Our Gospel reading today is taken from the beginning of Christ's Sermon on the Mount (Matthew Chapters 5-7), and a list of very surprising kinds of people that Jesus describes as blessed, often called the Beatitudes.

For a great video unpacking this important passage, check out this video from the Bible Project.

​And for even more resources, check out their whole Sermon on the Mount video series & Podcast series. ​

​Our service of Morning Prayer and Sermon can be found here:

​And our All-Ages Song for the Season of Epiphany can be found here:

This Sunday, St. Luke's and our neighbouring Anglican Parishes will be taking part in a combined service at St. Paul's on the Common to celebrate their 150th year. If you are unable to join us in person, they will be live-streaming the service which you can find here, starting at 10AM:

​For those who prefer our usual At-Home worship resources, they can be found below here:

​And our Songs this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 49:1–7 | Psalm 40 | 1 Corinthians 1:1–9 | ​John 1:29–42

“God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9).
 
Have you ever had a phone call that ended up changing your life?
 
Many of us have at some point or other. One minute, we’re going about our day, business as usual, and the next we’re speaking to someone, and for better or worse, that conversation… that connection alters the course of our story forever.
 
Maybe it was someone eagerly sharing good news with us… or offering us a chance to take on some new and exciting opportunity. Or maybe it was the kind of call that breaks our hearts instead… a painful argument… or news of a tragedy that catches us completely off guard. Or maybe it’s just another telemarketer. Or worse yet, someone running a scam.
 
When the phone rings… we never really know what is in store for us, do we? And when we answer the call, who knows where that connection will take us?
​
Our Scripture readings this morning have much to say to us today… not about phones, but about another kind of call… another kind of connection… that invites us, along with every generation of Christians, to answer the Living God’s summons to and ‘come and see’ where He is leading us, and what lies in store for us and our world.
 
As we know all too well, right now our world’s being led in many different and even destructive directions, and those who have been charged with the high responsibility of guiding the nations through these difficult waters seem to be making some incredibly disruptive and divisive decisions which will have long-lasting and unforeseen implications.
And although we don’t know where everything’s headed, or what comes next, for better or worse, it sure seems like the next chapters of our world’s story will never be the same.
 
And in times like these we have important work to do, and choices to make: Will we bury our heads in the sand and do nothing? Will we follow along with the crowd, and go with the flow, come what may? Will we rally around those with the loudest voices, and who wave the biggest sticks? Or will we turn our attention to the LORD in faith, and respond to His voice calling us to follow Him… to “come and see” and take part in what God is up to even now?
 
And unlike so many of those who want to lead today, God really can be trusted to have our world’s best interests at heart… and He has already revealed both His ultimate intentions, and His game plan for bringing it about.
 
In our first reading today, from the Prophet Isaiah, God gives His people a message of hope for how He is at work bringing about His good purposes in some surprising ways. In this passage, we hear of the LORD’s ‘Servant’… an image used by the prophets at times to speak of the faithful ones of Israel… kind of a personification of the community, and their role in God’s story.
 
But the image of the LORD’s Servant also connects to the One who would serve as the ultimate representative of God’s faithful ones… the Messiah, the Chosen Anointed One who brings the whole story of God’s people to it’s proper conclusion. So as we listen to Isaiah’s words, we can have both the Messiah and those whom He represents and leads in mind.

And in Isaiah Chapter 49:1-4, we hear that God has big plans for His Servant. From birth He was set apart and empowered to fulfill a particular purpose:  
 
“Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, ‘You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’
But I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.’” (Isaiah 49:1-4).
 
And what was that purpose? What does the LORD have in mind for His Servant? To bring about the restoration of His people… and to bring God’s salvation to all the nations! Isaiah 49:5-6,
 
“And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—
He says,
‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’” (Isaiah 49:5-6).
 
Here in the words of the ancient prophet, God gives us His game plan for His Servant: to rescue both His people Israel and everyone else… the nations… the Gentiles… to draw near to His side all those who have wandered far and dwell in darkness, and who have been cut off from one another… bringing His peace and salvation to every corner of His good creation.
 
