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Just in case any of you are worried that I might be tempted to follow Ezra’s example and read from Scripture and preach until noon, you can relax!

But I do want to tell you more about Ezra, because he and Nehemiah together are two of the Old Testament Heroes. If at times  what I am about to say will sound more like a history lesson than a sermon, please appreciate that you cannot grasp the riches of the Old Testament without knowing at least something of its history and of God’s care for his chosen people. Jesus will certainly have learned about Ezra and Nehemiah and seen them as examples of faith and courage and of devotion to the God of Israel.

So now please turn your minds back several centuries, to the year 579 BCE. The kingdom of Israel had been constantly harassed by warlike neighbours. In 579 King Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria finally conquered them. He destroyed Jerusalem. He razed the Temple to the ground. He then carries off to Babylon all the Israelites of any importance whatsoever, not only the spiritual and civic leaders of the community but anyone who was literate or a competent farmer or who could be of use to him and his people He left only a poor remnant behind in Jerusalem.

Thus began the “Babylonian captivity”, but in fact it did not last very long. Fifty years later the Assyrians were in their turn conquered by the Persians. The Persian King, Hiram, heard the pleas of the captive Israelites who longed to return to their homes and to their own way of life. He agreed to let them go. Astonishingly, he agreed to defray the cost of restoring the Temple and to return the Temple treasures which Nebuchadnezzar had stolen. He did not want to offend the God of Israel.

When the captives, led by Ezra, returned to Jerusalem, they found that the poor remnant who had been left behind had done nothing to restore the Temple or the city. Still led by Ezra, they set to and restored the Temple as their first priority. This took about fifty years. During those years the Israelites were continually harassed by their warlike neighbours as before, who did not want a strong nation to grow up among them. The Israelites were not safe; the city walls were full of breaches and the gates had all been destroyed by fire.

News of this came to Nehemiah, an Israelite who had remained in Babylon. He was cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, who had succeeded King Hiram. Artaxerxes gave Nehemiah permission to go. When Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, he immediately put in hand the repair of the city walls and gates, and achieved this in only fifty-two days. (Think how long we sometimes have to wait to get anything done!) The surrounding hostile tribes were amazed at the speed. They realised that this could only have been done with the help of the God of the Israelites, and they were afraid.

So now at last we come to this morning’s reading! The Temple has been restored. The city is safe against attack.    Ezra sees that it is time for the people to be brought back to their proper way of life. So he calls them all to assemble in the main square. This was a huge gathering: forty-two thousand men and women, plus slaves. The people themselves asked Ezra to bring the books of the Law, to teach them about their God.

Ezra realised that after all their years without proper instruction, many of the people would be unable to understand what they were hearing. So he brought with him twelve interpreters, whose task was to answer the questions of the people and make sure that they fully understood all that they were hearing. The returnees from Babylon would probably also need translation from the Hebrew into their native Aramaic. The people were so moved when they heard the words of the Law that they began to weep. They realised how far away they had drifted from obedience to the Law.

But Ezra and Nehemiah would not allow this to be a day of lamentation. They declared it a holy day. They told the people to celebrate, to eat foods which were normally forbidden, and to make sure that everyone was catered for. Still in Jesus’ day and still today in the Jewish calendar the first day of the seventh month is a high holy day, the first day of the Jewish New Year.

Our reading this morning ends on a joyous note, and this is what we should take from it. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” The God who brought the Israelites back from Babylon and helped them to restore the Temple and the city of Jerusalem is our God, who stands with us and helps us in need. Let us praise and thank Him for his goodness. Alleluia.

Epiphany II 22nd January 2025 

A couple of verses from 'Under the Tree' by John Mole 

Under the tree, without a sound, 

The parcels pass themselves around 

And smile inside, not unaware 

Of all the reasons they are there. 

'Smile not unaware of all the reasons they are there.'

By now your tree will have been long gone. The presents? Well almost forgotten except the unexpected one, that was what you really wanted. Last week we celebrated the Epiphany and admired the gifts the Magi brought or handed over. Gold for kingship, frankincense for priesthood and myrrh for anointing. Costly, rich gifts for the Christ child and the template for our present giving at Christmas. Yet, in the frenzy of Christmas gifting we are often apt to forget the presents that God regularly and freely bestows upon us? 

