Arise! Shine! Reveal the mystery!

Written by Alissa Bender

Associate Pastor Alissa Bender
Calgary First Mennonite Church
Epiphany – January 3, 2010

Arise! Shine! Reveal the mystery!
Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3:1-12

     Young kids are not always good at the subtleties required to keep a secret.  Many years ago, my dad test drove a beautiful used station wagon, the kind with a back seat that faced backwards, power windows and… miracle of miracles to his two young daughters… power seats.  As we pulled back into the lot after the test drive, my dad intended to play it cool at first, not seem to eager to buy it, you know, in the hopes of getting a better deal.  Unfortunately for my dad, though, as he held down that remarkable button that wound the window down and the salesman leaned in to ask what he thought, one of his mesmerized daughters piped up from the back seat – “We’ll take it!”  So much for playing hard to get.
     The first year that my sister figured out April Fool’s Day, she got the idea of saying something that wasn’t true in order to play a funny joke, but she didn’t quite get the idea of keeping the secret until the other person discovered the joke for themselves.  So she went around all that day, and probably for the better part of the week, saying to each of us over and over again – “There’s a fly on your tummyAPRILFOOL’S!”
     We’ve just come through a season of secrets, in a way.  The secrets of presents hidden in closets, surprises under the tree, and the unanticipated delight of seeing friends and family with whom we’ve lost contact.  These are the kinds of secrets that are fun to keep. 
A friend of mine who has school-age children taught me recently about how kids are being taught about secrets in an age of greater awareness of child abuse.  She told me that her daughters learned at school to be aware of how keeping a secret makes them feel.  If you’re keeping the secret of what you’re giving your mom for Christmas, and when you think about it you have a warm and happy feeling of anticipation, that’s probably a good secret that’s okay to keep.  But if someone has hurt you and told you not to tell, and every time you think of that secret you feel sad and yucky inside, that’s probably a bad secret that you need to tell to someone you trust.
     The Scripture passages we heard earlier weren’t about secrets.  They were about revelations and bringing news and making things known and a light shining in darkness.  So I was struck by how this contrasted with the gospel story that is usually told two Sundays after Christmas.   This is the story of the epiphany, or the appearance of God in Jesus to the wise men who read the stars and travelled far from home to be the first non-Jewish people to give honour to the Christ child.
     That is a story of revelation too, of things being opened up, but in the middle of the story we have King Herod.  And Herod is a very different character.  When the magi came into Jerusalem, it seems they started asking around for this new king that had been born.  Maybe they asked around Herod’s court, since it would seem logical for one king to know about another’s birth.  Somehow Herod caught wind of their quest, and Matthew tells us that when he heard it, he was frightened.
     Herod called together all the chief priests and scribes to ask them where this king of the Jews was supposed to be born.  Once he had his answer, the Scripture tells us that Herod secretly called for the magi and found out everything he could from them about the star.  He told them to go to Bethlehem next, and then, in this secret meeting he added “when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”
     In Isaiah and Ephesians today we heard all about seeing and perceiving and making known.  But Herod is all about secrets.  He doesn’t want the people of Jerusalem to know that he is meeting with these astrologers from the east, maybe because he doesn’t want to give any public credence to their claims.  And he certainly doesn’t want the wise men to know his real reason for wanting to see the baby, one more rival to deal with.  How do we know from the outside looking in which kind of secret this is?  It is clear when we examine the source of Herod’s secrets and the results.  Herod’s secrets are born of fear.  He’s afraid of what he doesn’t know.  He’s afraid of losing his power.  Fear is a common birthplace for secrets of the unhealthy kind.
     And we see the results of his secrets.  The magi decide not to return to Herod after a dream warns them about him.  And Matthew tells us a little later that “when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.”  Herod’s secrecy is born of fear and leads to violence. 
    There is a lot of shadowy activity at the centre of this plot, meetings behind closed doors and concealed plans of murder.  The contrast with these dark deeds is the brightness of the star that led the star-gazers to Jesus.  This star revealed God’s grace to a handful of Gentiles, outsiders.  For this reason, Paul can write in Ephesians that “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: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
     Paul also writes about a mystery, a kind of secrecy, perhaps.  But this mystery has been opened up, the news is being delivered to all who will listen, and “nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn”.  In Christ, the mystery of God’s grace has been made known.  A promise for a new way of life has been revealed.  And we can now perceive it.
     In fact, we do much more than perceive it.  Paul writes in verses 8-10 that “this grace was given to me 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; 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.”
     Through the church the wisdom of God might be made known!  Or, as Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message paraphrase, “Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!”  Our way of life, our words and actions are tools of God’s revelation.  The way we respond to God has the power to shine light in thick darkness, to reveal what has been done in shadowy places and to make known the mystery of Christ.
     I was thinking this week about Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, where I was a student for 3 years.  AMBS is a unique sort of faith community, full of people who are striving toward a similar goal and who are committed to the work of the Church in its various forms, but who are also part of many different congregations in Elkhart and the communities surrounding it.
     My classmate Cyneatha lived most of her life in Elkhart, growing up a few blocks from AMBS without actually knowing what it was and not really having any reason to know.  Many residents of the city of Elkhart don’t have anything to do with those buildings on the south edge of town.  I’ve heard that some wonder whether it’s a monastery or some other exclusive institution.
     Less than a year after I left AMBS, a family of 6 in the town of Elkhart became victims of an act of violence that shocked the whole community.  Elkhart is about half an hour from a headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan, a group I knew from history books and movies, but that I barely realized were secreted away beneath the surface of well-ordered Midwestern American towns.  In the middle of one night like any other, these two parents of 4 young children woke up to smell and see a symbol of hatred and intimidation on their lawn – a burning cross.  The newspapers only stated a simple reason that they had become victims – they were an interracial couple.  They married someone with a skin colour different from their own.
     The couple also ran a restaurant in Elkhart where they were committed to building relationships with people in their community.  After the cross burning, some students and staff of AMBS initiated some acts of solidarity with the family who had been victims.  In groups and with no great trumpet blasts or Bristol board signs, students, staff, and faculty started carpooling downtown to eat at the couple’s restaurant at lunch. 
     These quiet acts of solidarity preceded a much more obvious action.  The organization “Unity Being United”, based in Indianapolis, initiated the planning of a community solidarity day.  This would be a day when residents of Elkhart would gather together, to stand beside the Williams family, and to make it clear that what had happened wasn’t right.  The named goals of this day were to demonstrate that their communities are not places of fear and hatred, to walk with those who are affected by fear and hate crimes, to identify next steps toward a hate-free community, and to encourage others to step out for understanding and justice.
     The goal was one of revelation – of shining a light on the secret and sinister gatherings that brought about this act of hatred, and of making known the mystery of Christ whose cross is meant to represent powerful love and the breaking down of barriers.  And through the energy and initiation of certain individuals in the AMBS community, the seminary found itself deeply involved in this community solidarity day, not in their own bubble on the edge of town but moving literally to its centre.  On that rainy Saturday more than 200 people gathered at AMBS to begin a 2 mile walk for peace and unity through Elkhart and ending at Civic Plaza downtown.  In walking with people who shared their community and in the presentations downtown, participants witnessed to a vision for different ways of interacting as communities.  Children and adults spoke openly of their hopes for a community in which people do not live in fear of each other, the kind of fear that leads to secrets, the kind of secrets that lead to violence.
     Many faith communities were involved in this day, and as I think of AMBS, the community that I know myself, I believe that it is through actions like these that “through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known”.
     Through Advent we waited for God to burst into our experience as God burst into our world long ago in the life of a tiny baby.  And now, since all we do is a response to what God has already done, we are called and equipped to break out into the lives of people around us, into the patterns of our society, to shed light on the secrets that keep people trapped and to reveal the mystery hidden for ages in God – to make known the wisdom of God in its rich variety.
     Herod’s fear led to secrecy that eventually harmed many people.  What fears do we harbour that God needs to reveal to us?  What do we need to do to break out of these secret fears? 
     What fears do we see in evidence in our communities?  How can we make known the wisdom of God in which there is no fear, for perfect love casts out all fear?  This is not only an individual question.  Paul says that it is the church that does this.  In Paul’s time the church by its very nature made known the wisdom of God, as Jews and Gentiles joined together in worshipping God who had been born among them in Jesus.  Two cultures came together in a mystery of unity that was hard to achieve elsewhere in society.  For AMBS, they felt the call to break out into their community to stand alongside people who were being oppressed and to boldly proclaim a different vision.  Where might we be called to stand together as the Church in acting out the boundless riches of Christ?
     In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus speaks to his followers about those who might persecute them for their beliefs.  Jesus says in chapter 10: “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.  What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.”
     Arise, shine, for your light has come!  The glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  Lift up your eyes and look around.  Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice.  Then the nations will see, then your neighbours will be radiant, then the hearts of all those who are hurting or angry or afraid will thrill and rejoice.  The mystery that we have been given is not a secret to keep.  It is to be revealed in whatever way will be understood by those who are standing by as witnesses.
     “[Our] task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like [ourselves] gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!” (Eph 3:9-10, The Message)  May it be so.