Epiphany

By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Epiphany
6 January 2008 

Text: Matthew 2: 1-12; Other:  Isaiah 60: 1-6, 9; Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3: 1-12 

      Today is Epiphany, an older celebration than Christmas, & originally, 3 events were celebrated on this day: the Magi's visit to the baby Jesus, the baptism of Jesus, & Jesus' first miracle at a Canaan wedding.  Next Sunday we'll explore the baptismal theme as we baptize Chisom Ndubuisi; today, we'll look at the Wise Men's trip to Bethlehem.

      Of course, anyone who has ever heard the Christmas story or sung Christmas carols knows the story of the Magi, the wise men who came from the East to worship & bring gifts to the new baby Jesus.  Our Gospel reading coming from Matthew today tells the story—12 short verses Matthew uses to set the stage in many ways for the whole story of Jesus' earthly life, ministry, & eventually, his death.  This story is dear to most Christians, so let's look at how it connected Matthew's community to their Jewish heritage & how we might connect with it, learning from it for our lives today.

      Matthew goes to great pains throughout his Gospel to show Jesus' story as fulfillment of Jewish prophecies that a messiah would come.  The setting of the Wise Men's story is Bethlehem, assuring those who expected it that Jesus was heir to King David since Bethlehem was David's city.  Joseph, Mary & Jesus were living in Bethlehem at the time, perhaps as much as 2 years after Jesus' birth.  Remember that Herod has all males under 2 years in Bethlehem killed?

      I know: we've seen the nativity scenes with shepherds, angels, & wise men all attending baby Jesus at once.  However, the manger scene didn't become part of the Christmas celebration until St. Francis invented it as a teaching tool in the 13^th Century, & trying to make this story jibe with Luke's is futile.

      Who knows exactly who the magi were?  They've been called everything from wise men to astrologers to oriental kings, but we DO know they were from the East, they were men of some fortune, & they were Gentiles, not Jews.  We see that most of Jesus' ministry was to Jewish people, but from the beginning of his life, we're also assured the glorious gift of salvation is open to all, even strangers from another part of the world.  These men didn't have to know the intricacies of Jewish prophecy to recognize Jesus as a king.  They came to him led by a star.  Lots of people have tried to figure out the historicity of the special star, & you know what?  There's no logical explanation.  In fact, that's just the point: God can use whatever means God wants to call all people to worship Jesus as the messiah, the Christ.  This ought to make us rather cautious about OUR limiting God's ways of reaching out to us humans to only those ways we consider "appropriate."  Throughout the history of God's actions with God's people, God has done some rather amazing things to garner our attention. 

      Then there's the Magi's side trip to Herod's court.  Of course, they were important dignitaries coming from a far country, so protocol called for them to make a courtesy visit to the King of Judah, old Herod the Great.  Herod was a puppet ruler for the Romans, not too secure in his kingly position, so he felt particularly threatened when the Magi came looking for a king of the Jews.  Herod quizzed the Jewish leaders as to the Messianic prophecy.  They explored their scriptures, including the Isaiah & psalm passages we read today, & told Herod—who passed the word on to the magi—to check out Bethlehem.

      There's more than meets the eye to this simple story of a nervous king who, the text tells us, with all Jerusalem wondered what kind of ruler this messiah was purported to be.  When we remember the final chapters of Jesus' life, we discover more enemies:  another Herod, King of Judea, & a group of religious leaders, all of whose positions are threatened if what people claimed about Jesus were true.  According to Matthew, the opposition began when Jesus was just a child, not having done anything but be born.  Herod's request to the wise men was the ultimate in hypocrisy.  Herod didn't want to worship the child; he wanted to destroy Jesus!

      It has taken the magi quite a while to find Jesus, but when they do, they are overwhelmed with joy.  Matthew says the wise men "proskyneo" Jesus—which means they worship by prostration; in other wards, they stretch their whole bodies out on the floor before the child.  Jewish people would only prostrate themselves before God.  The magi aren't Jewish, but they respond to God's invitation by worshiping the child & presenting gifts. 

      There is a joke going around that the magi's gifts prove they are male.  After all, women would have brought pampers, body lotion, & baby blankets, leaving frozen casseroles to make Mary's life simpler for awhile!  But gold, frankincense & myrrh were gifts befitting a king, & each represents elements of Jesus' future life & death.

      Fortunately for Jesus, the magi valued dreams & didn't mark this one off to indigestion.  For Matthew & the wise men, dreams were important communication tools God uses for humans.  Tragically, since the magi didn't tell Herod where to find the Christ child, Herod resorted to a mass assassination of male children.  Puts us in memory of the hard-hearted Pharoah who almost did Moses in, doesn't it?  Naturally, Matthew intended the hearers to remember those stories of old. 

      For us today, the Church has always read the Magi's worship of the baby Jesus as assurance that salvation through the life, death, & resurrection of Jesus Christ is open to all people, not just those of Jewish heritage.  Years later, at the Council of Jerusalem, the early Christian leaders determined that a seeker didn't have to be circumcised & become a Jew first in order to become Christian.  But the root message is right here: people very different from Jews are welcome to come & worship Jesus.  Thus, the racial & cultural barrier has been broken down.

      Further, these Magi were men of wealth & power.  They traveled as comfortably as possible, on camels rather than on foot.  They brought lavish gifts which reveal their knowledge of Jesus' identity:  gold for Christ's royalty, frankincense from an Asian or African tree to produce smoke for worship, & myrrh to anoint bodies for burial & therefore as a symbol of suffering & death to foretell Christ's giving himself for others.  Mary & Joseph accepted these gifts graciously.  There are no economic barriers to entering Christ's community.  You can neither be too poor nor too wealthy to be a Christian.  Both are held accountable for how the gifts God has given them are used.

      These men endured a long, perilous journey to visit the Christ Child.  The shepherds, just outside town, dropped all they were doing to rush to see baby Jesus quickly, but the Magi's journey was longer & more complicated.  Some of us come rather quickly & easily to a personal relationship with Christ, perhaps because an older relative or friend modeled a transparent faith for us.  For many more of us, I suspect, the journey to prostrate ourselves at Jesus' feet has been somewhat more arduous.  In fact, truth be told, some may still be searching for the Christ Child's stable.  In our heart of hearts, we may still wonder why we must give our ALL to this Jesus. 

      Even for those whose journey brings us yearly back to Jesus' feet at the manger, the story of the Magi is for us.  The Magi's journey involved quite a struggle, & it was tempting, I'm sure, for them to have returned to their comfortable palaces & harems without ever having found the Christ Child.  There persistence was rewarded, however, by their finding the King of the Jews & the King of the World.

      We're not told what happened after the Magi left Mary & her child.  Nothing more, at least, than their avoidance of Herod on their return trip.  What occurred next is the rest of the story, not just for them but also for us.  That's the part we must write, not for the Magi, but for ourselves.  What does it matter to us that God was born like us, a human baby, seen as divine by some, but recognized as special first by a multitude of common folk among whom he lived, ministered, & opened up a new way of life?  That's the big difference between our faith & that of other world religions, you know.  God-made-flesh dwelt among us, walking the walk as well as talking the talk so we can become more God-filled. 

      Epiphany is the season for shining the Christ-light into the world, inviting all across barriers to come & worship Christ & let the Christ-light set our hearts on fire.  We are challenged at Hope to be light-bearers, to one another & to the larger world.  We must avail ourselves of opportunities to pray, to study, to worship, to kindle our fires such that we may shine & inspire & make a difference in the world.  We've been lighting the fire as community for almost three years now, folks.  To be Christ-bearers in the larger world will require a more mature commitment in 2008 for us to fulfill our financial & ministry obligations & keep the fire alight & visible to an often-dark & dreary world.  It's going to take us all.  What gifts are you willing to offer? Will you take the chance to allow Christ to make of you a gift to the world?  Come, let us journey together!