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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
You may know that today the United‑States Congress formally certified President‑Elect Donald Trump’s 20‑24 election victory, four years to the date after a mob threatened to disrupt the certification of his 20‑20 election loss in order to keep him in power. (I remember hearing the news that day, as I was making my way back to Kilgore from Minnesota, where I had attended the funeral for my Godfather; Pilgrim had cancelled our Epiphany Divine Service due to my travel, and that cancellation may have been a good thing, as I apparently had contracted COVID‑19 somewhere along the way.) In the four years since 20‑20, when people have referred to “January 6”—including Vice‑President Harris, who once likened it to December 7, 19‑41, Pearl Harbor Day, which day President Roosevelt said would “live in infamy”—I have struggled to associate the date “January 6” with the events at the U‑S Capitol and not with the Epiphany of Our Lord. However, there is what might be called political turmoil of a different sort in today’s Gospel Reading, as wise men from the east came to Jerusalem seeking the One born King of the Jews, and the one appointed King of the Jews was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. The appointed King plotted to kill the born King (confer Matthew 2:13-23), but the wise men essentially tricked the appointed King (Matthew 2:16) after they worshipped the born King as God, on January 6, as our Church Year at least has us remember it. So, considering the Gospel Reading tonight, we reflect on the theme, “January 6: A day not of infamy but of honor”.
An “epiphany” can be an official visit from a king or emperor, or his showing himself publicly, but the “epiphany” that we remember on January 6 is not the visit of the magi, or a public appearance of Herod, but an appearance of Our Lord! Although the wise men are often wrongly referred to as “kings”, even if they may have represented kings, and although the wise men are often wrongly numbered at “three”, because of their three gifts, there are arguably only two kings in the Gospel Reading, namely, Herod and the Child Jesus, and they are “kings of two very different sorts” (confer Taylor, CPR 30:1, pp.63‑64). Herod did not fear election results but God’s providence! Herod sems to have known enough about the prophesied Savior in order to ask the chief priests and scribes of the people where the Christ was to be born, but, after they told him what the prophet said about Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), Herod naïvely thought that he could thwart God’s fulfillment of those prophecies—never mind that Jesus was not a political rival to Herod, since at that stage Jesus’s kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36; Revelation 11:15).
As the people of Israel threw off God as their King in favor of a human king (1 Samuel 8:1-22; confer Deuteronomy 17:14-20), Americans threw off their human king in the Revolutionary War, and yet we certainly still seem to like to trust the rulers of this world. We may have wanted a particular candidate to be elected, and we may have thought that he or she would be different than the others. You may still think that the new president will deliver us from our international and national enemies and from such things as higher prices and lower incomes. Yet, sooner or later, all those who trust in the rulers of this world will be disappointed and tempted with despair (Psalm 146:3-4). Rulers are sinful people just like you and I are, deserving of present and eternal punishment, in need of God’s calling and so enabling us both to be sorry for our sin and to trust Him to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake. When we so repent, then God forgives us—our sinful nature and all of our sin. As God calls us to do in today’s Old Testament Reading, we, who are in darkness, arise, shine, for our light has come (Isaiah 60:1-6).
When we hear that Old Testament Reading, we may take so much note of the gold and frankincense that those from Sheba, a nation in southern Arabia, are to bring, that we miss what else they are to bring, namely, the “good news”, the “praises of the Lord”. The magi worship the Child Jesus. The magi worship the Child Jesus as God. The magi worship the Child Jesus as God Who alone saves from sins. His identity, activity, and dominion are all related (Beckwith, CLD III:173-174 with n.7). Even the at‑this‑point one-to-two‑year-old Child Jesus is God in human flesh, revealed as God in human flesh to the magi, by His prophetic Word (for example, Numbers 24:17) and His miraculous sign of the “star”. The Child Jesus went on to live the perfect life that all people fail to live, and He went on to die on the cross for their failure to live that perfect life. Jesus died for us, in our place, the death that we deserved, and then He rose from the dead. He was born “King of the Jews”, or, perhaps more‑properly “King of Israel” (Schmidt, TDNT 1:578), but even then, as we heard in the Old Testament Reading, the nations, the Gentiles, were to come to His light. Thus, as St. Paul said in today’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 3:1-12), the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel—and those Gentiles include us!
In today’s Gospel Reading, at least twice God’s prophetic Word and sign guided the wise men, and God likewise deals with us by His Word and Sacraments. God’s Word is read and preached to groups such as this group. And, God’s Gospel is applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with a pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Holy Supper. We worship God by seeking and receiving His forgiveness of sins in these ways that He has given for us to receive His forgiveness of sins; on the basis of Holy Scripture, we believe, teach, and confess that such worship is the highest worship of the Gospel (for example, Apology of the Augsburg Confession IV:154, 310).
Forgiven by God through His Word and Sacraments, we are transformed! Ideally, we no longer feel the need to trust in the rulers of the world. What can they offer us that ultimately is greater than what we have received from the King of Kings? Can they save us from our sins? Can they fix this broken world? Can they even keep themselves from sinning? Of course not, which is why we look to Christ for our ultimate hope and comfort, why our joy comes not from the new presidential administration but from Christ. (Taylor, CPR 30:1, p.64.) In today’s Gospel Reading, the wise men rejoiced exceedingly with great joy when they saw the star, because they trusted that it would guide them to the King, and it did. After they worshipped Him, having opened their treasuries, they offered Him gifts—gold and frankincense and myrrh—which presumably the Holy Family used on its subsequent flight to Egypt. Likewise, after we have worshipped our King, we offer our gifts, gifts of a different sort, and gifts that are used for the work of His Kingdom in this place. Then, like the wise men, we go our way in peace and joy.
This evening we have considered “January 6: A day not of infamy but of honor”. Unlike four years ago, today’s U-S certification of election results went smoothly, despite even a “snow emergency” in the country’s capital. Meanwhile, we are worshipping our King, God in human flesh, by seeking and receiving His forgiveness of sins. To paraphrase the antiphon of today’s Introit (Psalm 45:6-8a; antiphon: v.7), the King’s Name is remembered in all generations, and so we praise Him forever and ever.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +