A Famine Not of Bread

"Adoration of the Magi" by Rembrandt Click here to listen to this sermon. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising   (Isaiah 60:1-3). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Today is the Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord, the beginning of the church season in which we celebrate the Lord Jesus manifesting Himself to the world as God. “Epiphany” comes from the word “to shine,” and the picture is of that light shining into the darkness and overtaking it. In the past few weeks, we have been talking and singing about light—about Jesus, the Light of the world. At candlelight services on Christmas Eve, we sang about the “Son of God, love’s pure light.” We sang about how in...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The text for this first Sunday after Christmas is Matthew 2:18: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” So, how was your Christmas?   I dare say, far better than Rachel’s.   Far better than the mothers of Bethlehem who grieve the death of their baby boys.   So, whose idea was it to put this dreadful text into our readings for this Sunday?   Where’s the quiet pastoral scene with adoring shepherds, and lowing cattle, and the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay?   The wise men bearing gifts for the Child?   Where’s the peace on earth, good will toward men?   The tidings of comfort and joy?   Alas, Rachel weeps!   She refuses to be comforted, because her children are no more.   Worse than that, the Rachel here is not ...

Cl ick here f or a n audio version of this sermon.   The text for today is our Gospel, Matthew 2:1-12, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!  Actually, to be more specific: Merry Christmas of the Gentiles!  Those of you who follow the Church year perhaps noticed that yesterday was the twelfth and final day of Christmas.  Today begins Epiphany, the season in which the Child who was born in Bethlehem is manifested to the world as God.  Epiphany has been called the “Christmas of the Gentiles,” because the story of the magi has been associated with it.  The magi were the first Gentile worshipers of the Messiah.  Until then, the only ones to worship Jesus were Israelites: a bunch of shepherds from the fields near Bethlehem, and Simeon and Anna in the temple courts in Jerusalem.  But the magi were Persians, (from the region of modern day Iraq and Iran).  They...