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Lectionary Study - January 6, 2008

Epiphany Day

Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12; Ephesians 3:1-12

Isaiah 60:1-6 is a joyful and triumphant psalm of the ingathering of God’s people from throughout the entire world. God commands those who embrace him around the world, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (60:1-3).

God is about to act, the prophet declares. God first commands Jerusalem to arise and come to attention because “the glory of the Lord has risen upon you”. Second, that command is for all those who pray for the shalom of Jerusalem and for the ingathering of God’s people. And finally, the command is for the “nations” and for “kings” to come “to the brightness of your dawn”.

The opening words sound like a command to the faithful of God around the world to take notice of the mighty act that God is about to do. Where, then, do biblical scholars get the idea that these words are addressed primarily to Jerusalem (a city) itself and not to God’s people dispersed around the world (who are clearly addressed in verse 2)? That perspective comes from the untranslatable opening of this psalm.

The opening command “Arise” is a feminine singular imperative in Hebrew. That is, it is a command – an imperative, not a request. It is singular – addressed to one person or entity, not to the dispersed people of Israel throughout the world. Finally, it is feminine when – if it were addressed to the people – it would have been masculine. The feminine singular is exclusively used throughout Isaiah for the city of Jerusalem, which is always referred to as “she” (e.g., Isaiah 1:21-23; 3:25-26; 40:1-11; 51:17—52:2; 54:1-17; 57:3, 6-13; 62:1-12; 66:6-16). In fact, this call to Jerusalem to awake and to both pay attention to what God is about to do and to act accordingly, is a call that is repeated throughout the second half of the book of Isaiah (e.g., 51:17; 52:1). Intriguingly, in all three of these instances (Isa. 51:17; 52:1; 60:1), the city is to “arise” in order to celebrate its deliverance and salvation at the hand of God. So there is no question about this first command being directed by the prophet to the city of Jerusalem. Only in verse two are the dispersed Jews and Yahweh-believers to be included, and only in verse three are the “nations” and “kings” also a part of that ingathering.

God is at work, the prophet proclaims. “The glory of the Lord has risen upon you”. It is true that “darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the people”; humanity continues to live under the cloud of totalitarian and despotic rule, greed and exploiting economic power and systems working to control and to dominate the people. But it will not always be so. Sooner than one can even imagine, “the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will appear over you”. Israel will be redeemed by God’s intervening action (cf. Isaiah 34:1—35:10), transformation into a shalom world will spread throughout humanity and “nations” will flock to Jerusalem (Isaiah 45:14), their “kings (converted) to the brightness of your dawn”.

The prophet continues. “Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms. Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you” (vss. 4-5).

Again, themes earlier sounded by Second Isaiah are reiterated in this section (e.g., 43:5-6; 49:12, 22-23). In fact, the first half of the first sentence of verse four is a quotation from Isaiah 49:18. But by returning to the metaphors and even the specific language of that previous author of a portion of the book of Isaiah, this author claims its vision for his own. God will gather to God’s holy city all those who embrace Yahweh as their God, and even their sons and daughters “from far away”, whether they are adults or whether they are infants “carried on their nurses’ arms”. And God will gather in the wealth and abundance of the nations into that city that will become city as God intends city to be. There in Jerusalem, God will create a model of the shalom community that will eventually cover the earth – a community of political justice, economic equity, elimination of poverty and a society where all will be at one with each other as well as with God.

But what does Isaiah mean by “the wealth of the nations (that) shall come to you”? In the final portion of this Old Testament Lesson for Epiphany, Isaiah couches his description of this wealth in language that will later become pregnant with meaning to St. Matthew as he tells the story of the Arabian magi who come to Bethlehem to worship the infant Jesus, “the glory of the Lord that has been given to you”. Isaiah describes that wealth in this way: “A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah, all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord” (vss. 5-6). The tribes named in verse 6 (“Midia; Ephah; Sheba”) and those listed in the following verse (“Kedar, the Nabateans”) are the Arabian (Gentile) nations surrounding historic Israel, and are used to symbolize the nations throughout the world.

What Isaiah describes are giant caravans coming from every nation and wending their way through the deserts toward Jerusalem, each caravan not only bearing much wealth but bringing a migration of the world’s people to God’s city, there to embrace God’s world as the world they want for themselves rather than the dominating societies of the elite under which they now serve. In other words, Isaiah is proclaiming that a new day is dawning when all will live in the world as God created it to be rather than as it has become under the greed, lust for power and controlling ways of human society.

Matthew 2:1-12 is the Epiphany story of the visit of the wise men “from the East”. There are two intertwined messages in this story – one dealing with the use of power by Israel’s elite, and the other, the capacity to perceive God’s actions by those who are on the margins of life. The birth of Jesus, and his intrusion into the “world as it is” brings two distinct responses. Those who are at the center of Israel’s society reject him, and those on the margins embrace him.

In order to truly interact with this story, one must be able to understand the disparities between Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus and Luke’s account. When one envisions the traditional crèche scene, one sees Jesus lying in the manger with his kneeling mother gazing adoringly at him, his father respectfully standing guard over him, and then to one side of the crèche the shepherds and beasts gathered and on the other side the three wise men holding their gifts, along with their camels in attendance. But that is not the scene pictured by Matthew.