And all those proud and powerful ones who currently lead the nations, Isaiah announces, will one day rise up to honour God’s Servant, and fall down at the feet of the One who they once despised. Isaiah 49:7,
 
“Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
‘Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
 
All these words of the Prophet Isaiah were spoken to God’s people at a time of great upheaval and uncertainty, when powerful Empires wared with each other, and threatened to swallow up God’s people, and every other nation that stood in their path, or had something they wanted. But even throughout those uncertain times, and through all of the unforeseen troubles and trials faced in the centuries since, God’s people have held onto this message of hope in God’s faithfulness and in His salvation.   

Which leads us again to the banks of the Jordan River, in our Gospel reading today, where we hear John the Baptist point to Jesus of Nazareth and proclaim: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” (John 1:29-31).
 
John (both John the Baptist, and also John the writer of this Gospel) wants us to see this Jesus of Nazareth as the long-awaited Servant of God… the Messiah… the Hope of Israel in the flesh. But why did John call Jesus the “Lamb of God” instead of the “Servant” of God, as Isaiah does? What ideas are being connected and communicated by calling Jesus the Lamb of God?
 
Very briefly, two main ideas… two images stand out. First of all, there is the use of lambs for sacrifices in the Temple… sacrifices that played a huge part in how God’s people were invited to maintain and restore their relationship with the Living God… offerings God set up to help His people receive His forgiveness, and express both guilt and gratitude. These sacrifices have very deep roots in the story of Israel, reaching back to the story of Abraham and Isaac, on Mt. Moriah, and how in the end Abraham trusted God, and God Himself provided the lamb to spare Isaac’s life.
 
And the second important idea that is brought to mind by John’s image is the story of the Passover lamb… the blood shed and the meal shared that played a key part in the story of Exodus, and God’s great act of salvation for His people… delivering them from slavery, and setting them free to be His own faithful followers.
 
Forgiveness and restoration. Salvation and freedom for God’s people… and for the whole world! By calling Jesus the ‘Lamb of God’ this is what John wants us to see: Jesus is the One set apart to bring all this about! He is the hope of Israel and all the nations! The Son of God, and our Saviour King.
 
And as we heard, some of John’s disciples leave him to follow this Jesus, convinced that He is the Messiah. And when they ask Jesus where He is headed… where He will be staying, Jesus tells them to “Come and see.” (John 1:39).

And so, their story as Christian disciples begins with an open invitation. Jesus doesn’t spell out every step ahead of them. He invites them… He calls them to trust Him. At first to believe John’s testimony, and in time, to see things more clearly for themselves.
 
And what would these first disciples eventually see? That Jesus God’s Messiah saves by suffering… that He reconciles by first being rejected… that He is ultimately victorious… but only after having His blood shed, and His body broken at the cross.
 
They came to see that the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world by taking it all on Himself… dying despised by His own people, just as Isaiah foresaw, before rising again in glory… ascending to the Father’s right hand… and promising from there to come again! To restore true peace to God’s good creation… to bring Israel and all nations together… to extend God’s salvation to the ends of the earth… and to reign as our Saviour King forever… while every other king, and would-be king will one day lay down their crowns and bow before Him… as He deals out true justice, and sorts out the mess we’ve made of His world.

This is where the Scriptures say that Christ’s story is headed: through suffering to the glory of God’s New Creation. And so, if this is where Jesus is leading us… will we answer His call to follow Him? Will we draw near in faith, and come and see up close what His story has in store for us and for our world?
 
Answering His call will keep on changing everything.

I mean, as we heard later on in our Gospel reading, Simon even had his name changed to Peter! And all of the
disciples who chose to answer the call of Jesus faced a lifetime of unexpected changes as they shared in Christ’s story… some truly wonderful, and some terribly hard to bear. They frequently faced rejection and ridicule and danger… but they also experienced up close incredible moments of God’s light and salvation breaking through the darkness, and bearing fruit far beyond their wildest expectations.
 
Because answering the call to follow Jesus, back then as well as today, is really an invitation to be changed… to become something different… something new… with God’s help, to become saints… to be made clean, and pure… sanctified… set apart and made holy by the life-giving sacrifice of the Lamb of God, offered up once and for all.
 
Saints set free by the blood of the ultimate Passover Lamb, who gave His life at the cross so God’s people could be delivered, and drawn out from under the power of all the world’s Pharaohs… and set free to live as God’s one holy people, called into fellowship with the Living God, and with one another.
 
