Just One Key Unlocks Them Both - It's There at Your Command

Epiphany: Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12

St. Paul’s, Smithfield, NC 1/6/216

Jim Melnyk: “Just One Key Unlocks Them Both”

 It was about 20 minutes into the New Year and I have to admit I was fading fast.  Lorraine and I had stayed up watching old movies until it was time to turn on the local news to see “The Ball” drop in Times Square, New York – with the now requisite split screen of a giant acorn dropping in Raleigh.  Really?

Just before turning out the lights I posted on Facebook my prayer for family, friends, and the world for the days which stretch out before us in the coming year: “God's deepest and brightest blessings for my family, friends, and the whole world. May 2016 be the year the human race gets it right, and we learn there is much more to celebrate in our diversity than there is to fear. Let us learn to love one another.  Amen.” 

As I hit the button to post the prayer that last sentence – “Let us learn to love one another” – caused a few neurons to fire in my brain, keeping me awake for the time it took to locate, listen to, and post a song that had come to mind.

It was in the late 1960s when I first heard “Get Together” by a group called “The Youngbloods.”  It was their only song to ever crack the Top 40, finishing at number 5 in 1969.  As I hit “post” to my Facebook page I immediately thought of The Feast of the Epiphany, and how this one song, in part, points the wonder and meaning of this blessed day.

“Love is but a song to sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry…

If you hear the song I sing
You will understand (listen!)
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now” (Chet Powers, author)

Today’s gospel lesson for the Feast of the Epiphany is, at least in part, about two emotional responses to the birth of Jesus – Emmanuel – God with us.  On the one hand, the magi – or wise men – find their way to Jerusalem full of anticipation and apparent hope at finding a newborn king, whose coming is foretold by the rising of a natal star.  On the other hand, Herod – when approached by the magi – is frightened – is troubled – and all the ruling class of Jerusalem along with him. 

The magi come seeking the newborn king to pay homage – to offer recognition of his birth – to celebrate.  Herod seeks information on the whereabouts of one whom he sees as a pretender to his throne – one whom he sees as a challenge to his power.  Herod seeks information on the newborn king in order that he might destroy what he perceives as a threat to his authority – and because his duplicity is foiled by the wise men Herod, in anger and fear, ends up having all the children two years old and younger living around Bethlehem slaughtered.

Herod and the magi both “hold the key to love and fear – all in [their] trembling [hands].  Just one key unlocks them both – It's there at [their] command.”  Herod reacts out of fear and selfishness while the magi celebrate the wonder and joy of Incarnation.  The magi recognize a power and a love from God which can make the mountains ring – can make the mountains skip like rams; while Herod’s violent actions – his senseless killing of so many children – most certainly makes the angels cry.

           

I read the other day that “The Magi, in Matthew's telling, act [out] the very embodiment of Isaiah 60 [which we heard read just a few minutes ago]. Are they strangers in the land? They stand for all nations and peoples outside of Israel. Are they kings? [Well, even if they are, they] kneel on behalf of all authority. Do they bear gifts? Thoughtfully packed from the ancient text – [gold and frankincense (Isaiah 60:6)]. Then,” according to author Bill Wylie Kellermann, “Matthew adds his ironies, bitter… myrrh: [used as both a fragrant perfume, fitting for the sacred anointing of kings and pharaoh’s, and as a preservative in anointing the dead.] The Jerusalem king – [Herod] – remains in the dark (wherein he schemes); [while] the foreigners are directed farther on” (Bill Wylie Kellermann, Sojourners Online, Preaching the Word, 1/6/2016). “You can make the mountains ring, or make the angels cry.”

The Youngbloods’ famous refrain, paraphrased a bit, “Come on people now, smile on your brother and your sister – everybody get together, try to love one another right now,” may come across to those of us living in 2016 as a bit of 60s’ naiveté, but I submit to you it is a longing that strikes at the very heart of Incarnation – God’s desire for humanity to be at one with one another and with God.  And pardon me for saying this, but when I read and hear about the constant violent assaults taking place in our communities these days, perhaps the world needs a huge helping of that 60s’ naiveté right about now. 

Just this past Sunday, less than two miles from our home, a St. Mark’s couple pulled out of their driveway to come to our Open House.  They stopped when they saw their neighborhood street blocked at the corner by several police cars, and returned home rather than try to navigate what looked to be a serious situation.  It turns out that there had been a shooting in the neighborhood and three people ended up arrested for attempted murder!  We hold the key to love and fear in our trembling hands…and I know which of those the Incarnation is meant to unlock.  Everybody get together – try to love one another right now.

“Christmas,” writes pastor Nancy Hasting Sehested, “Christmas proclaimed the presence of the light – [what we called on Christmas Eve ‘this God burst into our lives’].  Epiphany calls us to spread the light on the journey. Epiphany means ‘manifestation.’ We see the light of Christ as it is manifest from the crib of Jesus in Bethlehem to all the nations. ‘A light for revelation to the Gentiles’ (Luke 2:32) is the Bible's shorthand way of saying that Christ's mission is to the whole world. Epiphany stories reach out to the world through the coming of the Magi, [through] Jesus' baptism by John, [through] the call of the first disciples, and the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

The welcome mat is set out,” Sehested reminds us. “The front porch light is left on to welcome foreigners, local fishermen, city priests, Roman soldiers, and Greek tourists. There are no limits placed on this love born at Christmas” (Nancy Hastings Sehested, Sojourners Online, Preaching the Word, 1/6/2016).

We have so much to offer this world if we are willing to manifest in our own lives the Light that is Christ – if we are willing to let shine through us the image of the Divine which infuses us all. In the end, like both Herod and the magi centuries before, we hold the key to love and fear in our own trembling hands.  Just one key unlocks them both – and as followers of Jesus, that key is here at our command….