Festival of the Epiphany of Our Lord on January 6, 2008 at Epiphany

Grace, mercy and peace in the one who was born to be worshiped, our King and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Matthew 2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea , during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." ³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: ⁶ "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'" ⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." ⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Epiphany is serendipity

Epiphany is serendipity. That’s not a sentence you have ever heard before. Epiphany is serendipity. Serendipity comes from an old Persian fairy tale called the “The Three Princes of Serendip” where the heroes had the ability to look for one thing and find something better. Have you ever started looking for one thing and wound up finding another, better thing? If so, you have experienced serendipity.

When Columbus was looking for Asia and found the Americas , that was serendipity. In 1827, John Walker had spent the day mixing chemicals. Wishing to clean his floor, he scraped a mixing stick across the stones and the stick burst into flames. Matches were created. Serendipity. In 1879, a worker lingering too long over lunch let a batch of liquefied soap mix too long. He hoped his mistake would go unnoticed. The customers noticed. The soap, with an abundant mixture of air, floated. Ivory Soap started to clean things 99 and 44/100ths percent pure. Serendipity.

In 1945 Percy Spencer was working around a magnetron and felt the chocolate bar he was carrying in his pocket melt. Bingo, the first microwave had been born. It was serendipity! It was around 1945 that George deMestral, a mountain-hiking botanist stopped to pull some burrs off his socks. Intrigued at their sticking power, he looked at the burrs under his microscope, and thought up Velcro. Serendipity. Looking for one thing and finding something better – that's serendipity.

All of these stories are examples of serendipity; finding something unexpected, wonderful, when you don't anticipate it. Which takes me back to my first words: Epiphany is serendipity. "Okay," you say, "I understand serendipity, but what is epiphany?"

Epiphany means manifestation or revelation. Epiphany is the name of a church, a season of the church year, and a festival. Unfortunately, in the western hemisphere, the Festival of the Epiphany of Our Lord, has been relegated to the back burners of religious holidays. However, throughout the rest of the world and for centuries, the Festival of the Epiphany of Our Lord is second only to Easter in prominence. It is a shame that many Christians consider Epiphany to be a real non-festival because Epiphany means that the angel’s message of “good news of great joy” really is for all people. Epiphany means that Christmas is for Gentiles, too. Epiphany is God's way of saying to people of every race, every color, every age, "Hey, this Jesus is the One I've been promising through the prophets. This is the Savior for the centuries. This is the One Who can rescue and redeem you from sin and Satan." Epiphany is the celebration of the Church that says, “Jesus is a great and mighty Wonder, a full and holy Cure. The Virgin has born the Infant with virgin honor pure! Since all He comes to ransom, by all be He adored, the Infant born in Bethlehem , is the Savior and the Lord.”

Epiphany is a celebration which recalls how some time after Jesus was born, Wise Men, Magi following a new heaven-sent star, showed up in Jerusalem to pay their respects to the next leader of the Jewish nation. Some say these Wise Men were Zoroastrian priests from Persia , which is now Iran . Some say they were Magi from Egypt . Either way, these Magi were great students of the sky and celestial changes. Wherever they came from, it would have taken them a fair amount of time and dedication and money to get to Jerusalem . That's where we find these Wise Men, in Jerusalem .

Being Wise Men, you might think that they would make good choices. But these were guys, and they got lost and didn’t want to stop for directions. These Wise Men weren't quite wise enough. Wisdom had told them it was only natural that they should come to Jerusalem and check in at King Herod's palace. Where else, other than a palace, would you expect to find a newborn king? It was very logical. It was very sensible. It was also very wrong. There was no newborn child in the palace. "So if he's not here, where should we look?" the wondering Wise Men wanted to know. That's when scholars were summoned, and the inerrant Scriptures were consulted.

After picking up some directions from God's inspired Word, the Wise Men set out again following the star, and found themselves standing before a small, unassuming home in Bethlehem, which was currently occupied by a Galilean carpenter, his wife Mary, and yes, a baby boy by the name of Jesus.

Have you ever started a search for one thing and wound up with something else, something better? That's the story of the Wise Men! Have you ever started looking for the earthly and been led to the heavenly? That was the epiphany of these Wise Men. They were brought to something better, more beautiful, more unbelievable than they could have imagined. The Wise Men had come to see the future king of a country, and they found the Christ, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. They came looking for a temporal monarch and they found Him who is our Substitute, our Savior, our Salvation.

