Epiphany of the Lord
Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6 & Matthew 2:1-12

Following a star
Isn’t it amazing in this sophisticated and scientific age that we’re all so interested in stars, horoscopes, and astrological signs. All of us are pleased when we read that something spectacular will happen.

The Magi’s journey across mountains and deserts, following the star, echoes in our hearts. We feel that we have our own star to follow — a yearning deep down within our being for meaning, truth, and happiness — an individual path in life which we alone are called to tread.

When the Magi found the child Jesus, it was highly unlikely that they saw an infant with a halo who was clearly recognisable as God’s Son.

Eyes of faith
I believe that they saw just another tiny child, because that was all their bodily eyes could see. However, with their eyes of faith, they were able to see beneath the surface of appearances and recognise, in this child, God’s light which had come into the world. Ever afterwards, they weren’t guided by a star in the sky, but by the light of this child, who they saw as the Saviour of the world.

We too have been given the eyes of faith to keep us on course as we follow Christ along the highways and by-ways of life, across desert paths of loneliness, pain, failure, and illness.

Wise Men
There is something beautiful about the story of the three Kings. Those Wise Men of yesteryear represent all of us on a spiritual adventure which goes on as long as life lasts.

We’re to be Wise Men for our day, making Jesus visible to the whole world as its Saviour and Redeemer. Our special role is to make Jesus known along the pathways of life by being receptive to his word. The Lord needs our commitment in furthering his work.

The Wise Men didn’t come to the Lord empty-handed, but with gifts specially chosen which expressed the reason for their search, and neither must we come empty-handed. We may not have gold, frankincense, or myrrh, but we can bring the gift of ourselves, as human beings grafted into Christ. This gift of self is something more precious, as it never wears out.

Two journeys
The Church wants us all to rejoice today. The Epiphany is the day when we proclaim to all the world that Jesus came to save everybody, and that his influence isn’t restricted to any one culture.

Christmas is about making two journeys. The journey to Bethlehem, and the way home by a different route. We’re all making our journey home through life.

Having found Bethlehem, let us hope that at the end of life’s journey, we’ll be met once more by Jesus.

Who do you say that I am?

He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’(Matthew 16:15-16)

Peter
Peter must surely rate as one of the more interesting characters in the gospel.

In many ways it’s amazing that Christ selected him as the leader of the church, because his record wouldn’t even have impressed his own contemporaries. By human reckoning he was a disastrous choice and should never have been appointed.

You could hardly describe him as a stable person. There were times he was brave, but there were also occasions he displayed complete cowardice.

During Christ’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter was hotheaded and cut off the soldiers ear with his sword. Some time later, however, in Pilate’s courtyard, when taunted by a servant girl, he was so weak that he denied ever knowing Christ.

Peter appointed to lead the Church
Yet on the road to Caesarea Philippi Jesus appointed Peter as leader of the Christian community. His call to lead was a most important step in the development of the Church.

Christ had confidence in him, released a great power within his being and entrusted him with a mission which was crucial for the continuation of his work.

The choice of Peter as head of the church is an example of the power of God at work — using the weak things of this world to confound the strong. Before his encounter with Christ, Peter’s life had little meaning.

Our life’s pilgrimage
On life’s pilgrimage, it’s a source of great comfort that God has invited us to be members of his church, built upon the rock of Peter. On the whole, people of every age still listen attentively to the leaders of the church because of the promise Jesus made to Peter.

There’s a very human aspect to Peter’s life story to which we can easily relate. His weakness and moments of betrayal are common-place in our own lives. However, his deep-seated trust in the person of Christ more than compensates for any failure, as will a similar trust on our part.

‘Who do you say that I am?’
The question put to Peter by Jesus, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ resulted in an inspiring declaration of faith. As followers of Christ this question confronts us daily and calls us to judge ourselves, and how we’re living our lives.

What’s the point in saying the word of the Lord is our light and our strength, if we don’t live accordingly?

Being Christian commits us to live in a particular manner and involves having moral standards which differ from so many in society.

One thing is certain — a neutral stance to Christ’s vision of life isn’t possible, because to follow him is to live decisively and to take an active responsibility for our behaviour.

Doubt and Faith

Then Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ (John 20:27-28).

