“The Singing Camels of Sheba” Isaiah 60.1–6 Epiphany Jan. ‘26

 

“The Singing Camels of Sheba” Isaiah 60.1–6 Epiphany Jan. ‘26

1.      Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we celebrate the Epiphany of our Lord, is taken from Isaiah 60:1-6 and is entitled, “The Singing Camels of Sheba,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ: The dominant image in the readings for this day is that of light shining in a dark world. Think of those stirring words from Isaiah: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (vv 1–3).

2.      What perfect words to complement the stirring prophecy from Isaiah 9, read during Advent and Christmas, fulfilled when Jesus was born: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. . . . For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Is 9:2, 6). And in the Gospel for this Epiphany Day, what was the guide for the Magi? It was a very special light: “ ‘We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’ . . . When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Mt 2:2, 10).

3.      When God revealed himself to the world, that is, when he granted an epiphany, he did so as a light shining in a dark place. The world by itself is a very dark place. That’s why the first element of creation was light. “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3) was the beginning of God’s good gifts to the world. Light is pure, easily a symbol for holiness. It floods over darkness and destroys it, much the way God’s holiness floods over sin and wipes it out. Light is at the backbone of life. Without light, the living organisms of the earth would all wither and die.

4.      One of the reasons Christmas is celebrated on December 25, right after the winter solstice, is to show in a figurative way that the light of the world has come, as the days of the year start to become longer once again, and the nights shorter. Even the white church paraments for Christmas and Epiphany reflect the theme of light. We celebrate on this day the words of Jesus, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).

5.      Another great theme of the readings for today is the inclusion of the whole world in God’s plan of salvation. Isaiah says, “Nations shall come to your light. . . . Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you” (Isaiah 60:3–4). What makes the story of the Magi so significant is that non-Jews are coming from foreign countries to worship Jesus as their King and Savior.

6.      What makes Paul the happiest in the Epistle for today is that salvation extends to the Gentiles, not just to the Jews: “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph 3:6). Epiphany is the season of the church year that hangs a huge welcome sign at the door to the kingdom of God.

7.      The pain of being unwelcome or denied a place in a group is something we all have experienced at one time or another. To be excluded from some desirable group or place can be devastating, and that sort of exclusion occurs every day to people in all sorts of situations. Without Christ, we would be excluded from the kingdom of God, from his grace and forgiveness. The sign at the doorway of heaven would read “No sinners allowed.”

8.      But that is not what the season of Epiphany teaches. Just as light seeps through every crack, as it spreads outside confining places, and it doesn’t stop shining until it’s gone through the entire universe, so also God’s forgiveness and grace spread throughout the whole world, drawing people to God from all nations, and that includes you and me. In addition to the images of light shining in a dark place and the inclusion of the whole world, there is a third image in today’s text. It’s not the major image of Epiphany, but it is the strangest, and it’s the image I’d like to leave you with at the conclusion of this service. This is the image of the singing camels of Sheba. Even camels can sing God’s praises.

9.      Hear again what Isaiah says: “A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord” (Isaiah 60:6). Bringing “good news” and proclaiming “the praises of the Lord” is the last way I would describe the noises that come from a camel. Camels are ugly beasts, often irritable and nippy, smelly, and sometimes they even spit their foul saliva at bewildered tourists to the Near East. But here they are described as if they sing the praise of the Lord!

10.   And in the Gospel for today, it’s most likely that camels made it possible for the Magi to come and worship their King as they traveled from the east, across the desert regions, to Bethlehem. In that event, camels were involved in the praise of God, bearing precious gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and even more precious, the Magi themselves, as they offered themselves to their King through worship.

11.   The “singing camels of Sheba” image is a marvelous one for Epiphany, both because it’s so striking and also because it combines the other images so well. The camels are the unbeautiful of the world, having no beauty of their own. They are not part of the “in” crowd but are from foreign lands, yet they are now welcome in God’s kingdom. Paul felt as though he were such a “camel.” He spoke of himself as “the very least of all the saints” (Eph 3:8), yet he was given the grace of “shining out” (cf Eph 3:9, φωτίζω) with God’s light of welcome and forgiveness, leading others to praise the Lord. You see, even camels can shine with a glorious light when they reflect the light of God. They show that God Has Made All of Us Phosphorescent.

12.   It doesn’t matter whether we ourselves are beautiful, wise, strong, or outstanding. All that matters is that we glow with the light that God has shed upon us by sending his Son into the world. By his cross and in our baptism, Jesus scrubbed away our sins, clothed us in his shining righteousness, and made us his light-bearers to everyone around us. If an ugly camel can sing beautiful praises to God, you can be “the light of the world” (Mt 5:14) and help to spread the epiphany of God to those around you. It is time to spread out the welcome mat and to bask in the light of God’s grace. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

“Digging in Dirt, Finding the Name of God” Num. 6.22–27 New Year’s Jan. ‘26

 

“Digging in Dirt, Finding the Name of God” Num. 6.22–27 New Year’s Jan. ‘26

1.   Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we celebrate the name of Jesus. This is the eighth day of Christmas, and as Luke says, “At the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Lk 2:21). So What’s in a Name? The message for today is taken from Numbers 6:22-27 and is entitled, “Digging in Dirt, Finding the Name of God,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.   In Shakespeare’s play, Juliet speaks longingly of changing Romeo’s last name so that she could love him without their families’ opposition. Changing his name wouldn’t change who Romeo was: “That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet,” she reasons convincingly (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, ed. Peter Holland [New York: Penguin Books, 2000], 2.2.43–44). If names don’t make much difference, why should we make such a big deal about the name given to Jesus?

