they represented, or with any precision the length of their journey. Some say they were Persians, carrying the weight of ancient empire; some, including the earliest Christian testimony, that they were nomadic tribesmen from the Arabian peninsula. Certainly, they were wealthy. They had the means to dream beneath a desert sky, to trade with merchants, and to travel along trade routes. They came, and returned home, carrying with them a portable storehouse for precious things. They gave tribute of gold, incense, and myrrh. Each of these gifts have symbolic value, but don’t imagine they were token gifts, souvenirs with no practical use. These are treasured resources for living in a world in thick darkness. Gifts that would have come into their own when, in the wake of these visitors, Herod would force Joseph to flee with his family, by night, seeking refuge among the Jewish diaspora in Alexandria, Egypt.

‘What can I give him, poor as I am? if I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb, if I were a wise man, I would do my part, yet what I can I give him, give my heart.’ So wrote Christina Rosetti, In the bleak mid-winter. But that heart, as Mary reminds us and as Jesus often taught, is a storehouse of treasure. And the treasure therein comes from God in the first place, given to equip us on our pilgrimage through life. That is why, when we gather together, we begin by acknowledging ‘Almighty God to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden ...’

So, when we ask, What can I give him? we are really asking, What have I been given that I am withholding? Jesus taught that those who seek to hold on to their lives shall forfeit them, but those who lose their lives for the sake of the good news that is in him will find life in its fullness. Perhaps, this morning, we need to ask and receive, in order that we might bring our lives in tribute to the king? Or, is it possible that we have kept the storehouse of our heart locked tight so long that we have forgotten the treasures that lie within?

Gold symbolises purchasing power, our ability to acquire what we value. It includes privilege, the associations and investments-in-us that multiply our opportunities. It includes givens, such as natural abilities we might invest in, and more liquid currency such as the extent to which we might take risks or exercise caution. We are all traders, all give something of our gold to those we believe it will be advantageous to align ourselves with, the thing we worship whether that be the stock market or the Son of God.

Perhaps 2020 is the year you need to acquire something new, to you, and valuable. That might be new learning, through reading spiritual authors; or discovering the joy of loving your neighbour, through voluntary service. It might be embarking on an adventure — that thing you always said you would get around to doing some day — with eyes open to signs of God’s salvation in whatever you see and whomever you meet. The chances are that God has already given you the means to take at least the first steps — and who knows where that might take you? Sometimes we need to set out from the familiar, and return to it by another route, transformed by the journey.

Frankincense symbolises prayer, a recognition that, regardless of how much privilege we may enjoy, life involves chance, and forces — some benevolent, others malign — outside of and beyond our control. There is more to life than I can handle alone. We seek a covenant partner to stand alongside through thick and thin, and who will come to our aid; and we get to choose who that partner will be.

Perhaps 2020 will be the year you rediscover the art of praying with other people, fellow travellers on the road. The next six-week stage of the Pilgrim course, starting this Tuesday, will explore the Lord’s Prayer. But perhaps God has put a desire to pray on your heart, and we need to explore how we might gather those prayers up and offer them to God throughout the week, and record how they are answered? Or perhaps it is about trusting that we don’t earn or lose God’s approval by doing things the right or wrong way, but that God hears and responds to the cry of our hearts.

Myrrh symbolises romantic, erotic love. It was also used to embalm the dead. The desire to know love, to love and be loved in return, to give passionately of ourselves to another person or to a great consuming cause, is almost universal. Sooner or later, the experience of loss, of death and walking the valley of the shadow of death, is truly universal. Certainly, you cannot know the first without the second, for they go hand-in-hand.

Perhaps 2020 is the year you need to rediscover or experience for the first time a deep love for Jesus, that mystical union between Jesus the bridegroom and his bride the Church. Perhaps you believe that God exists, even that God loves you, but you have never or not recently known the intimacy of the presence of the Holy Spirit? Or perhaps 2020 will be for you a year of loss, touched by death, and needing to know the comfort Jesus promises to those who mourn. Hope in the dark night.

Gold, frankincense and myrrh represent the treasures that are locked away, kept close together and under guard, in all of our hearts. Gifts given, for living life well. We all make choices in relation to all three. And Jesus is the key that unlocks the storehouse, that enables us to share what we have received, and so find it to be true treasure: to find that we are enough, for others as well as for ourselves. Enough for God, however inadequate we might feel.

I would be happy to have a conversation and to pray with you about anything that has affected you today. But this Epiphany, may your heart be unlocked. And may you leave here for your own country — for the life that is yours — by another road, walking the Way that is Jesus. Amen.