What is your path - Matthew 2 - Epiphany A

What is your path?

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Reflection based upon Matthew 2:1-12, Isaiah 42: 1-9, Isaiah 60:1-6

Opening prayer

Why is it that people in power are the ones that get frightened by good news?

Why is it that people feel so insecure about what they have and what they can do, especially when someone new shows up? (or perhaps someone that we may have forgotten)? 

Doesn’t it seem like that with God?  Out of the blue, God shows up. God interrupts - no matter what we are doing or where we are. God shows up!

Today, we mark the beginning of the season of Epiphany.- This is the divine manifestation - the revelation - of Jesus to (not only Heard and wise astrologists of old), but to the world.  

God shows up and reveals life and light even amidst corrupt social systems and corrupt politicians. God reveals the true wisdom that is worthy of gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to pay homage, but maybe we could ask, what gifts do you bring? 

They bring these gifts to the infant by following a star - a light in the heavens that points to life on earth, hope on earth, and more. They follow a divine path revealed to them to witness the divine presence. 

They followed a path that led them to this child - the manifestation of God in our lives, in our world.  Maybe the question for us is, what is our path? Are we listening to God revealing to us our path or something else? 

We can turn to fear or we could turn to adoration and witness of God’s love. How do you witness God’s revelations in your life?  

When you do,  when you truly witness God in your life, what is our response to God’s spirit in our life? Do you walk away and dismiss what you witness, or do you turn to the light that God has revealed to you.

What is your path?

(If you were to be in the audience with the wise people, what homage would you  bring? Remember our gifts don’t have to be material things, but what do we bring to honor and pay homage to all that has been given to us.) 

This piece of Matthew is a bit of interfaith cultures coming together to witness the love of God in a child - a child that causes some to quiver in fear and anxiety due to the “good news” that he didn’t want to hear. They bring gifts to pay homage while a certain politician connives and makes sinister plans. 

Still we have a true interfaith meeting where people of different cultures, different perspectives, and different traditions come together to witness. They somehow figure out that there is someone here that is worth a long voyage, that is worth faith, while people in the same country reject this prophecy.

Beloved, that is because this is true power that can be trusted, and worthy of that faith. That, Beloved, is because this is not the corrupt and fallible politicians like Herod because trust in God should be our response rather than fear and trepidation. 

That should be your path - the one that God lays out for you.!

Thankfully, the wise peoples trust God; they listen to spirit  and opt to take another path home - a different path.  For us the question is thus begged, Is it time for us consider our path, our journey in this life? Is God asking of us to take a path and are we listening?

For all the good that we have seen and heard on our current path, are we listening to the spirit in our lives? What is that spirit telling you? Are you on the correct path or maybe there is a new direction for you in this new year, new season - this season of revelation and manifestation? 

Yes! God has done and is doing marvelous things for us. God is speaking to us as we say in this church, but what is our response? Fear and trepidation, or homage and thanks?

So lean into what God is saying to you this new year and new season. Listen to what god has revealed to you and is revealing to you now. 

Each year we come to this time after Christmas time and in our part of the world, it is winter, and cold January. It is a time to refocus, and to turn away from what we have held onto that we don’t need and instead turn to God and follow the path that God has set before us. 

Yes, this time of the year where we hear about light piercing darkness, yet the question for us is how does one arise and shine in that light - in the light of God? Ask God. 

Take amount and listen to what god is saying to you right now in this space and time.  What is God revealing to you?

Beloved, let God shine upon your heart and soul.  

When you do that , when you let God shine upon you and reveal to you, find your heart tickled and soul lifted. Find the possibilities and the true power and wisdom is inside your heart waiting for you. 

In that moment, In this moment, let go of fear, insecurities, and social status and let God show you all that is possible for you!

Beloved, listen to the words of Isaiah, “arise, shine, for your light has come!”

And we all say…

Thanks Be to God.