God is the Seeker
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue preached this sermon at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
in Albany, Georgia on the Feast of the Epiphany – January 6, 2019
God is the Seeker
Ephesians 3:1-12 and Matthew 2:1-12
We celebrate today the great “Aha” moment when the Magi who journeyed from the east discover at the end of their quest not a prince born in a palace, but the infant Jesus born in a cave that had been used as a stable. The Magi are astrologers, who watch the heavens for signs of momentous earthly events. These are not astronomers who study the stars and planets for scientific data alone, but astrologers, not unlike people who create horoscopes today. Astrology was a forbidden means of divination for the Jews.
What the Magi reveal is that there was an air of expectation so palpable that anyone with eyes could see something momentous was about to happen. Let’s step aside from the Bible for a moment and see what else was being written around the time of Jesus’ birth. In the year 37 b.c.e., the poet Virgil wrote his Fourth Eclogue, a beautifully written poem about the immanent expectation of a man sent down from heaven whose birth would inaugurate a new age. Two Roman historians, Tacitus and Seutonius, wrote of the expectation of a world leader to arise out of Judea [Tacitus Ann. 5.13 and Seutonius Bell. 3.399-408; 6:310-15].
It was also a common expectation of the day that a sign from the heavens would accompany such a momentous event. Jesus was likely born in what we would now call 4 b.c.e. Seven years before Jesus’ birth, Halley’s Comet made its circuit through our skies. Three years before Jesus’ birth, Jupiter and Saturn were in alignment three times. The planet Jupiter signified a king while Saturn was routinely associated with the Jews. This would have fueled Herod’s insecurity and local political and religious speculation.
What all of this tells us is that, independent of the Bible, we can read of a relatively common expectation at the turn of the era that momentous change was coming. Furthermore that change was expected to be noted with signs in the heavens.
The Judeo-Christian tradition has always taught that God can be known through creation. But the knowledge we gain of God through the creation alone is incomplete and sometimes confusing in and of itself.
We were created with the ability to understand and a common component of human self understanding through the ages and around the world has been a belief in God. This belief in something greater than ourselves is such a universal human experience that many find that awareness of God alone to be proof of God’s existence. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that this universal human idea of God could be nothing more than a universal projection of our minds to fill a need in our lives.
We know of God because God reveals God’s own self to us. In addition to the general revelation of God through creation, there is specific revelation. The general revelation of God through creation spoils any possible excuse we may have in saying that we never knew there is such a thing as God. Specific revelation is more direct. I want to give offer a rather raw example.
I remember a very dear woman hurling words at me in frustration and anger saying, “How do you know the things you are saying are true? You’ve never been to heaven.” I had just come from Cathy’s friend, Jody. I could see in her eyes that Cathy knew her funeral would be next. Jody had been courageous, so full of faith. Cathy was facing death. She wanted certainty. Cathy was angry because she knew I didn’t have any more proof of heaven than she did.
As the priest of a church in a small town in Georgia, I felt like lightning struck three times in rapid succession when three wonderful women in our church discovered they had ovarian cancer. Angela, Jody, and Cathy took to the terrible journey together as they entered into treatment. I remember going to St. Vincent’s hospital to see Angela after a surgery to remove what they could of the cancer. Next, I visited Cathy in the chemo room. We talked as the not quite deadly cocktail of drugs dripped steadily into her bloodstream. Surrounded by balding, gray-faced patients, Cathy was luminous. Realistic about what she faced, she would do anything the doctors asked to fight off the disease, even as she spoke about the odds stacked against her. But more than that she was concerned about Angela. As we chatted, she hatched an idea for a gift basket that I was to get to her, to let Angela know she was not alone. Jody called Cathy’s cell, and the two talked for a moment, checking in to let Cathy know she was praying. The three faced the same demon, frightened, but unbowed in their faith and in their concern for each other and for others as well. But shortly after the new year’s arrival, we buried Angela. Now eight months later, I had just come from Jody’s funeral. Cathy’s doctors no longer held out hope for a cancer-free future for Cathy.
