Wise Men (and Women) Still Seek Him

Note: Today, January 16, Emanuel UCC is hosting a guest speaker, who will tell us of the challenges faced by Christians in Iraq. Guests are most welcome!! In place of a sermon, here's a message from Emanuel's January 2011 newsletter.

And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17

Happy 2011! As this newsletter goes to press, we give thanks to God for carrying us through the joys and challenges of 2010, and pray for God’s blessing in 2011. On the church calendar, it is the season of Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus to the world. In Matthew’s Gospel, Epiphany’s revelations begin with the visit of the Magi, Gentile “wise men” who came to pay homage to the Christ child. These revelations continue with the account of Jesus’ baptism, when a voice from heaven publicly proclaims Jesus to be God’s Son, the beloved, in whom God is well-pleased. We detour into John’s Gospel for a week, in which Jesus invites two of John the Baptist’s disciples to “come and see” where Jesus was staying, and where Jesus revealed Simon’s character by calling him Peter, meaning “Rock”. While Simon Peter’s character more often resembled shifting sand during the years in which Jesus walked the earth, after Christ’s resurrection, Peter did indeed become a rock of strength, a model of steadfast faith for the early church.

That’s often how it is for those seeking a deeper connection to their faith. We invite friends or neighbors to Emanuel Church, telling these friends to “come and see”. When these seekers “come and see” what God is doing at Emanuel Church, they may also gain new insight about their own lives, as they learn who they are and (more importantly) Whose they are. And like the Magi, they will not return by the same road they came. They cannot go back to their old lives and their old survival strategies. God will lead them on their journey of faith by another way. And perhaps, having “come and seen,” they will “go and tell” how God has blessed their lives.