A sermon for the Second Sunday of Christmas, January 5, 2014.  The lectionary readings are Jeremiah 31:7-14 ,Psalm 84, Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a , and Matthew 2:1-12 .

Today we basically complete this year’s celebration of Christmas on this 12^th Day of Christmas. This is the day for twelve drummers drumming, (as well as eleven pipers piping, and all the rest, if you follow the old carol.) We of us know that Christmas is not a day, but it’s a season and ends with tomorrow’s celebration of The Epiphany.  January 6 is the Epiphany, “the showing forth” of Christ, the Day of the Three Kings, Tres Reyes.  Enjoying Christmas as a season (more than a day) can be a great gift, a gift that reminds us that no matter what, God is among us. However we may observe the days of Christmas ourselves, they are a liturgical and spiritual reality, observed and celebrated in churches throughout the world, running like a great undercurrent of living water beneath busy lives.

Christmastide (these Twelve Days of Christmas) is a rollercoaster of spirituality if we let ourselves hang on for the ride. On Christmas Eve, God is here, close and breathing, offering the possibility of peace on earth, and goodwill among all. But no sooner than we are reminded of God’s Incarnation, we are confronted with the results of having faith in such a God. The last few days of December show us the cost of faith, as they are martyr’s days: St. Stephen, a deacon in the early church, became the first Christian martyr. Though St. John the apostle and evangelist is thought to have lived to a very old age, he also suffered for his faith, and was beaten and imprisoned.  The Feast of the Holy Innocents on the 28th, reminds us of the lengths to which King Herod was willing to go, in order to protect his own grasp of power. Then on the 29^th, as we remembered last Sunday, Thomas Beckett the medieval archbishop of Canterbury, was killed by the king’s thugs. Faith in the Christ-child is put to the test very early.

Some of you were here on Wednesday, New Year’s Day, as we observed the Feast of the Holy Name. That name, of course, is Jesus, meaning “savior,” and that day reminds us that in the name of Jesus—in the name of all that flows out of it, all that it invokes and gathers– there is saving power, there is the way for our salvation.

All of this brings us to this day, the eve of the Epiphany, the manifestation, or the showing forth, of Jesus as God with us, the revelation of Jesus as King of our hearts—but not only ours, but also the hearts of all the world that would follow him. We celebrate God’s love for all people, all languages, all colors and shades, all backgrounds and diversities, everyone and anyone are included. And we pray that we might be like the Wise Men who were led by a star. We pray that we might have the strength and the faith and the tenacity of those three, to follow wherever God leads us, whether it’s through a star, an angel, the word of a loved one, or a God-informed feeling of the gut.

In our Gospel we read that King Herod has heard from his astrologers that a special child has been born. He has probably also heard from his political advisers that the people are getting restless and wanting change. And so he is suspicious. But the Wise Men follow the star, even at great risk to themselves. But they move forward, following where they feel God is pointing.

In the part of Matthew’s Gospel that immediately follows what we’ve read today, an angel appears to Mary and Joseph and warns them about King Herod, and so instead of returning home to Nazareth, they go to Egypt. They basically go into exile, until it’s safe to return home.

Following so quickly after the joy of Christmas, by Epiphany we are met with all the complications of faith—of having to make decisions, of having to leave the familiar, of being urged by God to leave comfort and calm, and to move ahead—sometimes with people we don’t even know very well, sometimes with little to go on in the way of provisions or supplies, but faith gives us what we need.

The Star doesn’t hang in the sky the same way for us, as it did for the Wise Men. And the angels may not have given us our travel plans the way they did Mary and Joseph. But we, too, are filled with God and empowered to move forward. And we can follow like they did.

In Matthew’s Gospel the three wise men bring Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh. While some commentators have suggested that these are simply gifts that wealthy folks might bring, others have suggested that each of these gifts has a prophetic overlay. The gold looks forward to the kingship of Christ, to Jesus as king of the Jews, as king of our hearts. Frankincense, like incense, is the stuff that priests use to make things holy and call down visual and physical prayers upon things, and so the frankincense looks forward to the priesthood of Christ. And myrrh, myrrh which was used as an anointment at death, foreshadows the suffering and death of Christ.

Through the days of Christmas, we have given and received gifts.  We have received in Christ the gift of life, of eternal life.  And so today might be a good day to take a cue from the wise men and imagine what we might bring Christ?  What will we give more to God in this new year?

There’s a wonderful Epiphany hymn (“Bring we the Frankincense of our Love,” H. Kenn Carmichael, 1976) that encourages us with the words

Bring we the frankincense of our love
To the feet of the holy Child,
Ever remembering God’s great gift
Of a love that is undefiled.

Bring we the myrrh of humility
To the throne of the Son of God,
Ever recalling the purity
Of His life when the earth He trod.

Bring we the gold of our faithfulness
To the King who is Lord of all.

What do you bring, this new season?

Listening closely to God, holding on tightly to one another, and moving ahead with strength and confidence, we step into a new year. Christmas begins with joy, and that joy resounds throughout the season, through the Epiphany and into the New Year.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.