St.Paul reminds us today, that we should not be ignorant of the gifts and talents we have each been blessed with. How did you come to discover that you had them? Who helped you to this discovery? How do you use your talents? And are you using them to their best advantage? If not, I suspect that you are feeling somewhat frustrated. If this is the case, then do something about it because not to use your God given gifts is to deny God's creative force within you. You will have been given your talents for a reason; and once you find that reason your talents will flow. 

Using our gifts is vital, not only to our own well being but for the well being of our friends, families and communities. For when we use our gifts we spark the gifts of God within others and encourage them to be creative as well. In doing so we learn how to work together and encourage each other in enabling each other to reach our full potential as human beings. Listen to God s promptings over the coming weeks and months and then respond to them as you become aware of the reasons why your gifts are there and as the poem says; ‘smile’.

Last Sunday we kept the Feast of the Epiphany, the revelation of Christ to the gentiles as represented by the Magi. Today we jump three decades in Jesus’ life to the turning point in his adult existence – his baptism. We know very little about Jesus’ childhood, adolescence or his twenties save that he was recognised by Simeon and Anna in the Temple as a baby and that when a little older stayed behind in Jerusalem in that same Temple, engaging in dialogue with the learned, causing his parents no end of worry.

Then we hear nothing until the day of his baptism and what a momentous day that was because it was at this point in Jesus’ story that we are given insight by God to whom Jesus really is. God proclaimed from heaven:

“This is my Son, my beloved, on whom my favour rests.” Matthew 3:17

This was also the moment that Jesus is inspired and motivated to begin his preaching and healing ministry; sharing the love of God and calling God’s people back to their Creator. Through his baptism Jesus is catapulted daily into our lives, just as much as he entered the lives of those around him during his earthly life and ministry. Jesus’ baptism was a new start for him, a significant turning point in his life and if our own baptisms echo his, then, through baptism we too have been given the opportunity of a new start. It is appropriate, today, that we remember our own baptisms as well as celebrating Jesus’. As such we should do so with thanksgiving for the ways in which our baptism into Christ has changed our lives and the world. In doing so we need, however, to look both backwards and forwards, for all of us, like Jesus, need to know where we have come from before we can go forward. One of the images that work for me, especially at this time of the year, is that of the double faced Roman god ‘Janus’. Janus, after whom January is named, is the god who it was believed stood at the gate of the year looking backwards into the old year and forward into the new. He is able to both assess what has gone before and to predict what might come in the future and he does it simultaneously. We have to look at Jesus’ life before and after his baptism to read the signs that tell us who he is and to follow his ways into the future. When Jesus was born he fulfilled the promises of the prophets, something the Magi acknowledged by calling him their king. When he was baptised he became aware of what he had to do and how his life to that point had led him to that new start. In doing so he submitted to God’s will and promptings and began the ministry that would ultimately lead him to death, but would open the path of new life for us. All of us can make new starts and begin to follow new paths, at any time in our lives and at any age, and the New Year is as good a time as any to do so. What resolutions have you made this New Year? What changes do you want to make in your life that will set you along a new path? There may be many decisions that you have already made but it will be the ones that stick and that you really follow through, that are the important ones. Perhaps these are the ones that you have been guided by God to make. If your resolutions flag or fail then they are not the ones that you need to be following, they are not the right paths for you to take. I like to think of these paths through life that we follow as a pilgrimage - a daily journey closer to God and nearer to eternal life in him. Like all pilgrimages or journeys there will be stopping off points along the way; times to rest, to learn from, or just to admire the view. There will also be opportunities to reassess the path taken and to move off again, sometimes in a new direction. As individuals we are all called to pause for a moment and to look back over the last few years and to try and discern where we are called to go in the future. Where does God want us to go next? We can begin to answer this; through prayer, debate, discussion and through dreaming. Who knows what we will hear as we seek to listen to God’s ‘still, small voice’. I find that exciting and I hope that you do too ‘Take heart and be bold’ could be our watchwords this year and who knows where any of us will be this time next year. Just as Jesus’ life changed at his baptism so will our lives change this year as we continue to follow his ways and to put into practice those things he calls us to do but we do this with hope and trust in Jesus Christ, our Lord. As the old hymn says: All my hope on God is founded; He doth still my trust renew. Me through change and chance he guideth, Only good and only true. God unknown, He alone Calls my heart to be his own. If we go forward in hope and trust, we ‘shall not fall’ for the one thing we can be assured of is that we have a faithful God, who keeps his promise to loves us always and who never wants anything but the best for us. At times things may be difficult but we will never be left alone by God and hopefully we will also be supported by friends and loved ones too. As Jesus’ life shows us, the pilgrimage of life is not always easy but we will be supported by others if we let them and as the hymn goes on to say: Christ doth call One and all: Ye who follow shall not fall.