Whereas Luke deals directly with the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:1-8), Matthew does not. He simply indicates that the story he is about to relay to you occurred “after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea”. Whereas in Luke, Jesus is laid in a manger in a stable, Matthew is quite specific in reporting that the wise men find him in a “house” (2:10). Intriguingly, whereas Luke consistently refers to Jesus as an infant or baby, Matthew exclusively calls him a “child” – that is, one who is past infancy. Finally, the Magi indicate that they are following a “star at its rising” (or “star in the east” – which means the same thing) that was given to them as a sign, announcing the birth of a new king of Judea that had already occurred (vv. 2-4). All of this evidence suggests that the visit of the Magi didn’t happen at the time of the birth of Jesus, but rather at a later date, perhaps as much as a year later (cf. vs. 16).

Matthew tells us that “wise men from the East came to Jerusalem”, seeking “the child who has been born king of the Jews”. The Greek word Matthew chooses that is translated “wise men” is the word “magi” rather than “sophos” – the Greek word for those with sound judgment). The close association of that title with the English word “magic” captures the nature of the Magi’s “wisdom”. The word “magi” was used exclusively for astrologers, ones who studied the stars to discern the future. Thus, they had a knowledge of reality that ordinary people – whether elite or peasant – did not. Further, Matthew is careful to report that these magi “were from the East” – that is from the Parthian Empire which was to the east of the Roman Empire and of equal power to Rome. Consequently, magi “from the East” were greatly feared by the elite, because their very arrival in court had the potential of destabilizing power through threatening predictions. This is precisely the scenario Matthew is creating for his story of the beginnings of the conflict between Jesus and the powers of Israel and Rome. For with their announcement of the star, these Magi are as destabilizing a force as one can imagine in Herod’s court.

King Herod was, at one and the same time, the most tyrannical of rulers and the most insecure. He owed his throne to the nurturing of continued good relationships with Rome, whom he served as a client king. As long as Herod paid the Roman government the taxes they demanded, maintained order and protected the rights of Roman citizens, he was given total freedom by Rome to rule Judea as he pleased. He did so by building great wealth and power for himself, and for all those in positions of authority that fully collaborated with him. But he was ruthless toward those who either he perceived as posing a threat or who did not cooperate with his insistence upon maintaining the favor of Rome. Thus, Herod was an uneasy ruler, always feeling insecure on his throne, constantly building his wealth and strengthening his power, and forever sensitive to any potential threat.

Then came the Magi with their unsettling and destabilizing message. “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage” (vs. 2). What child, Herod asked? “And he was frightened, and all Jerusalem (i.e., the political, economic and priestly elite of Judea) with him” (vs. 3).

Herod’s reactions were predictable. He had no recently-born child. So this could only mean that the Messiah had been born. But where? Thus, the priestly elite use their vast knowledge of the Hebrew Bible to identify the birthplace of the Messiah, and quote to Herod the prophecy of Micah 5:2, “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel” (vs. 6).

But Herod is exceedingly crafty as well as cruel. He knows that he must depend upon these greatly feared and hated Magi to find the Messiah, for it is they alone who have seen the star “at its rising” and who can lead Herod to “the place where the child was”. Only upon learning from them the child’s whereabouts can Herod eliminate him and thus remove the threat to his throne. So he says to the Magi, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage” (vs. 8). So, because these Wise Men have “magos” (unique knowledge) but not “sophos” (sound judgment), they innocently believe Herod’s subterfuge and thus unwittingly create the situation that will eventually lead to the Slaughter of the Innocent. So they set out to Bethlehem to seek the Christ Child, with full intent to return to Herod with the information that could lead to Jesus’ death.

“They set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (vss. 9-11).

So it was that the Magi proceeded to Bethlehem, found and paid homage to the child Jesus. Then Matthew, always concerned with demonstrating Jesus as the predicted Messiah, not only notes the confirmation of Micah’s prophecy about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem but particularly notes that the Magi give Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. By so noting, Matthew notes that it is Gentiles who are predicted as both paying homage to the Messiah and of giving him valuable gifts when Messiah establishes God’s reign of justice and shalom throughout the world (e.g., the Old Testament lesson for this Sunday – Isaiah 60:6; cf. Ps. 72:10-11; Micah 4:1-4; Isa. 2:1-4).

Then Matthew concludes the story, “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another road” (vs. 12). Herod’s plot is foiled, not by the Magi, but by God who uses the Magi to frustrate Herod’s intent.

As stated earlier, there are two intertwined messages in this story – one dealing with those who are in the center of Israel’s society and reject what God is doing, and those on the margins who embrace the miracle occurring in their midst.

