Readings: Isaiah
60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12
Let us pray: God today and every day we seek openness,
challenge and promise as we hear your word for us. Amen.
How many of us were, even slightly, on edge
on 21st December? The end of
the world as predicted by the Mayans and made large in our thoughts by the
media frenzy. The fact that the Mayan
prophecy was about the end of their 5000+ years calendar cycle rather than the
world necessarily imploding upon itself was fairly conveniently overlooked by
many. We these days mostly have a fairly
light hearted approach to prophecies, predictions for the future – especially
of this style (around 10% according to a Reuters poll were uneasy about the
date) – they sit alongside horoscopes as bit of a laugh but you never know –
actually I read on Friday on the top of my gmail page, where they flash up
little ads, that if I went to a particular site I could access my horoscope for
the year and know everything that was going to happen. Whew, that’s a relief. Oh and then I found out that ads are selected
for my particular login based on the perceived content of the emails. Scary and not sure of the connection there
really! Maybe I like to talk about hope
for the future a bit?
Seriously though, in the time that Matthew
was writing, prophecy based on astronomical events was a much more widespread
and valued art (or science you might say).
Those who came from the east to visit the Christ child were thought to
be skilled astronomers, scientists, probably of another faith - scholars who
would have used all their predictive skills to determine the time and place of
this coming great event – the birth of a King to the Jews, a shepherd for the
people of Israel. It was not unusual – many
of the important old world events were said to be accompanied by particular
astral phenomena – including the births of Abraham, Alexander the Great and
Mithras.
As we turn to the Gospel reading today -it
is interesting that the Christmas story we enact each year is a coming together
of the two Gospel stories of the early years of Jesus. We have Matthew who tells of the ‘men from
the east’ and the ensuring horror of Herod’s directive to kill all the young
children, and Luke who tells us of the coming to the inn, the birth and the
shepherds and Simeon and Anna at the temple.
The Magi are generally agreed to have arrived at some time after the
birth, not with the shepherds and not at the manger. I read of a minister in the States who, each
Christmas, in his home and in church, moves the Magi of the Nativity scene from
windowsill to windowsill, and only brings them alongside the infant Jesus with
his mother on Epiphany.
So does it matter that, in some ways like
our simplistic interpretation of the Mayan prophecy, we have created a
Christmas story that is not an accurate depiction of the time and the facts
known to us? Well actually yes it does,
not because it’s false or wrong or particularly misleading, but because, by
doing so, we can often miss the fullness of God’s message to us in the
incarnation. If we leave the drama of
the Christmas story as a standalone event, as a cute baby in a manger
surrounded by the rough shepherds and the wise visitors from the east, we risk
treating Christmas as an isolated one off event which is over on the 26th
December and only to be engaged with again next Advent. We also miss the outrageousness of these
visitors from other lands if we allow them only miraculous timing and
extravagant gift giving. They can bring
much more to our understanding of God’s purpose for us and the world if we
allow the Magi to come in Epiphany and give them some time and thought
there.
The
word itself – Epiphany – means manifestation or appearance – and, for the
church over the centuries, the revelation of Christ in connection with the
visit of the Magi.
In the early church Epiphany, the revealing of Jesus
Christ to the world was a much more important part of the liturgical year, more
so than Christmas, and joined Easter and Pentecost as one of the three major
feasts of the faith communities.
Why? Dirk Lange[1],
a Lutheran theologian suggests that it was because the time of Epiphany was
seen as God’s self revelation to the world, the beginning of Christ’s public
ministry. And that, whilst the birth was
obviously important, it was the beginning only and this visit by the Magi held
greater significance in the sense of revealing Christ to the whole of the
world.
The story of the Magi actually speaks out of the prophetic
stream of Hebrew Scriptures - which tells of peoples coming together in peace,
beating their swords into ploughs and their spears into pruning hooks, of all
sharing in the great feast as one people.
Those who stand in Israel’s tradition are to kneel alongside the others,
the Gentile Magi, in acknowledgment that something recognisably divine is met
in the Christ - and that it is meant for all people to share and to be part
of. The peoples coming together in peace
was to be born in the Christ and revealed in this moment of the Magi.
It was a powerful moment for me - to see myself as part of
that kneeling throng, to be one with so many different peoples in the presence
of Christ – it somehow made more real for me those words that we use each
communion service
“So now, in
gratitude, we join our voices with those from all times and all places who love
you, have loved you and will love you.
Holy, holy,
holy God,
Heaven and
earth are full of your glory.”
This story of the revelation of the Christ to both the
shepherds and the Magi is a celebration of the inclusiveness of God’s world,
and that is why it is helpful to look at them separately, – of rich and poor,
wise and foolish, confident and scared – and perhaps above all of all peoples
no matter their race, their culture and yes even their faith. This is big picture stuff, this is God
telling us in no uncertain terms that Christ is not to be contained, not to be
owned by a particular group, even when
the prophecies of the coming Messiah have been steeped in that peoples
holy scriptures for all time. Christ is
taken firmly out from just the Jewish world and into the beyond, into a place
where there are different world views, alternative approaches to life. God will do whatever it takes to reach out
and embrace all people - in Christ
Jesus, no one is beyond God’s embrace – this realisation can, for us, be a
little overwhelming and perhaps frightening – when we realise what that
means. It means we have to expand our
understanding of the ways God reaches out to people to announce good news in
and through Christ. It means we have to
expand our understanding on what it means for individuals to have faith and for
gatherings of the faithful to be church.
There is no one right way, no formulae that is appropriate to all, no
human mind that can anticipate how God in Christ works in this world. This is totally illustrated by the Christmas
story - God announces the birth of the Messiah not in the temple and through
its priests but to shepherds through angels on Christmas, to Magi via a star on
Epiphany, and to the political and religious authorities of God’s own people in
and through foreigners, visitors from the East.
Who could have predicted
that? It was so outside the authorities
views of coming of the Messiah that at best it was fanciful and at worst a
threat to all that was sacred. Do we too
reject ways of coming to faith that are outside our formulaic approach, or as
Craig Satterlee [2]writes,
“feel jealous when visitors show up seeking Christ due to experiences outside
of our understanding.” Or when they express their faith in ways outside our
experiences and traditions?
How might we shake our
thinking to genuinely embrace the Magi, the strangers, the different whom we
might encounter and how might we meet Christ in unexpected ways in and through
them? Where is our containment of the mystery and unknown ways of God blinding
us to the amazingly diverse company that we join at table with, and from whom
we are continually opened to the glory and mystery of a God that gifted to us
Jesus Christ in such an unpredictable, unexpected way?
It’s a fitting start to
this new year, I believe to consider this:
From a manger, where a
child lies wrapped in bands of cloth, God’s reach, God’s embrace in Christ
Jesus, gets bigger and bolder and broader. Jesus hosts lowly shepherds
and high status magi, eats with outcasts and sinners, chats with the forsaken
and the unknown, and through the cross reaches out to all humanity over all
time and all space.
How is it that we can live this ever expanding embrace
in our lives and our community of faith today?
Amen.
Margaret Garland
