The sermon for January 6 was based on Matthew 2:1-12.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

It is almost too easy to focus on the gifts the Magi bring rather than focusing on the One to whom they bring the gifts. It is easy to focus on the gifts not only because they are unique and exotic, but also because that is where you want the attention to be. If you zero in on the gifts the Magi bring, the sacrifices they make in coming to Jesus, and the way they worship the Lord, then that elevates all the more your offering, your stewardship, your sacrifice, and the way you decide to worship Jesus.

But the gold, the frankincense and the myrrh are not the heart and center of the visit of the Magi. Because what you do, your offering and self-sacrifice and the way you worship is never the heart and center of the Gospel message. What is central is not only what the Lord does but also who He is. In fact, that God comes in the flesh to bear your sin and be your Savior, that fact alone—who He is and chooses to become for you—that should prompt from you an offering and sacrifice, a glorious and heartfelt worship that matches and then exceeds anything the Magi brought to Jesus. Not because that is how you naturally respond to Jesus' gift of Himself. For of itself, your response and offering and worship mean nothing and get you nowhere. Instead, such an offering and sacrifice and worship is nothing but the life and love of Jesus, His gift and giving, and even more so His very being and Person, living through you in a worship that only knows how to receive more and more of what He chooses to give.

That is the lesson the Magi present to you in today's Epiphany Gospel. And it is lesson that really takes the focus off them, and puts it on Christ. It's a lesson that reminds you that your offering and worship are not responses but reflections. And it's a lesson that calls you away from your paltry contributions and your frenzied worship, and back more and more to the Gift of the Christ Child who is at work in you—not in what you do, but in who He is and what He gives you by His Gospel in preaching and the Sacraments.

Remember that Herod wants to worship Jesus not by receiving, not by exalting the gift given, not in the liturgy of the Gospel, but in the way he thinks is good and right. That selfish worship by Herod begins when he hears the preaching of the Magi. However, the clear and forthright proclamation of God's Word in Christ hardens Herod's heart so that his faith is not in the promise of God, but in a threat to his own position and power. Threats and fear of losing out or of decreasing prompt worship and sacrifice and offering that begins and ends in self. And that self-chosen worship leads not only to Herod's destruction but also to the needless and heartless destruction of many innocent children of God.

The Magi, however, are not concerned with their worship and gifts, but with God's grace and kindness. That grace and kindness of God appears not as an idea or a sensational feeling or a grand hope. The grace and kindness of God appears and is manifested and arrives in the flesh, in the person of the vulnerable, poverty-wrapped Child lying in the arms of the Blessed Virgin. The grace and kindness of God is not an attitude, but a Person. And not just any Person, but the Son of God who came down from heaven to become the sin that you are, and to be the Savior that you can never hope to be.

The first and best worship of the Magi is not only to hear that Scriptural Word, but to take it to heart and receive it as the living and incarnate Word that it truly is. The Magi believe that the promise of God is both resident in the infant Christ, and is given to them only through His flesh. And so they set out, not because they are curious, not because they need to be convinced, and not even because they are willing to give up all they have for this Child. The Magi set out and make the long journey to Bethlehem, following the star in the East so that they might worship God's epiphany, His appearance and arrival, His manifestation and enfleshment in the baby Jesus.

And what is their worship? Not really to give, but to receive. The Magi wish to take in everything the baby Jesus offers, and everything the baby Jesus is. Their faith leads them to follow the star and to not be distracted. But more so, their faith leads them to receive this Child as He comes for them and as He presents Himself to them in His flesh and blood.

My hope for you this epiphany season is that your faith would be led in the same direction; that you would not be dazzled and distracted by so many other intriguing and enthusing but quickly fading forms of worship; that you also would have the faith that is satisfied and gratified not with what pleases you, but simply with what Christ is pleased to give and plant within you.

By the preaching of the same Gospel the Magi heard and by the leading of the same star and light of the Holy Spirit, you have been given this true and right-worshipping faith. It is a faith that heeds the shepherding of the Lord away from your own sinful lusts and desires, your own self-pleasuring and self-gratifying ways of worship. It is a faith that calls you to this Christ Child, that gathers you with the Magi, saints and angels around wherever He chooses to be, that enlightens you so that you trust the promise more than the threat, that cradles you within His body, and that unites you with Him in such a tight and close union so that by His flesh and blood He makes a home and lives and dwells within your flesh and blood.

And with that faith comes the Life of Christ in you that presents not just some money or deeds, but your whole being as a holy, lively and reasonable sacrifice to God. The sacrifice of God in Christ now being reflected and lived through you as your God-pleasing worship—that is the lesson of the Magi and the proper focus of today's Feast.

The peace of God, which passes . . .

Last Updated: 7/15/2008