As Christians today, we too are all called to trust and follow Jesus through our days of darkness, and wilderness… to face our own trials and temptations in faith on our way to a heavenly land we have never known… to God’s New Creation, being prepared for us beyond anything we can imagine. But to get there, we have to trust Him… to come and see for ourselves the path He knows we must take… even if it looks nothing at all like the path we had imagined for ourselves.
 
I can still clearly remember one of the phone calls that changed my life, and led me here today. It was an invitation to come to Rothesay for an interview… to fly to a city I had never heard of before, in a Province and part of the country that I knew almost nothing about. And yet, answering that phone call was the start of a whole new journey of discovery… of both challenges and joys… that led me into a new life in the Maritimes… through the paths of lay ministry, ordination, chaplaincy, and eventually here to St. Luke’s as your priest, and brother in Christ.
 
I could never have dreamed of where that phone call would take me at the time, almost ten years ago, and there were many times when I could have turned aside, and taken another path. But I made a choice to trust in God and keep on taking the next step… to come and see what He had in store. And while it hasn’t always been easy, I can see His gracious hand at work through it all.
 
Everyone here at St. Luke’s has our own story too. And our Parish community has had a longer one still. A story with many different chapters… some easier, some harder… but God has been faithfully at work in and through it all, calling each generation to continue to trust and follow His Son Jesus.

And as we face the days ahead, and prayerfully consider the next steps and coming chapters both for ourselves and for our Parish family… may we always remember who we are called to follow… the one who called us to ‘come and see’: the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus our Saviour King. And may we remember where He said He’s leading us: through suffering and darkness to salvation and glory… into the New Life of God… called here and now to be saints, set apart by grace to share in His holy love and freedom together… trusting the faithfulness of God who called us “into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9).
 
And so, even though we may never know exactly what comes next for us or our world… when we answer Christ’s call in faith… we can trust that we’re in His good hands, and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world will see us through whatever lies ahead. Amen.

​Our service of Morning Prayer and Sermon can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 42:1–9 | Psalm 29 | Acts 10:34–43 | ​Matthew 3:13–17

“Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.” (Acts 10:34-36).
 
Today, the first Sunday after Epiphany, we celebrate a milestone moment in the earthly life of Jesus Christ our Lord: His baptism by John in the Jordan River. This is the moment that marks the start of our Lord’s public ministry… when He begins to reveal to the world the Good News of the Kingdom of God… preaching, and healing, and driving out demons… showing us God’s ways up close… opposing religious hypocrisy… and ultimately, giving up His life at the cross… dying and rising again to save all those who place our faith in Him.
 
But the baptism of the Lord is more than simply the starting point for the rest of His glorious story. It also has its own significant things to say to us… about God, and His Son, about ourselves, and about all those around us… and it might even challenge the ways we think and talk about salvation. 

These days, many in our world seem to have some pretty strong ideas about how to set everything right… and it often boils down to some version of ‘let’s just get ride of those troublemakers! Let’s make some clear walls and divisions between us and them… let’s root them out of our communities… let’s shame them, and ridicule them… let’s intimidate and force them to serve our own interests… or even take up arms and turn to violence and bloodshed to definitively separate the ‘good guys’ from the ‘bad guys’… the righteous ones from the wicked.
 
Time and again, this simplified division of humankind into ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ gets framed as the conflict between good and evil… and so our ideas of God and God’s ways can easily get wrapped up and shaped by these familiar tensions, assuming that God must be on the side of ‘the good guys’, and equally eager to wipe out the wicked too. And we can believe this about God even when we’re not quite sure which category we belong to ourselves.   
 
Thinking back to my own childhood, even though I had grown up in the Church, and believed what I was taught about God and His good ways, I was still pretty convinced that God had it out for me. That I was always just one misstep… one sin away from an eternity of torment. That God was eagerly watching and waiting for me to mess up so that He could scratch my name off of His list. And that sense of fear hung over and clouded every aspect of my faith, and how I lived day by day.
 
And when it came time for me to be baptized at the age of fifteen, that sense of dread grew even greater. Somehow I had come to see baptism as sort of my last shot at being ‘good enough’ for God. That it was my last chance to receive forgiveness, and have my slate wiped clean, so to speak… but if I sinned again… (and spoiler alert: I have sinned again since then… ) then I really would be done for.  
 
