Epiphany 2008
January 6, 2008

Happy Epiphany!  Today is the day some of our sisters and brothers in the Christian family celebrate Christmas.   This has been a couple of weeks when we have had images of light coming into our darkness.   Today is no exception with the story of the star over Bethlehem.

I had the most beautiful experience on Christmas eve day.   I was coming to church in the morning and as I was driving down Wescott, in Eagan, my normal route, I looked in the rear view mirror and there in the east was the huge big red sun.  It simply was beautiful.   Then as I looked into the west, ahead of me, I saw the not-yet-set moon.  It was full round and beautiful. What a beautiful sight this was with the sun in the east and the moon in the west.  Here we had the light of the day and the light of the night all present.   One could say Epiphany is somewhat like that.  I thought, maybe there is a sermon in this beauty! And here we are!   It’s Epiphany!

I am sure the writer of the gospel of Matthew did not intend for his audience or for any other audience, which might come along later, to rush out to find the nearest astronomer to have a scientific explanation about planets lining up to give the illusion of a bright star.   The writer of Matthew, I’m sure, was attempting to reassure the people that the light would not go out. This was the heavenly light and the earthly child that would be called the “light.”  The writer was assuring the people that the violence and treachery of Herod and Rome would not put the light out.  God would thwart Herod.  Historians of that time tell us that Herod was so preoccupied by fear that he had already executed his wife and two children because he did not want to lose his grip on his kingship.

I’m sure the writer of Matthew was also praising the wise men for their non-compliance with this treacherous leader. You can call it civil disobedience, or non-compliance or whatever, but the wise men would not participate in the death that Herod brought. They refused to let his fear rule their lives and actions.  These last couple of Sundays there have been readings from the gospel that have mentioned Herod’s killing of children and his plotting here against the Child. This always brings to mind an experience I had some years ago.

In my younger years when I was a youth pastor and went on canoe trips and retreat weeks  I came to know a young woman in the parish who was quite beautiful, strong, and courageous.  She graduated from high school and went off to college and during one of her semesters she took a trip to South America.  When she returned she announced to her family that after graduation from college she was going to work full time for the Nestle’s boycott.  Do you remember what that was about?   It was an organized effort to boycott Nestle’s products in order to put pressure on them to stop a marketing practice that was killing a lot of children.   They sold infant formula that needed to be mixed with water. In many countries the water was not safe and the babies would die from it.  This young woman’s father was a free-trader and he could not understand why his daughter would want to get mixed up in something like that.  With a college education why would someone want to get mixed up in a boycott? Why would you want to give time and move to Chicago to work in a national office of this nature?   I never doubted that her father loved her even though he thought this was mighty crazy.

Then some years later I took a trip to South Africa.  One day in our visits we were in a township outside Johannesburg and we took a drive in our vans about 10k away.  We went on the dirt road that had its fair share of deep holes to avoid.  Then we arrived at a spot I will never forget. On the right side of the car was an area about the size of a football field.  All over there were little mounds of dirt about a foot high and about 2 feet long.  Mounds and mounds and mounds.   Each mound had a plate or a glass or spoon on it. Some had rubber dolls or animals.   These were the last things a child had touched before he or she died.  This was a children’s cemetery.   To make matters worse on the other side of the car was another area about the size of another football field with mounds and mounds of graves also.  I was overwhelmed with tears, when I thought about all the accumulated grief at the deaths of so many children. And then on one little mound I saw a cactus and it was blooming.   Those of you that know about cacti understand that a blossom only lasts for about a day.  Wow!  Was this a sign like the star?   Was it hope that life prevails even in a sad place like this?

After we left the cemetery we went to some of the neighborhood clinics and hospitals.  Here I saw a sign   which I can still visualize in my mind twenty some years later.  It was a hand drawn sign taped to the wall.  It said, “Mother’s breast, yes.  Nestle, No”   I have thought about it many years during the Christmas and Epiphany season when we read these stories.   Brenda had seen the light!   She understood the consequences of corporate and political actions.  Like the wise men in our story today she wouldn’t cooperate with the death they are capable of. Her refusal to cooperate like the wise men’s was saving lives.  Eventually the corporate, free trade practices were changed.   God works to thwart the evils through people like you and me. 

In those days, on my office wall I remember a poster I had taped up.  It read, “War is not healthy for Children or any other living thing”

My friends, the story of the wisemen seeing the light and discerning between the treachery and the promise and then taking action is not just an old story.  It is a present one.   We must do the same day in and day out.   In the Marketplace, in the classroom, in the voting booth, in the office. We are confronted day in and day out.   May God guide us. The light has come, enjoy it, celebrate it, discern it.  God thwarts the treachery of present day Herods through ordinary people like us.   And the light will not be put out.

Amen.

Pastor Harry Mueller