It is the elite whom Matthew is careful to record in this story that reject the work God is doing in Israel. It is Herod – the supreme political power in Judea at that time. But it is also “the chief priests and scribes” – the political and economic elite of Israel who use religion as their means for securing and maintaining their power. It is these leaders of Israel who know the Law, can recite the Law, and can give one the proper chapter and verse to identify where the Christ is to be born. But they do not obey the Law and join the Magi to go “to pay him homage”. They will not surrender their power to the Christ Child nor to God’s will for humanity. For their purpose in life is not to seek God but to grasp and hold onto power – even if that means killing God’s anointed one – and to kill him using God’s own prophecy to betray God. Those whose ambition is only to grasp, to control, to lust for power can never choose God, for their god has become their passion to dominate. These are they who Matthew introduces to us, the reader, in this Epiphany story. And these political, economic and religious elite and their successors will remain as the antagonists in the Gospel of Matthew until its very end, seeking to thwart the will of God even after Jesus’ resurrection, because the god they worship is their own obsession to control all of life for their exclusive wellbeing.

But there is a second group as well in this story – those on the margin who embrace the miracle occurring in their midst. In this Epiphany story, it is the Magi. It is the “Wise Men” who are the only ones in this story who can discern that God is doing a new thing through the birth of Jesus. But they are “from the East” – that is, from another nation and culture both outside Israel and outside the Roman Empire. In fact, there is not even any evidence in the text that they are worshippers of God. But they, and they alone, are aware that a world-changing event is occurring. All the Jewish elite – including their “chief priests and scribes” are oblivious to what God is doing until the wise men draw the elite’s attention to it. Therefore, the Wise Men – strangers to Israel from a strange land – become the first of many protagonists in Matthew’s Gospel story who come from the world’s and the nation’s geographic, political, economic, social or religious margins to follow a Messiah of the Margins, and thus eventually become those who can embrace the new thing God is doing through Jesus, and who can go forth into the world to “make disciples of all nations”, inviting them out of empires of greed, domination and control into God’s new empire of justice, equity and a relational faith with Jesus’ assurance, “Remember that I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20). Thus it is, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel as it is at its beginning, that wise men and women still seek Him, and in finding Him join Him to transform the world into the kingdom of heaven. For this is God’s will for the world and all its people!

Ephesians 3:1-12 centers on St. Paul’s contention that, like the Magi, the church is to be about the task of always perceiving and moving out into that new call of God. And that call is always about engaging the world in its public life.

Paul begins this analysis of the unique work of the church by examining his own spiritual journey. “I, Paul, am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles – for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation” (3:1-2). It is through reflection on Paul’s call that the church can come to a clearer perception of its call. By looking at his call, Paul is able to present the clearest statement in Ephesians, and possibly in anything else that he wrote, about the essential function of the church in the real world.

Paul moves into this topic by reminding his readers of “the mystery of Christ” (vss. 3-6) that he was privileged to have been given before any other believers. That mystery has come to define Paul’s ministry and has now come to be largely accepted by the church, Paul declares. But it is that mystery that also makes clear to us the true and primary mission of the church.

The mystery is that “the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph. 3:6). That is the reason the church is called to be ambassadors of the gospel and is to work for reconciliation (Eph. 2:11-21). It is to so work because there should be no division between Gentile and Jew or between any other humanly made or systems-encouraged division that leads to an allegiance to a nation, an economy, a values-system, a Caesar greater than our allegiance to God. Paul is therefore seeking to enable the church to embrace a profoundly expanded life and ministry beyond what anyone can believe or even imagine. And Paul expresses that expansive work of the church in this way:

“(I want) to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 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. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him” (3:9-12, emphasis mine).

If Paul saw the mission of the church as simply bringing individual Gentiles and Jews to Jesus Christ, he would have written in this text, “through the church the wisdom of God might now be made known to people”. But that is not what he wrote. He is saying that the wisdom of God, which humanity has refused to see, is that there is no need in human society for the existence of political, economic, religious, racial or ethnic dichotomies that divide humanity (not people, but humanity)! God never intended us to be divided into “us” and “them”. But the political, economic and religious systems of every society, every nation and every city need such divisions in order to maintain their dominance. So they foster such divisions.

Therefore the primary work of the church, Paul states in this passage, is to proclaim to the rulers and authorities – that is, to the systems of society a new vision for the world. Our task is not simply to win individuals to Christ, but to work to transform the systems in the very “highest places” (the meaning of the word “heavenly” in this passage). The church exists to work as God’s force on earth to bring the world with all of its systems to live in a shalom community, and thus creating together, through the grace of God, the “kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ”. Such a kingdom is not a bland kingdom of sameness, but rather is God’s reconciled world “in its rich variety” – the creation of a kaleidoscope of cultures and peoples, all united by a common allegiance to the same Lord, the same “Caesar”, Jesus Christ.

In other words, in the Epistle Lesson for Epiphany Sunday, Paul is declaring that the work of the church goes far beyond preaching the gospel, winning souls to Christ, building up or planting congregations, working for social justice, or even hunkering down in order to preserve the church in the face of persecution. Paul is declaring that the work of the church is to hold up to the Roman Empire and to any other system an entirely different vision for their society – a vision of all of life lived in shalom under the authority of Christ and manifested in that society’s pursuit of a politics of justice, an economics of equitable distribution of wealth, the elimination of poverty and a people in relationship with God. And that “mystery” can only be realized if the church will move beyond itself to be engaged in every possible way in public life!