“Revelation!”

Scripture text: Isaiah 60:1-6

“Mommy, Daddy, where does the sun go at night?”
Have you ever had that question thrown at you? It’s usually at bedtime, when the darkness is supposed to mean sleep, but your child has no intention of going there, at least not on your schedule! But the question isn’t only one to create delay, it isn’t one that seeks an answer in terms of the physical sciences – it is usually one that is actually saying “I’m not all that happy about being left alone here in the darkness”.
But physical, as well as spiritual darkness is a fact of life, and it doesn’t mean that the Light has gone away. It simply means that some great trial has drawn a curtain over our mind and heart, and even though the sun has never moved an inch, it has been removed from our sight.

Weldon Nisly writes: “It was an unusually cold, snowy Wichita day as I boarded the TWA flight to Chicago. We sat on the ground in the plane for over an hour waiting for the plane to be de-iced. We finally took off and headed up into the cloud-covered sky. For what seemed to be an anxious yet awesome eternity we were lost in a dark, clouded world.”

“Suddenly the plane burst through the clouded darkness into the most brilliant world of light I had ever seen. It was breathtaking! The sun was shining like nothing I had ever seen before in a vast universe with clouds for a floor and glorious light to eternity. I often remember this image and experience when I see a dark, cloudy day. I know that light is trying to pierce its way into our clouded world.”

—Weldon Nisly, “Arise, shine! Your light has come,” January 6, 2002, Seattle Mennonite Church Web Site, seattle.wa.us.mennonite.net/sermon20020106.html.

Read Isaiah 60:1-3

The prophet, though, seems to be taking a slightly different tact on this issue of light and dark. He’s saying that we need to wake up, we need to open our eyes to the light of glory! Yes, there is a great deal of darkness on the earth, but if we shut our eyes in some feeble attempt to shut out the darkness and ugliness, we will also shut out the light of God. And the point that Nisly makes is that no matter what comes our way,
- no matter what may come between us and God, no matter what we may do to shut the Lord out of our lives, the Light is still there, waiting for us to see it once again.

The sun doesn’t move out of our range of sight at night – the world turns and blocks our view.
The curtain in Jerusalem’s temple didn’t cause God to disappear – it merely blocked everyone’s view of Him and kept them away.
The glory of God has shown brilliantly since the first moment of creation, and it will shine throughout eternity. Nothing in this world can make it go away, but many things can come between His Light and our lives. And until we are able to rise above the darkness, to fix our gaze beyond the darkness, to finally overcome the sinister gloom of earth, we can only attempt to make sense of our blindness.

Read Isaiah 60:4-6

The revelation of God will come to us when we “lift up our eyes and look about us”. Today is the day when we celebrate Epiphany – The day that God was revealed to the Gentile nations. Epiphany means “revealing”, a “revelation”, an “exposing”.
When the magi came to the stable in Bethlehem, the promise that the Lord made to Abraham many years before - that he would be “the father of many nations” – began to come true. These men, however many there may have been, quite literally “lifted up their eyes” to see the star, and they were willing to “look about” to discover what it was being revealed to them.

Verse 5 - “Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy”.

What can we discover when we lift our eyes up and begin to look around us? Will we simply see a beautiful earth that came to be in some random and probabilistic way, or will we see a universe so complex and unique that it could only have come to be through a marvelous and Divine intervention? Will our concept of life be restricted to a few short years on earth, or will we see the glory of eternity as our own? Will we see this eternity as something to be earned and worked for, or will we finally understand that it is so precious that it can only be given, and received, as a gift? Do we see the glory of God as a nicety, do we take it for granted, or are we eager to return our thanks just as the 10th Leper (Luke 17:11-17) did?

The magi brought expensive gifts to the Christ Child, but the shepherds came with only the wonder of new sight! And when the time came to leave, the magi went away, and we never hear of them again, but we can imagine, with a great deal of certainty, that they carried the awe and majesty of Emmanuel with them. When the shepherds left that stable, they didn't simply return to their responsibilities with their flocks, but they went to share their new found vision with anyone who would stand still long enough to hear it!
And both of these groups were seen as unworthy and unclean. The magi were foreigners, and were therefore an excluded people. The shepherds tended to be dirty and smelly from their outdoor existence, and were ceremonially unclean because of the blood that was on them from their jobs of birthing lambs.
And yet, these are the ones who brought the riches that the prophet is talking about – the honors that are to be given to God Almighty. Wealth as vast as the oceans, riches from lands that are far beyond the boundaries of Israel, wonderful blessings from the outsiders, the unworthy, the unrighteous – and all to bring praise to the Lord!
Some may tell you that only the righteous can come to Christ, only the blameless can expect to receive the kingdom. Scripture tells an entirely different story, though. Jesus Himself said that He didn’t come to save the righteous, but rather the unrighteous – the sinner (Mark 2:13-17). Their salvation – our salvation - is the riches that are brought to the Throne of Grace and Mercy. That’s you and me, my friends! We are the riches of God!

But how are we going to respond to God’s great revelation – His glorious Epiphany – the giving of His one and only Son to the unworthy, the sinful of earth, the likes of us? Are we prepared to share this marvelous news with the world? That Jesus Christ has come for all people, and not just the righteous? Will we give Him the most glorious gift we have to give – the only one that we have to give – the only one that is worthy to give - our broken and repentant lives?
Will we be like the shepherds, like the woman at Jacob’s well, like the man who was healed from the legion of demons, like the 10th leper, like the apostle Paul?
Will we see salvation, not as the chance to sit back and glory in what we have, but as the opportunity to carry the light of Christ throughout the world? That we might be the bearers of His revelation, of His great gift of hope, of His great promise of eternity for all, for any who will take just one step toward the Great God of Bethlehem?

The Epiphany is before us. And the question for each of us today is this – What will we do with it? Will we take it and squirrel it away in a safe place, to be brought out on some future day? Or will we carry it as a glorious banner for all to see? It’s up to each of us, and in this new year, we have a choice to make. What will it be?