The wide-angled lens of faith
Commentary
Our vacation to Arizona elicited a continuing expression of awe and wonder at the exquisite scenery that simply enveloped us as we drove down one highway after another and as we stood before such wonders as the Grand Canyon, the Canyon de Chelly, and the Painted Desert. All five of us wanted to grasp and keep the splendor that each turn of the head offered us. The only way we could capture such beauty and take it all home with us was through hundreds of clicks on the cameras.
Of course, the photographs we were so excited about sharing with family and friends were terribly disappointing. Each photo contained only a small piece of the immense scenery that enthralled us. Even putting them side by side could not approximate the image we had left behind. I am now committed to buying for future trips one of those throwaway cameras with the extra wide-angle lens.
Our lessons for this Epiphany of our Lord show us the purpose and plan of God through a wide-angled lens. While many of our days are spent focusing in on some specific aspects of life and ministry and mission, today we see the big picture -- a picture that is not simply as big as the Arizona desert but one that engulfs the entire world, even the universe itself.
Isaiah 60:1-6
It is small wonder that this pericope is chosen as the first lesson for the Gospel from Matthew 2. While other prophecies look forward to the pilgrimage of the nations and their kings to Mount Zion, the mention of their bringing gold and frankincense nominates this passages for the Epiphany award.
Beginning here at 60:1 and continuing through chapter 62 is the nucleus of the preaching of the prophet we call Third Isaiah. The situation to which he preached the word of the Lord could not have been expected. The preaching of Second Isaiah linked the coming of the kingdom of God with the return of the Lord and the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem (see above all Isaiah 52:7-10). Upon their return -- thanks to the Edict of Cyrus in 538 B.C. -- the people experienced everything but God's kingdom of peace and harmony. The walls of the city and its glorious temple, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C., were nothing more than piles of rocks. Unemployment figures were off the charts, and the resulting crime rate for petty theft hit record highs. While their parents kept alive memories of the homes they left behind, squatters' rights had forced them to view their dreams from the outside.
It was no wonder that this prophet was called to "bring good tidings to the afflicted" (61:1-4). The good news consisted mostly of assurances that the promised kingdom and its glory would come. Our pericope is one of those assurances.
Like his predecessor Second Isaiah, this prophet calls upon the people to "arise," literally, get up out of bed and on your feet. At 57:17 the earlier prophet uses the same verb to order the exiles to get up on their feet after having become intoxicated by drinking the cup of the Lord's wrath. That sermon announces to the exiles that, although devastation and destruction, famine and sword have befallen them, the Lord is coming to plead their cause and take them home. Here in our pericope the order to arise is accompanied by the command to "shine." The beaming is possibly a sign of joy in the face of their depression, but more likely here it is a reflection of the light that will brighten the music of the night which has been haunting them.
That light, as clearly indicated by the synonymous parallelism with "the glory of the Lord," is nothing other than God in their midst. The image of light as a description of God is attested in Genesis 1, where the existence of day over against darkness of night occurs without sun or moon or stars until the fourth day, a powerfully dramatic way to announce the nature of God. At Isaiah 10:17 the Lord is called the "light of Israel" that will burn up the arrogant Assyrians destroying Jerusalem as though they were nothing more than thorns and briars. Psalm 27 begins with an individual's confession that "the Lord is my light and my salvation" and asserts that on that basis the worshiper has no need to fear the assaults of enemies. Clearly in these and other passages light is a visible manifestation, an epiphany, of the Lord's presence. While such epiphanies often take the form of quaking mountains (Exodus 19:18; Judges 5:4-5) or of storm clouds (Psalms 18 and 29) or of fire (Isaiah 31:9), the image of light conveys God's presence and nature in a powerful way. In the preaching of Third Isaiah the announcement of God's coming as light answers their complaint that "we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness" (59:9).
Now the astonishing news is that this light will not only illuminate Israel but also attract the nations of the world and their kings. These foreigners will bring the scattered children of Israel home along with the wealth the nations have garnered. Their riches will include gold and frankincense -- all as part of their adoration and praise of the Lord.
"My Lord, what a morning" it will be! It will certainly be worth getting out of bed.
Ephesians 3:1-12
This pericope, along with the rest of the epistle, announces that the morning to which the worshiper awakens will look as large as the Texas sky. From horizon to horizon and even beyond the world itself is the scope of God's plan, and it starts with the faithful preaching of one prisoner entrusted with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Intending to honor the person in whose name he writes the epistle, the author repeats what Paul had written on several occasions, namely, that God called him to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles (see above all the first chapter of Galatians). The task is given a particular twist here, though, because it is connected to the apostle's imprisonment. The author will specify that reality as the condition under which the letter was written at 4:1 ("I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord") and at 6:19-20 ("the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains"). In our pericope, however, he indicates that he is "a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of your Gentiles" (v. 1). Perhaps the author is using the situation of prison not simply to cite the situation in which the letter was written but to highlight the role, even the honor, of being a prisoner for Christ Jesus. Such a fate was promised for "my name's sake" (Luke 21:12), a fate that marked Paul as worthy of his calling to be an apostle (2 Corinthians 6:5; 11:23).
The author qualifies his statement about being a prisoner for the sake of the Gentiles by assuming the readers have already heard how God's grace was given to Paul to announce to them. The NRSV refers to this divine act as "the commission of God's grace" while the RSV renders it as "the stewardship of God's grace." (The NIV translates "the administration of God's grace," and some scholars argue for "the disposition.") The Greek word is the familiar oikonomia, usually translated "stewardship." This present writer favors the RSV on this point because the word "stewardship" rings some special chimes for hearers, and those tunes have to do with the gospel that has been entrusted to someone by an owner for the owner's benefit. Such "management" includes both a commissioning and a dispensing by God for God's glory. The mission was to proclaim the glory of Christ so that Jew and Gentile might become one body as the church and that the church might play its role in God's cosmic plan.
The plan of God was to reveal the mystery that had been hidden until the coming of Christ. To insist that the church keep the gospel secret and hidden and safe from public exposure from the apparently God-forsaken world is to miss the point entirely. The time for the mystery and secrecy is past. What was secret was God's plan for the salvation of the entire universe, but the operative word is "was." Now that the revelation of God's plan has been exposed in the naked and crucified Christ, the time has come to go public.
The first opportunity for public exposure occurred on the Day of Pentecost, and the continuing role of the Holy Spirit working through apostles and prophets brings the secret to front page headlines. This blatant announcement was, in this pericope, especially for the benefit of the Gentiles to "become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (v. 6). That series of words emphasizes the unity of the church, especially since in Greek the series consists of words beginning with syn = "with": sygkleronoma = "fellow heirs"; syssoma = "sharing the same body"; symmetocha = "sharers." The work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the prophets brings the church together (syn). Recall Luther's Explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles' Creed: "... just as (the Holy Spirit) calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith."
The pericope moves us beyond the being of the church, that is, how it comes to exist and how it finds unity in the midst of racial diversity (Jews and Gentiles). In fact, it opens up that big sky, literally: "so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places" (v. 10). The passage announces boldly that the church is not the end of God's plan but the means to the end, that God's wisdom might be made known throughout the cosmos.
The inclusion of the heavenly places in this passage provides a fitting climax to an ongoing biblical theme of expanding the horizons of God's people. When the Lord first commissioned Abraham and Sarah, the blessing promised through them would extend to "the families of the land," that is, the Girgashites and Jebusites and Midianites and all the others living in the territory between Dan and Beersheba (Genesis 12:3). As the same promise of blessing moves along in the patriarchal stories the scope of Israel's mission expands to include "the nations of the earth" (see Genesis 22:18). When the people of Israel were exiled in the land of Babylon in the sixth century B.C., the Lord commissioned "the servant" "to bring back Jacob to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him," but then immediately the Lord expands the horizon: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Isaiah 49:5-6). In our pericope the boundaries of the earth are shattered so that the church might announce the wisdom of God as it has been revealed in Jesus Christ to "the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places."
It is difficult to grasp that immense scope of the church's mission and then sit through a three-hour argument over the carpeting in the narthex or what kind of paper should be used for the church newsletter. It is equally disturbing to experience the quibbling over whether two or three denominations should agree on common practices or even whether two congregations of the same denomination should merge for the sake of God's mission.
The Epistle to the Ephesians provides one glorious kick to the provincialism that runs rampant in so many of our churches. Because in Christ the church has "access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him," let us focus ourselves and our congregations on "the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord" (vv. 11-12).
Matthew 2:1-12
How quickly the universal effect of the coming of Christ appears in Matthew's Gospel! After providing in chapter one the "Jewishness" of Jesus by the threefold genealogy of fourteen generations each, the author zeroed in on an engaged couple, the man of which was a "son of David" (1:20). The superscription of 1:1, in fact, introduces Jesus as "the son of David, the son of Abraham," and so the first branch of the family tree extends from Abraham to David, the second from David to the exile in Babylon, and the third from the exile to the craftsman named Joseph, Mary's husband. It is hard to imagine how the author of Matthew's Gospel could have accomplished more efficiently his claim that Jesus was kosher.
Equally efficient is Matthew's insistence that "it is too light a thing" (Isaiah 49:6) to limit the revelation of God in Jesus to the Jewish people alone. The scope of this epiphany is the world, and perhaps even beyond the world to the universe.
The first lesson prophesied that on the Day of the Lord nations and their kings will come to the Light of Israel, to Mount Zion, bearing gifts of gold and frankincense. Other passages as well speak of the gifts borne by "the richest of the people with all kinds of wealth" to the Davidic king on Jerusalem's throne and to his bride, a king whose robes are fragrant with myrrh (Psalm 45:8-12). Still others from the repertoire of Israel's royal psalms speak of the kings of Tarshish, of Sheba and Seba, and of the isles bringing the Davidic ruler gifts and falling down before him in adoration (Psalm 72:8-11). Behind it all is the eschatological expectation that the Davidic king rules over the universe: "from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth" (Psalm 45:8; cf. 2:10-11; 110:5-6).
That our pericope bears many of the features of this Davidic ideology indicates that Jesus, the baby of Davidic lineage, is the eschatological Messiah whose rule is universal. Interestingly, the use of the quotation from Micah 5:2 accomplishes more of that function than the use to which Matthew puts it, namely, to establish the birthplace of the coming Messiah. The reference to "Bethlehem of Ephrathah" from whom shall come "one who is to rule" simply indicates that the future ruler would be of Davidic descent, since Bethlehem was the home of Jesse, David's father. The town name accomplishes nothing more specific than the reference to "the stump of Jesse" in Isaiah 11:1: Davidic lineage. While the Micah passage does indeed speak of the birth of a baby, the imagery picks up the travail of a woman in labor that defines "the daughter of Zion," Jerusalem, as it goes off to exile to Babylon (see 4:8-10). That daughter's deliverance is not the birth of the baby but the rescue from exile. Yet, on the occasion of that return to Jerusalem, the Davidic king would commence his nurturing and peaceful reign.
Matthew's purpose in using the Micah quotation, of course, takes us in a different direction -- along with the wise men: "where the Messiah was to be born" (v. 4). That reference sends the wise men from the east off to Bethlehem where, of course, their adoration of the Davidic child takes place. The prophecies and the hopes for the ideology expressed in the royal psalms are thus fulfilled.
The universal nature of the coming of Christ is attested in dramatic form by the visit of the wise men. While this story is the first of that emphasis in Matthew's Gospel, it is by no means the last. Matthew alone will record the teaching of Jesus about the judgment of the Last Day when the Son of Man, sitting on his throne in glory, will be surrounded by "all the nations" (25:32). Matthew alone will report the Great Commission when the Resurrected Lord asserts that "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." (28:18-19).
The extension of the Reign of the Son of Man into heaven is perhaps the reason the visitors from the east are not kings of earthly nations, as the prophecies and ideology would suggest, but wise men. They are magi, perhaps more accurately astrologers. They spend their nights not looking at the decorated ceilings in royal palaces but at the heavenly skies. If you think the Texas sky is big, you should see it from the desert where they originated. Astrologers find meaning in the ways stars and planets and meteors light up the sky, connecting with one another in one divine mosaic. In the actions and interactions of the heavenly bodies the astrologers find a certain stability for the universe and for life on earth itself.
Imagine their consternation and interest when all their expertise could not explain this unexpected star which arose in the East. This star had never appeared before. It would arise only when the Davidic king would appear on the earth: "a star shall come out of Jacob ... and a scepter shall rise out of Israel ... One out of Jacob shall rule ..." (Numbers 24:17).
It is no wonder that Herod was interested, too. He was already sufficiently paranoid to have killed his own sons and his brother-in-law. The news that the star announcing the rising of the Davidic king could only heighten his insecurity. The conflict between the powers-that-be and the power-to-come had already begun.
The Epiphany of our Lord in such immense terms is cause for celebration and praise. It is only fitting that we the church set aside this special day for the announcement about who this Jesus Christ really is and his significance for the entire universe. At the same time, the Epiphany pericopes can heighten our insecurity, too, if we insist on viewing life through a narrow lens.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 60:1-6
Isaiah 60-62 represent a sharp contrast with what has gone before in the preceding chapters of Third Isaiah (chs. 56-66). Up to this point in Isaiah's collection are found a mixture of conditional promises, scathing judgments, warnings, and calls to repentance. But beginning in chapter 60, the tone changes and we find nothing but unconditional, soaring, lyrical proclamations of salvation. Our text forms the first six verses of that glad announcement, and is a portion of the whole poem of 60:1-22.
