Sermon Matthew 2:1-12 Dec 13, 2015 Advent 3 HPMF The Journey of the Magi Matthew 2:1-12 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage. 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6 And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel. 7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage. 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. 1
The writer of Matthew tells us that there were wise men from the east who journeyed to meet the child born king of the Jews. We have come to know them as the Three Wise Men, the Magi or The Three Kings. They were likely both wealthy and educated students of science and religion. Many modern scholars have come to hypothesize that they were priests of Zoroastrianism, a religious system of Persia founded 500 years before the birth of Jesus in what is modern day Northern Iraq. This has become the thinking because Zoroastrianism had a high place in its religion for Astrology, they studied the stars for signs from the Divine, they studied the heavens to make meaning of life. And so it would make sense that it is priests of a astrological religion that would travel hundreds of miles in pursuit of a brilliant and unique star. If they were in fact from Persia, their trip would have been over a thousand miles taking months by camel (longer if by foot) a long and dangerous journey into a foreign land. These Astronomer Priests were likely people of stature and position in their own culture, upper class citizens with the resources to bring expensive gifts as an offering for a new king. Hopefully this will not burst anyone s Christmas vision too badly, but we don t know how many wise men there actually were who came on this quest, the Bible is rarely that specific. We say three because there were three gifts, assuming no one would want to show up to a baby shower empty handed. We should of course take note that these wise men from the east were foreigners. They were not Jewish. This is a not a small insignificant detail. Matthew s story begins and ends with foreigners. Whatever else the birth of Christ means, it certainly is meant to include all peoples of the world. God, in this child, has breached the traditional boundaries of race, country and religion as never seen before or since. 2
And the star. Scholarship about the reality of the star is varied, with many explanations and arguments being offered. Some argue that a rare alignment of the planets occurred where Jupiter and Saturn aligned in the zodiacal constellation of Pisces. The Magi seeing the alignment left to follow this highly unusual celestial ordering. Another suggestion is that a supernova occurred where a star violently exploded and gave off enormous amounts of light for a few weeks or even months. The magi then following the light given off by this exploding star until the light flamed out, presumably over Bethlehem. And still others suggest that it was Halley s comet, which would have passed by in 12 BCE. The magi following the comet after it passed over head following it across hundreds of desert miles. Whatever it was, these students of the heavens took notice of it. They knew it was something unique, something they would never again experience they knew they had to act. They trusted that this sign in the heavens was a Divine revelation, and so they went. This week Carolyn Shrock-Shenk, professor of Peace and Conflict Studies reflected on taking the path of trust on the Goshen College Advent blog. She begins by acknowledging that this year in the United States there have been more mass shootings than days on the calendar that we, as a nation on average have had at least one mass shooting every day in 2015. And of course we know that gun violence is only one of the many catastrophic realities of our day. And so, reflects Carolyn, Given the state of the world, who in their right mind travels life s path full of trust? It makes no sense. 3
I have given up she continues, trying to reconcile the reality of suffering my own and the world s with belief in a God of love. It seems illogical to hold together a loving God with the reality of so much evil. So I have stopped trying to make sense of it. It s not that I disengage my intellect to believe in a God who loves us deeply and in whom I can trust; it is that I have come to accept the extreme limitations of my intellect. It may be foolish to believe in a loving God, given the disasters all around us. I know that. But I have decided that to not believe in a loving God, simply because I can t make it all make sense, is the height of arrogance and even greater foolishness. So I do believe. I choose to believe. It s that simple. And that is what I am learning about trust. I can choose it. I HAVE to choose it. Every day I must chose to take the path of trusting in a God of love some days it s easy and makes sense the sun is bright. I am loved. I have good work. And some days, like today, I have to choose trust. I have to choose it repeatedly in the face of violence, tragedy, and inner turmoil when it seems to make no sense. The path of trust is a choice. A daily, sometimes hourly choice. And so here are these Wise Men from the east, educated and secure in the their lifestyles, and they make the choice to trust what God is revealing to them in the sky they chose to follow a star (or comet, or whatever it was). I am sure that it did not make sense to many around them, perhaps even they had doubts as they traveled across the desert trying to determine where exactly this was leading them. They chose to follow what they believed to be the revelation of God they chose to trust this symbol in the sky. What an example these astronomer priests are for us as we too struggle to walk the path of trust. 4
