Sunday Homily - January 6th, 2018 - We have seen His Star

The Gifts of the Magi Icon

I.

¿Dónde está el que ha nacido rey de los judíos?
  Vimos levantarse su estrella y hemos venido a adorarlo.

How would you respond to that question?

Or,
 do you even know what you were asked?

Think about how it would feel to always be frustrated
 or confused,
  or even looked down upon
   because you didn't know how to speak another language?

When someone doesn't speak the dominant language,
 it is absolutely isolating.

Anyone who has traveled to either a different country
 or who has immersed themselves in the culture and traditions of the Hispanic American populations
  of the southwest United States,
   can tell you first hand how your expertise in English won't get you far
    if you can't speak Spanish or Portuguese.

If you can't speak the language, you are deemed an outsider.
 Someone from the outside, foreign to the culture and language.

And if anthropology and human nature have taught us anything,
 very often the insiders tend to isolate those who are different.
  We tend to see people who don't look like us,
   or talk like us,
    or have the same values or beliefs,
     as "outsiders," and we by default isolate them because of those reasons.

Thank goodness that God tends to work a little differently than that.

II.

¿Dónde está el que ha nacido rey de los judíos?
  Vimos levantarse su estrella y hemos venido a adorarlo.

Which, by the way, means:
"Where is the King of the Jews?
  We have seen his star and we have come to honor and adore him."

These words are spoken by a group of powerful outsiders.
 People who were astrologers by training,
  and whose predictions and readings of the stars influenced kings and emperors.

And they are known very simply in this passage as The Magi.
 The people we have traditionally referred to as the Wise Men.

Outsiders of great honor and power.
 And yet, still outsiders.

But what have they come to see?
 Why have they come to Herod the puppet king of Judea?
  What have they come to ask?

"Where is the King of the Jews?
 We have seen his star and we have come to honor and adore him."

These outsiders,
 these people not of Hebrew heritage or blood,
  have been beckoned by God's strange star in the sky,
   and they have traveled probably hundreds of miles to find the King,
    wrapped in swaddling clothes, and placed in a lowly manger.

These outsiders bring gold, frankincense, and myrrh,
 kingly gifts and spices,
  homage for a king.

And it was THESE outsiders,
 the people that the coming of Jesus Christ were least likely to catch the attention of,
  it was these people, and not the chief priests or scribes,
   who actually investigated and sought out the Incarnate, Eternal Word of God.

They weren't supposed to be the ones that found God.
 Yet, because God first spoke to them using their own language,
  an unusual and special star in the sky,
   the language that these astrologers could understand,
    God brought them into the very divine presence
     of the Lord of All Creation: Jesus Christ.

The Feast of the Epiphany
 which we celebrate today,
  is also known as the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles,
   the revelation of Jesus Christ to the outsiders.

And a funny thing happens when God brings outsiders into the Body of Christ:
 They are no longer outsiders.
  They are no longer strangers.
   They are no longer foreigners.

They instead have become our family.
 They have become our friends.
  They have become our neighbors,
   in which we are to love as we love our own selves.

Because funny things happen
 when God beckons us to come and adore the Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

III.

Friends: all of us here, no matter how wealthy or poor you are,
 no matter how good or bad that you think you are,
  no matter how tumultuous or peaceful your life is right now,
   we all have been beckoned by God
    to come and honor and adore the Incarnate Word in Jesus Christ.

Though you may have not observed the shining star from afar,
 nonetheless God has called you here.

Though it may have not been a loud, audible voice of God,
 nonetheless you have heard the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit
  and you have come to worship.
   [1 Kings 19:11-13]

And that is what we do here as Christians,
 followers of Christ in the Episcopalian mold.

And as we come to receive Christ in this Holy Sacrament
 of the Holy Communion,
  receive Christ also in your hearts
   that you are given that holy and loving share in the Body of Christ
    and join in with the good work to be done as we walk out these doors,
     to love and serve the Lord with all our being,
      and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

No longer are we divided by anything in this world:
 our heritage,
  our language,
   our culture,
    the color of our skin,
     no longer.

For we are now all One in the Body of Christ.
 [Galatians 3:28]

So, because we are One in the Body of Christ,
 live in the world in that reality!
  That kid next door is already someone who you are called to love and serve.
   That person that doesn't speak your language is already part of YOUR family now in Christ.
    The homeless woman from down at the Mayfair is already one in whom God is at work,
     and in serving the least of these, God also blesses your heart.

Go from this place in THAT reality.
 That neither height, nor depth,
  nor angels, nor powers,
   nor anything else in this world
    nothing separates you from the Love of God in Christ Jesus.
     [Romans 8:39 para.]

Vaya en paz, mis amigos y amigas,
 por amar y servir a Dios.

...that means "Go in peace to Love and Serve the Lord."

In the Name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.