Here God offers his open-hearted mercy to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, even though they have done nothing to deserve it. As is true throughout the scriptures, God's action of mercy precedes any repentance and turning on his people's part. And it is that unmerited love of God to which the remnant of Judah is asked to respond in answering love. We turn to God in love and obedience when we see with what love he has loved us in Jesus Christ. "We love because he first loved us."
Those things that are offered to the remnant of Judah in this message are no less than the gifts of the kingdom of God. In chapters 60-62, Third Isaiah pictures the coming of that kingdom, and it is in the light of that coming that Judah is asked to be faithful and obedient -- not in order that the kingdom will come, but because it is in fact coming.
Jerusalem is addressed in verse 1 as a woman, mourning in the dust. But she is bidden to arise, because God is going to be present with her in his glory (vv. 1-2). Here, God's glory is portrayed as his shining effulgence, as his material manifestation of his Being on earth (cf. 35:2; 40:5; 58:8; 59:19; Ezekiel 1:26-28). God, whose presence is often described in terms of light, is coming to his people!
As a result, Jerusalem will shine with the reflected light of God's glory (vv. 2-3), just as Moses' face shone when he descended from talking to God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:29; 2 Corinthians 3:12-18). To this reflected light, all the nations, who now dwell in darkness, will be drawn (vv. 2-3), because they will realize that God is to be found with Jerusalem (cf. Zechariah 8:23; Isaiah 2:3). It is a cosmic and universal picture.
When the nations are drawn to Jerusalem, they will also bring back with them all of Israel's exiled children who have been scattered throughout the world (v. 4; cf. v. 9), and so Judah's heart will swell with joy (v. 5), like that of a mother's exulting over the return of her lost children.
The nations will not only come to Jerusalem to return Israel's lost children, however. They will also come up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. They will bring their treasures to be used in rebuilding the ruined temple (vv. 5-7), and they will bring their animals to be offered as sacrifices upon the altar (vv. 6-7). There will be caravans of camels bringing gifts from the southwest desert tribes of Midian and Ephah; gold and frankincese from the Arabian trading center of Seba; herds from Kedar and Nabaioth, famous for their sheep and rams; silver and gold from the sea peoples; fine timber from the North (vv. 6, 9, 13). All will be used to pay homage to the one Lord of all.
In short, what we find in these six introductory sentences to this poem is a picture of the reversal of the fortunes of Judah, which is, in Third Isaiah's time, a struggling little subprovince of the Persian Empire, scratching out an existence among the ruins of Jerusalem. The prophet proclaims that there will be the return of her God to her in forgiveness and mercy; the light of God's salvation shone upon her; the pilgrimage of all nations to Jerusalem, with their treasures, to worship the one God who is seen as Lord of them all. Such is the promise for the future coming of his universal kingdom that the Lord holds out to his struggling and suffering people.
Obviously, this text from Third Isaiah has been designated for the celebration of Epiphany because it mentions that gold and frankincese will be brought by the foreign nations to honor God (v. 6). According to Matthew 2:11, those are two of the gifts which the astrologers from the East brought to the infant Jesus, and perhaps Matthew understands those gifts as a fulfillment of this Isaiah prophecy. But that connection between our text and Matthew has many implications.
First, the presence of God with his covenant people, of which the church is now a part, is understood to be found in the birth of Jesus. God has indeed come to us in his Son. This Word of Third Isaiah has become flesh in Jesus Christ, who dwells among us in his Spirit. And we, like Judah in our text, are totally undeserving of that favor. We too have been disobedient and unrepentant, but God in his overwhelming mercy has nevertheless come to us in his incarnation, offering his abundant love to which we are called to respond in answering love.
Second, in Jesus Christ, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us, as Jerusalem was promised. "For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' " writes Paul, "who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). The full effulgence of our glorious God is veiled in the flesh of our Lord.
Third, as followers of our Lord, we are to reflect that glorious presence, as Jerusalem in our text would reflect it. "You are the light of the world," Jesus taught us (Matthew 5:14). But our light is not our own. It is the reflection of the light of Jesus Christ, who by his Spirit lives and works within and through us (cf. Galatians 2:20). And we are to reflect Christ's life, Christ's glory, in everything we do and say.
Fourth, if we truly reflect the love and life of Christ in our lives, then indeed, the nations of the world will be drawn to that light. For "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself," Jesus promised (John 12:32). If we lift up the death of Jesus on the cross, and his resurrection, if we shine forth with his glorious love for all, all nations everywhere will be drawn to come to him and to worship him as the one Lord of their lives.
