Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Most of us love to take trips. The build-up and expectation before a trip is always so much fun, wondering what we’ll do, wondering what we’ll see, wondering what excitement the trip will bring us. And, even though it’s not pleasant at the time, returning home from the trip can also be fun as we see people again and as they ask us how our trip was, as they ask us what we did, as they ask us who we saw, as they ask us to see pictures and tell stories.

Now imagine being the Wise Men – or the Magi. What a story they had to tell when they returned home after following that mystical star West until it finally led them right to where the Christ-Child lay. Returning home, theirs was the story of following a gut feeling, a story of unwavering faith and trust, a story of night wanderings, a story of meeting a world leader, a story of meeting the Holy Family, a story of growing in awareness that the story of salvation was a story that included them and others like them, a story about how their journey fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Imagine being the Wise Men returning home! Imagine the questions they fielded! Imagine the story they had to tell!

Epiphany is the name of the Church Festival officially celebrated this past Thursday that honors and recognizes the arrival of the non-Jewish Magi to bow down and worship before the Christ-child and to present Him those costly, meaningful gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Epiphany is celebrated every year. I’ve preached an Epiphany message multiple times. But this year, I saw Epiphany in a whole new light, thanks to our new annual motto or theme – “Open the Floodgates of Heaven in 2011" – and in light of its supporting Scripture – “Bring a tithe into the storehouse ... and see if I will not ... pour out so much blessing you will not have room enough for it” [Malachi 3:10].

I guess one melding together of that theme with the events celebrated at Epiphany would be that the Wise Men brought and presented those costly gifts, bringing them into the “storehouse,” presenting them to the very Creator of those gifts and then they returned home as blessed people, returning home another route, returning home as changed people, never regretting what they had given, which really paled in comparison with what they instead received. That’s actually not a bad melding together of our theme and Epiphany.

I would suggest to you this morning, though, a different application of the melding together of our annual theme with Epiphany. That different application is this: that the “returning home” Wise Men, returning home as blessed, changed people, returning home a different way, viewed the people of the world as the tithe to be brought into the storehouse, as the token offering that would unleash so much more than they could have ever expected.

The Wise Men had already proven themselves at least twice to follow gut instincts. They were astrologers. They studied stars. They gazed upon stars every single night, yet something in their gut told them this star was different and not only was it different, it was worth following until it finally stopped over the destination it wanted them at. The Wise Men had also followed their gut instinct after meeting King Herod. There is no indication from Scripture that their face-to-face meeting with Herod was unpleasant, an omen preventing their return to report to him where the Christ-Child was, yet something in their gut told them not to report back to Herod. Something in their gut told them to avoid the royal palace. Something in their gut told them to return home by another route.

I believe something in their gut, probably even as they were in the very act of kneeling in front of Christ, told them they had quite the story to tell. I believe something in their gut told them there was an element of haste involved, that there was no time to waste. I believe something in their gut told them that their fame in life would never be found in studying the stars, but instead because of telling the story. I believe something in their gut told them that when they opened their mouths upon returning home, it would be the Holy Spirit of the Christ-Child who would be speaking, so the Wise Men presented themselves and presented their non-Jewish world as the “tithe” and just look at how the floodgates of Heaven opened!

You and I are here today, bowing our knees and worshiping the Christ-Child, because the Wise Men followed their gut instincts, because the Wise Men told the story of their trip, because the Wise Men believed that Baby they saw would change this world in ways no one could expect, in ways that only God could bring about. And He has!

Our Epiphany challenge this morning is clear. This morning – Sunday January 9, 2011 – you and I have become the Magi. Today’s Magi. Each of us has a different story to tell about how we got here, what star we followed, why we felt we had to follow it when we did, but here we are. When you look at our bulletin cover this morning, it’s your face you should see superimposed on the face of one of the Wise Men. You and I should share their sense of awe and worship. You and I should share their wonder of being part of the incredible story of God saving this world – saving you and me, saving all people, even people who do not right now know or believe it – through a little Baby born in Bethlehem. You and I should share their wisdom that our fame in life has only to do with telling the story of our trip of faith, its final destination face-to-face with Christ. You and I should share their passion for telling the story of what we have experienced bowing before the Christ-Child. You and I should share their commitment to present ourselves and our world as the “tithe” – the tithe that God encourages us to bring to Him in faith and trust – because God continues to have incredible blessings to unleash in unbelievable ways upon this world and you and I are the vehicles – if we choose to follow our guts – through which those blessings are unleashed.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena