Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-2; Matthew 2:1-12
Welcome to the Sunday of Light! That’s what today is, that’s what Epiphany is––the day of a particular revelation of God’s light to the world. It’s a shame that we only celebrate Epiphany specifically on January 6th, because that day so rarely falls on a Sunday. Usually, we have to either mash Epiphany together with the Baptism of our Lord, or skip over it entirely. But Epiphany is such a special day, such a special message, that I wish it was connected to a Sunday, rather than a date on the calendar.
Epiphany is special because its primary message is that God’s light comes to all different kinds of peoples, and that strangers are often the ones who will point out God’s light to us. And this is especially important for us, in our context of religious diversity, where we know so many people who are, religiously speaking, strangers to us. More and more, the people we love, the people we live with or next to, do not belong to the same religious community as we; they are religious strangers. They might be Christians but go to a different church. They might be, as in my family, from a different religion. Or they might be altogether nonreligious - either self-identified agnostics or atheists. They might be “spiritual but not religious.” They might identify as practicing more than one religion––Buddhist Christians, or Muslim Hindus, or many of our First Nations’ neighbours who are both Christian and practice indigenous rituals. These religious strangers are people that we know, and people that we love. Given that, at our 5pm Christmas Eve service, there were over 300 people here, they are also people who have come to worship with us. For those of us who practice one religion, in one way, in primarily one community, these other ways of religious being are different. They are strange. Those who live these different ways are, religiously speaking, strangers.
Strangers, but maybe not so strange. You see, it is rare, even for us, to feel always at home in church. The truth is that, for many reasons, sometimes church doesn’t feel like home; sometimes we might feel like maybe we don’t really belong here. Maybe a hymn is sung that we just don’t like, but everyone else is singing along. Maybe some Scripture is read that we just can’t agree with, and when we have to respond, “Thanks be to God,” we can’t quite get it out because we’re not thankful for what we just heard, even though everyone else is saying it. Sometimes the sermon makes no sense, or doesn’t seem to apply to our lives in any way. Sometimes we come forward for Communion and we know we’re just going through the motions. Or we say the Creed, or the prayers, but we feel kind of fake because we don’t really believe what we’re saying, but apparently everyone else does. And I’m not saying this happens all the time, but I want to be honest that it does happen. It might be for a brief few minutes in a service, or it might be a feeling that goes on for years, but it’s important to be honest that sometimes we feel like strangers in the church, like we don’t belong. We hear the Good News that God is sending divine light to God’s beloved people and we question whether that people includes us. We question whether we, too, get to receive that light.
If you have ever had questioned that, if you have ever felt like a stranger in the Christian community, then today is for you.
Because today, the day of Epiphany, is a proclamation that God has a special heart for strangers. God specifically seeks out you when you feel yourself to be outside the community, and sends you the divine light and then invites you to bear that light to the world. Most Sundays, too many maybe, we talk about God revealing God’s light and working within the community. But this Sunday is about God revealing God’s light outside the community. We see it in our reading from Isaiah, that the glory of the Lord, the light that shines in the deep darkness is meant for all the nations, not just for the people of Israel. It will shine amongst people who have never heard of the Temple, or the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph. Amongst people strange to Israel.
We see it, of course, in Matthew’s story of the Magi, who come from distant lands, who are very definitely outside of God’s covenant with the descendants of Abraham. Here, especially, we see that “strangers” are the ones who point out the divine light to people who ought to have seen it first. King Herod, the official king of the Jews, should have been the first to notice the star and the first to fall before Jesus and offer him the wealth of his treasury. Instead, it was these wise strangers who came, pointed out the light, and then left again. The story of the Magi tells us that, at critical moments, God chooses to shine the light before strangers.
And we see it in Ephesians, and in the story of Paul. Paul, a Jew, a member of God’s covenant community of Abraham and Moses, was given a revelation––an epiphany––that God was using Jesus Christ to shine God’s divine light into the lives of Gentiles, non-Jews, religious strangers. We, Christians, cannot forget that, from our beginnings, we were the strangers whom God chose to include.
And God was doing this “so that through the church [by which Paul means in addition to the synagogues] the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known.” [Ephesians 3:1-12] This verse might actually be the heart of Epiphany, rather than the story of the Magi: “so that the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known.” The wisdom of God in its rich variety. In other words, the fullness of God––the light of God––is shown to us through diversity. Through difference. Through strangeness. Through strangers.
So I’m not a scientist––I’m basically a stranger in the science realm––but I find science fascinating because of what it tells us about the world. For instance, the science of light. So “light” is what scientists call electromagnetic radiation, and there is a huge spectrum of light. You probably know about ultraviolet light, and infrared light, but there are also gamma rays and microwave rays and FM and AM waves (radio) that make up the light spectrum. Our perception of light, what we call visible light, is only a teeny, tiny part of that spectrum. It’s also, apparently, not super helpful for scientific research. Visible light just doesn’t tell us very much about the world. What we can see is only a very small portion of what there actually is. That’s why so much of scientific research includes taking pictures in ultraviolet and infrared, and why our space telescopes look at the universe as it emits gamma radiation and microwaves. These ways of looking tell us so much more. We need these different––strange––ways of looking at light to see the fullness of the world around us.
And so it is with God. We need different, strange ways and we need strangers to show us the fullness of God’s light. God gives a special light to those who are different from us, and sends them to us, and it’s up to us to welcome them and bask in the light they bring, and share our light with them in turn, so that we can all receive a wider spectrum of God’s light. Strangers, like the Magi, point out to us that God’s light is shining in places we never thought to look, in places that are only darkness to us, in places we consider too strange or different for God’s light to be.
So, if there are times when you feel like a stranger in this community, if there are times when you see the divine light differently than others here do, please don’t feel like you need to dim your light to be here. We need it. The world needs it. You might feel like the light that you have is different than the light we so often talk about here. You might feel like the light that God has given you to share is different than the light God has given to your neighbour, but please keep shining it. God actually does show each of us a different part of the divine spectrum of light, so that together, everyone might see the “wisdom of God in its rich variety.” So that everyone can see light in their darkness.
Whether you sometimes feel like a stranger here, or whether you feel completely at home, “Let your light so shine before others.” The day of Epiphany, the day of a particular revelation of God’s light to the world, is not just on January 6th, but every day. The light of God, shining most brightly for us in Jesus Christ, is sent to all and to you, through all and through you, for all and for you. Thanks be to God, Amen.
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