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Let us pray together.

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Holy One, present in our midst.

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As we hear your word proclaimed and spoken,

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help us in our ongoing discovery

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of who Jesus is meant to be for each one of us today.

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Help us to be open to your self-revelation

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in the unique form that you present to us every day

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so that we appreciate the fullness

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of who Jesus is for us all days.

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And in this season of epiphany,

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may we come to know how you intend for us

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to help make manifest your plan of salvation for all people.

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Amen.

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Our Gospel lesson this morning comes from the Gospel of Matthew,

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the second chapter, the first twelve verses.

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Hear now God's word for you.

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In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born

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in Bethlehem of Judea,

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wise men from the east came to Jerusalem asking,

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Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?

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For we observed his star at its rising

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and have come to pay him homage.

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When King Herod heard this, he was frightened

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and all Jerusalem with him,

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and calling together all the chief priests

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and scribes of the people,

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he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

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They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea,

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for so it has been written by the prophet,

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and you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

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are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,

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for from you shall come a ruler

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who is to shepherd my people Israel.

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Then Herod secretly called for the wise men

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and learned from them the exact time

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when the star had appeared.

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Then he sent them to Bethlehem saying,

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Go and search diligently for the child,

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and when you have found him bring me words

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so that I may also go and pay him homage.

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When they had heard the king, they set out,

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and there, ahead of them,

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went the star they had seen at its rising

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until it stopped over the place where the child was.

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When they saw that the star had stopped,

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they were overwhelmed with joy.

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On entering the house, they saw the child

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with Mary his mother, and knelt down and paid him homage.

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Then, opening their treasure chests,

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they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh,

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and having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,

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they left for their own country by another road.

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The word of the Lord.

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Well, today is the Sunday that we celebrate epiphany.

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The pyramids are white, the flowers are white.

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We sang we three kings as expectedly

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as we sing a mighty fortress at Reformation Sunday.

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In the liturgical calendar, epiphany is the 12th day

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of Christmas, or January 6th, tomorrow.

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Twelve is the number of days the Magi were supposed to have

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walked or expected to have walked across to find Jesus.

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Given that their trek was over a thousand miles,

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they must have had some very, very fast camels.

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Epiphany is translated from the Greek to mean revelation.

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It's the day we celebrate God's self-revelation to us

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through the Christ child named Jesus.

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Jesus, coming from the Hebrew name Joshua, meaning to save.

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At the time when Jesus was born,

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so many people were waiting for a savior.

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Pagans and Jews alike were searching for a sign of the one

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who would heal the world from its pain, its deep brokenness.

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Historians record that they believed that the savior would

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be sent from an other worldly place, if not from God, God's self.

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Enter a priestly pagan caste in Persia, Iran,

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men who studied the stars in a highly regarded mainstream

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science. The astrologist's caste was

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called Magus, from which we get the plural Magi.

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At a certain point, the Magi saw something new.

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It was a brilliant new light, an astrological experience.

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It could have been a flash of a comet only ten years before

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they had first recognized what we now call Haley's Comet.

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It could have been a new star.

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It could have been an old one bursting.

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Whatever it was, it seemed to be pointing the

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astrologers, the Magi, to something, someone grand.

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They gathered the gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh that

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we discussed during Advent, the gifts that the prophet

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Isaiah had talked about would be offered to the one who was

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coming to save the people. Gold was the prerogative of the

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monarchs, who would gather up, hoard, steal, all that they

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could find. Incense, in this case,

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frankincense, indicated the presence of deity since the

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smoke of the incense would rise up to their gods.

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Myrrh, mixed with oil, was used in the anointing of priests,

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and again at burials. The Magi gathered these gifts and

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followed the stars through what is now Iraq, crossing Jordan,

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crossing through Israel. Once there, they identified that the

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light seemed to be coming from Bethlehem.

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Conversations with or over Bethlehem, conversations with

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Jewish scholars they encountered told them that this was

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consistent with what the ancient Jewish prophets and Micah

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foretold. A king was to be born in Bethlehem under a certain

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star, a king who would bring them out of their slavery.

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Now, this is a jam-packed scripture reading that is way too

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familiar. A lot of you probably have it more

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memorized than I. So, we're going to take a minute to

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get those things in and really settle into our souls.

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The first part. God chose to reveal God's self to the

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Magi, pagans. Isn't that a stunning statement about the

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expansiveness and inclusivity of who Jesus is meant to save?

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By the gifts they brought, the Magi identified Jesus as the

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supreme ruler and savior of the world, God's anointed high

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priest. That Jesus was born in an impoverished community called

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Bethlehem, in a manger no less, indicates that Jesus came to

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save the poorest of the poor. Luke calls the poor those who

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are without financial resources. Matthew calls the poor those

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poor in spirit. Jesus came to save us with all

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of our poverties. Jesus came to save us all.

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To the people of Matthew's community, all of these words and

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wonder were supremely good news. It helped them come to

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decisive terms of who Jesus was for the world, both human and

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divine, a suffering servant, a fragrant, beautiful offering

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for us all. Poetic images of verifiable facts that become

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the foundational confessions of the Church of Jesus Christ.

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Tom Wright, in the meaning of Jesus, two visions, reminds us

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that this confession is the most basic entry point in the

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community of Christian believers. Marcus Borg writes,

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and co-author of the book Two Visions, from the near opposite

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end of the Christological spectrum, tells us that as

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confessions they contain certain conviction and commitment that

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are even richer than whatever the literal or actual events of the

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day might be. What Borg and Wright seem to be

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telling us together is that decisive doesn't mean only.

