"!"

from my message on Epiphany, Jan. 6, 2013, from Matthew 2:1-12

Happy New Year ! (Exclamation point!)  Don't you just love punctuation? (Question mark?)  Punctuation tells us how to interpret things.  (period.)  Whether it's "Hi." (period) or "Hi!" (exclamation point!) 

Happy Epiphany! (Exclamation point!)  I'll stop doing that punctuation thing now.  But Epiphany is defined as "appearance, or manifestation," and that's just too boring and dull.  An exclamation point comes closer to the meaning of the word.  Surprising, unexpected, exciting, startling....come close to the meaning of Epiphany. 

In the printing world, an exclamation point is called a screamer, a gasper, or a startler.  In slang, it is called a shout pole.  Today, could we read the scripture passage in this light, as if it is full of exclamation points?

Pagan astrologers!  Whose ancestors had taken the Jews into captivity!  Are following a star!  On a long journey!  To find the new king!  of the Jews!

They visit Herod and the royal court! absolutely throwing them into a tizzy!  They are discombobulated!  Threatened! 

Our earliest manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament had no punctuation marks.  We had to supply them.  Maybe we still do.  How about reading the Bible with more exclamation points.

In the very beginning, there was nothing, a void, an emptiness.  Then God speaks...and it is!  God says, "Light!" and there's light!  God says "land!" and there's land!  Bird! Cow! Human being!  God speaks, and it happens!  Can God still do that?  Speak a word and it's so?

God calls the least likely to lead.  God taps Abram and Sarai to become the start of a great people.  They are old, barren, way beyond the age of bearing children.  God says that they are going to have children more than the stars in the sky, more than the sand grains on the shore.  They laugh.  I was with my friends from Texas A & M on New Year's.  We were all at the Wesley Foundation together, the Methodist student ministry.  I was leading them in a worship service at the First UMC in Mason, Tx, on New Year's Eve.  I asked them to give witness how God had been moving in their lives.  Brent said that he was resonating with the Abram and Sarai story.  No matter how old we became, God still had plans for us.  We never retired from the faith.  Abram and Sarai have a child in their old age!  They name him, "Isaac," which means "laughter."

Reading the Bible we find the most interesting choices God has for leaders.  Gideon, who is the youngest member of the least clan, the most afraid, hiding out from the Midianites, is chosen to be a judge of Israel!
Esther wins a beauty contest, and becomes queen of Persia.  She turns out to be more than just a pretty face, and saves the Jewish people from destruction by evil forces!

How about you?  Can you see that God might be calling you. even you?!

Can you approach this new year with an exclamation point?  Forty years ago, in January of 1973, the Austin District Superintendent, appointed a pastor to canvass this area of town to see about starting another UMC.  Ben McGee, visited in homes and businesses.  People in this area thought it was too far to drive to University UMC or Faith UMC.  They started meeting in Eanes Elementary and a new UMC was consecrated in June of 1973.  God is still surprising, raising up new converts to the faith, birthing new congregations.  This past year, we gave birth to a new worship/service emphasis in this congregation called the Point.  I have plans for us to launch a new service called "Children First" aimed at young children and their families this next year.  God still has an exclamation point for us.

God is God of the Epiphany.  God is God of the exclamation point.  If this is true, then Assad might step aside and stop the blood bath in Syria.  If this is true, then Israel and Palestine might actually talk to one another about peace plans.  If this is true, and I know this is hard to believe, but members of Congress might actually work together on solving problems instead of cutting each other down.

God is God of the Epiphany.  God is God of the exclamation point.  Why this God might even welcome wayward children home with a feast!  Why this god might even welcome self-righteous, self-satisfied children home!  Why this God might even welcome you, who don't always keep your new year's resolutions!   Why this God might even forgive you who find it hard to forgive other, or to forgive yourself! 

How will you live into Epiphany, into an exclamation point?  The wise men were led by a star.  What star will you follow?  The wise men were on a journey.  Where are you on the journey?  The wise men found Jesus in a house in Bethlehem.  Where you find Jesus? 

In the Spanish language, punctuation marks are found at the beginning of the sentence to let you know what is coming up.  For example, an upside down exclamation point is placed at the beginning of an exclamatory sentence.  Can you put an exclamation point at the beginning of this new year? 

Where did the exclamation point come from?  It wasn't found in the English language until the 15th century.  Some scholars think it came from the Latin word for joy, io.  If you can imagine the o being placed under the i, you would have an early "!".   Joy gives birth to exclamation.  When the wise men saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy!  May we be also.

Our Unitarian/Universalist friends have a phrase you will find on their worship bulletins or websites.  It goes, "Never put a period where God intends for there to be a comma."  As pastor of this UMC, in this new year, on Epiphany, I say, "Never put a period where God intends for there to be an exclamation point!"