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Epiphany

05 Jan

Dear God, a lot of denominations celebrate Epiphany today. The corresponding biblical story is that of the wise men from the east coming to pay homage to the new King of the Jews. There are a couple of interesting things about this story, including the fact that they seemed to be more interested in finding Jesus than the Chief Priests in Jerusalem were. Of course, that was a good thing for your plan. You didn’t need the Chief Priests gumming up the works and complicating things. But still, where was their curiosity? Why did they ignore what the wise men were saying?

I was a little confused as to the use of the word epiphany for this story. I think of epiphany as being defined by something that is finally understood or realized in my mind. Kind of an, “Oh, now I get it!” moment. I didn’t see that in this story. So I did what other 21st-century Americans do. I Googled it. According to Google’s AI, here is the explanation: “The church calls the feast day “Epiphany” because the word comes from the Greek “epiphaneia” which means “manifestation” or “appearance,” referring to the moment when Jesus was revealed to the world, most notably through the visit of the wise men (Magi) to the baby Jesus, signifying his divinity to the gentiles.” 

So, yeah, I guess this was kind of the beginning for the Gentiles to have their, “Oh, now I get it!” moment with knowing you and the Jewish people to have their, “Oh, now I get it!” moment with understanding you don’t only love them but all of us. Not that all Gentiles or Jewish people even currently have that view, but this was the beginning of that revelation.

Father, I have some people in my life who could use some special epiphanies today. Each one who is on my mind right now needs to have your heart for the others revealed to them. Guide them. Love them. Do something more miraculous than I can imagine, which shouldn’t be hard because what I can imagine is so small. But be bigger than any of us know you can be. Be more powerful. Bring love. Bring mercy. Bring repentance. Bring comfort. Bring healing. Reveal yourself to each person individually and collectively. Move the needle in every life today that is touching this situation. Bring glory to yourself, and lead all of us into worship of you for the great things you have done, are doing right now, and will continue to do. For the greatness that you are.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on January 5, 2025 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Joy to the World by John Piper – Advent Day 10

10 Dec

10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

Matthew 2:10-11

Dear God, when I read this story this morning, my first thought went back to what I prayed a couple of days ago about the Magi: Who did they think they were worshipping? What did they think their act of prostration and gifts to him were accomplishing? In their minds, whom were they worshipping and honoring? I will bet it wasn’t an immaculately conceived son of yours who would live a humble life, teach, die, and then resurrect for their opportunity to relate to you directly. For their great-great-great-great grandchildren to be invited into knowing the Living God.

And the truth is, I have no idea what I am doing at any given moment. I am as ignorant as these men. Even in what I think I know of you, I am still woefully ignorant. I know that huge chunks of my theology are wrong. How could they not be? I know I probably make as big of mistakes as these men likely made then. If they had known their visit would lead to slaughter of all of the young boys in the area, would they have made the visit at all?

Father, what I bring to you is an earnest heart. I love you. I really want to do what you need me to do in this world. And I am confident that I miss ten times as many opportunities as I catch. Please redeem my mistakes and bless the few victories I make. Lord, I give you my heart. That is what I lay before you. Use the small life you have given to me as you will.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 10, 2024 in Advent 2024, Matthew

 

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Joy to the World by John Piper – Advent Day 9

09 Dec

3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.

Matthew 2:3

Dear God, before I read Piper’s commentary on this verse, I want to sit with the last five words: as was everyone in Jerusalem. As word spread about the magi being in town and looking for the newly born “King of the Jews,” what were they thinking? And I want to put a pin in these people for if we talk about the flight to Egypt and the killing of all the young boys, but for now I want to consider what their hope and fears were. Herod’s are pretty easy to figure out. He just saw a threat. A threat to himself. A threat to his bosses in Rome. A threat to his lineage.

But for “everyone in Jerusalem,” what were they “deeply disturbed” by? Did they even want a Messiah, or was the status quo more comfortable? Were they afraid of war? Were they willing to possibly pay the price they thought they would be asked to pay in following a Messiah into battle against the Romans? This is what I assume they were thinking.