And I mean, my fifteen-year-old logic didn’t seem so far fetched at the time. And these fears and ways of thinking might even sound familiar to some of us here today. Because if God was just on the side of ‘the good guys’, and ‘the enemy of wicked sinners’, as I had imagined, then what other conclusion should I have come to? The story becomes pretty simple: be a ‘good guy’, and God will have your back. Be a ‘bad guy’, and you’re just out of luck. 

But the baptism of Jesus the Lord calls this whole simplified story I had believed into question… and it offers us instead the Good News of a Saviour.
 
In our Gospel reading today, St. Matthew tells us that Jesus of Nazareth was among the crowds of Judeans coming to be baptised by John at the Jordan River, responding to his message of repentance, and seeking for the mercy of the Living God. But when Jesus draws near to be baptized, John is not on board, and even tries to stop Him, rightly recognizing Jesus as the long awaited Messiah, the Saviour, the One sent by God to turn the hearts of His people back to the LORD, and to rescue them from all their enemies, bringing God’s good Kingdom at last.  
 
John rightly saw that Jesus had no need of repentance… that Jesus did not need to be turned back to God, and be forgiven… He was already fully in line with God’s ways.

“I need to be baptized by you,” John says to Jesus, “and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14).
 
But Christ responds to John: “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15). This was the way Jesus would fulfill all righteousness. This is how Jesus would go about making everything right: not by separating Himself from us sinners… but by standing with us in complete solidarity… by binding Himself to us in our sorry state, and sharing the fate of those whose only hope lies in God’s mercy… facing the waves of our judgment and death right there with us… in order to raise us up again with Him.
 
Because the baptism of Jesus is not only about what happened by the banks of the Jordan River. It is the beginning of a life completely devoted to God and God’s ways that would continually carry on this same beautiful but unexpected story of solidarity with sinners… of drawing near to them, to bring God’s mercy and grace up close to those who desperately needed it, not shying away from their darkness and sin, but seeking to bring them true freedom… taking their hands and leading them into the ways of peace… even when it means challenging and calling out the things that keep us in spiritual chains.
 
And this saving solidarity with sinners ultimately led Jesus to take up the cross, to take upon Himself the sins of the whole world, and freely accept this agonizing, humiliating, and truly brutal death to fully share the fate of all those who deserve it… and to rise again to freely give all those who trust in Him the resurrection life of God that none of us could ever possibly earn for ourselves. 
 
The journey to the cross begins in earnest in the waters of the Jordan River, as Jesus choses to stand in solidarity with sinners… binding Himself in baptism to those who know that they’re not good enough.
 
And it is in this very first act of solidarity with sinners, St. Matthew tells us, that Jesus is proclaimed to be God’s beloved Son, with whom the Father is well pleased. It’s not in His separation from the wicked, but in His drawing near to them in faithfulness and mercy that Jesus is shown to be completely in line with the heart of the Father… and enacting the Living God’s intentions and ways in the world.
 
The story of Jesus stepping into the waters of baptism… the story that leads us, step by step, straight to the cross, and the Good News of Easter morning, shows us clearly that God is not simply on the side of the ‘good guys’, whomever we might think they are at any given moment. No, in Jesus our crucified and risen Saviour, we see that God Himself stands with sinners… in solidarity… not to ignore or enable our sins, but to save us from them. To break the power of wickedness over us, and set us free for something completely different: for a life not bound by our fears, and divisions, and prejudices, and violence… but the life of God’s mercy… and forgiveness… and love… and hospitality, not just offered to us, but to all.
 
Because the Gospel is not a story of ‘good guys’ vs. ‘bad guys’. It’s not about ‘us’ vs. ‘them’. The Gospel is the Good News that Jesus our Risen Saviour is not the Lord of some… but the Lord of all.
 
This is what St. Peter came to discover in our second reading today from the book of Acts, and the world-changing encounter that God’s Holy Spirit guided him into at the house of Cornelius.
 
Now this passage deserves a lot more time and attention than we can take to discuss it this morning, but even a quick glance at it offers us a sense of the powerful implications of the great scope and scale and reach of the Good News of Jesus… back then, and today.
 
