The Way of the Magi/The Way of Love

Epiphany - Cycle A

It was a lousy time to be born. I mean, of all the times and all the places, why bring a baby into that world?

A tyrant was on the throne, known for his cruelty to children, even his own. A nervous tyrant, no less, indebted to a foreign power, as he was. If he couldn't maintain his authority, he knew they had the goods on him, and were just as cruel as he. So when he trembled, everybody around him trembled. They knew he would not go down easy.

It was a lousy time to bring a child into the world, when anything could happen, and it was not going to be good. And it's not as though these parents had any resources to protect this child, hardly more than children themselves, on the move, sleeping rough, soon to be refugees depending on the hospitality of people whose language they did not speak.

It was a dark time to bring a child into the world.

Isaiah promised light. It's a beautiful canticle. We pray it often. We think it applies to this child born into such darkness. Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

We do not pause over the darkness in the next line. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. The poet repeats the word darkness, so we know just how dark it is. But we don't stop there, nor even take a breath. We go on the the verse we apply to today's feast. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your down.

From the gospel to the prophet to the epistle on this feast of Epiphany, next Paul celebrates the Light revealed to the nations.

For the Eastern Church, this is the greatest of feasts. This is their Christmas and Easter rolled into one, when the Gentiles came to the light.  The Gentiles, you and me, have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

So again, we gloss over... Paul is in prison. Even while he's writing this letter, he knows he is going to die for that light.

Let's not gloss over it today. Surrounded by beauty and light, the season, the music, the new year, new decade, this space and all the energy that fills it, still, let us pause, however briefly to acknowledge the darkness, not only of that time, but also of this.

Now take courage. God is in that darkness with you. So take courage and look at it.

Name it in your heart right now. What is it that keeps you awake at night with its grip on your throat: the world, the nation, this community, your family, your heart, your soul? I'll be quiet for half a minute now while you look that darkness square in the eye and acknowledge that it is there.

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God knows that darkness.

God knew it back then. And it was not a mistake. God sent a baby into darkness.

Why? Because God loves us. And would not have us face the darkness alone.

What's the plan? God armed that baby -- with love.

Seriously? Love? I look around my live, I look around the neighborhood, I look around the world, and that's what You've got? Love?

Love. To be precise, the Way of Love. The Way.

So what is this Way of Love? It's a way of life. Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church talks about the Way of Love all the time. Whether royal weddings or morning talk shows, he talks about the Way of Love.

It's not the latest thing. It's more than a program or curriculum. What he's talking about is a return to the ancient pathways that followers of Jesus have observed for centuries. They followed a way. It carried them through tyranny, through martyrdom, through poverty and plague, through persecution and conflict among nations, and conflict even within the family.

I know Michael, and he knows this way because he practices it. He was raised in it by people who needed it and need it still in this country.

The Way of Love is a light through the darkness.

For some time, most American Christians walked in the light. We got used to success and power. And we forgot how to walk through the dark.

But we're not going to get through this year by telling ourselves that everything is fine, by telling each other to cheer up.

We are headed into darkness. What I am telling you this morning is - there is a way.

The Way is a core set of practices:

• Turn - Stop, pay attention, make a choice about how you are going to live your life. Choose to follow Jesus.

• Learn - Every day, read that Book. If you open your heart and your mind to Scripture, it will mold you after the likeness of the Light of the world.

• Pray - However you do it, in words, in a breath prayer, in art or nature, come into God's presence.

• Worship - And here you are, whatever else you might be doing right now, you are demonstrating with your body that You Are Not The Center Of The Universe. You are not here for yourself. You are on this planet and you are in this room for God. Stand, sit, pray, greet, give, sing - for God.

• Bless - Having received God's blessing, share it. Give, forgive, share compassion, and share the good news of God's favor with others who need to hear that they have God's favor.

• Go - Outside your comfort zone. Go humbly to listen to and heal the world that God loves.

• Rest - Trust the God who rested on the seventh day. God will hold the universe while you take a day off. [God/not God. God/not God.]

Turn, learn, pray, worship, bless, go, rest.

The Way of Love is a light through the darkness.

Oh wow. I need these disciplines. I need this way. I have let some of these practices slip, and it shows in the state of my soul. I pick up the newspaper in the morning and I am wobbly. I am not prepared for the present darkness.

So I made a list. The idea is to think though what you will do each week, starting this week, to follow the Way. Specific actions. I filled out my list. I started yesterday. You can make your own list, seven lines, one line, one action for each, if you choose to engage this practice, to help you follow the way, the way that has led 2000 years' worth of Christians through the darkness, and will lead us through the darkness today.

A small group can help us to keep these commitments, an accountability group, like Fourth Day in Cursillo, or meetings in AA or NA. Or maybe simply a prayer partner. Ask somebody to join you, and you have ticked off the Go item on your list for this week.

The Way of Love is a light through the darkness. It provides guidance, rhythm, and practical help for living a meaningful and holy life. When we place these practices at the heart of our daily lives and join with others who share this commitment, we grow more and more into the Way that Jesus made incarnate, that he was sent to embody in the world.

The Magi of this morning's gospel, they knew the way of power. That's where they went first, to power. And American Christians who have known power and known success for so many years now, that's where we learned to go, to power.

But it's not where you find the baby. It's not where you find the Light that has come into the world.

When the Magi left, they left by a different way.

Let us do the same. Let us leave the past and go into this year be a different way, the Way of Love.

Amen.

painting Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Luc-Olivier Merson 1880

painting by Simon Howden Freedig

photo from episcopalchurch.org

book cover from Amazon.com