Epiphany: Arise, Shine, for Your Light Has Come

Our sermon text for consideration this morning

is found in Isaiah chapter 60, verses 1 to 6.

Isaiah 60:1–6

We read, Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See,

darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness

is over the peoples. But the Lord rises upon

you, and His glory appears over you. Nations

will come to your light, and kings to the brightness

of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look about

you. All assemble and come to you. Your sons

come from afar and your daughters are carried

on the hill. Then you will look and be radiant.

Your heart will throb and swell with joy. The

wealth and the seas will be brought to you. To

you the riches of the nations will come. Herds

of camels will cover your land. Young camels

of Midian and Ephah and all from Sheba will come.

bearing gold and incense. As you read those words,

did you kind of see the picture Isaiah was painting?

Did you see that shining light that just pierced

the darkness? People being drawn to that light,

bearing their gifts along the way from all over

the world? Whenever I read those words, the image

that comes to my mind is the image of a lighthouse.

And you know, I've never really seen a lighthouse

from the sea before. I've done the tourist thing,

right? You go and you kind of walk through the

lighthouse and they show you the lighthouse keeper's

quarters and they tell you the history and the

story behind it. I've done that. But I've never

been at sea at night when the sky is overcast

and the moon and the stars aren't shining. I

don't know what it's like to sit in a boat and

have those waves just blindly hit you, wondering

when the next one's going to come. And to know

that the shore is out there, but to be unable

to see it, it's got to be an unsettling thing.

And in that kind of situation, those lighthouses,

they serve a vital function, even in the days

of GPS, because they show you where the land

is and they guide you in. And when they fail

to do their job, the consequences are disastrous.

In 1860, the lighthouse of Cape St. George was

commissioned. It was along a section of the Australian

coast that was problematic, right near Jervis

Bay. And they commissioned it, and they got started

building it, but it was a comedy of errors to

begin with because the maps didn't line up, and

the contractor wanted to build it a little closer

to the quarry to make sure he could save some

money. And at the end of the day, they ended

up building the lighthouse about two and a half

miles away from where they needed it. And that

two and a half miles meant that ships approaching

from the south could barely see it. And ships

approaching from the north couldn't see it at

all. And in its short time of operation, there

were 23 shipwrecks along that small part of shore

it was meant to guard. Because it didn't do its

job. So what do you do with a lighthouse that

doesn't shine? Well, what they did is they ended

up building another one. They took down the light.

They decommissioned it. But even still, you could

see it once in a while from the south, and it

became misleading. And so you know what they

did with it? From 1917 to 1922, they used it

as target practice for the Australian Royal Navy.

Today you can visit it, and this is what it looks

like. It's a ruin and a reminder of what happens

to a lighthouse that doesn't shine. Israel was

a lighthouse of the ancient world. From the time

God told Abraham the promise would come from

his family, that was their role, that was their

identity, and everything about them pointed to

that. The Old Testament laws of Moses made them

different, made them weird, made them strange,

and it's as if it set them upon a point like

a lighthouse to shine out to the world. And at

the center of all they were and did was a temple,

and its sacrifices and its services pointed to

the glory of the Lord, that thing that makes

God great. And if you think about all the stories

in the Old Testament of the glory of the Lord,

that cloud the Israelites followed out of Egypt,

through the Red Sea and to the Promised Land,

and all the other times it appears, it always

has this in common. God is acting to save. Because

that's one of the things that makes our God great.

He does what He says. But by the time Isaiah

writes, that light was flickering at best. Because

they forgot who they were. And they broke the

law of Moses, and they neglected the worship

of the temple, and they followed other gods.

And instead of being a people that could draw

people to the truth, they were chasing them away,

and so many were being lost. So what do you do

with a lighthouse that won't shine? God tried

to wake them up. During Isaiah's time, the Assyrians

came, and they destroyed the northern tribes,

and they came right to the doorstep of Jerusalem.

If you remember the story, they surrounded before

the Lord delivered them. But still, they didn't

learn their lesson. In the end, they would end

up like the lighthouse of the Cape of St. George,

a ruin, as they face the consequences of failing

to shine, to be what God called them to be. You

see, we are the lighthouse of the world. We are

the people that promise today, and we are the

people now who have a chance to show that love

to others. And now as we sit here at the end

of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, it's maybe

a time for us to take stock on all the opportunities

God gave us over the past year. And if you were

to play it back like a highlight reel, if you

were to think back on all the experiences you

had in the past year, what would we see? How

many times would we see situations where we showed

people who our God is and what he did for us

through our words and actions? And how many times

would we see... People that hid who they were

because we were ashamed of him. How many people

were there this past year? We had a chance to

lead to the truth. And how many people do we

drive away with thoughtless words and careless

actions? Selfishness. You see, you and I have

such a valuable role to play. To some people

in our lives, we're the only lights they have.

