Sermon for Epiphany Eve, 2020

Homily for Epiphany Eve, 2020 AD.

The Rev. Tony H. Melton

Primary Text: Ephesians 3 and Matthew 2

Alleluia. Unto us a child is born;  O come, let us adore him. Alleluia. + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

As you know, Vandi and I just had a baby girl, Olive. She was born on December 26. She is our only Christmas baby. Our other three were born in Spring or Autumn. Having a new baby to hold at Christmas made me reflect on the power and purpose of God coming as an infant. You don’t hear much about Jesus as a baby, except when we hear the Christmas story. The infant Christ doesn’t often make it into our reflections or prayers, except for Ricky Bobby praying to “sweet baby Jesus”. If we speak of the Gospel, our minds generally switch quickly to Good Friday and Easter, not Epiphany, not the Wise Men. And when we think of Jesus, we typically see Him as a man, and rarely as a babe. Yet the early church had the infant King frequently before their eyes, and we know this by looking at their icons and their writings. What does it mean that God came as an infant? How does Baby Jesus and story of the Magi tell the Gospel?

To begin to understand the significance of the nativity of God, be reminded that up until this point, God had revealed Himself primarily through displays of power. Most of the time, His coming down to His people resulted in sheer terror. Think of Mt. Sinai, Isaiah before the Throne, Uzzah touching the Ark. God had certainly not been very cuddly with His people, and now He is being cuddled. To Mary and Joseph, God was revealed in a very new way. Before He could barely be beheld, now he requires to be held. Why?

The nativity of Christ evokes a certain response. Babies bring out what’s really on the inside of people. In the wicked, babies often bring forth murderous intentions. You see this in the story with Herod. This happens every day at the abortion clinic in Marietta and the one just a mile and half south of here. But generally babies bring out the best in us; babies have a way of bypassing our defenses and hardness, and evoke a response of love. In the Biblical narrative, the infant Jesus brought forth adoration, tenderness, worship, and proclamation. The infancy of Christ makes us adore God.

The nativity of Christ teaches us another aspect of salvation. The Cross shows us how we can be “in Christ.” But the Nativity shows us how Christ can be “in us.” The Cross reveals how the Son of God took upon Himself our sin and justified us in His death. This is the Gospel. The Nativity reveals how God enters the womb of our soul even as He entered the world, in all His tenderness and sweetness, and this seed, which is Christ in us, continues to grow and sanctify us until we ourselves are planted in the dust of the earth and raised in a new body, in Christ. This is the Gospel, too. The nativity of Christ shows us the Gospel as “Christ in us.”

The nativity of Christ shows us the Gospel. It shows us the Gospel so well. It’s almost easier to preach the Gospel from the Nativity and Wise Men, than it is from Calvary. It is interesting that the Nativity is the only time that the Gospel was preached to the world by the host of heaven. “I bring you glad tidings: Gospel.” The story of the Nativity and Wise Men take the symbols of death, resurrection, Eucharist, prophecy, evangelism, king, priest, and sacrifice, and combines them with the main thing: worship and adoration of Jesus. Death in the murderous plans of Herod and the troubled hearts of all Jerusalem. Death and Resurrection in the grave linens which swaddled the infant Christ. He was laid in a feeding trough, a manger, because He would eaten by His Church. Bethlehem shows He is the One that was prophesied. The foreign kings and the star show that the Gospel shines forth to all the world. Myrrh for His death and sacrifice. Gold for the infant King. Frankincense for the infant priest. And all these symbols, the whole Gospel, is set around the sweetness and tenderness of the infant God.

As I said, this Christmas, I’ve spent a lot of time holding baby Olive, just letting her existence wash over me. There is something about a baby that changes you, almost automatically. Their little bodies require you to bend your posture and soften to create a space for them, and before you know it, your entire posture towards life has changed and the alignment of your values and hopes and principles will never be the same. In a sense, there is a death when a child is born, the death of an old world, and the birth of a new one, a new world with new identities. And as I looked down at Olive, that world came crashing in again. I am her’s and she is mine. And if this is true of Olive, then what does it mean for Jesus? What is it mean for the baby who is, by His birth, literally making a new world?  If you hold Him in your mind and in your heart and let the fact of His existence wash over you for even a few moments, you, too, will find that you will never be the same. That your posture towards life will be different, and everything about you will be realigned.

My prayer is that you would behold the infant Christ in all His beauty and sweetness. Like Paul, I pray “that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery.” This is the message of Epiphany: as Paul says in our Epistle, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 9, “this mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God.” And what is the mystery that has been revealed, that the Earth was given its great epiphany? He tells us in verse 6, “it is that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of [God’s] promise, in Christ, by the Gospel.” In other words, the Gospel of Epiphany is that God sent His Son, as a Baby, into the World, under the Law, wrapped in Death, hunted by His own people, prepared for a royal sacrifice, so that this baby would live perfectly under the Law, to bear the curse of the Law for His people, to unlock and receive the promises of God in the Law, and to give the unsearchable riches of God to you, the Gentiles, that you might be fellow-heirs with with the One Israelite who inherited everything, and freely shares it with all who “see what is the fellowship of the mystery.”

How do you join the fellowship of this mystery? You play the part of the Wise Men. Those who come and hold the infant Christ in their hearts, who cling to Him, even as He, in His Majesty, clings to them, will share in His unsearchable riches. And the privilege that the Wise Men had is not lost. We can still hold the infant Christ, by faith, under the forms of Bread and Wine. Jesus is truly present here because, as the Fathers and Calvin taught, we truly ascend in worship to where Jesus is, in heaven. So tonight hold the Eucharist in your hands an extra moment, think on the infant Christ. Let your heart possess Him, even as He possess you. Hold Him in your hands, even as He holds you. Let your identity mold around Him, even as He gives you a new nature. And may the Gospel of the infant Christ evoke the highest adoration and sweetest praise on this Epiphany Eve. Amen.