Fifth and finally, all of these things, Third Isaiah promised, would come to pass in the kingdom of God. And with the birth of our Lord, that kingdom has in fact begun to break into our world. God's abundant and eternal life, promised to his people, has now intervened in our history. And while its fullness is not yet realized, it has begun and will come to be. So we can join in the announcement of the prophet on this day of Epiphany. "Arise, shine!" all you Christian people, "for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!"
Of course, the photographs we were so excited about sharing with family and friends were terribly disappointing. Each photo contained only a small piece of the immense scenery that enthralled us. Even putting them side by side could not approximate the image we had left behind. I am now committed to buying for future trips one of those throwaway cameras with the extra wide-angle lens.
Our lessons for this Epiphany of our Lord show us the purpose and plan of God through a wide-angled lens. While many of our days are spent focusing in on some specific aspects of life and ministry and mission, today we see the big picture -- a picture that is not simply as big as the Arizona desert but one that engulfs the entire world, even the universe itself.
Isaiah 60:1-6
It is small wonder that this pericope is chosen as the first lesson for the Gospel from Matthew 2. While other prophecies look forward to the pilgrimage of the nations and their kings to Mount Zion, the mention of their bringing gold and frankincense nominates this passages for the Epiphany award.
Beginning here at 60:1 and continuing through chapter 62 is the nucleus of the preaching of the prophet we call Third Isaiah. The situation to which he preached the word of the Lord could not have been expected. The preaching of Second Isaiah linked the coming of the kingdom of God with the return of the Lord and the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem (see above all Isaiah 52:7-10). Upon their return -- thanks to the Edict of Cyrus in 538 B.C. -- the people experienced everything but God's kingdom of peace and harmony. The walls of the city and its glorious temple, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C., were nothing more than piles of rocks. Unemployment figures were off the charts, and the resulting crime rate for petty theft hit record highs. While their parents kept alive memories of the homes they left behind, squatters' rights had forced them to view their dreams from the outside.
It was no wonder that this prophet was called to "bring good tidings to the afflicted" (61:1-4). The good news consisted mostly of assurances that the promised kingdom and its glory would come. Our pericope is one of those assurances.
Like his predecessor Second Isaiah, this prophet calls upon the people to "arise," literally, get up out of bed and on your feet. At 57:17 the earlier prophet uses the same verb to order the exiles to get up on their feet after having become intoxicated by drinking the cup of the Lord's wrath. That sermon announces to the exiles that, although devastation and destruction, famine and sword have befallen them, the Lord is coming to plead their cause and take them home. Here in our pericope the order to arise is accompanied by the command to "shine." The beaming is possibly a sign of joy in the face of their depression, but more likely here it is a reflection of the light that will brighten the music of the night which has been haunting them.
That light, as clearly indicated by the synonymous parallelism with "the glory of the Lord," is nothing other than God in their midst. The image of light as a description of God is attested in Genesis 1, where the existence of day over against darkness of night occurs without sun or moon or stars until the fourth day, a powerfully dramatic way to announce the nature of God. At Isaiah 10:17 the Lord is called the "light of Israel" that will burn up the arrogant Assyrians destroying Jerusalem as though they were nothing more than thorns and briars. Psalm 27 begins with an individual's confession that "the Lord is my light and my salvation" and asserts that on that basis the worshiper has no need to fear the assaults of enemies. Clearly in these and other passages light is a visible manifestation, an epiphany, of the Lord's presence. While such epiphanies often take the form of quaking mountains (Exodus 19:18; Judges 5:4-5) or of storm clouds (Psalms 18 and 29) or of fire (Isaiah 31:9), the image of light conveys God's presence and nature in a powerful way. In the preaching of Third Isaiah the announcement of God's coming as light answers their complaint that "we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness" (59:9).
Now the astonishing news is that this light will not only illuminate Israel but also attract the nations of the world and their kings. These foreigners will bring the scattered children of Israel home along with the wealth the nations have garnered. Their riches will include gold and frankincense -- all as part of their adoration and praise of the Lord.
"My Lord, what a morning" it will be! It will certainly be worth getting out of bed.
Ephesians 3:1-12
This pericope, along with the rest of the epistle, announces that the morning to which the worshiper awakens will look as large as the Texas sky. From horizon to horizon and even beyond the world itself is the scope of God's plan, and it starts with the faithful preaching of one prisoner entrusted with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Intending to honor the person in whose name he writes the epistle, the author repeats what Paul had written on several occasions, namely, that God called him to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles (see above all the first chapter of Galatians). The task is given a particular twist here, though, because it is connected to the apostle's imprisonment. The author will specify that reality as the condition under which the letter was written at 4:1 ("I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord") and at 6:19-20 ("the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains"). In our pericope, however, he indicates that he is "a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of your Gentiles" (v. 1). Perhaps the author is using the situation of prison not simply to cite the situation in which the letter was written but to highlight the role, even the honor, of being a prisoner for Christ Jesus. Such a fate was promised for "my name's sake" (Luke 21:12), a fate that marked Paul as worthy of his calling to be an apostle (2 Corinthians 6:5; 11:23).
