Christ Church Uniting
Disciples and Presbyterians
1300 Kailua Rd.
Kailua, HI 96734
262-6911

The first Sunday of Advent was the beginning of a new church year. Did we celebrate?

In terms of celebrations and observance, we move from Advent to Christmas, from Ash Wednesday through Lent and Holy Week to Easter Sunday and, then some fifty days later, on to Pentecost and the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The liturgical calendar carries our imaginations through an annual cycle of reflections. We read a different gospel each year. Last year most of the gospel lessons were from Saint Luke. This year, the lectionary invites our attention to the Gospel According to Matthew.

Today in the Gospel According to Matthew we encounter the story of an auspicious visit from foreign luminaries. These strangers were carrying (treasure), and (if the nativity scenes are to be believed) riding camels. They were looking for a child born to be--not wild, not free, but born to be--king of the Jews.

They had already followed their lights to Jerusalem. The one who fancied himself the present King of the Jews, Herod Himself, had invited them over for a little consultation. He suggested they check out Bethlehem. He extracted from them a terrible promise. Should they find the little prince, they agreed to give up his whereabouts. Herod was a dangerous, threatened and duplicitous despot. Herod had plans.

At length, with neighbors doubtless gawking, the travelers arrive at the door of a tiny house in Bethlehem. Matthew doesn’t say it, but I’m guessing it is a tiny house since the other time we heard of this very young couple with newborn they were lodged in a stable. There was no room in the inn according to Saint Luke.

The visitors bow low and tell their version of "follow that star." They drop gifts. After some powerful dreams and a fitful night’s sleep, and at no small risk to themselves, they break their promise to Herod. They by-pass Jerusalem, cut King Herod out of the loop, and make their way back home by a different route.

What are we to make of this story?

My sermon title "Wise Men Mostly" reflects the fact that although the so-called wise men weren’t really or exactly (more about that in a few minutes), the intended audience for this passage is wise people. More accurately, I should say that Matthew invites his readers to become wise. The sermon’s admonition, you can anticipate it already, will be "Go and do likewise, like the wise men."

Let’s look at the characters of this story.

First the Holy Family: Joseph, more of an actor in Matthew than in any other gospel, is not in this story at all. Mary neither acts nor speaks. And then there’s Baby King Jesus. As far as I can see, he just sits there: cooing, sucking his thumb, pooping--whatever babies do at that age.

So what about Herod? He is a man of power and wealth. He has access to information. He encourages the Magi to go to Bethlehem. Information sharing is good. Encouragement is good. And he said the right things. "When you find him, bring me word so that I may go and pay him homage."

Maybe Herod wasn’t brilliant though. If he had been really smart, he might have sent emissaries along with the Magi, or had them followed. As it turned out, when the Magi didn’t return to rat out the baby king, Herod responded by having all the Bethlehem boy children slaughtered.

This was the so-called Slaughter of the Innocents. It was Herod’s doing. It was a poor use of resources, among other things. And it was ineffective. In the end, Herod died. In the end, Herod was a dead man not a wise man. There’s a lesson here. Wise men (and women) probably get it.

So what about the Magi? To grok the strangeness of this story to its first century readers, we need to know more about those Magi people.

Matthew had no idea that they were kings. He said they were Magi. It’s a Greek word. Magi aren’t kings.

Matthew didn’t even know there were three of them. Nor did he know their names: Melchior, Balthazar and Caspar.

This information arises from post-biblical legends. Are you with me?

And apparently, Matthew was totally unaware that the three kings were accompanied by Amahl, the formerly crippled shepherd boy. I learned this last bit from "Amahl and the Night Visitors", a television musical drama in the nineteen-fifties.

Anyway, there goes the crèche.

So who were those guys? The NRSV, our pew Bible, translates "Magi" as "wise men." This is an example of the power of tradition to overwhelm helpful translation. To call Magi wise men is somewhere between totally wrong and terribly mistaken. Also, it’s way too kind.

In Jesus’ day, magi were strolling astrologers and magicians. The word "magic" comes from "magi." The apostle Paul demonstrates a first century Jewish attitude towards magi. He says to one of them, a certain Magus Elymas, in Acts 13, "You are a child of the devil…full of all kinds of deceit and trickery."

To the first century Jewish reader, the magi were the untrustworthy and reprehensible epitome of idolatry and hocus-pocus. Magi were those people, it was thought, who, instead of trusting God, searched the night skies and poked around in chicken gizzards for clues to the future.

The magi in Jesus day were not considered wise at all. They weren’t considered examples of anything worthy. To the first century way of thinking, magi shouldn’t even be in the picture with baby Jesus. Yet, in a marvelously inclusive way, Matthew makes them heroes in his gospel’s first story following Jesus’ birth.

By including their visit to Jesus, Matthew signals that all people, men and women, wise and otherwise, will be touched by the good news of Jesus.

This corresponds to a particular aspect of Jesus’ gospel that finds expression at CCU: namely, God’s inclusive love for all people as expressed in Jesus’ life story and experienced in faith community. Thus, whoever you are, wherever you’re coming from, regardless of your human condition, sexual orientation, whatever—you’re welcome in this community of faith in Jesus’ name.

This is all very educational, but there’s more to Matthew’s gospel purpose in telling us this story. Listen to what scholar Marcus J. Borg has to say about this and the other gospel Christmas stories.

"I do not think there was a special star or wise men or shepherds or birth in a stable in Bethlehem." Well, there’s a thought. You don’t have to agree with Borg to benefit from his further observation which I’m about to share. I quote him so you will know that I understand and appreciate his way of thinking.

Paul Haring, who studied with Borg last summer, told us that Borg sees many of the gospel stories (including the magi’s visit I can add) not as history remembered but rather as literary creations expressing central truths about Jesus’ significance. Borg points out that for Matthew a central theme is that "Jesus is king of the Jews."

There is a conflict throughout Matthew’s gospel between rival claims of "kings of the Jews." In this story, Herod stands on one side. Baby Jesus stands on the other.

Matthew continually invites his readers to choose between rival kings.

We can ally ourselves with entrenched wealth or with the vulnerable poor.

We can side with Herod and empire or with Jesus and the dispossessed.

We can be dead like Herod, or we can choose life.

In our story today, the magi chose. They chose life. They followed their yearning. This led them to Jerusalem. It led them to Herod, a close encounter with wealth and power and its evil use. It led them to Bethlehem, to the doorstep of a helpless young woman with child. It led them to lay down their burdens. They gave away their treasure.

It led them to stand with the baby against the king.

And when it was time to return home, it led them home by a different route.

They were different. They risked much. They were alive and wise after all.

And so might we be like wise.

__________________________

Preached by Rev. Buddy Summers 1/6/2002

Christ Church Uniting Disciples and Presbyterians

1300 Kailua Road, Kailua, HI 96734

Return to Sermons Page