In brief, St. Peter the faithful apostle of Jesus Christ, and a life-long observant Jew, was led by God to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile. And not just any Gentile: Cornelius was a Roman army officer… a representative of the armed forces of the fierce Empire that had swallowed up not just Peter’s homeland, but what may have seemed like the whole world. As it turns out though, this Roman officer was also someone who earnestly sought to serve the Living God, who had treated the nearby Israelite community kindly, and who was told by an angel to seek out Peter, and listen to what Peter had to say.
 
And through Cornelius, St. Peter puts two and two together, and finally understands, as he puts it: “that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Acts 10:34-35). In other words, God was not just on Israel’s side… God was after the hearts and lives of the Gentiles as well. God’s saving love was not divided, or reserved for one tribe or nation over another. Anyone who fears Him… who reveres Him, and does what is right is welcome to the party… because as St. Peter was now beginning to see Jesus Christ “is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).
 
Peter goes on to tell them the story of Jesus, and Cornelius and his whole household believe it, and immediately they receive the same outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the Apostles experienced at Pentecost. And these Gentiles, these former strangers, and even potential enemies are embraced as brothers and sisters, and baptized into the family of God in Jesus’ name.
 
The point is this: if the Living God is at work actively drawing people like Cornelius, a Gentile Roman army officer, into the family of believers in Jesus’ name, then who wouldn’t God welcome? So many of the clear categories that St. Peter was used to seeing the world through were being shattered… and by God’s Spirit Himself! So, from now on, instead of writing off this or that group as beyond God’s concern, or mercy… St. Peter and the rest of the Church had to start seeing everyone through the light of the Good News of Jesus Christ, and the salvation He has achieved for our world through His solidarity with sinners.

And so, our question this morning is this: if Jesus our Saviour is Lord of all, and He stands in solidarity with sinners to save them… what does that mean for you and I today?
 
Well, for starters, it means that even in our moments of weakness, and failures, as those beloved by God, who sent His Son to stand with sinners like us in solidarity as our Saviour… we are invited to draw near in faith and to cling to Jesus always, so that His Spirit can helps us to die to our old sinful ways, and rise again to share in Christ’s new life forever. Far from the fear and shame that kept that fifteen-year-old Rob trembling, in Jesus we know that God truly has our back… that He is eager to stand by us, eager to save us. No matter who we are, where we come from, or what we have done, He longs to draw us near.
 
But that goes the same for everyone else too! Even for those who we can’t stand… for those who do things we can’t possibly support… for those who seem to be tearing down everything we think is worth building up, or building up everything we think is desperately needing to be torn down. Those we are tempted to categorize as ‘the bad guys’… and who make it really easy to walk away from.
 
The Good News of Jesus is for them too… and Christ Jesus our Saviour calls us to love them too. 
​
Not to blindly support, or quietly accept, or tolerate everything that they do. Not to remain silent when we have a chance to speak needed truth. Not to ignore injustice, and passively allow evil to have its way… but like Jesus our Lord, who stood by us when we were sinners to save us, and with His Holy Spirit at work in us, we are called to be open for God to make the Good News of His beloved Son known to them too through our lives… through everything we say, and everything we do… to stand with all those around us in God’s love even when we have to stand against them for a time… so that they might come to know that Jesus stands with them too to be their Saviour forever… knowing now that no one is beyond hope, because of God’s beloved Son, the Saviour and Lord of all. Amen.

​And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 60:1–6 | Psalm 72 | Ephesians 3:1–12 | ​Matthew 2:1–12

“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.” (Matthew 2:11).
 
This weekend, the world was surprised by the news that President Maduro of Venezuela had been arrested… seized from his home along with his wife during a covert military operation, and transported to the U.S. in order to face criminal charges. Now, whatever you may think about all this… (and even if you don’t think about it much at all), this surprising act remains a pretty serious assertion of American power, and the claims of authority from those leading it… setting aside and dismissing the expectations and concerns of many people, both at home and abroad, in order to pursue their own goals, and present an image of their own ‘greatness’ around the globe.
 
And while this bold raid may have caught lots of people by surprise, it’s actually a part of a pattern that should be no surprise to us at all.

