Texts: Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Matthew 2:1-12

They had come from the East, we are told. And they were in search of the one who had been born King of the Jews. Beyond that we don’t know all that much. They were magi … not kings themselves, in spite of our song, though they might have been in the service of kings. The term magi refers to wise ones … so they were probably priestly sages from Persia, the area we now call Iraq, and experts in astrology and the interpretation of dreams. They were following some kind of star … not necessarily the brightest, but one that had caught their attention. But we don’t know how many of them there were … though they brought three gifts, so the assumption is that there were three. And they had come to Jerusalem to ask directions. For all the wisdom that had brought them this far, they needed to ask further direction from the local brokers of wisdom before they could proceed.

And so they stopped at the palace of the king for a visit. As visiting foreign travelers, it is good to check in with the powers that be, to tell them of your purpose and to enlist their aid. And so when they found King Herod at home, they told the king what they knew (a child had been born king of the Jews) … how they knew it (a star had signaled this birth) … and their intention to pay this newborn king homage. Well, Herod was stirred up by this news … and the whole city with him. He called together his own wise ones … the chief priests and scribes of the people … and they told him that, according to the prophet Micah, this king, the Messiah of God, was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea … the same town from which David had come. And this new ruler would be like a shepherd to the people. And so Herod passed along this information to the travelers … inquired a bit more about what they knew … and asked that they return to tell him what they found.

Having received the directions that they needed, the travelers went on their way to Bethlehem. They found the child in a house with his mother and were filled with joy and, bowing down in worship before him, they presented him with their gifts. We don’t know how long they stayed … but warned in a dream to steer clear of Herod … they went home another way.

It is a part of the story we tend to gloss…the part about Herod, and the search to find and kill this new baby king that threatened him. Joyce Carrol Wallis offers an interesting meditation on “Putting Herod back into Christmas.” She writes in it that the sentimentalizing and sanitizing of the Christmas story leaves us bereft of the truth that Jesus didn’t enter a world of sparkly Christmas cards or of warm spiritual sentiment. Jesus entered a world of real pain, of serious dysfunction, a world of brokenness and political oppression. Jesus was born an outcast, a homeless person, a refugee, and finally he becomes a victim to the powers that be. Jesus is the perfect savior for outcasts, refugees, and nobodies.” (Sojourners Magazine web site, December 2004/January 2005, www.sojo.net)

Whew!! That puts a different light on things, doesn’t it? We tend to think of light as something that dispels the darkness … but it also has the function of revealing the darker, colder, crueler parts of our world. Instead of a small, narrow spotlight on the warmth and beauty of a sweet manger scene, it is as if the camera has pulled back and up, and the light now expands to show “the rest of the story.”

The celebration of Epiphany … which technically is observed on January 6 (the 12^th day of Christmas) but which we are lifting up today … is all about the light. The word Epiphany is a strange sounding word which comes from the Greek and means appearance or revelation. It’s used to speak of either an appearance of a divine being, or of the revelation of the basic nature of something or some essential truth. That is how it gets its association with light. Something is suddenly illuminated and made clear. Something comes to light, becomes apparent to all who look. (Adapted from a sermon on the laughingbird.net site for Epiphany, 2009)Usually this refers to the sudden appearance of the sacred … but that appearance of the holy then shines a light on all that is not holy and makes clear the contrast between God’s purposes for creation and the ways the creation has messed things up.We see this today in the contrast between the rule of King Herod and the baby/child Jesus, born king of the Jews. Even in the Psalm we see that the God-given ruler who was to come - the Messiah - will be a defender of justice, caring for the poor and needy, one who fights oppression and rules in peace. This is in contrast with the ego-centric ruler who does not bother with the afflicted, needy and oppressed who possess no power to bolster his rule. This tension between God’s care and concern for those on the periphery, and the darkness of the way the world usually organizes itself on behalf of the well-off and well-connected is ancient and modern. The Psalmist, and the prophets, and the gospel writers all address it today. And it is behind every headline in the news … how and what the well-off and politically connected are doing … and the implications of that for the little guy. The tension will likely never go away.