The author qualifies his statement about being a prisoner for the sake of the Gentiles by assuming the readers have already heard how God's grace was given to Paul to announce to them. The NRSV refers to this divine act as "the commission of God's grace" while the RSV renders it as "the stewardship of God's grace." (The NIV translates "the administration of God's grace," and some scholars argue for "the disposition.") The Greek word is the familiar oikonomia, usually translated "stewardship." This present writer favors the RSV on this point because the word "stewardship" rings some special chimes for hearers, and those tunes have to do with the gospel that has been entrusted to someone by an owner for the owner's benefit. Such "management" includes both a commissioning and a dispensing by God for God's glory. The mission was to proclaim the glory of Christ so that Jew and Gentile might become one body as the church and that the church might play its role in God's cosmic plan.
The plan of God was to reveal the mystery that had been hidden until the coming of Christ. To insist that the church keep the gospel secret and hidden and safe from public exposure from the apparently God-forsaken world is to miss the point entirely. The time for the mystery and secrecy is past. What was secret was God's plan for the salvation of the entire universe, but the operative word is "was." Now that the revelation of God's plan has been exposed in the naked and crucified Christ, the time has come to go public.
The first opportunity for public exposure occurred on the Day of Pentecost, and the continuing role of the Holy Spirit working through apostles and prophets brings the secret to front page headlines. This blatant announcement was, in this pericope, especially for the benefit of the Gentiles to "become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (v. 6). That series of words emphasizes the unity of the church, especially since in Greek the series consists of words beginning with syn = "with": sygkleronoma = "fellow heirs"; syssoma = "sharing the same body"; symmetocha = "sharers." The work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the prophets brings the church together (syn). Recall Luther's Explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles' Creed: "... just as (the Holy Spirit) calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith."
The pericope moves us beyond the being of the church, that is, how it comes to exist and how it finds unity in the midst of racial diversity (Jews and Gentiles). In fact, it opens up that big sky, literally: "so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places" (v. 10). The passage announces boldly that the church is not the end of God's plan but the means to the end, that God's wisdom might be made known throughout the cosmos.
The inclusion of the heavenly places in this passage provides a fitting climax to an ongoing biblical theme of expanding the horizons of God's people. When the Lord first commissioned Abraham and Sarah, the blessing promised through them would extend to "the families of the land," that is, the Girgashites and Jebusites and Midianites and all the others living in the territory between Dan and Beersheba (Genesis 12:3). As the same promise of blessing moves along in the patriarchal stories the scope of Israel's mission expands to include "the nations of the earth" (see Genesis 22:18). When the people of Israel were exiled in the land of Babylon in the sixth century B.C., the Lord commissioned "the servant" "to bring back Jacob to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him," but then immediately the Lord expands the horizon: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Isaiah 49:5-6). In our pericope the boundaries of the earth are shattered so that the church might announce the wisdom of God as it has been revealed in Jesus Christ to "the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places."
It is difficult to grasp that immense scope of the church's mission and then sit through a three-hour argument over the carpeting in the narthex or what kind of paper should be used for the church newsletter. It is equally disturbing to experience the quibbling over whether two or three denominations should agree on common practices or even whether two congregations of the same denomination should merge for the sake of God's mission.
The Epistle to the Ephesians provides one glorious kick to the provincialism that runs rampant in so many of our churches. Because in Christ the church has "access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him," let us focus ourselves and our congregations on "the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord" (vv. 11-12).
Matthew 2:1-12
How quickly the universal effect of the coming of Christ appears in Matthew's Gospel! After providing in chapter one the "Jewishness" of Jesus by the threefold genealogy of fourteen generations each, the author zeroed in on an engaged couple, the man of which was a "son of David" (1:20). The superscription of 1:1, in fact, introduces Jesus as "the son of David, the son of Abraham," and so the first branch of the family tree extends from Abraham to David, the second from David to the exile in Babylon, and the third from the exile to the craftsman named Joseph, Mary's husband. It is hard to imagine how the author of Matthew's Gospel could have accomplished more efficiently his claim that Jesus was kosher.
Equally efficient is Matthew's insistence that "it is too light a thing" (Isaiah 49:6) to limit the revelation of God in Jesus to the Jewish people alone. The scope of this epiphany is the world, and perhaps even beyond the world to the universe.
