“The Gentile Christ-Mass”
Saint Matthew 2. 1-12
The Feast of THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD: 6 January Anno Domini 2011
Revd Fr JW Watson SSP, pastor
"Behold, the Lord, the Ruler hath come!"
OH HOW LOVELY SHINES THE MORNING STAR. THE NATIONS SEE AND HAIL AFTER, THE LIGHT IN JUDAH SHINING. THOU DAVID'S SON, OF JACOB'S RACE, YOUR BRIDEGROOM AND YOUR KING OF GRACE
Messiah is the Morning Star. Christ's and His Crucifix is that Shining Light. The Lion of Judah ultimately shorn, stripped and bound to the wooden altar of wrath would first be born a helpless whelp/pup/infant. But your Bridegroom of Blood the heir to both Jacob and David was also announced to all the world!
God was born. God came forth from the womb of the Blessed Virgin. The delivery room for this Bread from Heaven was the "house of bread" a tiny suburb of Jerusalem, the no-longer capital of the Jews. Even their murderous and nominal "puppet king" was only really in charge of administering the Galilean province. How could Herod be the king when the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes was Monarch of Creation?
"There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem."
They were wise men not because of their brains, memories, studies, degrees, or stations, but because the Holy Ghost had created faith in their hearts. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" writes the Psalmist [Ps 111.10]. They had been following a bright light which they had seen back in the East, in their own country of origin. Drawn by the Prophets of Hebrew Scripture (the Word of God) they came to the Land of the Lord, the earthly Israel of Elohim. They knew their Bible better than did Herod the Fox.
They needed the brightness of the stellar phenomenon to waken them out of their secular stupor. So do you. Adam and Eve had full supernal vision of the Trinity, of the pre-Incarnate Christ. But by looking inside their own bodies, the caverns of their own hearts, your first parents lost the Inimitable Image of God and the brightness of His countenance. To save them from being consumed at the unfettered radiance of His Perfect Goodness they were banished from paradise. To guard them from an immortality of regret, incompleteness and despair, they were barred by the Cherubim from returning to the Garden of God; barred by a bright and flaming sword. That light and brilliance and illumination faded from their sight and from their formerly perfect memories as they went forth into a drying world of dust and decay, and one day, their own earthly death. After Noah's descendents wandered over the face of all barbarian and gentile nations, after almost all apostatized from the Promise of coming Redemption, God, the Son, the Light of Light called to Abram and raised up a special people to be His own future crèche. God would later speak to Moses as a bright and blinding light from a receptacle that neither burned nor showed injury. The Son would tabernacle with His people in a pillar of Light from the burning-bright fire hovering above His Holy Tent. "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem How often I desired to gather you as a Hen gathereth her chicks, BUT YOU WOULD NOT." Jew, Pharisee, Sadducee, Christian, Lutheran, confessional peacock… it's all the same - - the good that you should do you DO NOT and the evil that you should eschew YOU DO! "For behold the darkness shall cover the earth."
Herod wanted to rule, just like Eve. Herod wanted to manipulate and control just like you. Yes you have your "old Adam" to daily drown, but you also have your daily Herod: "If you are angry with your brother in your heart you are a murderer."
It was fitting that the King of the Jews should be revealed to Jewish shepherds and now, as we celebrate this Gentile Feast, to ethnic foreigners in Bethlehem and not in Rome, Athens or the Imperial gilded palaces of Cathay, India, Tenochtitlan, or Chichen Itza. The Word endures; not man's work: "thou House of Bread…art not the least among the princes of Judah…" By allowing the Magi to see God-enfleshed in the person of the infant Son of Mary, in a regular house in a small suburb, He foreshadows to you, and all who receive the Christ "as a little child," the way you receive Him in this humble parish, under the humble means of bread and wine; water and absolution.
Not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will inherit the kingdom. Not everyone who says "I believe in Jesus" is a Christian, a little Christ. It's neither mouthing empty syllables nor changing the intrinsic meanings of words and identities to fit your own sinful wills that count; it's only God's Grace for you in Christ the Word - - delivered to you in the Church, the sanctuary of Jesus' life-giving Words (the Light of Life) and His Words made flesh in the sacred light of cleansing and feeding.
The Magi discovered what you have been taught to appreciate and guard: The Light will only be truly found, "for you," sitting with His Holy Mother. As the Virgin portrays the Church, so too she helps us think of Holy Baptism. As Jesus was born by the will of His Father and the power of the Paraclete, without human intervention, all Jesus' brothers and sisters are born at the font of God's Grace by the Will of the Trinity and not by works or cooperative efforts. Yes, they too are led to the content of their worship - - the young child: "He nestles at His mother's breast receives her tender care" (and her own Mother's Milk). This young one makes you better than young, He makes you eternal: "He serves that I a Lord may be, a great exchange indeed!"
Herod's brand of worshipping was self-aggrandizement. He would murder all who got in the way of his will…like Adam…like "old Adams."
But the Magi, these illegal aliens from a culture not thought "good enough" by arrogant Jews, knew that true worship was simply to be in the presence of the King, the Savior of all men, and especially of them that believe. "And the kingdom and the power and the glory are in His hand." His Hand: for those little hands, those plump fingers would one day be covered with the sweat of obedience for your sloth and inactivity; would be covered in His own blood from the nails He bore for your punishment!
You replicate the activity of the Magi's presence with your own presence here this evening. You've been drawn by the star of the Savior's Word. "You have seen His star in the east," and you see His Light of Love symbolized in this sanctuary's east while you hear His Light and Taste it at this eastern edged Mount of Transfiguration. You kneel in heart to be with HE WHO IS TRULY PRESENT in this Shawnee house, no less than he was in that Bethlehem house. Yes they gave gifts, the good works which flow naturally from Spirit-created faith. Their triad of alms bespeaks the Love of God in His Trinitarian Godhood-essence yes, but also the receipt by the New Testament trio (the Holy Family) brings to fruition the prophecies of Esaias. "All they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praise of the Lord." Even as the fabled Queen of Sheba once traveled to the same holy ground to bestow the self-same gifts on Solomon the King, the peaceful one, so again gentile "royalty" from even farther realms arrive to gift the true Prince of Peace: Solomon's son and Lord! And even now, gentile co-heirs of the Christ Child, a "Royal Priesthood," worships by receiving Him. These physical manifestations of new hearts (gold/monetary units; myrrh/beautiful adornments for His Mother - - our Holy Mother Church & Parish; and Incense) are good for they can always be used in the service of Jesus' Bride - - His holy people.
His holy people... "For you, this night He again opens the door of paradise. The angel guards the gate no more. A different white-robed messenger waits the High Table "for you" the guests of honor. To God be all Glory."
"Behold, the Lord, the Ruler, hath come!"
In the Name of The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost