Arise and shine

 

Well, here we are, just into a New Year. We will have had chance to think about the events of the past year, maybe with happiness, maybe with sadness. We may even have made resolutions for how we will do things differently this year.

I came across a story the other day about the New Year. It was:

Jemima was taking an afternoon nap on New Year’s Eve before the festivities. After she woke up, she confided to Max, her husband, ‘I just dreamed that you gave me a diamond ring for a New Year’s present. What do you think it all means?’

‘Aha, you’ll know tonight,’ answered Max, smiling broadly.

At midnight, as the New Year was chiming, Max approached Jemima and handed her a small package. Delighted and excited, she opened it quickly. There in her hand rested a book entitled: ‘The meaning of dreams’.

New Year, with or without a diamond ring, is all about something new, and as I looked at the readings for today, I was struck by the idea of something new and something exciting. In the reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard the command to, ‘Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.’ This is a wonderful command and statement. The prophet was telling people that they needed to be aware of God and His presence with them. The people to whom Isaiah was speaking were in a very difficult situation, and he was promising them the glory that God would bring. As they heard this prophecy, they could have hope for the future. The reading goes further than this; it was a promise of even more than the immediate release for people. This is because it was also the promise that was to come in Jesus, God amongst us. We gatherd here this morning may also believe in this promise, and have seen the glory of God and follow Him. This is really exciting and amazing.

In the gospel reading (Matthew 2:1-12), we heard of the wise men seeing Jesus for the first time. Not only this, but they saw in Jesus the answer to all that they had been waiting for.

They had travelled, and by making what may have seemed the correct assumption that the great King to be born would have been known of by the King of the Country—Herod—they went to him. Of course, and to be honest, I can understand, Herod was not very happy to receive this news. His later reaction in having all the baby boys killed was more than slightly extreme, but he was surprised. I guess that is what can happen when people’s power is threatened.

Back to the Kings—they saw in Jesus something new, and not only new but a glory that meant that all they could do was fall down and worship Him.

They brought Him some rather strange gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Each of these gifts, though, had a special meaning:

• Gold represented the kingly humanity of Jesus. Giving gold was the appropriate present for a king.

• Frankincense was a gift that went further than the normal gold for a king; it represented God through it being used in the worship of Him. This means that the wise men were showing that there was something more about this King.

• Myrrh seems at first the most inappropriate of gifts, as it was the oil used to embalm a body at death. This gift showed that the death of Jesus would bring a change to the world.

The Kings were amazed by Jesus; they brought Him gifts and they fell down and worshipped Him—the King born in the strangest of surroundings with the strangest of gifts, who would change the world.

In our reading from the letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 3:1-12), we heard of great mysteries being revealed to Paul, the writer, as he had encountered Jesus. Like the Kings, in Jesus, Paul saw something new.

This new was the answer to everything. In Jesus, the Kings saw the glory of God as they saw God Himself, and they also found salvation. That is, they found the answer to the greatest mystery of all, which is how we can be put right with God, how we can start all over again.

The Kings, Paul, all those who follow Jesus have been amazed by Him. In a tiny baby, God had broken into the world by being like one of us, but so much more than that. God made everything right again, and all we have to do is turn to Him and live like Him.

The magi whom we celebrate saw Jesus, and they had an epiphany—a sense of something new, even greater than all they had expected. When we look at Jesus, so we come to worship Him as the one who is even greater than we could have anticipated.

In a very well-known verse, Teresa of Avila wrote:

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

God brought something new as He became one of us. As we read the gospels and as we look at the lives of those around us, we can see that on meeting Jesus, people were amazed. This was as they recognised the One who was going to change the World. They recognised Jesus who has changed the world.

As Christ’s body on earth, may we be those through whom He is seen in the world today. We will do this, showing something different every time we turn to Jesus anew. May we turn every day to Jesus afresh. May we ask that by our lives we will show the amazingness and love of God. 

When people look at us, and the way we are, may they see Jesus. AMEN