The twin
Today is the day the Church especially remembers Saint Thomas the Apostle.

‘Thomas’ is a nickname; it’s Hebrew for ‘the twin’. If you look at the footnotes in your Bible’s, you’ll see that Saint John’s Gospel also gives the Greek word for twin, ‘Didymus’ at the beginning of our Gospel reading today. But nobody knows what his real name was, or who his twin brother or sister was.

We call him ‘doubting Thomas’, because he said ‘I will not believe unless I see’. I think that’s unfair, especially in view of what happened a week later. I’ll come back to that, but first, a story I came across that’s supposedly true.

Faith and tolerance
A group of students arrived at a theological college from a world where they were surrounded by doubt. They were hoping to become more settled in their faith.

Some former students delivered a series of sermons in the college. Each of them had moved on from dogmatic doctrine to a more tolerant approach to intellectual exploration. The result was seven sermons, one after another, all based on the lines from Tennyson, ‘There is more truth in honest doubt that in all the creeds.’

Now that wasn’t what the students wanted to hear, at least, not seven times on the trot! The college organist wickedly chose, ‘Firmly I believe and truly . . .’ as the hymn after the last sermon. Rarely has it been sung with such enthusiasm.

But we change as we grow older. The core of faith grows stronger, but the things on the fringes become less important. We come to believe more and more strongly, in fewer and fewer things.

The scientist’s hero
In this way a mature Christian’s a bit like a scientist. The job of a scientist is to be sceptical, and believe only what you can reason out for yourself, and test by experiment.

So doubting Thomas is a scientist’s hero: he wouldn’t accept the words of other people about the resurrection, and needed to see for himself; he needed proof.

He got it a week later, when he, rather reluctantly, met with the other ten in the upper room. Then he became, ‘believing Thomas’, for he was the first to call Jesus God: ‘My Lord and my God’.

Those who begin with certainty, often end in doubt. Whereas those who begin with doubt, will often end in faith.

What is faith?
What is faith? Faith isn’t assent to propositions, because propositions are words, and God’s too big for words. Faith is trust in a person.

Thomas trusted Jesus, because Jesus trusted Thomas. Then Thomas realized that in some way Jesus is God. So from a position of doom and gloom he moved to firm trust that God loved him. Knowing that you are loved gives you confidence to do things.

The Christian experience of being loved by God gives us the power to love others for his sake, and to let his love flow through us.

This is a fact of experience, which we can prove for ourselves. The experience is true, but try to describe it in words, and you’re into difficulties. For no words are adequate to describe the experience of loving, and being loved.

Freedom and commitment
In the first half of the twentieth century, Bishop Hensley Henson wrote of the necessity for the individual to be free, but for ‘the institution to be something’.

The Church must have a creed; but Christians mustn’t be excommunicated if they can’t yet assent to the words that the Church has traditionally used to describe the good news.

Faith isn’t assent to propositions; it’s trust in a person. So doubting Thomas should be the patron saint of all of us, because he didn’t clutch his doubts to himself, but met with others to discuss them, and eventually he was convinced that Jesus is alive.

Believing in Jesus
To be a Christian, you’re not required to ‘believe’ any particular form of words, but to ‘believe in’, put your trust in, the person of Jesus, and believe that God loves you.

Don’t worry if you can’t understand some of the words we use; there’s nothing wrong with doubt over words, provided you’re prepared to work through your doubts like Thomas did, and come to a relationship of trust in Jesus.

Take A Step — He will never abandon you.

” . . .the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.” Matthew 21:43

Heard enough!
A woman of advanced age began to have hearing problems. Reluctantly she gave in to suggestions from family members that she consult an ear specialist.

After the doctor had made a thorough examination of the woman’s ears, he said to her, “You have a condition which can be corrected by minor surgery. I suggest we do it as soon as possible. This will give us our best chance to correct your hearing problem.”

To which she replied, “There will be no operation, thank you. I don’t want to correct my hearing problem. I’m eighty-nine years old and I’ve heard enough!”

