Guiding Light  (Return to Sermon Page)

January 6, 2008

Isaiah 60: 1-6                                                                        

Mt. 2:1-12

     Epiphany! The last day of Christmas, even though we have already moved on.

Even during the Christmas time we celebrate, this special day has been reduced to a children’s song about 3 kings and added them to the manger scene.

Since our Sunday worship has landed on the very day, we can’t just let it go.

Epiphany—when the lights go on!  That, ‘I got it!’ moment.  That ‘a ha!’ moment.

It happens to us.  Isaiah talked about it.  The Magi followed it.

These men, perhaps wise, certainly seekers, searchers for wisdom and truth,

followed the light,  and ‘saw’.  Did you realize they were pagans?

The light led them to a child, ~~holy child~~God’s child~~Messiah~~salvation.

It was a leaping, unfolding, expanding understanding. 

Aren’t all of our aha moments like that?

What could be grasped in a flash in the mind, took time to unfold in actuality.

From here to there imagined in a nanosecond took 30 years to unfold in real time.

But the light, the light of salvation, the light of God, the light of Christ led on through it all.

          The farmer looks at a handful of seeds and the bare ground, and sees

full green fields, to money for college, to a child become a doctor. 

So it takes imagination to see God’s plan unfold

and it takes time and faith for transformation to unfold.

And it may take generations to go from sower to healer;

But the light, the light of salvation, the light of God, leads on through it all.

          A congregation begins to wake up to a changed world, with a  heart to care and a capacity for boldness, how do they ‘see’ God at work in their new world?

Where will their guidance come from?  Can anybody shine a little light on things?

          Years before Jesus came on the scene, Isaiah wrote to a discouraged people:  the light is nearby, it is coming closer, coming toward you.

At the same time it is rising up within you. 

It will shine out so that others are attracted.

The light is coming: open up your eyes and see!

The light is coming: open up your heart and believe!

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

The witness of faith is that God provides light, direction, vision for the future. 

Isaiah’s word of hope for the people of Jerusalem is that traders will come

from across the sea, from other lands.  So many people will come bringing their goods and services to Jerusalem that it will be as though the city is covered in camels. 

For a nation devastated by war and occupation, hope meant a return to commerce, free flow of traffic, normalcy.

          What’s the vision for us?

-our parking spaces will be filled with Toyotas and Buicks and Fords and Hyundais

-our pews filled with families and children and youth?

-our building used every day for the sake of the needs of the community?

-our members grounded in the life of Christ?

-our music calling the whole community to warmth and joy?

-our budget completely underwritten?

          Take heart people of God, you will not be left on your own. 

The light of Christ is coming and that light is already in you.

We are being led, we will be guided on our course.

Like the seekers of old, we set our sights by a ‘star’, the light of Christ.

Like them we check in with people along the way:

are we going in the right direction?  Have you seen him?

Like them we’re going to run into conflict with

those whose interests are threatened.

Like them, we salvation will unfold before us; let us be alert for it.

Let us be like the bird that feels the light coming and sings to greet the dawn while it is still dark outside.

But the light, the light of salvation, the light of God, leads on through it all.

It’s been said,

 “Never fear shadows.  It just means a light is shining somewhere near by.”