The Feast of the Epiphany, Year A

“PRIVATE TREASURE – OR – SHARED WEALTH?”
Isaiah 60: 1 – 6, 9 --- Psalm 72 --- Ephesians 3: 1 – 12 --- Matthew 2: 1 - 12
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, January 6, 2008

It is a significant part of human nature to try to preserve and hold onto the things we have….family, relationships, possessions, wealth (to cite but a few).

When we’re under threat, whether it’s military defeat and subsequent occupation, looming financial losses or debts, or threats to our family and other relationships, we tend to clutch ever more tightly to those things we have.

“Clutching” seems to be a good verb to describe the secular and religious world into which Jesus was born….after all, God’s chosen people were under threat: having been conquered by the pagan Romans, their national and religious identity was under siege. Although the Romans allowed the construction of the Temple to continue, for the priests of that Temple to function, and for a puppet king (Herod) to rule over Judea and Galilee, the truth was that their identity was under threat.

Into this cultural setting come strangers from the East….having seen a sign in the heavens, they come to Jerusalem, asking “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?”

(We ought to pause in our examination of the topic for this sermon to note
a few points, in order that we may be faithful to the Biblical narrative: 1. the Magi were not kings, they were probably astrologers; and 2. there weren’t necessarily three of them….we often think that there were three because of the gifts that were brought to Jesus: gold, frankincense and myrrh; and 3. the Magi most likely didn’t arrive in Bethlehem at about the same time that the shepherds did (see Luke 2: 1 – 20), for Matthew tells us that these visitors from the East came to the house where Jesus was (not the manger).

But now, back to the issue of “clutching”…..notice the alarm that the question posed by these eastern sages causes….Matthew tells us that, once King Herod the Great heard the question, he and “all Jerusalem with him” was disturbed…(As a side note, that same sort of fear/alarm/concern/threat to the established order would come into play again as Jesus is taken before Pilate, the charge being that He had claimed to be some sort of a king.)

Threats to the established order become much more serious when that order is already under siege.

In spite of the troubled atmosphere in Jerusalem, Herod’s inquiry of the chief priests and teachers of the Law as to where the Christ[1] is to be born nets an answer: “In Bethlehem of Judah”, they respond.

Apparently, in spite of their tendency to guard with zealous zeal their identity as God’s Chosen People, the inheritors of the Law of Moses, they were able to think through their treasury of divine wisdom to find the answer: in Bethlehem.

At least the Temple priests and teachers of the Law were able to look beyond their firmly clasped arms to see the answer. We can give them that much credit.

But along with their limited ability to see that God would eventually do something great and new in sending the Messiah to them, there was a readily apparent inability to see beyond their own, special status as God’s Chosen People, the descendents of Abraham. At one point, Jesus has to scold them, saying, “Do not claim to be children of Abraham, for I tell you, God is able even from these stones to raise up children for Himself.”[2]

Jesus’ point seems to be that God will gather to Himself a people. And, if the Jews of Jesus’ time had remembered the prophetic words of Isaiah (chapter 60, verse ), they would have remembered that, at some future time, God would begin to bring all peoples to Himself, from Sheba, from Tarshish,[3] from the ends of the earth. All would come to God’s holy mountain. All would see God’s great light. That was God’s vision, delivered through Isaiah.

So much for the Jews as the curators of a private treasure. Apparently, God was going to share the wealth of His presence and His will for the world He had created – and all those in it – with everyone.

Private treasure – or shared wealth?

This question lies at the heart of Jesus’ coming among us….God cared enough to send the very best – Himself – in the person and work of Jesus Christ. God could just as easily have kept to Himself, writing off the world and its people in the process. But, He didn’t….He left His heavenly abode, emptying Himself[4] in the process, to come among us as one of us. In so doing, He humbled Himself, even to the point of death on a cross…talk about sharing!

As God’s “newly Chosen People”, the Church, reflected on Jesus’ birth, life, teachings, death, burial and resurrection, they became more and more convinced by God’s easily-discerned workings though Jesus Christ that God had reached out to us in these things, and that we, the Church, are thereby commanded to do the same to the world around us.

It was this understanding: that the generosity of God in sending Jesus Christ was to be matched by those who had come into an intimate and lasting relationship with Him – the Church.

“As the Father has sent me, even so I send you”,[5] He said.

As the Magi’s visit indicated, even at that early point in Jesus’ presence among us, people from far and near would come to worship Him as king. Remembering that visit, the early Church went forth, led by its apostolic leadership, to be the vehicle for sharing the great Good News of Jesus Christ.

And the way people would enter into this new covenant would be through acceptance of this gift, freely given…no longer did it depend on an accident of birth, or of time or place.

And this was the message from the very beginning….for the prophets and sages of ages past testified to the time when it would become a reality.

Remembering these prophesies, living in the shadow of God’s work in Jesus Christ, the Church went forth to share the gifts they had received at Christ’s hands with all the world.

And so, what about the Church today?

Are we guardians of a private treasure, or are we sharers of great and good gifts?

To what extent does our status as a threatened group in an increasingly pagan world affect the human tendency to “hunker down” and hoard what we have?

To do so – to “hunker down” and close in ourselves, hoarding as private treasure God’s goodness in Jesus Christ, is to signal the end of our existence as the Church….

At least, that’s the lesson that history teaches us….God cannot work with stingy people.

Instead of stinginess, God calls us – as His Chosen People in this and every age – to share our blessings in Christ with all the world….

That is the basis upon which we call on all believing Christians to prayerfully work toward the Biblical tithe as the standard of giving for the support of His work in the world. It’s the basis upon which we undertake various ministries in the Church (by the way, there are no “more important” or “less important” ministries in the Church, only various ministries, all of which are vital to the Church’s mission and work.)[6]

As we look forward into this New Year, having begun a new relationship in Christ’s body here at Trinity Church, may God give us the grace to overcome our normal human tendencies to hoard as private treasure the gifts He has given us, that the love of Jesus Christ and His power to transform us and the world may be seen and accepted by all with whom we have contact.

AMEN.




[1] Notice how Matthew equates “King of the Jews” with “Messiah”.
[2] Matthew 3: 9
[3] Sheba is thought to be in Ethiopia, and Tarshish is usually thought to be a seaport in the western Mediterranean.
[4] My thoughts in this paragraph are guided by the wonderful passage in Philippians 2: 5 – 11, which I commend to your further study and reflection.
[5] John 20: 21
[6] See I Corinthians 12 for St. Paul’s discussion of the gifts and ministries in the Church.