That “I’ve heard enough” feeling is no stranger to many of us. Many of us endure it daily at Six O’clock or Ten O’clock News Time: reports of murder and other violent crimes — we’ve heard enough; reports of political corruption in high places — we’ve heard enough; reports of armed conflict between nations and peoples — we’ve heard enough; reports of unfair and dishonest business practices — we’ve heard enough!

All of which clearly indicates that the New Testament Good News report of a loving God’s plan for the reconciliation of all mankind in his Kingdom of Love is not being heard nearly enough.

The Parable of the Tenants
Jesus employed many different ways of communicating the Good News of God’s love to his disciples. He instructed them through prayer. He instructed them through miracles. He instructed them through the Scriptures. He instructed them through ordinary conversation. And, he instructed them through parables, as in today’s New Testament Lesson: The “Parable of the Tenants.”

In this story, the owner of a vineyard leases it to some tenant farmers. For three successive years the tenants forcibly resist the owner’s efforts to claim his rightful share of the harvest. They murder his agents who come to collect. And, after three harvests, they are in a strong position to acquire ownership of the land by means of what we would call “squatters rights.”

If they can successfully resist the owner’s claims following the fourth harvest they will be in a legal position to assert ownership for themselves.

The owner’s Legal recourse is to lodge a formal complaint against the scheming tenants, before witnesses. To do this, the owner is required by law to appear in person on the land in question. In this case, the owner sends his son (a co-partner in the land) to represent him. “They will respect my son,” he reasons. But the wicked tenants murder the son too.

Finally the owner himself comes upon the land, gains the upper hand, ejects the murderous tenants and appoints others in their place.

Jesus’s reason for speaking this Parable in the final weeks of his ministry is clear. Throughout his public life, Jesus, Son of God, had claimed the right to exercise his Father’s authority over his people.

Instead of respecting this claim, the scribes and Pharisees saw it as a threat to their own dominion over God’s people. They adopted a “He’s got to go!” attitude and Jesus knew they would soon make their move to dispose of him.

It was in this context then, that Jesus spoke the Parable of the Tenants. Through it, he’s saying to the scribes and the Pharisees, “You may think that getting rid of me will resolve the matter in your favour. But remember, that is precisely what those wicked tenants imagined. Killing me won’t result in My defeat, but in your own ruin. You’ll never be able to successfully resist my Father’s claim to absolute dominion over his people — even if you should kill his Son! Even death has no dominion over God’s people. He will never abandon them.”

Let the Good News break through
It’s precisely when the bad news of the wicked tenants in our midst seems dominant that we desperately need to let the Good News break through: God is with us and will never abandon us. I wonder what God would want to say to us, something like this perhaps::

Biblical translations
Three people were talking about some of the recent translations of the Bible. One said, “I like the New Revised Standard version of the Gospels. It’s easier reading than all the older versions.”

The second person said, “I prefer the new Jerusalem Bible. The translators have modernized the language without sacrificing reverence.”

To which the third person replied, “I know an even better translation. I like my mother’s translation best. She translated the Bible into life, and it’s the most convincing translation I have ever seen. She was a loving person who always took the needs of others seriously.

That’s what Jesus did, when he was on earth.”

Jesus’s life ministry
Matthew has clearly described Jesus’s life ministry in terms of his care and concern for the lowly and the needy and the lonely.

It is Jesus who touches lepers. It’s Jesus who embraces and kisses the children, the orphans. It’s Jesus who loves the “sinners” who are rejected by the self-righteous. It’s Jesus who dies for the least among God’s children, without exception.

And it is Jesus who is saying to us now, his loyal followers, “This is where it all comes out. This is the fruit of the effort, the fruit of all the worship, the fruit of all the prayer, the fruit of all the Bible Study and theological probing. This is where it comes out.”

Doctor Paul Brand
Doctor Paul Brand, a pioneering surgeon, in the field of leprosy, recalls an incident that took place during a visit to South America:

The good doctor then goes on to say that his Christian Faith is like that:

Saint Francis De Sales
And, from the pen of Saint Francis De Sales:

“Take up your cross daily and follow me,” Jesus says to his loyal followers. Our hope is in the fulfilment of his promise to make us masters of the art of loving. But, to move in that direction, we must declare our position, we must take a step, day-in and day-out. Anything less and the bones of our Faith will not continue to grow, and will soon become dead skeletons.