The first lesson prophesied that on the Day of the Lord nations and their kings will come to the Light of Israel, to Mount Zion, bearing gifts of gold and frankincense. Other passages as well speak of the gifts borne by "the richest of the people with all kinds of wealth" to the Davidic king on Jerusalem's throne and to his bride, a king whose robes are fragrant with myrrh (Psalm 45:8-12). Still others from the repertoire of Israel's royal psalms speak of the kings of Tarshish, of Sheba and Seba, and of the isles bringing the Davidic ruler gifts and falling down before him in adoration (Psalm 72:8-11). Behind it all is the eschatological expectation that the Davidic king rules over the universe: "from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth" (Psalm 45:8; cf. 2:10-11; 110:5-6).
That our pericope bears many of the features of this Davidic ideology indicates that Jesus, the baby of Davidic lineage, is the eschatological Messiah whose rule is universal. Interestingly, the use of the quotation from Micah 5:2 accomplishes more of that function than the use to which Matthew puts it, namely, to establish the birthplace of the coming Messiah. The reference to "Bethlehem of Ephrathah" from whom shall come "one who is to rule" simply indicates that the future ruler would be of Davidic descent, since Bethlehem was the home of Jesse, David's father. The town name accomplishes nothing more specific than the reference to "the stump of Jesse" in Isaiah 11:1: Davidic lineage. While the Micah passage does indeed speak of the birth of a baby, the imagery picks up the travail of a woman in labor that defines "the daughter of Zion," Jerusalem, as it goes off to exile to Babylon (see 4:8-10). That daughter's deliverance is not the birth of the baby but the rescue from exile. Yet, on the occasion of that return to Jerusalem, the Davidic king would commence his nurturing and peaceful reign.
Matthew's purpose in using the Micah quotation, of course, takes us in a different direction -- along with the wise men: "where the Messiah was to be born" (v. 4). That reference sends the wise men from the east off to Bethlehem where, of course, their adoration of the Davidic child takes place. The prophecies and the hopes for the ideology expressed in the royal psalms are thus fulfilled.
The universal nature of the coming of Christ is attested in dramatic form by the visit of the wise men. While this story is the first of that emphasis in Matthew's Gospel, it is by no means the last. Matthew alone will record the teaching of Jesus about the judgment of the Last Day when the Son of Man, sitting on his throne in glory, will be surrounded by "all the nations" (25:32). Matthew alone will report the Great Commission when the Resurrected Lord asserts that "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." (28:18-19).
The extension of the Reign of the Son of Man into heaven is perhaps the reason the visitors from the east are not kings of earthly nations, as the prophecies and ideology would suggest, but wise men. They are magi, perhaps more accurately astrologers. They spend their nights not looking at the decorated ceilings in royal palaces but at the heavenly skies. If you think the Texas sky is big, you should see it from the desert where they originated. Astrologers find meaning in the ways stars and planets and meteors light up the sky, connecting with one another in one divine mosaic. In the actions and interactions of the heavenly bodies the astrologers find a certain stability for the universe and for life on earth itself.
Imagine their consternation and interest when all their expertise could not explain this unexpected star which arose in the East. This star had never appeared before. It would arise only when the Davidic king would appear on the earth: "a star shall come out of Jacob ... and a scepter shall rise out of Israel ... One out of Jacob shall rule ..." (Numbers 24:17).
It is no wonder that Herod was interested, too. He was already sufficiently paranoid to have killed his own sons and his brother-in-law. The news that the star announcing the rising of the Davidic king could only heighten his insecurity. The conflict between the powers-that-be and the power-to-come had already begun.
The Epiphany of our Lord in such immense terms is cause for celebration and praise. It is only fitting that we the church set aside this special day for the announcement about who this Jesus Christ really is and his significance for the entire universe. At the same time, the Epiphany pericopes can heighten our insecurity, too, if we insist on viewing life through a narrow lens.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 60:1-6
Isaiah 60-62 represent a sharp contrast with what has gone before in the preceding chapters of Third Isaiah (chs. 56-66). Up to this point in Isaiah's collection are found a mixture of conditional promises, scathing judgments, warnings, and calls to repentance. But beginning in chapter 60, the tone changes and we find nothing but unconditional, soaring, lyrical proclamations of salvation. Our text forms the first six verses of that glad announcement, and is a portion of the whole poem of 60:1-22.
Here God offers his open-hearted mercy to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, even though they have done nothing to deserve it. As is true throughout the scriptures, God's action of mercy precedes any repentance and turning on his people's part. And it is that unmerited love of God to which the remnant of Judah is asked to respond in answering love. We turn to God in love and obedience when we see with what love he has loved us in Jesus Christ. "We love because he first loved us."