After all, all rulers have their agendas. All presidents, prime ministers, politicians, and kings make use of their powers and authority to try and achieve their ends, and to acquire their desires, as diverse as they may be. This is not an excuse, or a justification, just an observation: everyone has goals, and ways to pursue them. The question then becomes: how good are those goals… and how good are the ways of getting them?
 
Today, we at St. Luke’s are celebrating the Feast of Epiphany, the still surprising revelation that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, is also the Eternal Son of God… the promised Messiah of Israel, and the Saviour King of all the peoples of the Earth. Today we recall that the Living God took on our human flesh and became one of us… in order to turn our sad human story around again for good.
 
And on top of that, Epiphany also offers us important insight and clarity about the agenda of God’s good Kingdom. About what the Living God does with His power and authority… and what He really seeks to acquire.
 
The story of God’s Kingdom, and our King Jesus in St. Matthew’s Gospel starts off in complete contrast to the example of King Herod ‘the Great’… the puppet ruler of Israel under the authority and power of Rome. Despite his relatively marginal significance on the borders of the Empire, King Herod desired to make a ‘great name’ for himself. He invested in massive building projects, including the grand reconstruction of the Temple of God in Jerusalem… and mercilessly dealt with anyone who threatened his reputation or who stood in his way… including a number of his own sons and relatives who he had executed.
 
Last Sunday we heard about what Herod did after the visit of the magi… ordering the death of all of the children in and around Bethlehem two years old and under, hoping to get ride of the newborn Messiah… slaying the innocent just to hold onto his royal position a little bit longer.
 
St. Matthew tells this story in ways that draw very clear parallels between Herod and the Pharoah from the Exodus story… making the case that the ruler of God’s own people had now become just like the wicked tyrant that had once oppressed and enslaved them. And Matthew does this to make a particular point: that if King Herod is a new Pharoah, then we are to see Jesus as a new Moses… as the chosen Saviour of God’s people, who will not only bring them to freedom, but also reveal God’s very heart and His holy ways to them as well. Right from the start, Matthew wants us to see Jesus as the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes and dreams… rescuing them from all their enemies, even if those enemies happen to be their own rulers.
 
But here’s where the Epiphany comes in… the surprising revelation of a mystery long hidden from humanity, as St. Paul puts it in our second reading: that is, that Israel’s Messiah is not just Israel’s Messiah… He’s also the Saviour of the world! The One who has come, not to crush or overthrow the Gentiles, but to share God’s light and life with them, and draw them near.
 
Who does Matthew tell us shows up to honour the newborn King of the Jews? Not the great and the good of Jerusalem, or even the scribes that Herod consulted. It was the magi… the wise men and astrologers from the East… from the Gentile lands beyond the borders of the Roman Empire… the lands of Mesopotamia and perhaps further, where God’s people had once lived themselves in the darkness of Exile.
 
It's unclear from the biblical text itself what these magi would have known about Israel, or the ways of the Living God… but they know enough to leave their homes behind to search out this newborn King, and to pay him homage… to honour Him with precious gifts… precious in both value and significance.
 
Gold and frankincense were gifts fit for royalty… for those with authority and power over human subjects, and also those who were close to the divine. In the ancient world, incense was closely associated with gifts offered up to ‘the gods’, and it was often reserved for use in temples and in acts of worship, for both Israelites and their Gentile neighbours.
 
For St. Matthew’s audience, these gifts would have also brought to mind the promise of hope from the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 60, which we heard in our first reading this morning. This passage speaks to God’s people about the future arrival of God’s good Kingdom… a future where they will no longer be scattered among and threatened by powerful foreign Empires… and instead they will enjoy the blessed life of the Living God together.
 
Isaiah 60:1-6,
“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.
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.
 
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.”
 
This vision of hope for Israel’s restoration was tied to their expectations for the Messiah… the Chosen Anointed One sent from God to bring about His good Kingdom at last. And so, when St. Matthew tells us that the magi from the East bring such gifts and lay them at the young Jesus’ feet… the Gospel writer wants us to see that in Jesus, God’s good Kingdom has indeed come! That Israel’s long awaited Saviour has arrived, bringing their hopes and dreams to life at last.
 
And yet, there is one more gift the magi bring… the gift of myrrh… a precious gift used in the process of anointing someone special for burial. And in this gift, St. Matthew offers us an important glimpse into how the surprising story of Jesus the Messiah, and God’s good Kingdom will eventually unfold.
 