As United Methodists we bring a particular method of engaging this tension. Like the ancients, we struggle with the brokenness in our world, and we seek to discern how we might best faithfully serve God in the midst of the alienation and wounds within us and all around. 100 years ago, one of our predecessor denominations formulated and adopted a social creed. Other bodies soon crafted similar statements of belief and practice. These early statements have now expanded into a larger statement of Social Principles that call us to prayerful, studied dialogue of the most controversial issues of our day. The Social Principles are not statements of church law … but are intended to speak to the human issues facing every generation from biblical and theological perspectives consistent with United Methodist practice and traditions. There is no expectation that all will agree with these statements … but there is the hope that these perspectives will be engaged as serious attempts to address the human issues in the contemporary world. They are reaffirmed and revised at the General Conference gathering every four years. So in addition to being a statement of current theological and biblical consensus and wisdom on these issues, they are also, necessarily, a political document. And so, we will be engaging the Social Principles in the coming weeks with this awareness, and with the hope that a lively and prayerful and caring dialogue may develop.

This investment of energy and focus on social issues of our day is rooted in our very foundation as United Methodists.In the early 1700’s in England, Methodist founder John Wesley understood Christianity as a social religion, proclaiming that “the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.” He encouraged people to care for each other and to bear each other’s burdens. The Methodist movement emerged in and around London at a time when industrialization in England was causing all kinds of social damage. Wesley and members of his “class societies” became active in prison reform, in abolition of the slave trade, in opposing child labor practices, responding to poverty and in the formation of a labor union. He employed the poor when jobs went away after a weather disaster. He opened the Foundry to feed the hungry and started the Strangers Society in London for the homeless. He opened Kingswood School for less advantaged children, and an orphan house called New House. And everywhere he went… he traveled 300,000 miles over the course of his 50 year ministry … he preached God’s grace and called people to lives of service and faithful living.

So that we have come to be a people with “social principles” is a normal and natural extension of our faith and our forebears. It is in our DNA as United Methodists to consider and engage the world around us as it is and as we understand God’s purpose for it to be. And so I invite you to continue this tradition. You have found in your bulletin the introductory statement from the Book of Discipline, the Preamble and then the opening paragraph of each of six broad areas: the natural world, the nurturing community, the social community, the economic community, the political community and the world community. You can see that at the end of each introduction there are several more specific topics discussed. For the full text of those, please go to your internet browser. I found the easiest thing to do is to just type “Social Principles of the United Methodist Church” into the address line. It took me directly to the page where they begin. Alternatively you can go to www.umc.org, look under the “Our Faith” tabfor the “Church and Society” folder. On the lower right hand side of that page, under Denominational Statements, click on Social Principles.

Whether or not you are able to take the time to pursue further reading, I hope you will take this home and as we discuss the various areas, come ready to consider how the light of God’s presence shines on the more difficult and dark places in our world. Obviously, those preaching … and we are sharing the preaching on this series, with Rev. Han and Dr. Will also taking turns … with a visit from our Bishop for the final topic … obviously, those preaching won’t cover every concern listed. But our goal is to set the questions before us, and to model an engagement with one another and with the issues facing today’s world that is respectful, passionate, and reflective of God’s love and grace for all people. For those interested in further conversation, I encourage you to come to the earlier service and then attend the discussion forum led by Dr. Will at 10:30. On the Sundays that Dr. Will is preaching, I will facilitate that discussion.

As we considered the gospel today, we saw that the scribes and religious scholars went to the writings of the prophet Micah to discover the location where the Messiah was to be born. Micah also offers us one of the texts that we’ll be using this whole year in our various meetings and gatherings. You heard it read. Now I want to teach it to you in song.

What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God?

Let us carry that question into this new year as a guide and as a challenge to our live together and to our engagement with the world.

That is where our assigned text for today ends … and from just this much you can get a sense of the contrast between the rule of King Herod and the Roman Empire which had appointed him, and the promised reign of the Kingdom of God that was being made manifest in Jesus. But if we would go on, there is the story Joseph and Mary escaping with Jesus to Egypt and Herod’s enraged massacre of all male children under the age of two.

Kingswood UMC - Buffalo Grove IL

Sermon by Rev. Margaret Gramley, Ph.D.