Rev. Scott Summerville

Matthew 2:1-12

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.’”

Then Herod summoned the magi secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared; and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

When Christians think about what it means to live a faithful life, a good life, naturally we think of the great commandment: “You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” And we think of how Jesus put together that great commandment with a second commandment of the Jewish law (torah): “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus took that core teaching of torah and added a radical dimension when he taught us that even our enemy is our neighbor – even our enemy is one we should love. How many of us have ever really absorbed that message?

To live in love – love for self, love for God, love for neighbor, love for enemy – this is the core of the Gospel; this is what being a disciple of Jesus Christ is fundamentally about. The first and most important dimension of Christian life is the dimension of love. But on this Epiphany Sunday, in these first days of a new year and a new decade, I declare to you that right up there among the most important qualities of a faithful life is this:

to live with all our senses tuned to the glory and wonder of creation,
to live with deep curiosity and fascination,
to be an explorer and a discoverer.

Most of you know that I have a personal tradition associated with Epiphany Sunday, the Sunday we tell the story of the Magi who followed the star to Bethlehem. In the days before Epiphany is celebrated I read all the stories I can get my hands on concerning the most significant discoveries of the previous year. I read all the top 10 lists: Scientific American, Discover Magazine, Biblical Archaeological Review, Time Magazine, and many more. I pick six or eight stories that particularly appeal to my imaginatio. In my Epiphany message I highlight those discoveries and the people who made them. I had intended to continue that tradition this year; in fact I read all the usual lists. I love to do it. The more you read of these discoveries in astronomy, physics, archaeology, genetics, biomechanics, human evolution, computer science – you can’t help feeling a sense of excitement and wonder at this amazing universe and at being part of this species, homo sapien, who have been given the gift of intellect and the gift of curiosity to be explorers, discovers in this fascinating universe.

But this year, rather than tell you of the discoveries that seemed particularly fascinating to me, I ask you to focus on your own discoveries. Certainly go read about the discoveries of others and be inspired by them – be inspired to be, yourself, an explorer. Have you ever discovered something? My brothers and I did.

The year was 1960. Our family was at Lake Chautauqua, where my mother’s annual family reunion was held. My uncle had a cottage on the lake. The kids would swim in the lake while the adults ate and talked. The lake bottom was muddy and full of weeds and mussels. We would dive down and grab the mussels out of the mud and bring them up and toss them into the canoe. We were pretending to be treasure hunters gathering treasure from a sunken ship. At one point my younger brother tossed what he thought was a mussel into the canoe, but it hit the canoe with a loud bang; it did not sound like the others had sounded. My older brother picked it up and rinsed off the mud, and realized he was holding in his hands a Native American tomahawk.

It was almost perfect. So smooth and beautifully shaped, rounded on all sides except where it came to a sharp edge. Our imaginations went wild. We imagined all the battles this tomahawk had been through. Later we brought this to a collector who was an expert in Native American artifacts. To our disappointment, he told us that this was not an implement of war; it was a hand tool for chopping. That’s why it is so beautifully smooth and symmetrical, so that it could be held comfortably in the hand for long periods of time for domestic work. This artifact has stayed in our family. Every time I take it up in my hand I remember the thrill we had as boys when we first discovered it in the mud at Lake Chautauqua.

One of the great gifts of parenthood is that as a mother or father you are participating in a daily drama of discovery. The parent discovers the world again through the eyes of the child, and as we interact with our child we constantly learn new things about ourselves. The most common illusion of adults is the illusion that we have seen it all. We may think we know all we will ever know or need to know. We may stop looking deeply into things. When our daughter was about three years old she was playing in the sandbox with her mother looking on, but her mother was distracted and had her mind on other things. Our daughter was doing what kids do, discovering and creating and constantly sharing her discoveries, “Mommy, look at this! Mommy, look at this! See how I made this!” Mommy was answering perfunctorily, “Yes, it’s beautiful… Yes, that’s wonderful.” Then our daughter said with all the sincerity and innocence of a child, “Mommy, how is it that grown-ups can see things without looking at them?”

How can one be a Christian and believe oneself to be a child of God living in a universe that is God’s creation, full of endless mystery and wonder – how can one be a child of God in such a universe and not be curious and amazed and want to take each day as an opportunity to see more, to experience more, to explore like the wandering magi explored when they followed the star?
Again, I declare to you that among the most important qualities of a faithful life is this:

to live with all our senses tuned to the glory and wonder of creation,
to live with deep curiosity and fascination,
to break through the illusion that we have seen it all –
no matter how much any of us has seen, we have barely scratched the surface of this mysterious creation. If the truth be told, none of us even really knows much about ourselves — there is a universe out there and there is a universe within each of us – and they are equally mysterious.

The first commandment of God is to love.
But maybe the most basic command of all is to be alive, consciously and enthusiastically alive.

A blessed new year to all of you, my fellow journeyers, my fellow explorers.

Shalom.