Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday January 3, 2013 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved." Designated by the initials, (NRSV).

Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
Almighty and ever-living God, you revealed the incarnation of your Son by the brilliant shining of a star.
Shine the light of your justice always in our hearts and over all lands, and accept our lives as the treasure we offer
in your praise and for your service, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Isaiah 60: 1 - 6 (NRSV)
1 Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
2 For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the LORD will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
3 Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
4 Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms.
5 Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Mid'ian and E'phah;
all those from She'ba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praise of the LORD.
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 72 (NRSV)  
1 Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king's son.
2 May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness.
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor.
5 May he live while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth.
7 In his days may righteousness flourish
and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
8 May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9 May his foes bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust.
10 May the kings of Tar'shish and of the isles
render him tribute,
may the kings of She'ba and Se'ba
bring gifts.
11 May all kings fall down before him,
all nations give him service.
12 For he delivers the needy when they call,
the poor and those who have no helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
and precious is their blood in his sight.
15 Long may he live!
May gold of She'ba be given to him.
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all day long.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: Ephesians 3: 1 - 12 (NRSV)
1 This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--
2 for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you,
3 and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words,
4 a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.
5 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:
6 that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7 Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power.
8 Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ,
9 and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things;
10 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.
11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,
12 in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 2: 1 - 12 (NRSV)
1 In the time of King Her'od, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
2 asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."
3 When King Her'od heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;
4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
6 "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"
7 Then Her'od secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.
8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."
9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.
10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Her'od, they left for their own country by another road.
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

On the church calendar, this week brings us to the end of the Christmas season
and the beginning of another season, Epiphany.
The word, Epiphany, means shining out.
In this season, we contemplate the many ways Christ shone out in our world
and the ways He continues to shine out for us, around us, and even through us.
The original shining out of Christ is the visit of the Magi.
People of foreign nations were drawn to Him,
and their visit has become a symbol of the universality of Christ.
It is no accident that the story is recorded only in the Gospel of Matthew.
In Matthew we find an interesting split personality:
While Matthew shows us the clearest link between the emerging Christian Church and the traditions of Judaism,
Matthew also universalizes the message of Christ.
He shows us that the good news of salvation is for all people,
not just for a select few.
The Magi were not only unacceptable within the Jewish community into which Jesus was born;
they were foreign, not even worshippers of Yahweh, and they practiced some form of astrology.
Among more conservative Christians,
they would still be highly unacceptable,
but they came to worship the newborn King of the Jews.
God is always wanting to draw all kinds of people into the communities of faith,
and sometimes it's hard to convince the people already in those communities
to receive the new people with love and open arms.
Not much is known about the Magi, but people have been fascinated by them since their story was first told,
and so many different legends have grown up around them.
The term Magi itself could have many different meanings,
but it is the very word from which we get our English word, "magic."
The term magi comes from a Persian (or Farsi) word
that refers to a special, priestly class of people who were careful students of the stars
and who likely could have interpreted the meaning of a sign
which God may have set in the Heavens to signify the coming of the Savior.
Historians and Christian astronomers and astrologers have long speculated about just what that sign may have been.
We call it the Star of Bethlehem,
but it may have been a convergence of planets, a comet, or any number of possible celestial phenomena.
One well known possibility is the convergence of Jupiter and Saturn within the constellation Pisces.
As such it would have spoken of the birth of a world ruler among the Jews
whose coming would mark the start of a new age of the world.
Our own period of history has seen a well known, similar transition, from the Age of Pisces,
which began with the birth of Christ,
to the age of Aquarius, whose beginnings we are witnessing now.
Exactly what these astrological ages signify is not always clear,
but a period of major cultural and religious change
is surely indicated.
When it comes to the usefulness of astrology in describing our lives in this world,
I would suggest caution.
Not that I consider astrology to be anything evil;
quite the contrary,
one of the verses in the Song of Creation, the verse of the fourth day,
involves the creation of the stars.
God said, "Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years..." (Genesis 1:14b)
If they are to be for signs,
then somebody needs to study them to see what can be known about the meaning of those signs.
That somebody would be an astrologer.
At the same time, I think astrology is of very little value in predicting events.
It simply provides us with a collection of metaphors
to help us communicate about the "signs and the seasons" of our time.
Besides, the most basic principle of all occult science is that the lower reflects the higher.
There is a relationship of reflection between all levels of existence.
Otherwise, how do people and their pets sometimes begin to resemble each other?
OK
So I'm being a little bit tongue-in-cheek here,
but I do believe that there is something to be learned from the ancient wisdom
which the Magi themselves used to find their way to the birthplace of the One
Whom they knew by their art
would be the savior of the world.
Even more important is that something is to be learned from the Gospel according to St. Matthew.
Wherever we may want to draw the lines between acceptable people and unacceptable people,
God is looking outside those lines to find His children,
people who belong to Him,
whom He will draw to Himself and make His own.
We try to set limits, but God keeps going beyond them.
It was especially important to Matthew to find grace reaching beyond the boundaries
if the traditions of the church are correct about him.
If Matthew is also Levi, then the disciple and evangelist
was once a tax collector,
a hated collaborator with the Roman pagans who had conquered God's country.
Jesus chose just such a man
to show that God's grace does not respect human limits
no matter how important those limits may sometimes seem to us.
Who are the Magi of today?
Well, who are the people that you think are beyond the pale?
God is at work among them, too,
just as He was at work among pagan astrologers
who would not have been acceptable to the people of God,
and yet who found their way to the place where the Christ child awaited them.
They knelt before Him and worshipped Him as their king,
so they are our brothers in Christ,
no matter where they came from
and no matter what method they used to chart their course.
You see a lot of this theme in my preaching.
You hear a lot from me about
what we learn this week from the Magi, the Three Kings of ancient fame,
that God is not terribly impressed by our political and religious accomplishments.
He is not impressed by countries that fight and try to destroy each other.
He is not impressed by our religious denominations,
no matter how sure we are that we alone have the truth.
God is impressed by a humble, loving heart,
the one to be found in a human being
who will kneel next to a pagan astrologer
and offer his or her own gifts of devotion and discipleship
alongside the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.
Our Lord's Prayer
Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever,
Amen.
Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +