3rd January. 2021. Service.

Today’s service has been prepared by Reader Iain Mitchell QC

Second Sunday after Christmas
(Celebrated as the Feast of the Epiphany)

 Introit: The Coventry Carol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jIYyPOoEc8

Call to Worship:
On you the Lord shines and over you his glory will appear; nations will journey to your light and Kings to your radiance [Isaiah 60:2a-3].

Let us Worship God.

Hymn: Angels from the realms of Glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtM14l9Ipyw

Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We observed the rising of his star and have come to pay him homage.

 Prayers of Approach, Adoration and Confession

Father God, You are Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. You are the Spirit of truth and of grace dwelling in us; You are the babe in manger.

As the Wise men came before you and worshipped, so we, too, come before you now, to worship, to adore and to proclaim your salvation for all the nations. Come, God, come among us, move in your Spirit within us, quicken us in your love and your grace, as we remember the gifts the wise men brought to you.

Gold is for Your glory, the Glory that melts mountains, the glory that you relinquished when your word became flesh. In the weakness and vulnerability of flesh you came to us, and because you, the immortal, put on our mortality you know us, who are mortal: Gold is for what was, and what shall be again.

Frankincense is for the prayers that we utter, rising up to you as the incense of frankincense sweetly rises in the still air: our prayers, our unspeakable longings, our questioning of truth, our searching for your mystery deep within.

And you hear our prayers, you hear them and know them so well that you have already answered them in the Christmas mystery when the word became flesh, and in the Easter mystery, when the flesh died and the Word was reborn.

Myrrh is for the suffering of that flesh that knew the dark places before it knew the light again, God of Myrrh, we cry out to you in our suffering, the pain of our rejections and bereavements, our baffled despair at undeserved suffering, our rage at continuing injustice, knowing only this: we are not worthy, but say the word and we shall be healed.

In our hurt, Lord, we confess that we have sinned against You and our fellow men and women, in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness and through our own deliberate fault. We have done things which we ought not to have done and have left undone those things which we ought to have done and which we name now in the silence of our hearts. [Keep Silence] We are heartily sorry and do repent of these our sins. For the sake of your son, Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past; and grant that we may serve you in newness of life, to the glory of Your Name.

Amen

Assurance of Pardon

Jesus died and rose again for us. In humble penitence, we accept his pardon and receive his peace.

Hymn: Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q5A4TctOn0

Prayer for Understanding

Holy God, in the ancient words of the scriptures, let us hear again the eternal message of peace, salvation and reconciliation. Send us your Spirit to reveal to us your eternal truth in Jesus Christ, your Word made flesh. Amen

The Readings

Isaiah 60:1-6

60 Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2 For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
3 Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

4 Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
5 Then you shall see and be radiant,
your heart shall thrill and rejoice;
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

Ephesians 3:1-12

3 This is the reason that I, Paul, am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2 for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, 4 a reading of this will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. 5 In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6 that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

7 Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the working of his power. 8 Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me, to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10 so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

 

Hymn: As with Gladness Men of Old
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp52sx2_GYs

 Matthew 2:1-12

1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star when it rose and have come to pay him homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he enquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem in Judea: for so it has been written by the prophet

 6 “‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

 7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem saying, “Go and search diligently for the child and when you have found him, bring me word, so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

 Amen.

This is the Word of the Lord, to Him be all glory and praise.

Hymn We Three Kings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx35_DRIZ8g 

 Sermon

1. Introduction:

“We three Kings of Orient are,

bearing gifts we travel afar,

Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

Following yonder star.”

The image is one which is familiar from so many Christmas cards, so many Sunday School nativity plays: Three Kings: arrayed in all of their oriental splendour, mounted on camels, passing through an idealised landscape of low mud houses, desert oases and palm trees, Melchior with his gift of frankincense, Balthazar with his gift of myrrh, and the black Ethiopian, Caspar bearing the royal gift of Gold, led by a star which moves across the heavens coming to rest above a stable in which the infant Jesus lay in a manger, surrounded by cattle lowing with a kind of quiet intensity, fondly gazed upon by Mary and Joseph, the whole night scene lit by a soft flickering light.

We think we know that to be true, but we are looking through the accretions of tradition. What does Matthew’s gospel actually say?

2. The Gospel Account:

Matthew’s account is much sketchier than the Christmas card scene.