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That Jesus was the decisive revelation of God doesn't mean

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only one way that God revealed God's self, symbolically,

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metaphorically, literally, or in any other way true.

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For our Star Words search, we went through hundreds and

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hundreds of words that we'll share with you after worship,

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and the kids might share with you at a different point.

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These were a range of words that put us in conversation about

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who God has been revealed to be and who God continues to be

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revealed every day. The word that I'm carrying with

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me into 2025 is zeal. This is a word that I plucked

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from the bunch when we were doing an Advent lesson a couple of

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weeks ago, sitting around in small groups talking about the many

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ways that God reveals God's self, the many ways that we can

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carry God's revelation through the new year.

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The word zeal didn't sit as easily with all people,

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and so we took a moment to look it up. Here's what we found, zeal,

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great enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective, fervor,

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devotedness, vigor, the opposite of apathy or indifference.

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That Jesus speaks really clearly to me.

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Coincidentally, there's a book called Zealot.

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It was published several years ago by a former Christian

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scholar named Rizah Eslan. In Zealot, Eslan speaks to what he

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calls the riddle of Jesus, who is a revolutionary political

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and social figure rather than purely a spiritual and theological

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one. Like Eslan, many of us conflate the practical with the

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possible, the historical and scriptural accounts, the

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theological with political interpretations to attend to the

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many possibilities of God come down.

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Divinity among us. Jesus as Savior, royalty, a king.

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What I've come to conclude from my exploration of all of these

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insights on the greatest revelation the world has ever

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known, the epiphany of the Christ, is that it matters little

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that God revealed God's self ambiguously or unambiguously to

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the historical community. What matters, even now in the

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context of these last 12 days of the celebration of Jesus'

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birth, is how Emmanuel, God with us, has revealed God's

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self to you. Maybe God has revealed God's

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self to you as royalty, and you honor God with your best

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dress, your kindest words, your best language, the ultimate

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service. Maybe you reveal yourself in this way on special

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days of the year, if not day in and day out.

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Maybe for you God has revealed God's self as an historical

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leader, a great prophet, a peacemaker, a healer even,

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and you attempt to emulate this in your earthly walk.

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Maybe God has revealed God's self to you as your friend.

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God sits beside you when you're sick, God holds your hand

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when you're lonely, God takes walks with you and allows you

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to talk with God, completing your circle of faith.

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Maybe God has revealed to you as an eagle.

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God has revealed God's self to you as an eagle that's perched

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way too high, too high to see that you're in need of a

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Savior. I pray that this is not your Jesus.

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The reality of our day is that too many of us believe that

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since the world can't confess a particular revelation that

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God has given to others that maybe Jesus hasn't been real

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for us after all, leading us to dismiss this truth that there

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is a Savior in any form or name who is intent upon healing

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the poverties, the painfulness, the brokenness of our world

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today. If for this reason alone I believe

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that what matters more than anything is that we share with

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our words and our actions the countless ways that God reveals

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God's self and continues to reveal God's self every single

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day. This reveals the power of epiphany,

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that God continues to reveal God's self in various unique,

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important ways that God intends when we need God most and when

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God needs us most to tend to what's happening at hand.

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In Paul's letters, which we did not read today,

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but I would ask you to indulge in Ephesians when you have the

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chance, Paul uses the word oikonomia,

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which is more accurately translated from plan to

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administration of household. What we can infer for this more

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precise and exciting translation of plan is that God's

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household, when properly administered, will be inclusive

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of all people, widened by the visions of God's infinite ways

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of revealing God's self to each one of us. How we open ourselves

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to and through these epiphanies, how we might respond to God's

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immediacy and how the world becomes impacted by the

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intersection of God revealing God's self and us responding to

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God's revelations affects the household on earth that God

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needs for us to realize. This indeed is what creates the

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beloved household on earth. This household is what

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transforms the beloved kingdom of God, joy from heaven to

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earth come down. This is what Howard Thurman speaks of in his

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poem, The Work of Christmas. Craig brought this up a few weeks

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ago in one of our staff meetings and I wondered aloud if he was

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going to use it in something he was doing last week and since he

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didn't, I'll share it with you now. The Work of Christmas.

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When the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and the

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princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their

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flocks, the work of Christmas begins to find the lost, to heal

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the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to

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teach the nations, to bring Christ to all, to make music in

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the heart. Dear ones, there are a lot of complicated words

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flying through the cosmos this day. There are a lot of

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complicated words and conversations that lead us to believe

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that there is too much heaviness for God even to bear.

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We need to rely on the epiphanies that we experience from

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one another, the sightings that we have of Jesus within each

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one that we cross. We have to reveal ourselves to other

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people as the ones God has planned to help save the world

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from its suffering. There is so much heaviness in this

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world and God did not send God's Son into the world to be a

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darkness, but to shed light to us all. As we move through this

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liturgical season of epiphany, these weeks between now and the

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season of Lent, this season of discovery of who Jesus was when

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he walked this earth over 2,000 years ago, please open your

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senses to the possibilities of epiphany in as many ways as there

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are people passing by. Please be wide-eyed and ears open to

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the God's self-revelation in the unique form that God presents

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to you. May you please come to know the fullness of who Jesus

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is for you and for all people. And as you come to know who

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Jesus is for you today, may you come to know how God intends

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for this epiphany to help make manifest God's plan of salvation,

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God's household properly administered here on the beloved

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kingdom for all people. Thanks be to God. Amen.