"Wise men from the east"-Sermon for Christmas II, Matthew 2:1-12
Among all the comical Christmas cards I have received over the years, there is one that stands out in particular. I’m sure I have mentioned it before. The card has a cartoon drawing of the three kings, the three wise men traveling in a single file line on camelback following a bright star in the sky. In the drawing, the first two wise-men are looking back at the third with disgruntled looks on their faces. And, below them, the caption reads, “No…we’re not going back for your toothbrush” (thanks to those who laughed…I feel affirmed). In today’s Gospel lesson, we recall the visit of the magi, the three kings or wise-men as they are called in scripture. The wise-men are popular figures in our beloved nativity scenes that we dust off and set up each Christmastide. The fact is most scholars believe they were likely not present that most “glorious night of old” at our Dear Savior’s birth, and further weren’t likely kings or monarchs who ruled over some great eastern kingdom. Likely, these three people were star-gazers…that is, at the same time, both scientific and religious officials who looked to the planets, moon and stars in the night sky to read for their people and leaders the portents and omens of the heavens that determined both practical matters, like when to plant and when to reap, and more supernatural matters, like what wisdom God might be revealing to God’s people in the majesty of the cosmos.
According to our Gospel lesson, apparently one day while doing their heavenward looking work these wise-men discovered a star in the night sky at its rising, which they correctly interpreted as a God-given sign with world-changing implications. The star heralded the birth of a king…of “THE” King…the King of kings…and so their long journey begins following this “star of wonder, star of night”…to pay homage, in person, to this newborn king. They journey from a distant land somewhere in the ancient Near East, perhaps modern-day Iran, traveling several years to Jerusalem and then, eventually, the star leads on till it comes to its rest over Bethlehem. There in Bethlehem they discover not a new-born infant, but a child, perhaps as much as three years old. I have a friend who in the spirit of historical accuracy always places the three wise-men from her nativity scene on the other side of the room from where Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus rest. And, the first time I saw it, I asked her why the wise men where not a part of the scene around the Babe…like in most nativities…and she responded in a sort of “why are you asking me this” tone…because they are not there yet…duh. Anyway…The scripture tells us that when they do finally come to the end of their long journey they are overjoyed at finding the child King, Jesus, and they offer him worship and three gifts. And, then, they quickly depart not to be heard from again. Now, I am leaving the whole Herod piece out…which is a sermon for a different day…so I should say they depart Bethlehem quickly, avoiding Jerusalem entirely, never to be heard from again.
Now, when you really think about this story, though beautiful, even, almost magical, it does seem somewhat odd. I mean what in the world might the visit of these three stargazers from a distant land have to do with God coming to us in Jesus at Christmas? In the story of Jesus’ life, they are here and gone in the blink of an eye…before, perhaps, Jesus is even speaking in complete sentences. Outside of these 12 verses, they show up nowhere else in the entirety of the bible. They are from, again, a totally different, distant country. They are religiously and ethnically different from the Jewish people…a people who I imagine they knew very little about and had little, if any, contact with…in a pre-modern communication age. Further, presumably, these people never interacted with Jesus again, at least on this side of glory. They would never hear of the Easter miracle…the resurrection that stands at the very heart of Jesus life among us. And, they never actively participate in the new faith tradition established by Jesus’ followers that we now call Christianity. And yet we find their story in scripture, we tell their story each year as a church, and we pull them back out each year to take their place around our mangers…with the Babe at its center. And, perhaps strangely, I think because of our nativity scenes, because of the oddness of the story, and because of the great hymn “We Three Kings”, they might be three of the most well know characters in the whole bible.
Well, of course I have thought about this…a lot, so I’d like to suggest to you perhaps two reasons why this beautiful, magical, strange, odd story, about these three foreign stargazers from a distant land, who only knew Jesus briefly as a small child, is actually incredibly important to us…to those of us who also offer worship and the gift of our lives to Jesus.
Now, to begin with, it is the very fact that these three people were from a distant, different land, a different ethnicity, and a different religion from Jesus and the people he was born to…that should be important to us…because so are most of us. My Old Testament professor used the term the “scandal of the particular”. This term referred to the particular place of privilege that the people of Israel enjoyed by being God’s chosen people. If you think about it, this particular place of privilege could be seen as scandalous because what about everyone else. Why was Israel chosen and no one else? Personally, the idea that God would choose someone else as his beloved people more than me or vice versa is scandalizing…particularly if that only had to do only with one’s ancestry. What about the other millions of people alive all over the world during the Old Testament period who were not chosen? But, before you join me in feeling scandalized, remember the story of the wise-men…something new is emerging. A new reality is being birthed into the world in and through Jesus. For the gift of God’s love birthed into the world at Christmas, is not a particular privilege to be enjoyed by a chosen few, but a gift of love for all people…even those like the wise-men living in distant lands, from different ancestry…those who look, love and believe very differently than we and our Jewish spiritual ancestors do.