I remember as a child in Sunday School, a very long time ago, singing a hymn which begins with the verse

“Wise men seeking Jesus

Traveled from afar

Guided on their journey

By a beauteous star”

It was written in the 19^th century by a Methodist minister, James East, who served for a time in Glasgow. It was some years later that it occurred to me that James East had oversimplified the story. The Wise Men found Jesus but when they set out on their journey, they had no idea that they were seeking for him in particular or, indeed, that the climax of their journey would be an encounter with the divine. Their study of the stars had convinced them that a child had been born who was destined to the King of the Jews, so they headed for Jerusalem, the principal city of Judea. That was the logical place to pose the question:

“Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews?”

King Herod, frightened when he heard what these foreign visitors were asking, put what sounds like a similar question to the Jewish religious authorities.

“He inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.”

Herod was nominally of the Jewish faith, and had grasped the possibility that the Wise Men were speaking about the coming of the Messiah, but his knowledge of the religious tradition into which he had been born was slight. It’s easy to imagine the Chief Priests and Scribes sighing inwardly at the king’s ignorance, perhaps exchanging eye-rolls and then answering aloud:

“In Bethlehem of Judaea”

while mentally adding “As you would know if you ever bothered to read the scriptures”.

So the question “where?” is answered. Herod, alarmed at the birth of a potential rival to his power, encourages the Wise Men to find the child and to report back to him, concealing his murderous motive behind a mask of piety, pretending that he too wishes to pay homage to the child. 

The Wise Men also act on what they have been told, though they almost certainly had little understanding of the concept of the Messiah. Yet they experienced the Epiphany. They hadn’t been sure where to look and the family they encountered when they arrived in Bethlehem was far from royal.  Yet they recognized the presence of the divine a powerless infant.

The key question posed by the Epiphany Gospel is where does God disclose Godself? The hymn writer James East answered that question in three ways, all of them helpful. For him, the beauties of the natural world were a place where Jesus might be encountered by those who are thankful for God’s creation.  

Prayerful souls may find him

By our quiet lakes,

Meet him on our hillsides

When the morning breaks.

James East’s second answer hints at worship and prayer as a place of divine presence and disclosure. We’re invited to imagine a packed kirk or chapel on the east coast.

Fisherman talk with him

By the great North Sea

As of old disciples

Did in Galilee

And for us a vital place of divine presence and close encounter is in the Eucharist.

James East’s third answer, once again an oblique hint, is that we encounter Jesus outwith the church. We encounter Him in other people. 

In our fertile cornfields
While the sheaves are bound,
In our busy markets
Jesus may be found.

Jesus himself taught that in meeting the needs of others we are encountering Him. Much later in Matthew’s Gospel He paints a word picture of the last judgement for his disciples. Those who will be reckoned as righteous, He tells them, are those who have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked and visited those who were sick or in prison. They will be told “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Such moments are themselves epiphanies, moments when (somewhat like the Wise Men) we are called to recognise something of the divine in the face of a fellow human being; someone made in the image and likeness of God. And such epiphanies are a call to loving action

A little over 500 years ago, Bishop Lancelot Andrewes preached a Christmas Day sermon on the theme of Epiphany. He challenged his hearers to remember that a religion which does not change us and motivate us to live and act differently, is a very shallow thing. He wasn’t saying that seeing and contemplation are unimportant. Rather he was asking his congregation questions:

What will your response to the Epiphany be? What will recognition of the divinity of Christ move you to do for others?

In his own words:

“With the body, no less than with the soul God is to be worshipped.”.

Prayer for a New Year

As the dawn breaks on a new year, let us give thanks for all we hold dear: our health, our family and our friends. Let us release our grudges, our anger and our pains. Let us live each day in the most loving ways, the God-conscious way. Let us serve all who are in need, regardless of race, colour or creed. Let us keep God of our own understanding in our hearts and to chant God's name each day. Let us lead the world from darkness to light, from falsehood to truth and from wrong to right. Let us remember that we are all one, embracing all, discriminating against none. May your year be filled with peace, prosperity and love. May God's blessings shower upon you and bestow upon each of you a bright, healthy and peaceful new year, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.