It wasn’t odd that these Magi prostrated themselves before the Child. It isn’t surprising that these men who had traveled so many miles, were not disappointed with what they found. Indeed, Scripture tells us, these Wise Men rejoiced, and did not hesitate to fall down in humble adoration before the infant Jesus. These men who had seen so much of life, who had dedicated their lives to the accumulation of wisdom, did not consider themselves too grand, too elite, too self-sufficient to bow down and worship the Christ Child. These Wise Men who, by God's guidance had been led on the first star trek, considered it right to present their gifts, gifts which would become the precedent for all future Christmas presents.

They considered it an honor to humbly offer glittering gold for their heaven-sent King; fragrant frankincense for the worship of their High Priest who would intercede between the Divine Deity and damned humanity; and myrrh, a costly resin used in perfume and for the embalming of the dead. This last, a special gift, for it was a reminder that the Christ Child was not to be worshipped because He was an earthly king, but because He was a heaven-sent Savior. Epiphany is serendipity. The Wise Men had gone looking for one thing and were led by God, and a star, to someone far better.

Epiphany is the celebration of serendipity. We look for one thing, God supplies another. He does it all the time. The childless priest Zechariah set out to burn incense – serendipity – he ended up with a promise that his son would be the forerunner of the Savior. A Samaritan woman went to a well to draw water – serendipity – she found the Savior who gave her forgiveness and a new path to walk. The tax collector Matthew, went to his booth to levy tolls upon travelers – serendipity – he was called to follow the Savior. The widow of Nain started a walk that would end with the burial of her only son – serendipity – she met Jesus and received not just a living son, but a Savior who cared. The apostle Peter set out to catch some fish – serendipity – he ended up fishing for sinful souls. Saul had gone on a hunt for heretics – serendipity – Paul was called by Christ to spend his days proclaiming the path that leads to paradise. Mary Magdalene sat before an open tomb and started a search to find her Teacher's dead body; and most wondrous serendipity of all, she saw her living, death-defeating Savior.

Time and again people search for one thing, and in Jesus find something, someone, far better. Over the centuries, many people have been led to see the Savior. In the 1800s Lew Wallace, general, politician, and unbeliever was challenged to write a book which would expose Jesus as a fraud. As Wallace researched his material, he became engrossed in Jesus' life. Something happened to him. He looked for a fraud and found himself worshipping with the Magi. The book he wrote was the great Christian novel, "Ben Hur." A number of years ago a pastor by the name of Kenneth Goodson went to the Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama . Walking through the facility he saw people gathering in small groups – small groups studying the Scriptures. Werner von Braun, the head of America 's space program at that time, explained, "We have discovered the further we go into space, and the more we learn about the universe, the more we are driven to believe in God." Many of the scientists searching in space had been led to see their Savior. Serendipity.

Of course, none of the Magi, none of the scientists, none of us, can by our own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him; but when we are called by the Gospel, and enlightened by God's gifts, we are given a serendipitous Savior.

We walk through life with head bent and shoulders stooped, carrying the heaviest of human burdens – guilt. If we don’t deal with it, its miserable load just accumulates and it poisons the way we look at everything and everybody. Yet we come before God, not expecting much, and he says, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jer 31:34) That’s serendipity.

We begin the New Year the way we ended the last one – addicted. We hurt ourselves and others with our compulsive behavior that craves alcohol, drugs, sex, eating, starving, gambling, and other things. We seek help from a pastor or Christian counselor, because nothing else has worked, and then Christ breaks us free from Satan’s bondage. “You are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

We come to church or school, read our daily devotions or do our Christ Light homework, out of habit or duty or whatever. And yet, through Christ, we find our anger abated, our depression depleted, our fear fixed, and our hurts healed. That’s serendipity. In Christ we find joy justified, love lauded, forgiveness fortified, and peace personified. That’s serendipity.

Without planning it, asking for it, or even wanting it, we have seen the incomparable story of salvation. We have worshiped Jesus in his cradle. We have cried before his cross. We have looked with awe and wonder into his empty tomb. Without searching for it, we have been changed from sinners into saints, had our filthy clothes washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, been given a crown and a palm branch of victory, and been made priests and kings to serve in Christ’s kingdom. We have been granted Christ’s Epiphany, which is serendipity. Amen.