Wise men.  Scripture tells us they are (2:1, NRSV, ESV, RSV).  What made them wise?  What do we know about them?  We know they studied the stars.  Why?  I mean, the night sky fascinates me: I enjoy stargazing.  It wasn’t a hobby for those wise men, though.  They were seeking; they were listening by looking.  They studied the heavens seeking messages from heaven.  Beloved, that makes them wise.  When we are seeking messages from heaven, when we want to hear what God has to say, and we follow, we become wise.

Where can we turn for messages from heaven?  This book!  Do you want to hear what God is saying to you, what God wants you to hear?  Read this book.  Those wise men from lands very distant from Israel did not have this book, not even the Jewish part of this book—remember that Jews and Christians have much of this book in common.  We share the same, foundational stories.

In those times, the Jewish leadership interpreted the fact that other peoples did not have this book to mean that those other peoples were not God’s people.  We hear that we’re all God’s children, and that’s not true.[1]  That’s sentimentality, not Christianity.  We are all God’s creatures: this is true.  People are all created in the image of God: this is true.  God adopts as His children those who have faith in Jesus Christ (Jn 1:12-13; Ephesians 1:5).

This book also tells us that the time will come when the peoples of the earth will come and worship the one, true God, God who has made Himself known to His people, who makes Himself known through this book, who makes Himself known through Jesus Christ.[2]  The wise men come before Herod the king saying that they have come to worship the one “born to be the king of the Jews” (2:2).  King Herod was not aware that any of his sons had recently produced a grandson for him.  The wise men saw the star of the newborn king, and they came to worship this cosmic infant (2:2).  These three are not of the people of Israel; hence, to the thinking of many in Jerusalem, these three are not of God’s people: not heirs to the promise, not recipients of God’s teaching: outside of God’s covenant.  Those in charge held the foundational assumption that others cannot be God’s people.  That worldview is being turned on its head by these wise men, seeing the signs of God and following, listening, coming to worship, to praise the God of Israel, who is God, Creator of the Universe.

Herod, and the chief priests and the scribes, the experts in the Law, God’s instructions, are swift enough to wonder if this visit and this message might have something to do with the Messiah; although it seems they are also in disbelief—that old story?  That legend?  Surely not!  The king and the priests and the scribes—those with political and religious authority, authority given by God to be exercised for the blessing and preservation of the people—kings and pastors, theologians and scholars have, over many years, arranged things to their liking, to their advantage.  Their views are authoritative.  Their ways are the ways to which any decent, right-thinking human being must conform: any deviation brings swift and sharp rebuke.  They say what God wants, what God means, who God loves and what God hates.  They have the power, and they mean to keep it.  For whom?  For God?  I’d like to say so, but Scripture won’t let me.  Scripture gives me another account.  Rest assured, brothers and sisters, so soon as we get things arranged to our liking, to suit ourselves and to serve our interests, God will remind us whose interests we are here to serve.  We were created for a purpose, beloved, and it’s not to serve ourselves.

When Herod asks, the priests and scribes can say with certainty where the Messiah will be born (2:6).  We might not know there is a prophet, Micah, to whom God spoke of the Messiah and of Bethlehem.  These experts can find this reference quickly enough; they hadn’t forgotten it, yet we do not hear that the priests and the scribes are already aware of this birth, or even that they take special interest in it.  No delegation of priests or scribes or Pharisees rushes to Bethlehem with the wise men, or even afterwards.  The only ones who go are soldiers, with orders to kill.

You people of God have to watch out for many things in this life, among them us—we religious authorities: pastors, teachers, theologians, experts.  Whose interests do we have at heart?  Whose purposes are we serving?  Is it clear that Scripture has authority over us, or do we exercise authority over Scripture?  Another prophet, Malachi, spoke of how God would purify the priesthood, those who ministered before Him, those who teach the people.  May it be so!

We recently heard from Micah.  He was telling us that something very great would come from something very small.  This is God’s way.  Who was Noah?  Who was Abraham?  Who was Moses?  Who was David?  They were not born of kings or men of political importance.  They were not fabulously rich, savvy, or handsome—except for David—, or successful (though Abraham did alright).  They were not highly educated.  They hadn’t studied business or philosophy or psychology or physics or biology or engineering: not at Harvard or Yale, Stanford, or anywhere else.  They were not highly polished, urbane, cultured men.  They were experts in nothing.  They were small, alone, and insignificant.  Only they weren’t.  Do you know why they weren’t?  They had God: God claimed them, revealed His purpose to them, and commissioned them to serve His purposes.  He blessed them, empowered them, taught them.  Great things, from the very small, the lowly, the insignificant—in the world’s eyes.  Great things through God, for God.

Something very great from something very small: an Epiphany message.  A message for the elders whom we will momentarily be ordaining to office in the Church of Jesus Christ, and a Communion message.  Elders-elect—we have not called you to your office: God has called you.  In a mysterious way, God is making it known that now is the time for you to be set apart in a special way, to serve in a special way.  This ordination is not a temporary matter: it won’t expire in three years.  As we understand it, ordination is for life.

Something very great from something very small.  What is a bit of bread?  What is a taste of juice?  We Christians are a strange lot, thank God!  By themselves, this bread and juice truly are nothing consequential—by Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, this bread and this juice become the sure signs of the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice: here is grace, love, peace, reconciliation, redemption, power, righteousness, life for us.  All that, in this?  “All that, in this?,” Herod and the religious experts were thinking, hearing of this baby, born to who?, in Podunk.  “All that, in this,” marveled the wise men, as they beheld him.  “All that, in this,” our holy, eternal, infinite God invites us to ponder, to feel, to live, to share, as we partake, and give thanks, and are filled.

Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

                [1] See, for example, John 1:12-13 and what Jesus says to the crowds in John 8:31-59.

                [2] See, for examples, Ps 22, Jer 16, Micah 4, and Zechariah 8.