Rise and Shine!

Based on Matthew 2:1-12

Sunshine is a premium in Ohio during the winter. We can go for days even weeks, without seeing the sun. You watch the news, and the news anchor is prodding the weather forecaster to tell us, “When will there be any sun?” This guy I know was joking, “Partly cloudy means cloudy.” I don’t know about you but when the sun breaks through the clouds this time of year it immediately energizes me.

I remember a time several years back when I was sitting in my office at the church I was serving at the time. It was early February. I don’t believe the sun was seen for the entire month of January. That morning, through the blinds of my office window, I finally saw sunlight. It was so bright! It was so good to see the sun. It lifted my spirits instantly. To this day I still have a clear memory of that moment. It was at least fifteen years ago. To see the sun after being behind the clouds for a long time is a joyful experience.

It is in that spirit that we hear these words from the prophet Isaiah, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” In a time of darkness and gloom, a time of oppression, of exile, of loss, the prophet offers a word of hope. Jerusalem was destroyed. There was no king from the line of David sitting on the throne. Much of Israel was living in exile in Babylon. Things were grim. But it would not always be that way. God will act. God will make things right. The glory of the Lord will rise again over Israel. There will be a restoration. For Israel there will be a new dawn. The prophet proclaims a word of hope. It is this hope for a brighter future that gives us the possibility to stand up and face our future. Without this hope, all is lost.

In an interview with the BBC, Martin Luther King said, “I have my moments of frustration, my moments of doubt, and maybe temporary moments of despair, but I have never faced absolute despair because I think if you face absolute despair, you lose all hope, you have no power to move and act, because you really feel there is no possibility of winning.” Hope is necessary to survive tough times, those times when everything is grey and cloudy, when nothing seems to be going right.

We have a basis for hope…the God of hope. We know that God is with us. We know that God loves us. We know that God has provided for us the way of salvation, the promise of eternal life. We know that God keeps God’s promises, that God’s will will be accomplished, that God’s reign of peace and justice will be established. Or, as someone else has said, “the arc is long, but it bends toward justice.” We know that love wins in the end. These beliefs provide for us a foundation on which we can stand and face the future with hope. This is what makes it possible for us to respond to the words of the prophet. We can rise and shine for the glory of God is shining on us, on our hearts.

This Sunday, we are recognizing the day of Epiphany, which actually falls on Jan. 6, the twelfth day after Christmas. Jan. 6 for us now has the distinction of being a day we remember the U.S. Capitol being overrun by a lot of people who had become convinced that the presidential election was fraudulent. What an epiphany that day was for a lot of the world as they looked on in dismay. Epiphany is one of the first Christian holidays. It’s been around longer than Christmas. For the first couple hundred years of the church’s existence, there were only two major holy days: Easter and Epiphany. It was on Epiphany, still is for Eastern Orthodox Christians, that the birth of Jesus, the visitation of the magi, and the baptism of Jesus are all celebrated. As the years went by, the church in the west started spreading these events out. Now we celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas, remember the visit of the magi on Epiphany and then remember Jesus’ baptism the following Sunday.

When we use the word “epiphany” these days, it is when someone has an epiphany, an “a-ha” moment. It’s when you suddenly “see the light” or gain a new insight. These epiphanies tend to show up when we least expect it. Maybe that “a-ha” moment happened while you were lying in bed in the middle of the night. Or you were in the shower, or driving down the road, or something catches your eye. Whenever it is, something clicks, the dots are connected, and you suddenly see things in a new light. Things suddenly make sense. You have clarity.

An epiphany may provoke excitement, even joy. You have been struggling with some question, a mystery that you just can’t solve. Every answer you come up with doesn’t quite fit. But then someone asks you a question that shifts your perspective on the problem you are trying to solve. Suddenly, the solution appears right in front of you. It all makes sense! Problem solved. Epiphanies can also sometimes provoke anxiety. It may trouble the waters. That’s what happened to a lot of people as they watched the Jan. 6 insurrection unfold. For those who had an epiphany that day that our democratic foundation is fragile, was an anxiety generating experience. Not just anxiety, but actual alarm and fear about what that event was revealing about our politics, even the binding of our union. This epiphany has impacted our perspective about where we are as a country. How will we move forward together with this breakdown of trust in the election process? What will the mid-term elections be like this coming fall? Epiphanies sometimes stir up anxiety and more questions.