Although Isaiah’s prophecy, which we read today, refers to Kings, in Matthew’s gospel the visitors are described by the Greek word Magi, a word which was originally used to describe Persian priests, but came more generally to refer to magicians or astrologers, but who they were, the gospel writer does not tell us. They may have come from Persia, but equally, they may have come from Babylon, or even from Arabia, the source, in the ancient world, of Frankincense and of Myrrh. We are not told.

Three wise men, of some sort, though not said to be Kings, from somewhere in the East, but we don’t know where. Well, even that is not right. The gospel writer does not tell us that there were three Magi, only that there were three gifts: there might have been only two Magi, or, there again, there might have been a dozen or more – we don’t know.

And, of course, the Gospel writer does not tell us anything about how they travelled, whether by camels, or horses, or even on foot.

However, many of them there were, wherever they came from, and however they got there, they did visit the stable, didn’t they?

Well, no. The Gospel writer tells us only that the visit happened “after Jesus was born” but not how long after. Further, the Gospel writer does not mention a stable, only the “place where the child was”, though we are told in the next sentence that the Magi enter the “house”, which suggests a dwelling. There they find the child with his mother, Mary, but there’s no mention of Joseph.

So, no stable, no manger, no cattle, no Joseph. And, in fact, no baby Jesus either.

The word which is used to refer to Jesus is the word for child, not baby, and, as the following passage in Matthew’s account relates, and as the Coventry Carol which we listened to at the start of this morning’s service recalls, Herod’s gave the paranoid order to massacre all the children under two years of age – a precaution not necessary if the child were a babe in arms.

And the star? The gospel writer does clearly tell of the star, but, suffice it to say, attempts to relate a star which moves and then stops over a house to known astronomical phenomena are at best, forced. As to just what the star was, precisely, the gospel writer gives us no more detail.

However, stripped of its layers of tradition, we can see the story which Matthew’s gospel story in fact tells as being much more remarkable than the traditional tale.

A group of wandering magicians or scholars, who are not of the Jewish people, travel from a far distant land. Led by some means that transcends the natural order, they are looking for a King. They enter a house, much like any other (remember, they look in vain for a palace, they look in vain in Jerusalem), and there they find a toddler alone with his mother. A normal domestic scene like in so many other households; but then, in a gesture which could not have been less than astonishing, they shatter this air of normality by producing costly, royal gifts, giving them to the child, and, in the Eastern manner, prostrating themselves before him, paying him homage.

It is, on any view, a remarkable story. Why does the author of Mark’s gospel tell it?

3. A tale that is told:

We are all familiar with different genres of writing: history, biography, historical fiction, or whatever, and we tend to think of the gospels as being history or biography. However, Gospel writing belongs in a genre all of its own where the material is shaped and selected by the gospel writer to give a kind of overarching meta-narrative.

The author of Matthew’s gospel was writing for a readership of sophisticated, Hellenised Jews, who were comfortable with the literary devices of the time. The story of the Magi is hugely important for Matthew’s theme, which is that, in Christ, the promise held out by the Old Covenant is completed. In Christ, all things are perfected and the work of salvation is done.

We should see the star in this context. Much ink has been spilled in trying to explain the star by reference to known astronomical phenomena, yet such attempts rather miss the point, for it was a common literary device, with which the original hearers of Matthew’s gospel would have been well familiar, to present the birth of great men as having been portended by a star; and perhaps in this we can see the reason for Matthew’s linking of the birth of the saviour with the heavenly portent of the star; but more than this, the Magi see the “star at its rising” and in this there is heard an echo of Balaam’s prophecy at Numbers 24:17:

“A star shall come out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.”

However, it is not necessary to speculate whether Matthew’s story of the three kings is literally true, for its symbolic truth cannot be gainsaid: the details that make this more than just a story are, first, that this child was a king: the Magi bowed down before him, did him homage, gave him Royal gifts that befitted a king; and, second, that the Magi were not Jews, but of another race – what race does not matter. The point is that in the coming of the star foretold a birth of cosmic significance; in the obeisance of the Magi is a powerful symbolic statement that Jesus is King, not just King of the Jews but King of all peoples.

This royal line is emphasised by the gospel writer’s reference to the prophecy at Micah 5:2

“But you, O Bethlehem of Eprathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days”.

Though the wording employed by the gospel writer is subtly changed-

“And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means the least of the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”

This underscores the turning upside down of the world, the empowerment of the weak over the strong that lies at the heart of the gospel: at the same time it asserts the position of Jesus in David’s royal line – great David’s greater son.

The coming of the Magi stands as a powerful symbol that Jesus, who was born of the line of David, came not for the Jewish people alone, but for all of humanity. It was this truth that enabled Paul to write in his letter to the Ephesians, that, through God’s grace given to him, he is empowered “to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; ….. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.”

And so, the story of the Magi tells us this – that this young child is the Christ, the Messiah, the coming king, not only of Israel, but of the whole world.

4. The stuff of legends:

Matthew’s gospel reveals a message of earth-shattering importance, that is in danger of getting lost under the later accretions. The story grew arms and legs in the popular imagination. Ephraim the Syrian refers to 11 Magi. In Armenian writings of the 6th century, the Magi become three Kings with their familiar names; they come from Persia with 12,000 soldiers on horseback; the gifts consist of gold, Frankincense, Myrrh, silver, sapphires, pearls, aloes, nard, cinnamon, rare fabrics, ancient books of prophecy sealed by the finger of God at the time of Adam, and a partridge in a pear tree. (All right, I admit I made the last one up.)

However, look again at the three gifts named in the Gospel: Gold stands symbol of Christ as king, Frankincense, symbol of Christ as mankind’s High Priest interceding for us all through prayers rising as the sweet smell of incense rising to God, and Myrrh, the spice used to embalm the dead, stands symbol of the means by which the Christ was to attain his Kingdom.

5. Conclusion:

And so, in this seemingly simple, apparently picturesque tale, lies the heart of the message which the gospel writer sets out to expound: Jesus, the child, is the Christ, the coming King, a king for all peoples. But there’s a paradox here: we might still think of babies and mangers and wise men and angels, but that is not what the story is about, for when the Magi came, what lay in the future was only the long road to Gethsemane and a criminal’s death.

And so, the gospel writer speaks of a death, and not a birth, of a King whose Kingdom was not of this world. A king who came not in splendour but in humility; who came not in triumph, but in shame; who came not in jubilation but in suffering. He was raised up not upon a throne but on a cross. It was not the calling of trumpets that marked his entering into his destiny, but the hammering of nails. And at the end was not a palace but a tomb.

Thus is the world turned upside down, and in this wise shall come the King in his glory. Born, and dead, and risen, all for our salvation. World without end.

To God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit, to the Holy Trinity be the glory now and for evermore.

Amen.

Hymn: Bethlehem of Noblest Cities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UKYa44VwvU

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession

Collect:

Eternal God, by a star you led wise men to the worship of your Son. Guide by your light the nations of the Earth, that the whole world may know your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Prayers of Intercession

Father God, we rejoice with the Magi that when the angels touched their harps of gold, heaven touched the earth and the immortal took on mortality for the sake not of one people but for the whole world, but as we rejoice, we remember that this world suffers still from the sorrow of sin and of strife, that there are those who, in the dawning of the light, yet prefer the darkness which conceals so much pain: in the darkness the light of love and hope seems spent, the agony of isolation cuts deeply, the pain of guilt cripples, and the world spins on, broken, in need of healing.

Father God, we pray for this broken world: a world where there are those who are wilfully deaf to the message of the angels, and for whom a baby in a cattle trough is nothing but folly.

Lord, hear our Prayer; Lord graciously hear us.

We pray for our sovereign lady the Queen and for her ministers, as also for all of those others who hold earthly power. Keep them mindful of that however great their power, there is one who coming into the world in weakness and vulnerability yet was greater than they.

Lord, hear our Prayer; Lord graciously hear us.

We remember all of those who at this season cannot rejoice, through ignorance, through want, through anxiety or fear. We pray for those whose lives are shattered, who are victims of natural disasters and of the cruelty of their fellow men; those who are left to mourn: those who grieve with a pain which is immediate, and those whose grief has dulled with the years, but who still, in their waking and in their sleeping feel the ache of separation; we remember in this time of pestilence all of these who are ill, those who hurt in their bodies and in their minds, or who live lives of quiet desperation, especially those whom we name now in the silence of our hearts [Keep Silence]. And we remember also those who work to control disease and alleviate suffering.

In this time of the coming of the light, we pray that the dawn of your healing, your love and your hope will cut through the darkness of suffering and of despair.