3.    As it turns out, the Bible treats God’s name as a big deal. When Moses asks God for his name, God identifies himself as “I Am,” the one who exists, the Creator of the universe. When he gives the Ten Commandments, he identifies himself as the one who brought his people out of slavery in Egypt, and he forbids his people from taking his name in vain. Martin Luther rightly explains that this means “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks” (Small Catechism, Second Commandment).

4.   King David gives a good example of using the name of God properly when he opens and closes Psalm 8 with the words, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Ps 8:1, 9). Jesus shows what a big deal God’s name is when he teaches his disciples how to pray. The First Petition in the prayer is “Hallowed be your name” (Mt 6:9). Once again, Luther’s explanation is so helpful: “God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also. . . . God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it” (Small Catechism, Lord’s Prayer, First Petition). God’s name is not just the letters G-O-D or L-O-R-D or J-E-S-U-S. The letters we use as God’s name are not the same letters that the original Hebrew or Greek texts of the Bible used. Those letters can change from one language to another. If God’s name is simply the letters put together to make a sound, then we could agree with Juliet completely when she says, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” or slightly modified, “That which we call Jesus by any other name would still be our Savior.”

5.   What we are celebrating today is not the letters J-E-S-U-S. What we are celebrating is the reality behind those letters. The name of Jesus is such a big deal because his name includes whatever he reveals about himself in the Bible, in whatever language. His name is kept holy when we believe what he says in the Bible, and when we live the way he teaches us to live. One way we show that we believe what Jesus says about himself is by confessing our faith using the words of creeds like the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed. These are short summaries of what the Bible teaches. The simplest creed of all is the name Jesus itself. As the angel Gabriel explains to Joseph, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21).

6.   The one word Jesus means “the Lord saves.” What the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds spell out in more detail is right here in Jesus’ name: This baby would grow up, live a sinless life in our place, then suffer under Pontius Pilate, be crucified, die, and be buried. But on the third day, he would rise again and later ascend back to heaven. All to save us from our sins. When the name Jesus is used in its biblical sense, it is the shortest possible confession of faith that he is our Savior. That is the bedrock upon which faith rests. That’s why his name is such a big deal.

7.   Speaking of bedrock, we now have some evidence of how important God’s name has been throughout the centuries. In 1979, archaeologists were digging in some caves right outside the city walls of Jerusalem when they found two objects about the size and shape of cigarette filters. They were tiny silver sheets rolled up like scrolls, and they had been placed as precious objects next to their owners in their tombs. When the scrolls were carefully unrolled, Hebrew letters could be seen faintly scratched on the surfaces. These silver scrolls are one of the most important discoveries ever made because they are “the earliest known artifacts from the ancient world that document passages from the Hebrew Bible” (Gabriel Barkay, et al., “The Challenges of Ketef Hinnom: Using Advanced Technologies to Reclaim the Earliest Biblical Texts and Their Context,” Near Eastern Archaeology 66, no. 4 [December 2003]: 162–71; here, 163). And what was the passage that was scratched onto both scrolls? It was the Aaronic blessing, the text for today from the book of Numbers: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (6:24–26).

8.   We now know, we have hard evidence, that these words brought comfort to God’s people living six centuries before Jesus was born. They are the comforting words that were chosen to accompany the dearly departed in their graves. They are an early confession of faith, an early creed, that the Lord is the one who saves his people from their sins. This creed is more than one word long, more than the word Jesus, but it confesses the same faith. It teaches the same truth about God being the Savior. The Lord is the one who blesses and keeps, is gracious, and gives peace to troubled sinners. Remember what Luther said about keeping God’s name holy? “God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity,” particularly when it is taught that the Lord is the one who saves his people from their sins. The creed confessed by the Aaronic blessing is simply a longer way of saying the name of the Lord. God emphasizes this by saying following these words of blessing, “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them” (v 27, emphasis added). The archaeologists dug in the dirt, down to the bedrock, and there they found the name of God that was put upon his people through the Aaronic benediction.

9.   God continues to put his name on his people in the same way. These words regularly bring comfort to God’s people today at the end of church services. There is also another way that God puts his name on his people today. On this day celebrating the name of Jesus, we also celebrate the circumcision of Jesus: “At the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Lk 2:21). We no longer practice circumcision as a churchly rite—it was one of the Old Testament worship laws that foreshadowed Jesus and his work. Now that Jesus has come, those laws are no longer binding on Christians. But, concerning circumcision, the apostle Paul says, “In him [Jesus] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.” (Col 2:11–13)

10.                    Again and again, the Bible teaches that the Lord is the one who saves his people from their sins, which is the meaning of the name Jesus. Paul tells the Colossians that all who have been baptized have been buried with Christ, raised with Christ, and made alive with Christ. He tells the Galatians, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27). In Baptism, we not only confess the creed of Jesus’ name, that the Lord is the one who saves his people from their sins, but we also put on the name of Christ, and become Christian.

11.                    When Jesus was circumcised and named eight days after his birth, he gained an identity not for himself, but for us. He gave us the identity of being his saved people, because his name means that he saves his people. He gave us the identity of being God’s children. As Paul tells the Galatians, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4–5). With this strong identity as God’s sons, we need never fear that we will lose our identity, even though we move to other cities, change jobs, or resolve to become different, better people for the new year. Wherever we are, and whatever we do for a living, we know that God is our Father; that Jesus, by his life, death, and resurrection, has saved us; and that we will spend eternity with him in heaven. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.