An epiphany came to Herod and the rest of Jerusalem when some astrologers from Persia showed up asking where the king of the Jews was so they could pay him homage. This came out of nowhere. For generations the people had been praying for, longing for, the day when Israel would have a king that was not appointed by Rome, a king from the line of David, who would be the messiah, the anointed one who would restore Israel to its glory and finally get Rome off their backs. And then, suddenly, it was happening! A king had been born and no one knew about it! How can this be? What do these astrologers from Persia know? Their presence has turned everything upside down. The status quo has been interrupted.

We can understand why Herod was troubled by this epiphany. He was currently the king appointed by Rome. There can be only one king. So, he knew that his rule was under threat. This was a problem for him. The people of Jerusalem were also fearful. Even though this was something they had hoped for, now that it is happening, this meant Rome would take notice. That might mean a military assault to squash any insurrection in order to assert Roman control. The epiphany that the king of the Jews had been born did not signal a time of peace but of revolt. The waters were troubled by the news. Something had to be done and, if we read further in Matthew’s gospel, we know what the response from Herod was…the slaughter of boys under the age of 2 while Jesus and his parents fled to Egypt for asylum.

So, we get why Herod and the people of Jerusalem were fearful and upset. But why were the magi filled with joy? In the scriptures we read that when the magi saw the star stop over the place where Jesus lay that they were overcome with joy. Why? What did they know? It was not uncommon for dignitaries from other nations to go and see future heirs to the throne to pay homage. For the magi to go and pay homage to Jesus is not strange. But why would this be a joyful occasion? Why the future king of Israel causes the magi from Persia to be overjoyed isn’t clear. Maybe they were joyful because they were looking at the one who would restore Israel’s sovereignty and limit the power of the Roman empire. Maybe there was something about that star that stopped where Jesus lay. It signaled to them that the royal line this baby represented would never end. Who knows? But for whatever reason, the magi were overcome with joy as they paid homage to the child, presenting gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. For them, this epiphany prompted by the star that stopped, was a joyful experience.

I came across this prayer that had this line, “Each day is Christmas because we receive from you the gift of another day with Jesus.” That’s true. Each day is a gift. Every morning we have another day to unwrap and enjoy. It is true that Jesus is with us through the whole day. I knew all this, but this prayer also sparked in me an epiphany. It was the idea that every day I can put myself at the manger in simple adoration that God came to us in human flesh. We can celebrate the birth of Jesus every morning. I guess we can’t keep up the Christmas tree and holiday lights year-round. But we don’t have to only celebrate the birth of Jesus one day a year. We can celebrate that God is with us as a human being every day.

Let’s return to that line Isaiah spoke; “Arise, shine; for your light has come.” This is not a suggestion the prophet gives us. It’s a command. It is as if your mom is knocking on your door telling you to wake up, it’s morning, time to get moving. Rise and shine! We are to get up from our beds of gloom and discouragement and to shine, to reflect the glory of the Lord that shines over us. What does this mean? How do we do this?

Part of it must be an act of will. We have to choose to rise and shine. In our times of discouragement, confusion, sorrow, and anxiety, we have to decide for ourselves to claim that God’s glory is over us. We have to determine for ourselves that we are in the light of God. We have to decide for ourselves to walk in the light of God. We have to cling to the hope we have that God is with us and that God’s grace is sufficient for this day. And then we have to get up and go.

There is a story told by the missionary Lesslie Newbigin who was doing his ministry in India. One early morning, before the sun was up, he and a group of others were walking up a hill, the top of which was a popular site for pilgrims to pray. As they got closer to the top of the hill, another group was going down the hill. The group that was going down was facing east. And as the sun was just coming up, the sunlight was reflected off the faces of those approaching them. This give Lesslie an epiphany: when we turn ourselves toward Christ, the one who is the light of the world, we reflect the light of Christ out into the world.

We can’t do anything about cloudy days in Ohio. There’s not much we can do about the cloudy and grey times in which we live, with all that is happening in the world today. But we can rise and shine. We can return to the manger and pay homage to the Christ child, maybe with a little joy in our hearts as we simply adore him, Christ the Lord. And then as we move through the day with our eyes on Jesus, we can reflect the light of Jesus out into the world. We can let our little lights shine.