Reading Matthew Magi (not kings; no number given) Priestly caste of Zoroastrians - most likely Gentile, not Jewish diaspora Star-gazers/astrologers, magicians, learned, professional class Gifts: kingly, priestly (temple), anointing/embalming (links birth and death) OR gifts: tools of the trade, indication that they are dissociated with former practice

If these guys were such wise men, what were they thinking, asking the sitting King of the Jews, a king known to be paranoid and violent - asking him where the new King of the Jews had been born? Were these guys naïve or just dumb? Here's a literary trick. Instead of asking how believable this story is, let's ask what it means in the context of Matthew's gospel. The magi ask, "who is the real king of the Jews?" and their question points us to the Christian mission.

But here's the deal: this is Epiphany and we've got a new banner (Gifts), so let's leave literature to talk about what "Epiphany" means. Epiphany means revelation or appearing of God. There are many epiphanies in scripture: God on Mount Sinai and in the burning bush to Moses, that incredible throne thing to Isaiah in the temple, the still small voice to Elijah in the wilderness, the blinding light to Saul on the road to Damascus.

Epiphany: God revealed, God appearing, God in the here and now, in ways that we can see and understand. One of the standard agenda items for each session meeting at Springwater is something called "God sightings." This is an important part of how we govern the church, because the God sightings we celebrate encourage us. They are really epiphanies, these God sightings - God revealed and appearing in our lives, right here in Springwater. They are sometimes little things (like noticing one of our children greeting another who has been absent for awhile by throwing her arms around the other and saying, "I've missed you so much!"). Sometimes they are pretty big things (like nearly a ton of food donated by Springwater to the Resource Center last year, or a good report from the doctor's office on a test result). Mostly these God sightings are just ordinary things (like a conversation when one person affirms another's gifts or call).

But why this story of the magi as the God sighting for Epiphany? In this story, when the magi kneel and pay homage to the baby Jesus, they are anticipating what Paul writes in Philippians: "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." The visit of the magi says that God is including the Gentiles in the salvation plan, that Gentiles are not an afterthought. The covenant relationship between God and humans extends to all humans. Mind-boggling.

The new king of the Jews is born, and the religious Jews - the covenant people--don't bother walking the five miles to go check out the story. What were they thinking? Was it fear of Herod's long arm? Or were they thinking, "These Gentile hotshots can't tell me anything about finding the Messiah!" In their defense, if the magi really were wizards or sorcerers, God had been warning the Jews since the days of Samuel to keep away from that kind of thing. The Jews were being pious to steer clear of potential sin. We all have days like that. There was a time when I was advised to attend Al-Anon meetings. Despite the endorsement of that great American authority, Dear Abby, I avoided Al-Anon like the plague. Nice, middle class girls like me did not attend Al-Anon. I might catch what they've got! Which turned out to be wrong-headed. When I finally did go to Al-Anon, I found that the meeting was full of people like me. My reluctance to go said a whole lot about who I thought I was, as well as displayed a closed-mindedness as severe as the Jewish temple establishment in Herod's Jerusalem.

We all have blind spots like that - places we metaphorically won't go because we know there is nothing we can learn there. Hip hop music. Welfare recipients. People who pierce body parts. People over the age of 65. Children's literature. None of these things can teach us anything, right? How far is it from Jerusalem to Bethlehem? Five miles. The PC(USA) news service just ran a piece on one of my colleagues in Wisconsin who is getting some attention for a sermon series he's doing. John Zingaro, the pastor of a small church outside Madison, is doing a sermon series based on the Harry Potter books. John can be a little wacky, but he points out that his sermons are based on Biblical texts, fleshed out with Harry Potter themes and examples. Can you imagine Harry Potter teaching church people anything? How far is it from Jerusalem to Bethlehem?

Isn't it a shame that there are so many ways that we take appropriate, safe, predictable channels for getting information, but avoid like the plague those ways that violate our ideas about who we think we are? I shudder to think of the spiritual tools I would have missed out on, if I had continued to avoid Al-Anon. Hopefully John Zingaro's congregation knows they would be the poorer for not having learned how to see God's insights in the mundane and ordinary adventures of modern life, even as revealed in children's literature.

That's the point of Epiphany. God is trying to be revealed to us - even in the mundane and ordinary parts of our lives. Now, it's true that there are orthodox ways God is revealed. We're Presbyterians, and we know that God is revealed in God's Son, Jesus the Christ, and that God is revealed in scripture and the prophets - even modern prophets like Dorothy Day & Jean Vanier. We also know that God is revealed in sacraments, even that God will be revealed today in this sacrament. When you take the bread and cup that is a God revealing to you. But there are other times, other epiphanies, other God sightings in our lives. I read this week said that poets understand the magi better than scientists. Scientists try to determine if the star was a super-nova or a conjunction of planets or a comet. I don't know about you, but I don't need to know what it was to know that something supernatural took place on the road to Bethlehem. Today, I'm of the opinion that taking the road is the point. Think about those religious experts in Jerusalem. They knew, for Pete's sake, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. They didn't need to look it up or form a task force or throw magic discerning powder into the air. They knew. But they didn't take the road to Bethlehem. It was only five miles to catch sight of the Messiah, to see God revealed.

If Epiphany is about God's revealing to humanity, there is a certain level at which we just need to notice the revelation. If we limit the ways God can use by deciding which are legitimate, we are limiting God. That's not good. Remember the book I read to the children this morning, The Give-Away? The Four-Leggeds and Those Who Fly are sad about the Two-Leggeds who have strayed so far from the ways of the Creator. In case you didn't know, we are the Two-Leggeds, the ones who have lost our way, lost our purpose. We take more than we need, lack long-distance seeing, keep more than we can eat while others go hungry. We try to make others small so that we look big, and even if all the animals gave themselves away, we would only think that we had made ourselves larger in taking them.

The gift, friends, the banner we see today, the gift is the Creator who chooses to become small. A baby is born and brings light into confusion, hope into despair. It is this Great Mystery that we eat and drink today at this table. Here is a gift. It is the body broken for us. The blood that seals the covenant. This gift is the ultimate Epiphany, the ultimate revealing of God in ways that we can understand and perceive. Thanks be to God.