You see, in Jesus, God is giving himself, his grace, his unconditional love, his salvation to all of humanity; those who are far and those who are near; those who are Jewish and those who are gentiles; those who are old and those who are young; those who are rich and those who are poor; all races, all colors, all nations speaking all languages…the rainbow colored people of God…everyone…without the artificial distinctions we use to divide one beloved human being from another. You see the people of Israel were chosen. In fact, they were chosen for a very important and particular task in God’s salvation history. But, they were not chosen scandalously over and above all the other peoples of the earth. Instead, they were chosen to be a blessing of God’s generous love to all the people of the earth because from them a child, who belongs to all of us, was born, who is the Savior, Christ our Lord. And, this good news, as the angels declared in the shepherd’s field, is for all people, which is made so abundantly clear in the story that sits before us today. For, at the very beginning of Jesus’ young life, it is three stargazing people from a very different and distant land who are the very first to know and name Jesus as their king…the King of kings…and Lord of lords.
And, the second very important point that this seemingly strange, God-appointed encounter has to teach us concerns those famous gifts that the wise-men gave to the child king, Jesus. We all of course learn them as children ourselves: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. As many of you know, before going to seminary, I was the youth minister at an Episcopal Church in Houston at which the former President and First Lady George and Barbara Bush attended. One Christmas Eve between services I was with the rector in his office when the president walked in to give him a very special Christmas gift. It was a bag full of frankincense that President Bush had purchased for the rector while on a trip to the Holy Land. At that moment, I decided that was how a priest new that she or he had really succeeded in their vocation…when you get frankincense from the president for Christmas. It was a pretty awe-inspiring moment to witness, but I am happy to say, I’ve changed my opinion on that with age and experience…success looks to me now like this family of faith gathered together in prayer, worship and mutual love in this very place. But, I digress…back to the gifts. Now, all three of these gifts are greatly valuable on their own terms. Gold…really still today…but certainly in Jesus’ day was a form of currency…even a little gold would be a tremendous amount of money that would afford a family like Jesus’ significant financial security. And, frankincense creates a beautiful smell when burned that can make any space wonderfully fragrant…especially in a time when farm animals often shared a home with people. And, myrrh was a rare and hard to produce lovely perfumed oil that in a time before soap, deodorant, and daily showers was perhaps the most practical gift of all three. These are gifts of extravagant luxury in the ancient world. Truly gifts fit for a king and not a carpenter’s son. And, yet, their true value is not in what they could provide, or how they could be used, or the status they might confer on the one who owns them. The true value of these three gifts are what they suggest…what they represent. For, they are signs and symbols of who this child King, Jesus, is and will be.
You see out of gold we forge crowns reminding us, as the three stargazers first name, that Jesus is the King of all creation…the maker of heaven and earth and all they contain. And in many churches, including our own on occasion, we burn frankincense, a symbol of our prayers ascending to heaven, which reminds us that Jesus is our Great High Priest who mediates and advocates for us before God. And, myrrh is not only used as perfume but also to anoint the bodies of the dead, reminding us that Jesus is the Savior of the world whose own death defeated death for all people and all time. These gifts, like sacraments, are outward signs and symbols of a spiritual truth…the truth of who this child, given to all of us at Christmas, really is…the King of all creation, our great High Priest who absolves our sins and makes us worthy to stand before God, and our Savior who will go to the cross to defeat death, our most ancient foe, such that, at the end of our story stands only light and life…from forever to forever.
At that first Christmas night, at the rising of a star, God’s incarnate love comes to dwell among us as our eternal King, our great High Priest, and our Savior.
And, please remember where I began…Jesus, our King, Priest and Savior comes at Christmas, as the Babe of Bethlehem, for all of us…those who look, live, love and believe like we do and those who don’t...those from distant and different lands and those who share the highways and byways we often traverse…all of us…without distinction. Jesus comes at Christmas for the very life of the world. Thus, our work is to create a place at this table and in this family for all of them…all we can think to invite…all who arrive as guests…all entrusted to our care. For God so loved the whole world, at Christmas, he gave all of us his only begotten Son…our King…our Priest…our Savior. Amen.