And still, even with their trust in what was revealed to them, they did not end up in the right place at first. As they followed the star they at first determined that it must have been leading them to Jerusalem. I am sure it is hard to determine, even for great astronomers, the exact GPS location on earth that a star or supernova is giving them. They got close with just the star, but they were a little off, about nine miles off to be exact (which is the distance between Jerusalem and Bethlehem). Even in the midst of their study, education and trust they still ended up nine miles north of where God was being born. I am sure when they got close they just assumed that the place they were looking for must be Jerusalem, that if they were seeking a new king that it would be happening in the seat of power in the great palace, or at the very least in the Capital city. If you are looking for power in our country, you head to Washington D.C., not to near-by farming communities of Maryland or Virginia. If you want to see who the president will be, you go to the Democratic or Republican National Convention, not to small farming towns to meet craftsman and carpenters. So we can t blame these Magi for making such a mistake, I am sure most of us would do the same as people of means and some status, these Magi head for the city of status. As with us much of the time, the Magi too are looking for God in the wrong place looking for the promises of God in places where they will not be found. We of course know that it was not the great city of Jerusalem where Jesus was born, but the little town of Bethlehem, a little rural place, dusty, unnoticed, unpretentious. The place had not yet become a great tourist attraction, or a place of contest between occupying armies. The village was sort of beside the point, not yet on the Imperial radar. This was the proper setting for 5
the unnoticed, uncelebrated peasant birth of the one who was to offer a deep alternative to the power of Herod, to the might of Caesar. If you know about the geography of the Holy Land, then you know that Bethlehem is nine miles south of Jerusalem. The wise men had a long history of study and certainty but they had missed their goal by nine miles. They miscalculated by just that much. This was probably a very difficult nine miles for our Magi friends to travel, to continue to trust what they were seeing that the king of the Jews might be born an entire day s journey from the seat of power. And when the star stopped and seemed to be pointing them to a peasant s home, the home of a carpenter I imagine they had wondered if their trust had been misguided and their journey wasted. The great wisdom of these wise men from the east, I think, is to recognize that they were looking for God s promises in the wrong place, wrong by nine-miles. That they had miscalculated this strange God of the Jews, assuming She was one to be born among kings to be dwelling with the powerful and wealthy. Their great wisdom shown through when they did not stop after finding no child-king in Jerusalem they continued to trust, even when it did not seem to make any sense at all. They continued to follow the star that had been revealed to them. And so this might too be our great work these final weeks of Advent, to notice the places where we have been seeking God s promises in the wrong places where we have miscalculated our journeys by nine miles (give or take). To notice where we are still seeking fulfillment, joy, hope and security from that which is a good nine miles from where God is actually offering such things. To recognize the ways we keep seeking to find God in the palace rather than where we know God is dwelling, in the forgotten places in the modest and humble places that we keep seeking God in our old ways, in our past ways, rather than searching for the God who makes all 6
things new. The invitation issued among us is to travel those nine hard and demanding miles, to continue to trust in our God of love even when it doesn t seem to make complete intellectual sense. To humble ourselves enough to know that we can t always make sense of it all no matter how educated or well-off or secure we might be. So we keep following in trust, the Christ being born on the edges of where most of us seek him. And so, may we be as wise as our friends the Magi may we be wise people from the west, who continue to seek the promises of God, even when they lead us past our assumed destination even when they lead us to places beyond what we can fully comprehend or make sense of. May we continue to trust what God has revealed to us in a son Jesus Christ, that we might experience God being born again in our lives and in our world. Amen. Sending Blessing And now as you go from this place, may the God of the Magi go with you moving us to places of deeper and deeper trust; moving us to journey those final hard miles toward the child we meet in Bethlehem, the child who makes all things new that healing and hope might flow through us and into the world. Go in peace. Amen. 7
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