What changes is that God steps into the darkness and gives light as a gift!
Isaiah 60:1-6
January 5, 2025
Dr. Todd R. Wright
I know what you are expecting today – a sermon about the Magi!
Every year, on Epiphany Sunday, Christians tell the story of visitors from the East who follow a star seeking the Messiah.
We love their story: We sing carols about them. We include them in our Christmas pageants, with kids dressing up in paper crowns. And we decorate with stars of all shapes and sizes.
Did you ever wonder why?
Matthew tells the story of the Magi because it is a fulfillment of scripture, and Matthew has a weakness for anything that rings that bell!
So today we are going to focus on the source scripture – the one that baits the hook for a tale of strangers from outside Israel who follow the light to Israel – Isaiah 60!
You know this scripture! Handel draws on it for one of the signature choruses in the Messiah: “The glory of the Lord is risen upon thee!” As Juliana Claassens reminds us, “Every year when we hear these texts proclaimed through Handel’s masterful musical rendition, we are reminded that no matter how dark, how desolate our personal and collective lives may have become, once more, light has broken into the dark, and we are encouraged to ‘arise and shine.’”[1]
But it is possible that while we are familiar with the words, we have forgotten the context.
I want to focus, briefly, on three things not be missed in this passage:
First, Isaiah begins by shouting to those in the darkness, “Arise, shine, for your light has come!” Then he gives a weather forecast: “Darkness shall cover the earth. And thick clouds the peoples.”[2]
One scholar muses, “Thick clouds connote not just darkness but potentially destructive weather patterns …”[3] It made me think of the dire weather predictions made for this week under the headline “Is the polar vortex on the way?”[4]
Here’s how they answered their own question: “Much colder air is predicted to arrive in waves across the U.S. over the first week to 10 days of January.” AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski warned, "The severity of the cold air could be dangerous, damaging and disruptive!"
So what was the equivalent of a polar vortex facing Isaiah’s congregation?
Historians remind us that “the original recipients of this prophetic word were Jews living in Judah following the Babylonian exile. Living in reduced circumstances amidst the rubble of a wealthier time, [any] visions of a glorious Zion [were] a distant fantasy. Zion, both the geographical locale as well the idea of a sacred bond between people, place, and God, was in ruins.”[5]
Like a polar vortex, the exile and its aftermath were dangerous, disruptive, and damaging to Israel. Isaiah calls it a time of darkness. We’ve seen what that darkness does to people’s spirits:
Our neighbors in Puerto Rico started the new year in the dark after a “problem with a power line in the south caused a ‘cascade effect’ that led to multiple power plants failing” and cut power to most of the island.[6] Just as after Hurricane Marta in 2017, they feel abandoned.
The people of Ukraine were plunged into darkness after Russia “launched a massive missile and drone barrage targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure, prompting Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas morning.”[7] Russia hopes to break their spirits.
Gazans know that damaging dark too. Reporters for the NY Times wrote in November, “Gazans are living through a yearlong blackout. Israel cut off electricity in the first days of the war, leaving Palestinians to light the dark with cellphones and to cook over open flames.”[8]
And now the families of 15 people killed in New Orleans have also been cast into darkness.
Take heart, Isaiah proclaims! It is to people stuck in the dark that God’s promises light!
Notice, though, that the light comes, not because a power line is fixed, or a war ended, or random violence prevented. The world goes on bloodying people’s bodies and breaking their hearts, then and now. What changes is that God steps into the darkness and gives light as a gift!
Which leads to the second point: this gift is not just for Israel. It is not a miracle light to keep the menorah in the Temple burning for eight days. That’s been done before. Instead, it is the gift of a light that shines bright enough to cross the border and be seen by their neighbors.
Isaiah promises, “Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” Matthew hears this verse and connects it to the story of the Magi!
Isaiah is drawing on a long tradition of God calling Israel to be a blessing to the nations.
I think he is also saying that even though it may look like Israel is in ruins, and the Gentiles are secure in their familiar role as their oppressors, in fact, they are just as in need of God’s light as Israel. They are drawn to it, like a moth to a flame.
And when they come, Isaiah says, they will not come empty handed.
Which leads to our third point: Isaiah says, “The wealth of the nations shall come to you!” delivered by camels from Midian, and Ephah, and from Sheba, bringing gold and frankincense.
Again, you can see why Matthew finds such significance in Magi bringing gold and frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. It is an echo of Isaiah’s prophecy, a fulfillment even!
But there is more. Cory Driver observes,
“These Arab and Afro-Arab tribes were not chosen at random. They were the other descendants of Abraham, with Hagar and Keturah whom Abraham sent away from his son Isaac so that they might not take what was his. Abraham gave these other descendants gifts before banishing them. Then Abraham gave Isaac everything [else].”[9] Driver continues, “In the poetic promise of Isaiah, God undoes Abraham’s banishment and restriction of inheritance to Isaac. The tribes return, bearing gifts, and they are in turn welcomed to share in the greatest inheritance of Abraham: community with the God of Israel at its center.”[10]
Just to be clear: their gifts are not a get-rich scheme for Israel, but a sign of reconciliation.
So on this Epiphany Sunday, embrace the gift Isaiah offers, on God’s behalf: “arise, shine, for your light has come!”
Let it shine for everyone to see.
God will use it to draw people, and not just magi from the East, but neighbors and strangers; people with power and those who are broken; insiders and outsiders and people who have never even thought about picking a side. They will come when they see God’s light … in you! Amen
[1] From her reflections on the text for workingpreacher.org, 1/6/23
[2] Isaiah 60:2a from The Tanakh, from the Jewish Publication society
[3] From Callie Plunket Brewton’s reflections on the text for workingpreacher.org, 1/6/16
[5] Also from Callie Plunket Brewton’s reflections on the text for workingpreacher.org, 1/6/16
[9] See Genesis 25:1-4, 12-13 and Genesis 25:5-6
[10] From his reflections on the text for workingpreacher.org, 1/6/22
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