And then there is the reality. If they had recognized what Jesus actually came to do–to offer a path to the controlled burn I talked about yesterday–would they have rejoiced instead? Would they too have sought out the baby? What kept all of them from going to Bethlehem and following the magi?

There is so much here that is me. Afraid of the word it will take to follow you. Afraid of risking what I have. Afraid of what would be new. Yes, I might be living in a pit, but the pit is home now. I’ve made it work. What would my life look like if I were to upset all of that to do something you’re calling me to do?

Okay, I just read Piper’s commentary, and it lines up remarkably with what I just said except he was more articulate about it:

There are two kinds of people who do not want to worship Jesus the Messiah. The first kind is the people who simply do nothing about Jesus. He is a non-entity in their lives. This group is represented by the chief priests and scribes: “Assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, [Herod] inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.” Well, they told him, and that was that–back to business as usual. The sheer silence and inactivity of the religious leaders are overwhelming given the magnitude of what was happening

Compare that with the reaction Herod and the rest of Jerusalem: “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” In other words, the rumor was going around that someone thought the Messiah was born, and everyone but the chief priests took note. Why did they not go with the magi? There were not interested. They did not want to worship the true God.

The second kind of people who do not want to worship Jesus are those who are deeply threatened by him. Herod was deeply afraid–so much so that he schemed and lied and then committed mass murder just to get rid of Jesus.

Father, I think I am going to lean on the serenity prayer this morning. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 9, 2024 in Advent 2024, Matthew

 

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Joy to the World by John Piper – Advent Day 8

08 Dec

 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

Matthew 2:2

Dear God, I focused on these verses yesterday, but John Piper is keeping me here a day longer, so I want to take this time with him to sit with the idea of the Magi.

One of the things Piper suggests is that while Luke tells us about the Shepherds, Matthew tells us about the Magi because Matthew is careful to include the Gentiles in his message about Jesus. Jesus’s story opens with these Gentile worshippers, and Matthew ends to book with Jesus sending the disciples out to the world. It’s why I’m here today. Who would I be without you? I don’t even know how to answer that question, but I know you are everything to who I am.

I really like what Piper has to say today. I want to quote part of today’s entry here:

I want to exhort you not to become preoccupied with developing theories that are only tentative in the end and have very little spiritual significance. In fact, I will risk a generalization to warn you: People who are exercised and preoccupied with such things as how the star worked and how the Red Sea split and how the manna fell and how Jonah survived the fish and how the moon turns to blood are generally people who have what I call a mentality for the marginal…What is plain concerning this matter of the star is that it is doing something that it cannot do on its own: it is guiding magi to the Son of God to worship…So the lesson is plain: God is guiding foreigners to Christ to worship him.

I like the idea that I don’t have to try to wrap my mind around the miracles of the Bible. Partly, I suppose, because they are miracles and, by definition, are not understandable. But there is a great overriding message in the Bible that you are moving history forward regardless of the mistakes we make along the way.

And I was just reminded in my thoughts that I am so small. I am literally 1/7,000,000,000 of the earth’s human population right now. You, on the other hand, are the only God, and you are amazing. You are simply amazing. And you’ve done amazing things. The coming incarnation of Jesus is the pivotal moment in our human history. Amazing. The grace you give us through Jesus is amazing.

That leads me to a thought my wife gave me yesterday morning. She was talking about controlled burns as part of land management. There were huge grass fires in the Texas panhandle a few years ago, and they were destructive because they were not controlled, but the results were still amazing. Streams appeared that hadn’t been there before. New plants grew. We talked about how that is like what repenting before Jesus is like, but controlled. When the alcoholic or addict of some sort hits bottom, sometimes it can be like an uncontrolled burn that destroys a lot, but if they find help at the bottom. If they find a higher power. If they find you, then you can help them restore what was burned. But for the person who is convicted and invites you in for a controlled burn of their heart. For you to burn away the chaff. To search our hearts and cleanse the clutter. Well, streams of living water will start to flow that we had no idea were even there.

