Getting the Good News Out

This is my sermon text for January 6, celebrating the Epiphany of Our Lord, using the Gospel text from Matthew (Matthew 2.1-12). The Teaching Moment I refer to is a minute or two I take during the service to point out something that normally wouldn't fit well into my message. Usually, it is about one of the other lessons, but here it comes from the Gospel lesson.

In my Teaching Moment (see the bottom of this post), I gave you five pieces of information about the Wise Men, and pointed out things we think are there, but really are not. We’ve heard the  story so often we “know” what is there. We will always think of there being THREE wise men. You have too many mental impressions for me to undo with one little message. But now I want you to look and think about that text again, but now looking at the big picture. What is going on here?

In Luke’s Gospel, the birth of Our Savior Emmanuel is announced to shepherds by the hosts of heaven. God specifically sent God’s messengers to those at the bottom of society’s barrel: the last in line, the lost ones, the least of these and the little ones. Shepherds were not welcome in the Temple; they were considered unclean. So if God’s people didn’t want to have anything to do with them, they didn’t’ want to have anything to do with God. Those messengers told them that there was “Good News of Great Joy for ALL the people.”

Now we hear from Matthew. In his gospel, the birth is announced through a star rising. The Wise Men, or Magi, have come to pay homage and respect to the new King of the Jews. Unfortunately for them, they go to the current King of the Jews, who was unaware that he was being replaced. He called in his experts, and they said the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. The Magi went there and discovered Jesus and Mary in a house.

As I shared with you in my “Top Five Facts,” the Magi were probably astrologers. They were studying the stars, not to learn about the stars, but to use them attempt to foretell the future. They came from the East, but we do not know how far. Were they from Persia, Babylon, the Arabian dessert or even further East? We are not given any hints. But we know they were stargazers who came from the East. They were not members of the people of Israel. They were foreigners. They did not follow the customs and traditions of the Jewish faith.

Yet these were the people who came to find “the child who has been born king of the Jews.” These were the ones who came “to pay him homage.”

The leaders of the Temple, the chief priests and scribes were able to pretty quickly review the Scriptures to be able to tell King Herod and his visitors where the Messiah would be born. They were able to pull Bethlehem from the writings of the prophets, or perhaps they already knew. Whether they already knew or were able to quickly discern where a new king of Israel may come from, they did not see signs that would point to his arrival. But those of a different tradition did. They may not have known where, but they knew what. They also knew whom.

In the two Gospel stories of the birth of Jesus, the announcement and revelation of God’s Son being born on Earth come to unexpected people. Luke tells us of the angels coming to shepherds, who were not welcome in the Temple and synagogues. Matthew shares that the birth of Christ was revealed to those who did not believe in or follow the God of Abraham, Moses and Jacob.

And in both cases, they heard or saw the signs, came and saw, shared their story with Mary, and left, never to be heard from again. It would be nice if Jesus would run into someone whom Jesus healed said, “I was a shepherd who came to see a baby that was lying in a manger.” Or if one of the people Jesus taught mentioned something about travelling from the East, following a star to where a mother and child were, and gave them gifts in honor of the future leader. But there is no mention of either the shepherds or Magi after their early appearance in the Gospels.

But it is the very nature of God, doing unexpected things, using unexpected people, to reveal the birth of God’s Son, Our Savior Emmanuel, Jesus Christ. We should have come to assume it. God doesn’t often use the people you would imagine, go to the places you would anticipate.

Over the past few months, in meetings with both church councils, the mutual ministry committee and a few members of each council who formed and evaluation committee, we have talked about how I am doing as pastor, and on what I, and we as the Church, can do better. I have some things to work on, but one of the items that was brought up was that we all need to put more of a focus on is Evangelism.

Evangelism is the sharing and spreading of the message of Jesus Christ. It also seems to be a bad word in the Lutheran church. It means talking to people about your faith, sharing with them why it is important to you. Doing that, telling others about what you find to be important about the fact that this baby that keeps getting these strange visitors will grow up to ultimately be nailed to a cross, crucified, to reconcile humanity and God. He will die for the forgiveness of our sins. He will be raised to show that death will be defeated. These great gifts of grace, mercy and forgiveness are so much more important than the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But we aren’t willing to share that information. This is especially troubling for those of us who are members of the ELCA; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Evangelical Lutherans are who we claim to be.

The Greek root of the word evangelism is translated in English at Gospel or the Good News. So to be an evangelist is to be a Gospeler or Good Newser. Evangelizing is Gospelizing or Good Newsing. It is more than just sharing the story; more than just talking. Being a Gospeler means doing the Good News, not just talking about it. And that’s something we are better at.

We do things in the name of Christ. We do things as commanded by Christ. We are Good Newsing by how we live our lives. We are Gospelizing by the decisions we make. We share of our time. We share of our talents. We share of our resources, of the blessings God has given us. We need to work on sharing our words and experiences as well.

But there will be opportunities to do just that; to be Gospelers in words, as well as our deeds. God presents them to us all the time. We need to recognize them, and take advantage of the opportunity.

There are shepherds and magi all around us. People who have felt that God and God’s people have turned their back on them. People who are looking for answers. People who come from a different tradition. People who aren’t like us. People who need to be Gospelized. People who need to hear the Good News, experience the Good News, have the Good News shown to them.

The shepherds and magi are proof that no one is ever beyond the embrace of God. God will go to great extremes to show how much people are loved. Sometimes, he will send angels. Sometimes, he will send a star. Sometimes, God sends a Lutheran who is struggling to be a Good Newser.

Top 5 facts about the Wise Men

5   We always hear about the Three Wise Men. But nowhere in this lesson do we hear how many Wise Men there are. There are three gifts, so it is assumed that each brought a gift. Three gifts, so there must have been 3 Wise Men.

4   Speaking of Wise Men, they are also referred to as Magi. That comes from the word in Greek, magos, which is the root word for magician.

3   This means they were probably magicians or astrologers, not astronomers – watching the stars for the zodiac, not just the stars, and definitely not kings. (Even though we sang “We Three Kings.”)

2   By the tradition of magi & astrologers, a star would rise at the birth of a leader or ruler. So the Wise Men/Magi would have began their travels at the sight of the sign, and arrived much later; which is why we celebrate their arrival not on Christmas, but on the day of Epiphany.

1    The day of Epiphany (which means appearance or revelation) has been set 12 days after Christmas, which is where we get the 12 days of Christmas from.