EPIPHANY 2017 Matthew 2.1-12 (Eph 3.1-12)

Jo Gordon Hall

6 words.

The Church is a holy mystery.

When you read this part of Ephesians, you might think St Paul would approve.

It's short, it's heartfelt, and it doesn't go into endless detail.

Verses 2-13 are a long breathless parenthesis. He gets started (v 1) “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles...” then goes into this big tangent. It's mostly about Gentiles, which must be why he puts it in after “for the sake of you Gentiles”. He picks up again in verse 14: “For this reason I kneel before the Father”…

The breathless parenthesis starts like this

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. [chapter one, maybe chapter two]

In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets

[… - what's the mystery?]

(v 6) This mystery is that through the the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

The church – the global, worldwide, Gentile-including church – is a holy mystery.

The mystery is that the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel. The mystery was hidden for generations (v 5), until it “made known to [Paul] by revelation” (v 3) and “revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets” (v 5).

This doesn't come as much of a shock to us any more, but it was pretty crazy at the time. Paul was in the theological vanguard here – fighting the circumcision faction, which wanted to keep Jewish. Paul won, and we have the church – the holy mystery of today.

It's not obvious why Paul describes it as a mystery. I think the word technically means something that God knows but doesn't reveal – at least for a time.

It seems to me to be mysterious in a similar way to the way Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven. It's always “like” something, but never actually something. There's always the sense that there's more to it than we really know.

Why is this the reading for today?

[because it's epiphany, which is a season when we celebrate the fact that Christ was revealed to the Gentiles, and also bit of a celebration of mystery – or, at least, the epiphany moments when we suddenly get some insight into a mystery.]

- anyone know what we celebrate today? Epiphany.

What is epiphany? Revelation, insight.

What are the significant events of the epiphany season?

- take down Christmas decorations - wise men - of Jesus - Wedding of Cana

What can we learn from the story of the wise men?

- They saw a sign, and took notice - They decided to explore the mystery - They went on a long journey - They worshipped.

They were pilgrims Their worship was entirely giving They did not seem to wonder what was in it for them

I saw a film recently. No, not Rogue One. Though I did see Rogue One as it happens, and no doubt it's rich in sermon illustrations for another season of the church year.

The film was called The Way.

- about a pilgrimage - on the Camino de Santiago - a modern film about a medieval pilgrimage.

And it's interesting, because it surface is completely secular, while its heart is very religious.

There are four main characters, who meet up during the pilgrimage. They end up walking together. One of the questions that keeps coming up is the obvious one: why? Why are you on a pilgrimage? Why are you doing this? And they answer those questions, but of course you know that however they answer the why question they won't really have completely answered. Part of the interest of the film is finding out more about the characters, and how the journey itself gives space for that.

It's a good film to watch if you want to consider the value of pilgrimage. The fact that it's not actually a religious film makes it interesting on the subject as well.

You may just be thinking that pilgrimage is a pointless and rather out of date religious practice. But I liked the film, and I found it a little bit inspiring.

Enough about modern films. What about ancient magi?

Why did they do it? Because they saw a sign. Yes. That's it really. What were they hoping to get out of it? What change were they hoping for in their lives? What sort of planning did they do? Who were they leaving behind? Were they just being selfish going away for all that time? We don't know. But we know that they saw a sign, and they went on a journey.

I think we can often be pulled towards trying to understand the Christian life functionally or rationally. What I mean is this:

We can be Martha , always thinking “what should I be doing?”

Or we can be self-help Christians, always thinking “what can I get out of this?”

Or we can be social-justice Christians, always thinking “how can society be improved by this?”

There's an alternative. We can just be led.

The three wise men were astrologers, which were the scientists of their day. They had rational explanations for their star charts and so on. But they didn't know what to expect, and they didn't know how to get to where they were going. In the end, they had to just go for it.

They wanted to explore the mystery. They went on an uncertain journey. They brought things to give. And when they arrived they just worshipped.

Maybe that's the real point of a pilgrimage. To just go for it. To offer our gifts, and to come to Christ in worship.