Those things that are offered to the remnant of Judah in this message are no less than the gifts of the kingdom of God. In chapters 60-62, Third Isaiah pictures the coming of that kingdom, and it is in the light of that coming that Judah is asked to be faithful and obedient -- not in order that the kingdom will come, but because it is in fact coming.
Jerusalem is addressed in verse 1 as a woman, mourning in the dust. But she is bidden to arise, because God is going to be present with her in his glory (vv. 1-2). Here, God's glory is portrayed as his shining effulgence, as his material manifestation of his Being on earth (cf. 35:2; 40:5; 58:8; 59:19; Ezekiel 1:26-28). God, whose presence is often described in terms of light, is coming to his people!
As a result, Jerusalem will shine with the reflected light of God's glory (vv. 2-3), just as Moses' face shone when he descended from talking to God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:29; 2 Corinthians 3:12-18). To this reflected light, all the nations, who now dwell in darkness, will be drawn (vv. 2-3), because they will realize that God is to be found with Jerusalem (cf. Zechariah 8:23; Isaiah 2:3). It is a cosmic and universal picture.
When the nations are drawn to Jerusalem, they will also bring back with them all of Israel's exiled children who have been scattered throughout the world (v. 4; cf. v. 9), and so Judah's heart will swell with joy (v. 5), like that of a mother's exulting over the return of her lost children.
The nations will not only come to Jerusalem to return Israel's lost children, however. They will also come up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. They will bring their treasures to be used in rebuilding the ruined temple (vv. 5-7), and they will bring their animals to be offered as sacrifices upon the altar (vv. 6-7). There will be caravans of camels bringing gifts from the southwest desert tribes of Midian and Ephah; gold and frankincese from the Arabian trading center of Seba; herds from Kedar and Nabaioth, famous for their sheep and rams; silver and gold from the sea peoples; fine timber from the North (vv. 6, 9, 13). All will be used to pay homage to the one Lord of all.
In short, what we find in these six introductory sentences to this poem is a picture of the reversal of the fortunes of Judah, which is, in Third Isaiah's time, a struggling little subprovince of the Persian Empire, scratching out an existence among the ruins of Jerusalem. The prophet proclaims that there will be the return of her God to her in forgiveness and mercy; the light of God's salvation shone upon her; the pilgrimage of all nations to Jerusalem, with their treasures, to worship the one God who is seen as Lord of them all. Such is the promise for the future coming of his universal kingdom that the Lord holds out to his struggling and suffering people.
Obviously, this text from Third Isaiah has been designated for the celebration of Epiphany because it mentions that gold and frankincese will be brought by the foreign nations to honor God (v. 6). According to Matthew 2:11, those are two of the gifts which the astrologers from the East brought to the infant Jesus, and perhaps Matthew understands those gifts as a fulfillment of this Isaiah prophecy. But that connection between our text and Matthew has many implications.
First, the presence of God with his covenant people, of which the church is now a part, is understood to be found in the birth of Jesus. God has indeed come to us in his Son. This Word of Third Isaiah has become flesh in Jesus Christ, who dwells among us in his Spirit. And we, like Judah in our text, are totally undeserving of that favor. We too have been disobedient and unrepentant, but God in his overwhelming mercy has nevertheless come to us in his incarnation, offering his abundant love to which we are called to respond in answering love.
Second, in Jesus Christ, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us, as Jerusalem was promised. "For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' " writes Paul, "who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). The full effulgence of our glorious God is veiled in the flesh of our Lord.
Third, as followers of our Lord, we are to reflect that glorious presence, as Jerusalem in our text would reflect it. "You are the light of the world," Jesus taught us (Matthew 5:14). But our light is not our own. It is the reflection of the light of Jesus Christ, who by his Spirit lives and works within and through us (cf. Galatians 2:20). And we are to reflect Christ's life, Christ's glory, in everything we do and say.
Fourth, if we truly reflect the love and life of Christ in our lives, then indeed, the nations of the world will be drawn to that light. For "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself," Jesus promised (John 12:32). If we lift up the death of Jesus on the cross, and his resurrection, if we shine forth with his glorious love for all, all nations everywhere will be drawn to come to him and to worship him as the one Lord of their lives.
Fifth and finally, all of these things, Third Isaiah promised, would come to pass in the kingdom of God. And with the birth of our Lord, that kingdom has in fact begun to break into our world. God's abundant and eternal life, promised to his people, has now intervened in our history. And while its fullness is not yet realized, it has begun and will come to be. So we can join in the announcement of the prophet on this day of Epiphany. "Arise, shine!" all you Christian people, "for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!"
