| The Rev. Catharine W. Montgomery | The Epiphany of Our Lord |
| Grace Memorial Episcopal Church | Year A |
| January 6, 2008 | RCL |
Nobody really knows who they were, exactly where they came from or even for sure how many there were…the wise men enter from the mysterious East; leave their gifts and slip away into the dim mists of imagination…never to be seen again. Matthew must have been thinking of what the prophet Isaiah said centuries before about the restoration of Jerusalem …Isaiah wrote, “Arise, shine, for your light has come…Kings shall come to the brightness of your dawn…the wealth of the nations shall come to you….They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.”
We think the words Magi or wise men refer to Persian astronomers or scholars. They were Gentile pagans. Magi believed that a star could be the indicator or angel of a great man. They were always looking up mapping and searching the heavens for their guidance and good news. When they saw this bright star rising they were drawn to its light and began their journey. You would not believe how many astronomical studies have been done to try and prove the existence of that star… at that time in history.
Naturally, Jerusalem is where the wise men went first to ask about the birth - Jerusalem - the seat of power and the home of the king. It was where the action was. When King Herod heard they were looking for a newborn king of the Jews, he was upset and so was the whole city because another king would mean competition and change. The first century world was already full of human struggles - poverty, racism, terrorism, religious conflicts over who was righteous and who was not…
Herod was sneaky. He called in his Old Testament scholars who said the wise men were a little off course because according to the prophet Micah, the Messiah was to come from a little town called Bethlehem about 5 miles south of there. For men that were so, “wise,” our travelers weren’t very suspicious when Herod asked them to find the child so he could pay him homage. But the wise men set out led by their star until it stopped over the place where the child was born. The sight of the child filled them with great joy as they offered their gifts.
Matthew’s simple story is really all we know. Because it is a story of the heart and not the head, it has grown and been given great significance for foreshadowing and understanding the birth and life of Jesus. In time the three men were given names, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. Some artists show them with different skin tones representing Europe, Asia and Africa. For the Christian imagination, this international team of magi or kings could be thought of as the first missionaries for Christ. It is the gifts that came out of the treasure chests that have captured our imagination.
The gold brought by the royal Caspar represents wealth suitable for royalty. The imagination of our heart may interpret the gold as our offering of all the wealth of who we are and all that is important to us. The Frankincense offered to the child by the astrologer Melchior is a costly fragrance and incense. It may be associated with divinity and spiritual things; like the offering up of prayer and praise.
Myrrh, presented by the wise Balthasar, was a costly and bitter spice used for embalming. Later Christian thinking interpreted that gift as a foreshadowing of the anointing and death that must come to Jesus. The visit of the wise men to the birth of Jesus was often painted on the walls of burial places as a sign of hope for eternal life.
The story is a sign for us too. Our lives are like icons of the journey to the Christ child. There is in each human soul a deep longing for a guiding star for our journey - a point of orientation - a compass. No wonder there is a fascination with astrology and star gazing – they lift us up and beyond ourselves and our earthly existence. Stars and the heavens draw us like magnets.
Do you know your sign or read your horoscope in the paper? Someone once said that reading your horoscope column every day is easier… than consciously trying not to read it. Admit it or not, we want to know where we fit into the great cosmic scheme of life and wanting to get just a little peek at the future is a temptation.
The procession of the kings to the manger reminds me of the children’s pageant on Christmas Eve. The children brought the figures to the crčche and then stood there transfixed with the light of the manger scene shining on their faces. When we come to the manger like the kings and the children we see with the eyes of the heart that see through and beyond. The story expresses a truth… that like the wise men, each of us has come from many different places and we are on a journey to find Christ and worship him. Something happened to the kings that night. They did not go back to Herod to tell him about the child. They left for their own country by another road. The story tells us that when we find Jesus and worship him our minds and hearts are changed and our lives continue toward home on another road.
The world of the 21st century has many of the same problems as that of the first century. There is much here to seduce us and turn our hearts away from the One who beckons to us. We need that child and the light of the Epiphany season that draws us to him. What we celebrate this Christmas season and Epiphany is our greater plan is found in God and the star we follow is the light of Christ. That light will become brighter as we go through the season of Epiphany – as once again we hear the stories of how Jesus, the Son of God, was made known to the world.
The journeys of our lives take many strange and hard twists and turns. Many are searching for some direction for their lives; you may be one of them. People are going to continue to read tea leaves and horoscopes looking for a clue. We can be astronomers and astrologers enchanted by the stars - but to me those stars seem cold, distant and silent. I don’t want the one who leads me - my God, to be cold, distant, and silent.
In the midst of all that is wrong with the world, the newborn child is such a promise of life and hope for the future. The three kings must have felt that way too. A baby boy in a manger would not be cold and distant and certainly not silent. No wonder those kings fell to their knees…….