Uterine Fibroids are the order cheap cialis noncancerous growth of uterus. What exactly happens during erectile dysfunction? Even if a man is unable to satisfy his partner during intercourse, it generally happens very early than a man or his female partner wants, that causes distress, frustration for both partners and resulting unhappy ending. buy cialis cheap That is it doesn’t get injected into sale viagra your body. Tadalafil is one such medicine that has been developed to treat the sicknesses that may corrupt your body due to side effect of buy cheap viagra http://cute-n-tiny.com/tag/bath/ medications, any severe injury or physical health disorder like damage to tissues, nerves, arteries and muscles. Her question about the afterlife was not academic, but personal, and urgent. The same is true for so many questions of faith. That afternoon sitting in her darkened home right after Jody’s funeral, I told Cathy she was right. I couldn’t and didn’t know about heaven in the way I knew many things. This is one of those times when words fail. I knew what mattered most was being with her in the grief of dealing with Jody’s death as the end of her own life neared. But she wanted words and so after a long pause, I added that there was one odd thing I had noticed again and again in an unexpected grace given to the grieving. Many times, when someone dies those who love her or him are given a sign that all is well. I told her some examples. They are small stories that prove nothing in themselves, but their ubiquity is worth noting. They seem to be incidents of the veil between this life and the next being pulled back to give comfort to those who mourn that are so odd they feel like more than wish fulfillment. She did know what I was talking about and it seemed to give her some comfort in her distress. I suspect being with her mattered more than the words I used.
Cathy and John had served as foster parents to many children and then adopted three of them to provide a more lasting home. As the course of the cancer became clear, Cathy sat down and wrote her own obituary in which she summed up what she learned about how to live writing, “You know you had a successful day when you can look in the mirror and honestly say you did something good for one person in this world.” Even as she died, she held on to the meaning she found in helping others.
We see in the Bible God using dreams and visions uses to get people’s attention. Dreams like the ones which told Joseph of Jesus’ birth. Dreams like the one which warned the Magi to return home without stopping to pay a courtesy call on Herod and the one that warned Joseph and Mary to flee to Egypt. Specific revelation also includes scripture. God’s revelation is available to us through the word of God. We get a fuller picture of God through scripture that complements rather than contradicts the image of God we attain through the creation.
An important form of specific revelation comes through our own lives. We know God best through the ways in which God acts in our lives and the other ways in which God has acted in human history. As God is revealed in the way God acts in history, the Christian concept of revelation reaches its fullest expression in the person of Jesus. We get our best and clearest image of who God is and how God acts through Jesus’ life and ministry, his death and resurrection.
As the Apostle Paul wrote, “For it is God who said, ‘Let light shine out of the darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Whether they understood it at the outset of their journey or not, the Magi traveled to see the light of the Glory of God revealed in the face of the infant Jesus.
The Magi were seekers and even though their methods were unbiblical and perhaps anti-biblical, God honored their quest. God called out to the Magi from the heavens or they would have never found Jesus. God, not the Magi, initiated the Magi’s quest. God guided them to their destination though the Magi never knew where exactly where their journey would take them. Yet, the Magi played their part as they did not simply stay home admiring the star in the sky. They hit the road, enduring all the troubles of travel including having to go against the local King, Herod, when they neared their destination. Yet all of their actions came second. God initiated the journey.
To go back to my all too real story, Cathy died less than three months after Jody. I spoke with her husband John about the morning Cathy died. She was in the hospital. Her mother was with her. He was at home with their kids. When he woke early, he began to look for Angel, Cathy’s dog. Angel had been by the bed earlier and was usually there when he woke. In fact, Angel was always around. John got up and looked around the house. He finally found Angel outside, looking up at the sky. Angel could not be distracted from looking up. No, this is no proof of an afterlife that any skeptic could use to give faith. You can’t take the evidence of a dog looking at the early morning sky to a scientific lab and prove the existence of God. It feels trivial even as I write the words. And yet, in that moment of Angel looking up and not turning away when called, John felt at peace about Cathy. When the call came that Cathy had died, John was prepared for it.
Meanwhile, Cathy’s Mom had sat by her bed. She said of Cathy, “She was my child, then my daughter, then my friend.” Cathy did not want to die alone and she didn’t. She died very peacefully in her sleep with her mother was watching over her. Her Mom told me, “There was no struggle, only release.
Here is what I have noticed in ministry: We may think that we are spiritual seekers, we are the one’s on a quest for God’s presence. But that’s not the way scripture presents the story. Scripture tells us that God is the seeker. God is revealing God’s own self to you in the creation, in scripture, in your very life experience. We are asked only to open our eyes, to see, and then respond as the Magi did in coming to adore the one who made us and then entered human history to redeem us.
Open your eyes to how God is showing up in your life. God is seeking after you and me. Come let us adore him.
Amen.
