It’s the end of January already! How many of you have still kept your New Year’s resolutions?
I spent New Year’s Day taking down all of my holiday decorations, boxing them up, putting the boxes in the rafters of my garage and then cleaning up. I mean a deep cleaning. Polishing the furniture, vacuuming, cleaning the floors and by the end of the day it was clean and shiny in the house. I took a look around and said, “It was good!” I was ready to begin 2013.
A couple weeks ago, we celebrated Epiphany. Shifting from rejoicing at Emmanuel, God’s coming among us, to reflecting on what that means in our daily lives.
Centuries ago, the church named the twelfth day after Christmas “Epiphany” to celebrate the light of Christ coming into the world. I looked up the definition of epiphany, and it means a manifestation, sudden appearance. It is an experience of sudden realization … kind of like that light bulb going on! Generally, the term epiphany is used to describe breakthrough scientific, religious or philosophical discoveries, in which an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective!
Originally, it was thought that this insight came from the divine. Christians believe that Jesus coming into the world is an epiphany of who God is – a greater understanding of God’s unconditional love for all. We say it often at The Met – let the light of Christ shine brightly within you. And it’s interesting that the Magi (commonly referred to as the three wise men) followed a great light, shining brightly.
The holidays are traditionally a time for unity. People come together, families gather (that’s why for so many it’s one of the loneliest times of the year). Even during world wars, both sides often stopped fighting and sang to their enemies or even walked across the battle line to share gifts with them. (They called them Christmas ceasefires.) It’s a time, unlike any other, when everyone seems to be able to focus on peace.
But Christmas has passed. And if we’re honest, we can almost feel that the temporary spirit of peace has passed away also. It seems we live in a time of deep division, when compromise is often seen as weakness. We live in a time of party and tribal purity, in which the classic “us” versus “them” dominates. Emotionalism, blaming, and scapegoating take precedence over reason, working together and accepting responsibility.
The “us” versus “them” mentality says if you’re not like us, you must be against us. If you don’t agree with us, you must be wrong. The list goes on and on: white against people of color; pro-life advocates against pro-choice supporters; progressives against conservatives; Westerners against Middle Easterners; Muslims against Christians; rich against poor; fundamentalist against homosexual; male against female; whoever against someone else. “Us” against “them.”
Jesus was, born in a small town in a totally Jewish environment where anyone outside of the community was viewed with suspicion and generally unwelcomed. Our narrative today uses the term Magi to refer to these foreigners. They break into the narrative unexpectedly. They are foreigners, they do not belong here, they are the “other.” They are the “not like us” ones. They journey to Bethlehem, and find Jesus. These foreigners came into the midst of people who saw themselves as God’s special people. These foreigners, wearing different clothes, having a different skin color, language and culture, and even a different way of worshiping God – shattering the religious norms of the day, claimed this gift, Emmanuel, God with us for their own. And in so doing, they claimed it for all people.
This story marks the beginning of a new understanding – an epiphany. It’s now become a story of a God for all people (and not just for us four and no more), a God of unity, a God who moves people beyond the trap of “us” against “them.”
Magi bringing gifts, highlight the fact that the ultimate gift is that God loves all people unconditionally, in all times, in all places – a gift for every “us” against “them,” – a gift of unity. A gift for you. A gift for me.
These three foreigners, these three outsiders, remind us once again that our job is to embrace and teach that no one is so different that we dare treat them with less love or less respect than we would show those whom we call brothers and sisters. There is no gentile, no “other” who exists beyond the circle of God’s love. What can separate us from the love of God? Nothing! It reminds us also, that divisiveness is not consistent with the values of God.
It reminds us that God values the unity of all people – Jew and Gentile, Christian and Muslim, conservative and progressive, rich and poor, male and female, black and white and red and brown, brave and cowardly, married and single, gay and straight, young and old – “us and “them.”
On this first month of the New Year, we have survived the fiscal cliff; we have survived such division where commentators say they’ve never seen anything like this before. Now, more than ever, we need to understand the message of the Magi in our story today.
As I’ve been looking at this story, I’ve seen truths in this narrative for the very first time. Like you, I’m on a spiritual journey, and I get excited when I see things that touch me – let me share with you a couple:
Inclusiveness is pretty high on God’s list of priorities.
Why does Matthew introduce these characters to wrap up the Christmas story? It could have been so many respectable people, but he chose people from the outside. Maybe, because HE was an outsider. He was a tax collector looked down upon by the majority.
Inclusiveness does not have the “us” versus “them” mentality. And, I understand the “us” versus “them.” I was raised in that environment. Let me tell you a story. When I started dating, my mom said to me, “Dan, I look forward to meeting the girls you date, bring them home, I want to meet them; but don’t bring home anyone who’s black.”
I was dumbstruck, I was in shock. Now, I love and honor my mother very much, but what she said never sat right with me. And I know from this story that there is no place in God’s heart, and God’s values, for that kind of thinking. There just isn’t. Mom and I never had that conversation again – and I never heard another racist thing come out of her mouth before or since then – that’s why it just caught me so off guard.
And this story, today, has caught me off guard. It’s another reminder, a powerful reminder in a story I’ve heard all my life that God’s inclusiveness is great. It is powerful. And it’s a value I want to foster more and more in my life.
If you’re feeling that God doesn’t love you because you see yourself as “other than,” on the outside looking in, and you don’t “fit in” – stop it. As Robert Schuller would say, “God loves you and so do I.” But I’ll never be able to love you as much as God loves you.
Celebrate God’s inclusive love for you. Celebrate the gift of God with everyone in the whole wide world, and God be with you. Amen.
