“Insiders and Outsiders”
A Meditation for Epiphany Communion by the Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett
Preached at Pleasantville United Church of Christ, January 3, 2010
Matthew 2:1-12 and Ephesians 3:1-12

“The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God.  They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.”
(Ephesians 3:5-6, The Message)

One of my favorite Christmas traditions, and something we have moved away from in recent years here at Pleasantville, is the tradition of the Children’s Christmas Pageant.  There is nothing like seeing our kids dressed up as Mary and Joseph, Shepherds and Wise Men, Angels and barn animals of all shapes and sizes.  It definitely warms the cockles of your heart – wherever those are.  I can still see our son, Sam, at the age of seven or eight, complete in his costume of striped bathrobe and shepherd’s crook, waiting in earnest for his big moment.  Later, when he was a bit older and more mature, he had the opportunity to be one of the Wisemen.  Of all the Christmas Pageant costumes stored in the church attic, personally I happen to think the Wisemen’s are the coolest.  They have these great hats and robes that make them look regal and mysterious and faintly exotic.

The Children’s Pageant is a very practical tradition.  When kids have played a starring role in the Pageant they learn the story; they get the story; they are in the story.  And in a world where secular culture has triumphed and more kids recognize corporate logos than religious symbols, insuring that our children get the story of their faith is no small accomplishment.

Well, today is the Wisemen’s big day.  Today, we are celebrating Epiphany – it’s the day when the Wise Men finally arrived at the manger to meet the baby Jesus.  To be truthful, we’re celebrating a little early here at Pleasantville because we are actually still in the season of Christmas.  As the song says, there are 12 Days of Christmas, and the day of Epiphany doesn’t come until the 13^th day – which is January 6^th.  But this is one of those years when January 6^th happens to fall right in the middle of the week – this Wednesday to be precise -- so you’ve got to decide whether to celebrate Epiphany today or next Sunday or not at all.  And there is something so magical about the story of the wise men traveling all that way just to meet the baby Jesus, that I don’t really think it’s an option not to celebrate Epiphany.

The story is a familiar one to many of us.  After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a band of wealthy scholars from the East arrived in Jerusalem, having observed a star in the Eastern sky that signaled his birth.  And after a brief encounter with the jealous King Herod, they set out toward Bethlehem to find the child.[1]  The star appeared again – the same star they had seen in the eastern skies – and it led them on until it hovered over the place where the child lay.  They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother.  And overcome with joy, they kneeled and worshiped him, offering to him their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

These wealthy scholars, these so-called “wise men” have become so commonplace for us in the church that we forget how odd it is for them to be here.  We no longer see what they really are; what they really represent.  We’ve become so accustomed to their presence in the manger, we don’t even pay attention anymore to how scandalous it is for them to be there at all.  To hear the power of the Epiphany story again, we need to be reminded of what these “wise men” were all about.

The Greek word translated in our text as “wise men” is magi.  The Magi from the East came to worship the Baby Jesus.  The word “Magi” is the root of the word, “magic.”  These guys were magicians.  These guys were astrologers.  They were practitioners of what we might today call, “the occult.”  They’re the kind of guys that, for years, the Church has tried to make sure its people don’t hang around with too much.  Nice church-going people don’t hang with Magi’s.

These magi, these astrologers, these perhaps Zoroastrian priests, observed signs and wonders in the sky and made their way to the place where they thought the infant King would be.  But when they arrived in Jerusalem, they realized they had made a mistake and they asked, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?  For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”

It’s a curious thing: King Herod is described as being surrounded by “chief priests and scribes” – learned scholars who know the scriptures well.  But the ones who show up to worship the Messiah are foreigners and Gentiles – they are not even what some would call ‘true believers.’

Those who are acquainted with Matthew’s gospel know that this is one of his favorite themes.  He loves to mix it up by including people that the religious establishment of the day made a point of not including.  He’s made the point before.  He does it in the opening lines of Matthew’s gospel by including a rather unusual genealogy. 

Matthew’s gospel begins with the words:  “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  And the genealogy departs with biblical tradition by including four women – ordinarily, the men alone would be named.  So right off the bat, Matthew lets us know that he means to do something different in recalling Jesus’ lineage. 

But he doesn’t stop there.  Because the four women that he makes a point to include: Tamar (Genesis 38), Rahab (Joshua 2), Ruth (Ruth), and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah (2 Samuel 11-12), are unusual women.  Each of these women acted independently and, in some cases, scandalously, at critical junctures in Israel’s history to ensure the continuation of the Davidic line.[2]  And, for our purposes today, it is very important to note that all four of these women were non-Jews.  Tamar was a Canaanite, Rahab, a Jerichoite, Ruth, a Moabite, and Bathsheba, through marriage, a Hittite -- unusual choices to include in the genealogy of the Messiah.

So from the very beginning of his gospel, within the first 7 verses in fact, Matthew is already preaching the good news – as he sees it.  A genealogy that includes Gentiles and scandalous women; a story that continues with Joseph’s fiancé turning up pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and then a Messiah surrounded by magicians and Tarot-card-readers from Persia and Babylonia.  Matthew seems to have one thing on his mind: to convey from the very outset of the gospel that the good news of God’s saving work extends even to “those considered most unworthy” in the eyes of the world.[3] 

Matthew seems intent on opening up the circle of salvation to include all people and all nations.  He makes a point of showing “the fulfillment of what God had promised to Abraham millennia before: ‘You will be a blessing to all nations.’”[4]  And the very end of Matthew’s gospel he brings that point home again when Jesus bestows upon his disciples The Great Commission, charging them to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”  Matthew’s gospel is a story about outsiders who become insiders from the very beginning to the very end.

The Rev. Scott Hoezee, a preacher, a scholar, and a friend, writes this about the opening of Matthew’s gospel:

What Matthew may be trying to convey…is the reach of grace.  Matthew is giving a gospel sneak preview: the Christ child who attracted these odd Magi to his cradle will later have the same magnetic effect on Samaritan adulterers, immoral prostitutes, greasy tax collectors on the take, despised Roman soldiers, and ostracized lepers.  Matthew 2 truly is an epiphany for any and all who tend to think that salvation is a Members Only club…”[5]

It’s a wonderful story with a challenging lesson.  And one that the apostle, Paul picks up squarely in his own ministry among those considered outcasts and outsiders.

Eugene Petersen’s translation called The Message reveals in more modern terms the insider/outsider dynamic at work in today’s epistle to the Ephesians.  Reading from The Message, Paul writes:

This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called.  I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody.  I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.

As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ.  None of our ancestors understood this.  Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order.  The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God.  They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus.  The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.

The mystery is that… [outsiders and insiders] stand on the same ground before God.  They get the same offer, the same help, the same promises in Christ Jesus.  The Gospel Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. 

I hope you can hear that for the radical word of grace that is.[6]

Insiders and outsiders.  It’s a dynamic that exists in all human communities and one that clearly existed in the time of Jesus.  Today we celebrate a season which is all about Light; a season which celebrates the appearance of the Light of the World – and this Light gives light to all people.  That is the story of our faith, and the Wisemen, the Magi, the Palm Readers in our very own crèche are there to remind us of it.

As we come to the table of our Lord this morning, let us come with an awareness in mind and heart that we were invited to this table by the Lord Jesus himself, and his invitation list is always growing.

May it be so.  Amen.