The Feast of the Epiphany 2013 – Michael Birch – We . . . Are Come To Worship Him

The Feast of the Epiphany 2013

Michael Birch

We . . . Are Come To Worship Him

When the wise men came from the East seeking Jesus, they said to Herod the King:  “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”  Having received instructions as to where to look, they came to Bethlehem, and it is recorded that “when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him:  and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Many years ago now, in the 50’s or early 60’s, the Rector of St. John’s, Shaughnessy in Vancouver (Don Malin’s old parish when he was a precocious boy!) asked the men’s group a very simple question.  Now, let it be understood that St. John’s is in a very affluent area, and the congregation was made up of highly intelligent and highly educated people.  The question that was asked was this, although perhaps not these exact words:  “What do you think of Jesus?  Who was he?”  Now of course the question as I have posed it is in the past tense, which in itself is wrong to people who really know him as Lord and Saviour.  Perhaps the question at St. John’s was not put in the past tense.  BUT THE ANSWERS MOSTLY WERE.  The men of St. John’s thought that Jesus had probably lived as is recorded; that he had been a great teacher, probably the greatest that ever lived; that the moral code he espoused should be upheld along with the Ten Commandments; and that it is too bad more people didn’t live according to what he had taught.  Do you agree with the men of St. John’s of so long ago?  If that is what Jesus WAS, then what is there to worship?  I had one or two very good high school teachers, but I have always made a point of NOT worshipping them.  The first thing worth our learning from the visit of the wise men is that Jesus is to be WORSHIPPED.  And since we all have been taught from our mother’s knee, I hope, not to worship any one or any thing except God, then the manifestation here is one of the Divinity of Christ joined to human flesh, The Word Made Flesh as the Christmas Gospel told us.  In the Epistle for Christmas Day from Hebrews we learn this:  “…when he bringeth the first-born into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.”

The second thing worth our learning is that he is sent not simply to God’s ancient people, the Hebrews, the Jews, but to the Gentiles also, which is to say, to the whole of mankind.  This is made very plain when Paul writes, “I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles; if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given unto me for your sakes:  … as it is now revealed unto his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ, by the Gospel…”  Paul is announcing Good News to the Gentiles, that the promise of God to the Jews extends also to them.  We perhaps more need reminding that the promises of God equally extend to the Jews, we have grown so used to thinking in other terms about them.  The visit of these Gentile wise men show what is to come, when the nations of the earth shall own the kingship of our Lord, when all who seek the Lord shall find him, and shall worship him, and lay before him their treasures.

The third thing worth our learning must be to understand that these are the things which we do here, of course.  For we the Church are called out of every nation and kindred and people, to become God’s people, owning him to be Lord and Saviour of ourselves “who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven…”  Acknowledging him to be both God and Man, we come to worship him, and to offer our treasures, our substance, “ourselves, our souls and bodies” in thanksgiving and praise to him who lives forever. We are those who cannot think of Christ in past tenses, or in terms of what he taught, but we must strive ever to know him as alive and present to us in Word and Sacrament, loving him for who he is and living by what he teaches.  For as his glory was manifested to the Gentiles at the visitation of the Magi, so it is manifested in our very midst, as we see by the Spirit which he has given us the glory into which angels long to look.  “The Lord hath manifested forth his glory:  O come, let us worship.”