Epiphany, 2012

Text: Ephesians 3:1-12

The Rev. Jerry Kistler

St. Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church

Montrose, Colorado

“The Mystery Revealed”

The revelation of the mystery. The epiphany moment, when the lights come on and the truth is finally revealed. That’s what we celebrate today on this Feast of the Epiphany. Throughout the centuries today has also be called “The Feast of Lights” and “The Theophany,” or the shining forth of Christ to the world, and the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, as represented by the Magi from the East.

And our epistle lesson today comes from the book of Ephesians where the apostle Paul tells us that a great mystery has been revealed –a mystery that in previous ages had not been made known to God’s people, but now had finally be revealed by the Holy Spirit to His apostle and prophets. The epiphany moment had come, and Paul was declaring it and making it known to the Church.

Now that’s not to say that this great mystery was wholly hidden in ages past. There had been many clues all along.

Here’s a clue. It comes from the Book of Genesis where, just after the flood, Noah is blessings his sons Shem and Japheth. And Noah says,

“Blessed be the Lord,

The God of Shem,

And may Canaan be his servant.

May God enlarge Japheth,

And my he dwell in the tents of Shem.” (Gen. 9:26, 27)

Well, who was Shem? He was the father of the Shemites, No great mystery there. But it’s from the word “Shemites” that we get our word “Semites,” which is, of course, another name for the Jews, and all the other peoples who descend from Shem.

But who was Japheth? If we trace out his descendants in the Book of Genesis, we find that Japheth is father of such peoples and nations as the Greeks and the Romans and the Russians and other European and Asian peoples—the Gentiles. And here Noah is saying that the blessing will ultimately come upon the Japhethites, upon the Gentiles, as they are made to dwell in the tents of Shem—the Semites. The Gentiles’ blessing will come upon them through a union with the Jews in some way.

Now like in any great mystery, that’s a pretty opaque clue. But it is clue, nonetheless, and we need to store it away in our minds.

Here are another couple of clues. They also come from the Book of Genesis, and again like in any good mystery the clues start to get a little clearer as we go along. God says to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” and again in chapter 22, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” Those turn out to be some of the most important clues in all the Old Testament.

But there are others. The prophet Isaiah writes in chapter 56 of his prophecy,

“The sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants – everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast my covenant – even them I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer… For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Is. 56:6, 7).

And finally, there’s the almost painfully obvious clue in the Book of Zechariah:

“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become my people..” (Zech. 2:10, 11).

So what is this great mystery that finally reaches its epiphany moment only with a special revelation of the Holy Spirit to the apostles? It’s not merely that the Gentiles should be given salvation by faith in Christ. That had already been clearly revealed. The great new revelation given to the apostles was that the Gentiles—Greeks and Romans, Russians and Germans, Africans and Asians—should not just be saved alongside of Israel, but that they, in fact, should be made members of Israel, members of the one holy nation, members of God’s special people, to whom the promise of salvation had been given. “Fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of [God’s] promise in Christ through the gospel,” Paul says in here Ephesians 3. “Fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,” he says in Ephesians 2. “Wild branches engrafted into God’s cultivated vine.” That’s the very picturesque image he gives us in Romans. But it’s not just the apostle Paul who reveals this mystery.

St. Peter writes to the Gentile believers in Asia and says, You are now “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people… who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.” If you know your Old Testament—and I know you do—you know that these words were originally spoken to Israel. Now they’re applied to Gentiles in the Church. For, you see, from the New Testament’s perspective the Church of Jesus Christ is Israel, the New Covenant Israel, in which there is neither Jew nor Gentiles, slave nor free, male nor female, for all are one in the one body of Jesus Christ.

That is the Mystery revealed. That is the great Epiphany given to the apostles and prophets of the New Testament for the sake of the Church. That you and I are now members of Israel—the seed of Abraham in The Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ.

So what does it matter? I mean, I read mystery novels simply for my own amusement. They don’t affect the way I live my life. Is the mystery of the Gentile inclusion into the people of God like that--a mere amusement? Something that’s kind of interesting, but not anything that affects our lives very much?

Well, I’d like you to consider what it would be like for you – you Gentiles – if things remained the way they were under the Old Covenant. You know, in the temple in Jerusalem around the time of Christ, there were several concentric courts that got smaller and smaller as you approached the temple proper. The temple itself was divided into two sections. And each section and each court represented a greater level of restricted access to God. So there was the Holy of Holies that only the High Priest could enter once a year. Then there was the Holy Place that only the priests could enter. Then there was the court of Israel that only Jewish males could enter. Then there was the Court of the Women, which was a far as the women could go, and was also only open to members of the Jewish nation. Outside of this court and surrounding the temple enclosure was the Court of the Gentiles. And what separated it off from the other courts was a little wall about thirty inches high which bore inscriptions written in Greek at every gateway warning Gentiles to refrain from entering the Temple enclosure on pain of death. "Let no one of any other nation come within the fence and barrier around the Holy Place. Whosoever will be taken doing so will himself be responsible for the fact that his death will ensue."

Now can you imagine coming to church one Sunday and being faced with a sign like that at our front door? But that’s what it would be like if things remained the way they were under the Old Covenant.

So do you like to pray? Do you like the fact that you have access to God on his throne, not just in some stone temple, and not ever here in this building, but in the very Holy of Holies of heaven itself? The book of Hebrews says we now have boldness to come to the throne of grace that we might find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16). That’s only because in Christ we Gentiles believers with the faithful Jews have been incorporated together into one body, the New Israel, the holy nation, the Church of Jesus Christ. “For He Himself is our peace,” says Paul in Ephesians 2, “who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation” (Eph. 2:14).

And so the first way this great mystery-revealed ought to affect our lives is that it ought to motivate our thanks and our praise of God for His mercy to us Gentiles in reaching out to us and drawing us in to be members of His special people: that we who had not obtained mercy have now obtained mercy, and we who were once not a people are now the people of God.

And secondly, this great mystery revealed, ought also to motivate our mission.

You know, in many mystery novels, or in any novel for that matter, there are often hints to a sequel or to some greater future working out of the story. And that’s true of the great story of redemption also. We’ve been given more than a few hints. We’re given a promise: that all the families of the earth and all the nations of the earth will blessed in the Seed of Abraham. That’s the promise and the hope of the gospel.

But we’re not just given a promise, we also given a command: to go out and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things the Lord Christ has commanded. The blessing has come to us. We’ve been made disciples. We’ve been baptized. We’ve been taught. We’re now under the command of Christ. We’re obligated now to go, and to bring the blessing to others until the time the fulfillment, until the time when they mystery is complete, until the time when the full number of the Gentiles has been brought in, and the kingdom of Christ is consummated. That’s our mission.

So on this Feast of Epiphany, this Feast of Lights, the lights have come on, the mystery has been revealed, the truth has shined out into the world that you and I – Gentiles everyone of us – have been made fellow heirs with the Old Testament saints and been given unrestricted access to God to find grace to help in time of need. This is our Epiphany moment, and it ought to motivate us to give thanks and praise to God for his mercy, and to take up our mission to bring the blessing of the seed of Abraham to all the families of earth. +