Pastor John Wright

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday following Epiphany. All of the readings between January 6th and Ash Wednesday celebrate the revelation of the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God, not only to the Jews, but also to all humanity.

"The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world. The great feast of Epiphany celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the wise men (magi) from the East, together with his baptism in the Jordan and the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. In the magi, representatives of the neighboring pagan religions, the Gospel sees the first-fruits of the nations, who welcome the good news of salvation through the Incarnation. The magi's coming to Jerusalem in order to pay homage to the king of the Jews shows that they seek in Israel, in the messianic light of the star of David, the one who will be king of the nations. Their coming means that pagans can discover Jesus and worship him as Son of God and Savior of the world only by turning towards the Jews and receiving from them the messianic promise as contained in the Old Testament. The Epiphany shows that "the full number of the nations" now takes its "place in the family of the patriarchs", and acquires Israelitica dignitas (is made "worthy of the heritage of Israel")."

As we read these Scriptures, we recognize in them how we who were not once a people, have now become God's people, engrafted into the holy root that is the Jews. We also recognize, like the Jews, that we really "don't belong here" -- that our citizenship is in heaven. To read these Scriptures is to celebrate God's goodness to us in the full grace, love, and mercy of God.

Isaiah 42:1-9

Obviously the passage is read in terms of Jesus Christ. The passage decribes how the servant "brings forth justice". What is his method? How does it relate to the end of justice that he will establish?

Then the passage responds shifts to a singular "you" from the third person "he" as the text has God address each one of us directly as well as the servant. What is our mission as individuals and as followers of the "servant"? Who is the God who calls us?

Acts 10:34-38

The Acts passage speaks of Peter's sermon to Cornelius -- the Gentile who God calls to faith in the Jewish Messiah. What is it that Jesus preached? Of whom is Jesus Lord? How does Peter summarize the significance of Jesus? How did Jesus reveal the God of Isael to the nations in his life? How does this relate to the description of the method and end from Isaiah? What implications does this have for Cornelius? For us?

Luke 3:15-16,21-22

The Gospel reading identifies Jesus as the Messiah in his baptism. If you notice, Jesus is identified as the Beloved of the Father. The passage reveals the Triune God -- the Lover (the Father) identifies the Beloved (the Son) by the presence of Love itself (the Spirit). We see here the eternal Delight that the Son is to the Father by the Spirit. It is a scene of joy, happiness, gladness, as are the passages above.

The joy that runs through these passages, a joy grounded in the Joy that is the Triune God, reminds me of an Eastern Orthodox theologian, Alexander Schmemann's discussion of the mission of the church in light of the secularity of the age. He reminds us in For the Life of the World that "from its very beginning Christianity has been the proclamation of joy . . . with this joy it transformed the End into a Beginning. Without the proclamation of this joy Christianity is incomprehensible" (p. 24). We tend to see Christian mission, God's address to us as "you" as duty or moral obligation -- we are good modernists. Epiphany reminds of us of the Joy that is God into which God calls us to participate. Schmeman advises us "Let us, therefore, forget for a while the technical discussion about the Church, its mission, its methods. Not that these discussions are wrong or unnecessary—but they can be useful and meaningful only within a fundamental context, and that context is the ‘great joy’ from which everything else in Christianity developed and acquired its meaning" (p. 24). He goes on to again remind us "We have no other means of entering into that joy . . . . except through the one action which from the beginning has been for the Church both the source and the fulfillment of joy, the very sacrament of joy, the Eucharist" (p. 25).

Now hear is a point to discuss. How do well remain, to speak of C.S. Lewis, "Surprised by Joy" given the realities of the world around us? How do we keep the mission to which God has called us by name in God's own Epiphany in Jesus a function of "joy" rather than merely "duty" or "obligation"? What must remain the center of our faith, our whole life and being?

Have a wonderful evening!

Leitourgia. It meant an action by which a group of people become something corporately which they had not been as a mere collection of individuals – a whole greater than the sum of its parts. 25

Thus the Church itself is a leitourgia, a ministry a calling to act in this world after the fashion of Christ, to bear testimony to Him andHis kingdom. 25

The first condition for the understanding of liturgy is to forget about any specific ‘liturgical piety.’ 26

The Eucharist is the entrance of the Church into the joy of its Lord. And to enter into that joy, so as to be a witness to it in the world, is indeed the very calling of the Church, its essential leitourgia, the sacrament by which it ‘becomes what it is.’ 26

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