But aside from the symbolic significance of these three gifts… what does this part of Christ’s story have to say to you and I today? Did God’s Son come to bring about His good Kingdom to extract tribute and receive precious gifts and resources from the peoples of the Earth? Is God just after the material goods that we have?

Well no. Scripture is clear, again and again, that the Living God doesn’t need anything from our hands. All the gold, and precious gifts in the world exist because of Him! He’s the Creator, after all. Material existence itself is the LORD’s handiwork… and the Universe itself, everything seen and unseen is already in His hands.
 
And yet, offerings and gifts do have a positive role to play in the life of God’s good kingdom, and they are a very practical way to participate in the ministry of the Church, the community of God’s people. That said, it’s really important to remember that God still works through the lives of His faithful people even when they are without money, or buildings, or access to all of the material resources that we can often think of as essential.
 
But even more to the point: our offerings are intended to be a tangible way of expressing something important to God. Of saying thanks, and acknowledging that He is far more precious to us than silver or gold… worth the time and effort of leaving our homes to lift Him up in worship… to elevate His holy Name… and to make known to the world what the LORD has done, for us, and for all.

In other words, our gifts and offerings to God are meant to be an expression of our love… of our devotion… and of our trust in Him. That’s what God wants from us. Gold and incense and myrrh might be nice, but what God is really after is our hearts! Our lives! Our love… not just offered blindly, but as an intentional act… a choice… and as an active response to the great gift of love He has already given to us… God’s great gift of love that finds its focus and fulfillment in the life of His Son, Jesus Christ.
 
To put it yet another way… you are God’s treasure! You and I are the objects of His desire… the precious gifts that He longs to receive. And by ‘you’ I mean the ‘you’ that may still have a lot of healing, and learning, and unlearning, and growing to do. The ‘you’ that you may even struggle to love at times. That’s the you God is after! The real you, ‘warts and all’ as they say. Sit with that truth for a moment. God doesn’t really want something from you. What He wants is you. []
 
And at the same time, Epiphany reminds us… if God is after us… our hearts, and our lives… the way that He goes about getting us is not at all like the way the Pharaohs and Herods of the world go after what they want… seizing things by force, and through self-aggrandizement. No, God the Almighty Creator of all uses His ultimate power and authority to make Himself small… to set His heavenly glory to the side and become incarnate for us… and enter into our humble, fragile humanity… born in a small town, as a baby forced to flee the country with His family… living among the poor, and the lowly, and reaching out to the outcasts, and those who were still dwelling in all sorts of darknesses of body, mind, and spirit.
 
The surprising Good News of Jesus Christ that we celebrate at Epiphany is that God’s Eternal Son has taken on human flesh, and bore for us the burden of all the world’s brokenness… laying down the precious gift of His own life at the cross, and rising again from the grave… and in so doing, He offers us all the gifts of forgiveness, and freedom, and eternal life… not waiting for us to make ourselves perfect, but while we were all still estranged and His enemies… drawing not only the people of Israel, but all peoples together back into the arms of the Living God, and into His good Kingdom.

Epiphany reminds us that God is after the world… not as something to be grasped and hoarded, but to be saved… to be loved, and drawn into the unending life of love that the Holy Trinity has always enjoyed… and created us all for.
And this great gift of love has been offered to us all… to our whole world in Jesus Christ, who commands us to follow His holy ways, and put our enmity and greed, and prejudices aside, entrusting ourselves to His loving care as we take the risks of loving one another, and those around us.
 
So this Epiphany, may we respond to the gift of God’s love for our world in Jesus Christ by offering Him our hearts… our whole selves… our hopes and dreams, our attention and our intentions… and humbly draw near to Him in faith, and in hope, and in love.
 
And may we all do our part to help our world… our loved ones and neighbours, and even strangers come to know the Good News of God’s love for them as well. Acting and talking in ways that help to tell this sacred story, offering up each day as a gift of thanks and praise to our great Saviour King.

I’ll close now with the final verse of In The Bleak Midwinter by the poet Christina Rossetti.
 
What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb,
if I were a wise man I would do my part,
yet what I can I give him, give my heart.
Amen.

​And our Songs for this week can be found here: