[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Epiphany thoughts

[Joseph Parrish]

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Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Fr HC Smith" <howard.smith at anglican.org.au>
> Date: December 29, 2010 3:52:03 AM EST
> To: "Propertalk" <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org>
> Subject: [propertalk.topic] Epiphany thoughts
> Reply-To: propertalk.topic at ecunet.org
> 

> Friends,
> Here are a few Australian thoughts towards a sermon for Epiphany Sunday.
> Best wishes for a rewarding 2011.
> Howard
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> * Today the Church observes a feast with a funny name: The Epiphany; it especially remembers the visit of the Wise Men to the Holy Family some time after the birth of Jesus.
> + We guess it was some time later, because they went to a
> "house" and not to an inn; and also because when King Herod
> took his revenge he had all the young children "under two years old" killed.
> + The thing we are asked to note is that these wise men who
> came to Jesus were not Jews, they came from foreign lands;
> - and yet they came to worship Jesus.
> + In this story God is teaching us that the Kingdom which Jesus
> preached about is for all people in the world.
> 
> * Then in our reading today from Ephesians, we heard the same teaching from Paul, the great leader of the early Christian Church.
> + He says : "God has let the Gentiles (all those people who are
> not Jews, including us in the 21 cent), become part of the people of God".
> + And that's a lesson we still need to hear and learn today.
> - there are still folk about, who think that only certain people can be part of God's Kingdom;
> - and people make up all sorts of rules about who is included:
> - e.g. only people who believe certain ideas, especially
> religious ideas, like believing in Jesus as one's own personal Saviour
> - or only people who behave in certain ways, like people who
> go to church, or who don't go to the pub;
> - or only people with a certain coloured skin, such as white Europeans;
> - or only people who are perfect, and never do anything seriously wrong.
> + But that's not what God says in the Bible: the Kingdom is open
> to all people: Jesus comes to give "blessings that cannot be
> measured". God has so much love to share that we can't put
> any limits on it at all.
> + The Wise Men we remember today, came from an entirely
> different religion, - they weren't Jews, they didn't worship
> YHWH, and they believed in astrology (which was frowned
> upon in the Torah, the Jewish Law)
> - and yet they were still welcome at God's great miracle, at
> the sign of God's New World, they were welcomed into the
> presence of Jesus & the Holy Family.
> - They didn't have to conform first to some fixed pattern or
> idea of believing or behaving,
> - all they had to do was to come to Jesus, bringing their
> special gifts, probably really drawn by the Holy Spirit.
> + And the same is true for us in 2011: all we have to do is to come to Jesus,
> - bringing our own selves, with our own unique gifts, skills,
> knowledge: bring it all to Jesus who will accept us, and give
> us the blessings of being welcome in the Kingdom of God.
> + And one of those blessings is that we will learn to accept all
> other people too, in the same way God accepts us.
> + If and when we do that we are well on the way to getting rid of
> war, violence, cruelty, discrimination, and all those other nasty
> habits we humans have picked up.
> + Just as Paul had to learn that God treated him with kindness,
> we can profit from the same lesson.
> + We all want a better world, that's why we elect new
> governments from time to time - we hope and pray they will do
> better than the last lot.
> + Sadly other people resort to violence, trying to achieve similar ends
> - like suicide bombers in various parts of the world,
> - or the ongoing terror in Israel-Palestine.
> + But all such attempts only seem to make things worse rather than better;
> - the challenge of this Feast of the Epiphany is for us to become "Wise Men",
> - to realise that God wants us to destroy our barriers by love,
> accepting each other as fellow citizens of God's Kingdom.
> 
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> The Rev'd Dr H.C. Smith
> Retired Anglican Priest
> Orange NSW
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> 
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