Lord, hear our Prayer; Lord graciously hear us.

We remember your church, which bears witness still to the light of all nations; but there are places in this world where so to bear witness is dangerous, and we remember today your church wherever it is persecuted, wherever your people risk the loss of their livelihoods, their liberty, even their very lives because of their faith and of their witness. Lord, wherever your Church is persecuted bring strength and comfort to the persecuted and true amendment of heart to those who would persecute.

Lord, hear our Prayer; Lord graciously hear us.

And we call to mind all of those saints who have borne witness to the light in the two thousand years that are gone, and all of those who today still bear witness to that light. Grant, Lord, that we ourselves may share with all our hearts in this profound mystery of Christmas and of Epiphany; awaken in our hearts, love and gratitude for your infinite goodness, join us together in your love; and give us all your heavenly peace.

These things we pray in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who died for us and reigns now in glory with You and with the Spirit, and in whose words we sum up all of our prayers, saying:

Our father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil,

For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory

For ever.

Amen

Prayer of Dedication

Father God, this season of Epiphany marks the sacred mission of your Church to spread to all humanity the truth that your grace is for all, yet to fulfil that sacred charge, especially at this time of trial, your Church continues to have need of resources, both financial and in kind. We pray, Lord, that you will bless to your service those gifts we have been able to give to your church, and, mindful of your great commission, we dedicate our time, our energies and our enthusiasm to the proclaiming of the good news of your your grace. Take these offerings, Lord, that there may flourish the work that your church does in this world. This we pray in the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns now with you and with the Spirit, world without end.

Amen

Hymn: Hail to the Lord’s Anointed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkrepBvrLI4

 Dismissal and Blessing:

The Joy of the Angels, the eagerness of the Shepherds, the perseverance of the Wise Men, the obedience of Joseph and Mary and the peace of the Christ child be ours this Christmas;

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon us and remain with us always.

Amen

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I4LJ0ikm8w

May God’s blessing surround you each day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_3O_N49GiU

 Recessional: J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 / Part Six – For The Feast Of Epiphany – No.64 Choral: “Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen” · Dresdner Kammerchor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk7hODjwAgk

 For Children

In a few days’ time, it will be Twelfth Night – the end of the Christmas Season, when I will be able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that I’ll not be getting any more presents from my true love, apart, that is, from my 12^th and final partridge in a pear tree, not to mention 12 drummers, 22 pipers, 30 Lords a leaping, 36 ladies dancing, 40 milkmaids 35 swans, 36 geese, 35 gold rings, 32 calling birds, 27 French hens and 22 turtle doves. With all those lords, maids and ladies plus livestock, I have severe doubts whether, when I sell the 35 gold rings, I’ll have enough cash to house and support all the rest.

But, if I lived on the continent, I would be distracted from my anxieties in that direction by the coming of the Three Kings. There will be processions, and it will be just like Christmas day all over again.

And why celebrate the Three Kings? Well as I explained to the grown-ups, they may not actually have been Kings, but they were certainly wise men; and the reason we celebrate their coming to Jesus from a far and distant land somewhere to the East to give him presents (rather fewer presents than the ones my true love gave to me), was because, when they came to Jesus, that showed that Jesus came not just for the Jewish People, but for the whole world. That is for everyone: not only those mysterious travellers from a distant land, but also for all of us today.

We call this time Epiphany. It’s originally a Greek word, but don’t let that put you off. It just means “showing” or “revealing” and refers to the way that Jesus was shown to the Wise Men, who were the first of the Gentiles (or non-Jewish) people to worship him. This story lets us know that Jesus came for us all.

If you would like to see a short video about the Wise Men, go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22SMUUMsx0o

Children’s Prayer

Dear God, you led the wise men to see Jesus and this makes us understand that you wanted Jesus to be the Saviour of the whole world. We pray, then, that you will help us to tell the good news and show your love to everyone we meet. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Intimations

Regrettably, worship services in the church buildings are suspended until further notice owing to the tier four restrictions currently in force. We hope that this will not last too long, and we will announce the resumption of worship as soon as the situation allows.

The first Bible Discussion meeting of 2021 will be via Zoom on Tuesday 5^th January at 7:30 pm. Please let the minister know by email: calston@churchofscotland.org.uk if you wish a link to the meeting.