How many times do we waste opportunity after

opportunity? And what is God supposed to do with

the light that won't shine? See, when Isaiah

writes the words of Isaiah 60, he is not writing

to the people of his time. He's writing to generations

that would come. Generations that would live

in the aftermath of what the people of his time

had done. People that would live in the ruin

of Jerusalem, live with the temple that had been

destroyed, live in captivity in faraway lands.

And he told them something. They had broken promise

after promise, but the thing that makes God great

is that he does what he says, oftentimes in spite

of us. And so despite all that had happened,

he tells them in Isaiah 60 that light would shine.

Let me read it again. Arise, shine, for your

light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises

upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and

thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord

rises upon you and his glory appears over you.

Nations will come to your light and kings to

the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes

and look about you. All assemble and come to

you. Your sons come from afar and your daughters

are carried on the hip. Then you will look and

be radiant. Your heart will throb and swell with

joy, the wealth and the seas we brought to you.

To you the riches of the nations will come. Herds

of camels will cover your land, young camels

of Midian and Ephah, and all from Sheba will

come, bearing gold and incense. In spite of all

that had happened, in spite of all they'd experienced,

in spite of the ruin that was Jerusalem, and

the tragedy of a temple that was destroyed, God

says Israel would serve its purpose. That light

would come. And can you see the picture? Of this

people living in ruins, shining once more. Of

a light that pierces a darkness, and people from

all over the world being drawn to it. People

that were scattered, their sons and their daughters,

it says, coming back home. People they had never

known. Kings from other parts of the world being

drawn to that same light. And at the center of

it all is the glory of the Lord. That thing that

makes our God great. And one of the things that

makes him great is that he acts to save. He doesn't

just make promises, he keeps them. He doesn't

wait for us to come to him. He finds us through

his word, through baptism, and he draws us in.

And so the wise men appear. And there are so

many things about the wise men we don't know.

We don't really know exactly where they came

from. We don't know exactly who they were. We

don't know how in the world they associated that

star they saw with the promise. And we certainly

don't understand how it led them right to the

house of Joseph and Mary like a GPS. But we know

this. They belong there. I think it's funny how

often we set up those nativity scenes, right?

You got the angels, you have the shepherds, you

have the wise men, and then sometimes you take

the wise men, you put them way off in the distance

because they weren't maybe there when the shepherds

were. And that's true chronologically. But thematically,

the shepherds are as much a part of that picture

as Joseph and Mary were. Because he is a savior

for the nations, and that's what Epiphany is

all about. It's remembering that the wise men

were just the beginning of a procession that

has went through the ages since. And think of

how many people have been drawn to the light

of that dawn. Ethiopians who maybe first heard

about the gospel through the Ethiopian eunuch

that Philip baptized. To Chinese Christians that

according to church tradition were first reached

by the Apostle Thomas. To Christians sitting

in America today that procession has continued

from all over the globe. Because God acts. God

saves. God finds his people from distant corners,

and he brings us together to be a part of one

body. And now here we sit. And we are surrounded

by the gifts that people before us have brought.

As we sing hymns we didn't compose, we confess

creeds we didn't write. And just like them, we

are gathered from all different places in life.

And who knows at what part of the procession

we find ourselves in, huh? Maybe we're toward

the ends of the parade. Maybe we're more towards

the middle than you realize. Whatever the case,

now you and I as Christians are people that have

been brought here by our God. People that look

at that child in the manger and have a chance

to celebrate that this Savior is for me. Who

see that Savior go to the cross and know He bore

my darkness there. And that when He walked out

of the empty tomb, that light shone for me. That

is my life, my resurrection, just as it is yours.

And then the vantage point changes, doesn't it?

And we realize that now we are the lighthouses

of the world. And like I said, when you think

back on the previous year, perhaps we think we

look a lot like that lighthouse of Cape St. George.

Just a wreck, because we think about all the

wasted opportunities, all the times that instead

of drawing people to the truth, we chase them

away. Remember what it is that makes our God

great. He acts. He forgives. And he gives us

a new day in which to serve, and so maybe that's

not the best picture for us. This might be a

better one. This is the Tower of Hercules. It

stands on the peninsula along the coast of northwest

Spain. It's a lighthouse that was built by the

Romans in the first century, and it's still in

operation today. Still shining as it always had.

You see, that's us. For all of our failings and

all of our faults, God wipes us clean in his

blood, forgives us for the past, and he gives

us a new year. And think about all that lay in

front of you this year. And I don't know what

blessings and what challenges you're going to

face. I don't know everything that stands around

the corner, but I know this. As long as the world

turns, there are more that God will bring to

that light. And you play such a role. Think of

the people in your life. Think of the people

you have a chance to know that maybe no one else

in the building does. People that maybe you are

the only light they have in their life. As you

head into 2026, know that God has given you opportunity

after opportunity to show them the love that

Christ has shown for you. Take a moment to see

their faces. Take a moment to think about those

opportunities. And then hear the words that God

spoke through Isaiah so many years ago. Arise

and shine, for your light has come. Amen. Thanks

for listening to Emmanuel's Sermon Podcast. If

you'd like to learn more about Emmanuel, you

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Have a great day.