Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
Epiphany 2025

Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

I want to begin today’s Reflection by talking about a character who does not appear in any of the lectionary readings for the Feast of the Epiphany. Indeed, he does not appear in any lectionary reading at all. But you may know of him, or at least of his donkey. The seer Balaam encounters the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. According to the Book of Numbers, the Israelites had already defeated two kings: Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan. Now Balak, king of Moab, sends messengers to Balaam, son of Beor, asking Balaam to come and curse Israel. But in a dream, the Lord tells Balaam, ‘You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.’ (Numbers 22:7-14)

King Balak again sends messengers, ‘more numerous and more distinguished,’ to plead with Balaam, and again Balaam refuses, but then ‘that night God came to Balaam and said to him, “If the men have come to summon you, get up and go with them; but do only what I tell you to do.” (Numbers 22:20) Given this, it is profoundly unfair of God to then get angry with Balaam when Balaam goes with the officials of Moab but, fair or not, God’s anger is kindled and an angel of the Lord stands in Balaam’s way. Balaam’s donkey sees the angel and refuses to pass it, so Balaam hits the donkey three times, until ‘the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”’ Balaam’s response is, bizarrely, not to be astounded that his donkey is speaking, but to roar ‘Because you have made a fool of me! I wish I had a sword in my hand! I would kill you right now!’ The Lord then opens Balaam’s eyes, he sees the angel and bows down. The angel of the Lord tells Balaam, ‘Go with the men; but speak only what I tell you to speak.’ (Numbers 22:22-35)

This is a great folk story, but you can understand why it did not make it into the Revised Common Lectionary. It did, however, influence the author of the Gospel according to Matthew. King Balak has called Balaam to curse the Israelites, but instead ‘the word God puts in [his] mouth’ is a blessing. Part of the blessing is, ‘a star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel’. (Numbers 24:17) We have here an evil king who wishes to destroy the Israelites, a non-Israelite seer who comes from the east, and an important star that is later connected to messianic expectations. Matthew drew on all of these when telling the story of the magi from the east visiting Jesus. But what we also have, in the story of Balaam and Balak, are prophecies of the destruction of the enemies of Israel: the borderlands of Moab and the territory of the Shethites shall be crushed; Edom and Seir will become the possessions of their enemies; Amalek will be destroyed forever; and so on and so forth. (Numbers 24:17-24) According to Balaam, the rising of the star from Jacob will be wonderful for Israel and dreadful for everyone else, which is probably the other reason that the story of Balaam is not part of the lectionary.

The Hebrew Scriptures promise that the time will come when the non-Israelite nations acknowledge the glory of Israel’s God. In one prophetic stream, the nations who come to worship God will serve the people of Israel. First Isaiah says that, ‘the house of Israel will possess the nations as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them,’ (Isaiah 14:2) while Third Isaiah says that, ‘Foreigners shall build up your walls and their kings shall minister to you’ (Isaiah 60:10) and ‘the descendants of those who oppressed you shall come bending low to you and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet’. (Isaiah 60:14) But the prophecies of First Isaiah also include an example of the second prophetic stream, in which the nations will be welcomed generously:

In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:2-4)

The story of the coming of the wise men and today’s extract from Letter to the Ephesians draw on this second strand of prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures, in which God teaches the nations of the world his ways and they learn to walk in his paths. Wise men from the east see Jesus’ star at its rising and come to pay him homage, bringing him gifts. They stop in Jerusalem, seeking help, because in this most Jewish of gospels the revelation of God in nature is not sufficient without the aid of the Scriptures. It is only after the chief priests and scribes of the people tell Herod and the magi that the messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, and the magi set out from Jerusalem, that ‘there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was’. The magi then kneel, offering Jesus homage, and giving him gifts.

Matthew contrasts these Gentiles who honour the ‘king of the Jews’ with Herod, who calls himself ‘king of the Jews’ and pretends that he wants to offer Jesus homage, but seeks to kill him. It is not until the very end of Matthew’s telling of the gospel that Jesus gives his disciples the commission to ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations’. (Matthew 28:19) But here in today’s story, at the very beginning of this Gospel, is the revelation, the epiphany, that Jesus’ birth has been an event for Gentiles as well as Jews. The Letter to the Ephesians describes this as ‘the boundless riches of Christ,’ ‘the wisdom of God in its rich variety,’ the astounding abundance and inclusion of God’s love and grace. It is a mystery that had not previously been made known to humankind, but that, the author of the Letter to the Ephesians says, ‘has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.’ A star has come out of Jacob and a sceptre has risen out of Israel but, rather than leading to the destruction of the nations, it has led to our salvation.

We, of course, take this for granted as the heirs of a tradition in which Christianity is a Gentile religion. It is difficult for us to truly comprehend the radicalness of the revolution that occurred in the early church, when Gentiles were welcomed into the people of God. The Letter to the Ephesians gives us a hint of it. God has made a covenant with the Jews, and that covenant is irrevocable, but in Jesus Gentiles have been welcomed into God’s family, too. In the story of the Epiphany the magi find and recognise God in the child Jesus, and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus God finds and recognises the Gentiles, including us.

Since we Gentiles have been so welcomed into God’s community, it seems obvious that as a Christian community we are to welcome others, regardless of nationality or race or gender or class or sexuality or ability or anything else by which humanity seeks to divide itself. When we do this, the whole cosmos, all ‘the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places,’ will see the mystery of God revealed, because the church will be demonstrating the way God wants us all to live, which is not with some peoples crushed and destroyed, or serving others as slaves. It is with all of us respecting and caring for each other as members of one community, the human family, the people of God, in the ‘rich variety’ of different ways we demonstrate that belonging. It is interesting to note that while the wise men go home by ‘another road’ than the one on which they arrived, they do leave ‘for their own country’. Their life has been changed, but they do not stay in Judea or become Jews. Many people in this world are travelling to God by ‘another road’ than our own; the boundless riches of Christ include them, too.

There are two ways in which humans have responded to the certainty that they are the people of God. The first is to see this as justification for rejecting or oppressing all those not considered to be God’s people, claiming that this is God’s will. In one of Balaam’s prophecies he says, ‘God, who brings [Israel] out of Egypt, is like the horns of a wild ox for him; he shall devour the nations that are his foes and break their bones. He shall strike with his arrows.’ (Numbers 24:8) We know the damage done throughout history, the destruction still happening today, because people believe that their foes are God’s foes and that God fights in their wars.

The other way to respond to the assurance that we have been welcomed into God’s community is to welcome others, recognising the astonishing inclusivity and universalism of God’s love. This is the underlying message of the story of the magi, wise men from the east who kneel before the Jewish messiah. It is the explicit message of the Letter to the Ephesians, whose author tells his readers, ‘be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us’. (Ephesians 5:1-2) As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, ‘Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.’ (Romans 15:7) The wise men were ‘overwhelmed with joy’ when they reached the end of their journey and saw Jesus; we can demonstrate our joy through the welcome we as a church offer to all others, every single human being made in the image of the God revealed in Jesus. Amen.