Epiphany: The Call of God
God Calls All
Matthew 2:1-12
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. January 3, 2021
I have mentioned Augustine of Hippo a few times, since I’ve been here. I can’t help but quote him. Maybe I should tell his story if I’m going to keep referring to him. Augustine was a bishop in the late Roman Empire. Hippo, the seat that he served, was in modern day Algeria in North Africa. But Augustine wasn’t always a Christian. He talks about his early life and conversion in his book Confessions.
Augustine was born to a modest african family. His mother, Monica, was a devout Christian while his father was a pagan most of his life. So Augustine was pulled each way. He was a spectacular student and studied rhetoric. His skills as an orator would eventually bring him to Rome. But first he studied in a city called Carthage. There he fell in with the other young men who were boastful and licentious. But Augustine was a very introspective young man, and knew he wanted more in life than wine and women. He studied the works of a philosopher named Cicero, and soon fell in with a religious sect known to history as the Manicheans. Maybe you’ve heard of them before. They believed there were two forces in the world, good and evil, and these forces were always at odds.
Augustine studied the Manicheans closely, but very quickly lost interest in them. He began reading Platonists, because they seemed closer to the truth. But even then his interest began to wane. All the way through his mother Monica would pray for him, and acted as a witness calling him back to the faith she baptized him in. But Augustine knew he’d have to give up his life with his friends if he became a Christian. One time he prayed, “Lord, make me chaste and continent, but not yet.”
When Augustine turned 31 he finally converted to Christianity, and the story he tells in the Confessions is vivid. He was outside resting when he heard a child’s voice playfully sing “tolle lege, tolle lege” which is latin for “take up and read! take up and read!” Accepting the prompting he picked up a copy of Paul’s letter to the Romans he had handy. And this is what he read, “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” For Augustine this passage was enough. He wrote, “Belatedly I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I loved thee. For see, thou wast within and I was without, and I sought thee out there. Unlovely, I rushed heedlessly among the lovely things thou hast made. Thou wast with me, but I was not with thee. These things kept me far from thee; even though they were not at all unless they were in thee. Thou didst call and cry aloud, and didst force open my deafness. Thou didst gleam and shine, and didst chase away my blindness. Thou didst breathe fragrant odors and I drew in my breath; and now I pant for thee. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burned for thy peace.”
Augustine opens his confessions by saying, “our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they find their rest in you.” Looking back at his life he sees that he was always restless. All the philosophies, all the experiences, everything the world had to offer, was not enough for the young man. He needed to rest in the one he was made for. All his searching, all his desiring, he came to discover, was for God in Christ. And so he surrendered. He accepted Jesus Christ as Lord.
What Augustine came to realize, then, was that God called him. As God called Augustine of Hippo, so God calls each and every one of us. This feast of the Epiphany, this day we set aside at the end of the Christmas season, is a time to remind ourselves of God’s call for everyone and the importance of being awake, alert, and observant. Eventually God’s call got through to Augustine, and he learned to hear. Have you heard God’s call for your life?
In our Gospel reading we see the contrast between the insiders and the outsiders. The Jerusalem establishment and the pagan wise men. The Jerusalem establishment has everything necessary to recognize Jesus’ birth. They know Balaam’s prophecy about a star, “a star will come out of Jacob.” They know that he is to be born in Bethlehem, as the scribes recount. They possess all the prophecies, all the scriptures, and Bethlehem is in their backyard. But when the pagan astrologers show up, offering gifts to the newborn king whose star they witnessed, everyone is deathly frightened. No one was looking for a Messiah. Who needed a Messiah? They had Herod. He was good enough. And Herod certainly wasn’t going to step aside for any man. Let alone an infant.
The astrologers, the wise men, lacked any of those benefits. They likely had never heard of Bethlehem. Jerusalem was far away. They had no Old Testament. They were not familiar with the prophecies. All they have are the stars. Stars they had been trained to observe since their youth. They knew how to silence their minds and their hearts, and how to observe, and how to let the stars speak to them. The practice of astrology is not looked on very kindly in the Old Testament. A prophet, after all, has no need of the stars he or she can simply go to the one who made the stars. But even so God chose to speak through a star. Because God calls everyone, even the pagan astrologers.
Christ is the light, and his light shines over the earth. He calls and beckons all of good heart and good will to follow him. He calls all who are restless to rest in him. But all it takes is for us to look. To really look. Then we will see the works of Jesus. Then we will see his abounding grace and wondrous love. When we silence our hearts to listen for his call, when we truly look, we may see and hear.
That is, after all, how it went for Augustine. He had all sorts of reasons not to listen. But one day he did. And it happened so off the cuff. It happened in such an ordinary way. But he listened. He listened to the gospel, he heard the calling of God. And he followed. And his life truly began.