Sermon for Epiphany of our Lord
Star Gifts
By The Rev. Christie Webb -
‘Tis the gift giving and getting season! So a few questions for you:
- What is the best gift you gave this holiday season?
- What is the best gift you received this holiday season?
The best gift I gave is probably a coloring book I gave my sister. It was perfectly timed because the day before we had discovered family coloring and coloring was all the fashion for our 4 days in Arizona.
The best gift I got was from Dave- a very snuggly sweat suit. I’m not a sweat suit person, but he had seen it on Oprah’s favorite things and bought it for me… I’ve worn it for part of most days since.
Today on this day of Epiphany, we celebrate the day that the Magi arrived to greet Baby Jesus. They came bearing gifts of course, so I’ve been thinking about gifts. I’ve been thinking about the gifts the wise ones brought. Gold, which is a sign of kingship, long associated with the gods. Frankincense, an expensive incense. Myrrh, a prized perfume, both usually reserved for someone with high status. They are gifts royalty would expect, but they seem out of place in a humble home in Bethlehem. One of my favorite retellings of this story is in a video for kids and the kings bring their gifts to the baby and he bites down on the gold and tosses it away, smells the strong perfumes and sneezes. They are impractical gifts for a baby. They are also foreshadowing gifts, as myrrh was used at burial, and will be used at Jesus burial. You know the joke, right. You know what would have happened if there had been three wise WOMEN instead of three wise MEN, don't you?
They would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and given practical gifts, like diapers, and blankets.
I don’t know what would have been better, diapers and blankets or gold and costly spices. They all seem to pale in comparison to the gift the wise ones, those seekers who follow the stars in the heavens, come to find in that little town of Bethlehem. They brought gifts, but they left with the biggest gift of all, finding that which they sought, the king unlike any other king. It got me thinking about our lives, and about how we try so often to bring gifts to God, to earn or deserve God’s love, but those gifts are nothing in the face of the love we are showered with through grace, by no merit of our own. It makes no difference what we bring, we are loved, we are given light, we are changed.
It seems to me an important reminder a week into the new year, that we are loved by God through grace, not by our own merit. Even just a few days into 2024, I suspect many have made a resolution or two and already broken them. It is like a meme posted by Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber about New Year’s resolutions: It says: yearly reminder: there is no resolution that if kept will make you more worthy of love. You, as your actual self, not as some made-up ideal self, are already worthy.
We, as we are, without gifts or resolutions, or anything we can do or be or bring, we are so very loved by God, just as we are. Loved so much that God came to be with us, to show us that love, to bring us that light. We try to give the gifts, but in the end we receive way more than we ever can give.
So this year you are going to receive a gift, a stargift, a gift of light, a gift to enlighten your year to come. Stargifts are words on stars. They are words for you to focus on throughout the year, to help you watch for the ways God gifts you each and every day beyond what you could hope. In a moment we will send the offering plates down the rows filled with stars with these words. Yes, the plates where we often place our gifts will bring gifts to us today. And then you are invited to take that starword home with you, put it somewhere prominent to remind you of that gift God brings you. Then when you see it, reflect on how God is gifting you through that in your daily life.
For the past few years I’ve received a stargift. The first year I received the word CELEBRATE. It came to me in the first year of Thomas’s life, and I marked that word each time I celebrated a new milestone, every month, every growth, every movement.
The next year I received the word MONEY. Friends, I didn’t like that gift, so I left it alone and didn’t practice the reflection. But at the end of the year I looked back and regretted it, for it would have been a good gift to have money related things more in line with my values. Another year I got courage… it was one of those pandemic years, so I’m sure it was helpful.
I had big hopes for a great word last year, and I got perseverance. No one wants to start their year knowing it will need to be full of perseverance. But alas, it was an apt word. I had to persevere during the call process, as did you all, so that we could find our way to each other. I had to persevere when I looked at all the stuff in my basement as we worked to downsize and pack. I had to persevere on the drive out here, and in the unpacking, and up the steep learning curve that always comes with a job change. I guess sometimes God really does know the gifts we need in a year.
This year my word is Renewal.
When you receive your word, I invite you to take some time to reflect on it:
How do you feel about your word?
How does the word connect to your life?
What is one way you could live into your word in the coming week?
What scripture, phrase, or song can you carry with you to help you focus on your word?
Here is my initial reflection:
How do you feel about your word?There is such relief for me as I receive this.
How does the word connect to your life?I’m excited to practice renewal intentionally, to refresh, restart, fill my cup so I can keep pouring it back out in love to the world.
What is one way you could live into your word in the coming week? I’ve set a goal of watching the sunset on the beach as a moment of renewal.
What scripture, phrase, or song can you carry with you to help you focus on your word? From Isaiah: But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
I hope that this practice of receiving a word as a gift will be just that for you: a gift. A gift that guides you, like that star guided the wise ones. A gift that changes you, as the Christ child, that gift of love and light, changed us all. I would love to hear about your word- how it feels like it fits, or doesn’t fit. What you hope it will guide you to this year. All through this year in our newsletter I will put a question to help you keep considering this star gift and open us all to God’s guiding light through it.
I pray this blessing for you:
As stars have guided wise ones for centuries,
May your word guide you in the year ahead.
By the radiance of your star and the power of the Holy Spirit,
May you live with deeper intention and greater attention;
May you find the holy in delightfully unexpected places;
May you worship with joy, Give with gratitude,
And follow the new way home that God will provide.
Amen.
The Rev. Christie Webb
Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sermon for:
January 7, 2024