Father, these magi didn’t know what they were doing back then. They just knew they needed to act and so they did. I’m sure their conversation was interesting as they left for Jerusalem. They didn’t know what they would find. I’ll pray later about what their conversation must have been like as they left for home, but for now, I will just sit with them in their ignorant compulsion to seek you out.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 8, 2024 in Advent 2024, Matthew

 

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Joy to the World by John Piper – Advent Day 7

07 Dec

2 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

Matthew 2:1-2

Dear God, I looked a day ahead and saw that Piper waits until tomorrow to get to verse 3. I haven’t read his commentary yet, but I am assuming he wants us to just sit with the eastern wise men for a while.

It’s too bad we don’t get more of their story. Who were they? Where were they from? What were they studying that brought them to Jerusalem? If they knew enough to go to Jerusalem, why didn’t they know to go to Bethlehem? And how did the star thing work? I just looked it up to make sure, but these verses in Matthew about the wise men are the only mentions any of the Gospels make about the “star.” Funny how we’ve brought that forward and made it such an important part of the story. How did it become part of the story for these men?

So what were they expecting as they walked to Israel? What did they have in mind? And why did they go? Were they trying to curry favor in advance from this new king? Is that why they brought gifts? Were they assuming the new parents would be powerful, and they were wanting to impress them? It’s probably the most mysterious part of this story for me. They had just enough information to put them into action, but not so much that they had a grasp of what was happening. As I told a friend yesterday about myself, you had them on a need-to-know basis, and there was only so much you needed them to know.

Oh, how that is me sometimes. Sometimes, I feel you encourage me into action, and I have no idea why. I was telling that same friend about something you got me to do against my will a couple of years ago. I felt the urging from you and I resisted it. Then I asked my wife about it and she agreed with you. That made me angry. I asked some coworkers about it, and they agreed with you and my wife. That made me really angry. So I did the thing, but I was angry about it. I mean, I was physically, emotionally angry. You remember. But then, not even a week later, you revealed to me why you had me do it, and it was so important that it had been done. So important! I honestly don’t know what things would have looked like if I hadn’t done it.

Father, I am as ignorant as those “wise men” were. For all their wisdom, they only had one very tiny piece of the picture. They knew about a star and a king. They knew they should bring gifts. They didn’t know how you needed those gifts to be used. They didn’t know what difference this would make in Mary’s and Joseph’s lives. They also didn’t know that their visit would lead to a slaughter of children (we tend to forget that without their visit, Jesus wouldn’t have been on Herod’s radar). So help me to simply be faithful today, to not resist you even when what you’re asking me to do makes me angry, to worship you, and to love others. And please lead me into a peace that only you can give.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 7, 2024 in Advent 2024, Matthew

 

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Matthew 2:1-2

21 Dec

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
Matthew 2:1-2

Dear God, it’s amazing to me how I can still learn things from this story that are either new to me or I’ve been wrong about. In the case of this story, there is something in the way the story has been told/songs have been written that I learned just yesterday isn’t actually in the text. How many wise men were there? We’re they initially following a star? The text is neither specific about their number (there could have been two, there could have been 200) nor that they were “following a star” (until something guides them to Mary’s and Jospeh’s home in Jerusalem). But at this point, they were an indeterminate number of men reading a celestial sign from a prophecy.

Why is this important to me this morning? It’s simply a reminder that I’m an ignorant person and my theology is flawed by my own biases and flawed teaching I’ve received from others. It humbles me and affirms that I haven’t figured you out, and I haven’t figured life out. I’m just a guy who is loving you as best I can for the simple reason that you have proven faithful to offer me peace and forgiveness, mercy and instruction when I need it. You are worthy of my worship, and worshipping you makes my life better.

Father, I celebrate you. I celebrate everything I know about you and the fact that there is so much I don’t know or understand. You are my God. I am your child. Thank you.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 21, 2021 in Matthew

 

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Mothers of the Bible — Mary, Mother of Jesus (Part 8)

29 Apr

After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Matthew 2:9-11

Dear God, when I read this story this morning I asked myself, “What kind of a day has it been?” Aaron Sorkin has used that as an episode title for at least two of his TV series that he wrote. Every day is filled with so much, and we miss most of it. But this day for Mary must have been amazing. We aren’t sure how old Jesus is here, but it’s obviously been a little while because they are now in a house. That tells me that they had established their lives in Bethlehem at that point. They had either figured out a way to get their own house or they were living with someone else. Either way, they were there set up.

I’m sure the day started like any other day. She fed and changed Jesus. She kissed Joseph goodbye as he went to work. Who knows what she was going through that day. Maybe they were trying to figure out how to pay for some things. Then a knock at the door and there are some men there with gifts. They were there to worship her baby and brings gifts to him. What a surreal moment for her. Maybe even an encouragement. I’ve seen my wife go through the doldrums of those first few months of having a new baby. Even the first couple of years. It can be hard. But then you sent her these guys. And I’ve wondered for several years now if they weren’t able to use these gifts to finance their trip to Egypt. It makes sense–especially the gold. I think you were providing for them when they had no idea what was around the corner.

Father, I love the idea that Mary and Joseph were just a couple of regular parents facing the psychological, mental, physical and spiritual challenges that all of us face. You had them on a need-to-know basis, just like you have me and the rest of us. In their case, they needed to be reassured that they had not been mistaken when they heard Gabriel’s messages. These were all events that would carry them through from a mental, spiritual, and psychological standpoint. Please help me to recognize when you are doing the same for me. And thank you for all that you are doing.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on April 29, 2020 in Matthew, Mothers of the Bible

 

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Fathers of the Bible — Joseph, Jesus’s Earthly Father (Part 6)

10 Apr

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Christ would be born. “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they told him, “because this is what was written by the prophet: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah: Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. ” Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time the star appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him.” After hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was—the star they had seen at its rising. It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route. After they were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and escaped to Egypt. He stayed there until Herod’s death, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: Out of Egypt I called my Son.
Matthew 2:1-15

Dear God, here’s a question that I think isn’t asked enough, but has a simple answer. Why did you pick someone like Joseph? Why not a Person of prominence to be Jesus’s dad? Why not a religious leader? Why not a king? Why was the Messiah born to a carpenter and his fiancé?

I think there are actually several answers. The obvious ones are that those fathers would have been a bad influence on him. We’ve seen how the sons of kings turn out (well, maybe except for Jonathan). We’ve seen how the sons of religious leaders like Eli and Samuel turn out. We’ve seen how Abraham’s, Isaac’s and Jacob’s sons turned out. No, there is certainly no guarantee that someone will turn out well based on who their parents are. All of us are fallible.

In this case, I think you 1.) picked the parents based on their character, regardless of what their status was. But 2,) I think it actually did matter because a person of position would have had much more to lose than Joseph did I think it was probably easier to obey you to take Mary and then do all of this moving around because he didn’t have a lot of encumbrances from his position in life. He had less to lose by going ahead and taking her as his wife. He had less to lose by waking up and deciding to obey and take Mary and Jesus to Egypt.

To relate this to myself, I’ve often wondered how much I’ve allowed myself to not obey something you’ve called me to do because of the things I’ve achieved and/or acquired. I have a lovely wife. Do I want to drag her just anywhere? I have a nice home in a safe town. Am I ready to trade that security in for physical insecurity? I have a job that pays me a nice middle class wage. Am I ready to jeopardize that for uncertainty and a life of truly living on my daily bread? No, I would never have made a good father for Jesus for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that I wouldn’t have been prepared to pay the price that Joseph had to pay. I wonder what it would look like if I were ready to pay that kind of price now, and what would you possibly call me to do if I were willing to completely open myself up to any possibilities?

Father, even now, I want to pray and tell you that I am willing to go wherever you want me to go and do whatever you want me to do, but I’m scared. I’m scared what you might call me to do. But I’m going to say it anyway. Father, I am willing to go, I am willing to do whatever you are calling me to do. I’m just going to tell you that you are going to have to make it very obvious because my natural inclination will be to miss anything you call me to do that is out of my comfort zone. So make your plan for me John-proof. Help me to make each decision correctly in the moment and then have this decisions and choices add up to your will.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on April 10, 2020 in Fathers of the Bible, Matthew

 

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