Matthew 2:1-12
Epiphany Sunday, January 1, 2006
The past few weeks it’s been cold, snowy, gray, and even rainy. Oh, and did I mention cold. Of course I don’t need to tell you that, and I probably shouldn’t be complaining. At least in this bitter cold we’ve had some sun. But still, I’m tired of the weather. I’m tired of the cold, I’m tired of shoveling, I’m tired of it being dark at 5 p.m., and I’m tired of having to bundle Lydia up like a Eskimo every time we leave the house.
Add to that some post-holiday let down – time with family is over, back to work after some time off, and staring at the Christmas decorations that need to come down. All and all, I’m feeling a bit lethargic these days. And I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one who feels like all she wants to do when it’s this cold out and the tree needs to come down is to snuggle up on the couch with a good book…and stay there for a few days. In case you are feeling that way, I’m glad you decided to show up here this morning!
So maybe it was the influence of my greater than usual homebody-ness, but this week I found myself really wondering about the journey of the Magi, the ones called wise men in most of our Bible translations. I have been wondering what got them out of their homes, what moved them to go out on the road. They made a long, hard journey. They obviously thought they had a compelling reason for making the journey. But why? Why did the magi set out in search of Jesus?
We don’t know much about the magi, but we know a bit. On this Sunday it is traditional to sing the hymn, “We Three Kings,” which is supposedly based on this passage. But one of the few things we do know about the magi is that they weren’t kings at all. The term Magi was originally reserved for a tribe of priests for the Persian Empire. They were experts in the supernatural, things like astrology, and the interpretation of dreams.
And it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves of a few more details about the magi, since our scripture texts get mixed up with Christmas pageants in our heads until it’s hard to remember what happens where. We know from reading our Bible that the magi don’t show up with the shepherds – they aren’t even in the same story – and we know that they don’t arrive at the stable, but instead at Mary and Joseph’s house.
We know from the Biblical text that they came from the East, though we don’t really know where. But no matter where exactly they came from, it is clear that they came a long way, they made a significant journey. And it was all for the sake of the child who had been born, and the star that lit the way. But why? I just can’t get that question out of my mind.
Jesus was probably a toddler at this time. There were a few people who had been touched by his birth, who felt that they had shared in some miraculous and holy event. But for the most part, word had not spread. Jesus wouldn’t really have any followers until many years later. So there weren’t any Christians yet, any followers of Christ. But there was the Jewish community, the people of Israel. Jesus was born into this community, was a part of it, was raised in its traditions. It was Jewish prophesies of a messiah that were applied to Jesus. But even that community had not quite noticed Jesus yet. That would not come until much later. Only a very small number believed that anything special was happening with this small child. So while the rest of the world is going on about its business, a group of magi see a star, and they set out from the East, and search for the obscure, basically unknown child, Jesus.
The funny thing about these magi, to me, is that they weren’t Jews. They didn’t know the
prophecies. Nothing in the magi’s own culture told them to look for this kid. They weren’t looking to see their own religion’s prophecies fulfilled. They weren’t looking for their own messiah. And yet, they were seeking, and working hard at it.
I was trying to imagine what the analogy would be for me. At first I was thinking it would be like making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Since I’m not Moslem, it would be out of the ordinary for me to journey to a sacred site of a faith that is not my own. But the journey the magi made was even more out of the ordinary than that. I know something about Muhammad. I know he has huge significance for many people. That wasn’t true yet of Jesus. So maybe it’s more like if I were to go to Mobile, Alabama, believing that I have seen special signs of God’s presence there – even though nothing in my faith or my community tells me that that is the case.
We don’t know anything about why these guys took their journey to see Jesus. Why did they leave home? Why did they set out on such a dedicated search? Alas, the Bible doesn’t give any clues as to why. It just leaves that question unanswered. Their search just doesn’t make sense. Or then again maybe it does.
Maybe when we focus on the searching in this story we can get some insight into these magi. If we enter the story with the magi in this story on the way to Nazareth we can ask: What do we know of searching? I suspect this question will have as many different answers as there are people in this place this morning. We are all searching at some level.
Some of you are seekers in the most open sense of that word – drawn to seek a relationship with God but not completely sure that the Christian church is the best place for you. But you’re still willing to spend some time with this community of faith while you are searching.
Some of you are committed, life-long Christians. For you the search may be a process of continually seeking to deepen and strengthen your faith, to be always growing.
Or maybe most of the time you believe your time of searching is done – you feel confidant in the faith you have found. Maybe there is only the occasional quiet nagging of a voice just on the edge of consciousness that speaks of unfulfilled longing, suggesting there is something more out there, urging you to set out again on the search.
Maybe some of you don’t know what you’re searching for, but you know something’s missing from life and you want to believe there’s more – so you have set out trying to find it.
Or maybe some of you are as cozy as I am when I settle into the couch on a cold, snowy day – figuring there’s not much that’s compelling enough to get you to budge!
I respect, and have no particular reason to question, those who say they have no belief in or yearning for God’s presence in their lives. But, I believe that most of us do feel that yearning. I think this is what we know about searching. Something in us is drawn toward something divine, and so our lives become a journey toward the divine. I suspect it was that yearning that lay behind the Magi’s decision to set out upon their search. I believe that yearning itself is a God-given gift, a motivation to seek God. It’s what sets us searching.
Of course, there is a sort of good news/bad news about this searching – and we see this in the Magi’s story. The good news is that the search paid off – they found what they were searching for. The bad news is that their journey didn’t end when they found him.
And that is true for us, too. If we learn anything from the Magi, it is that finding Jesus is only the first step in the next leg of the journey, a journey on a new road. Once we’ve encountered Jesus, which might be an amazing experience, we still have to integrate that into our lives and let it change us and send us in directions we never knew before. In other words, the journey doesn’t end.
Somehow, it was the call of God that set the magi on their way and it was the encounter with Jesus that convinced them to change course and set their life on a new path. And so the question comes to us: Where do you hear God’s call? Do you hear it in the stars – through dreaming? Whispered to you through your longings and desires? What is your epiphany? What is it that you have found that keeps you coming back here, that keeps you yearning to live as God has called you to live – to go where God directs you?
I had someone ask me recently to articulate the reasons I feel compelled to do what I believe God is calling me to do. He was asking, basically, what pulls me toward God even when it seems like God is far away and hard to find. So I’ve been thinking about it. I realized that for me, for whatever reason – let’s call it God – I seem to be wired to take on the experiences of the invisible people in our world. I imagine myself in their shoes and imagine what it is like to cry out and then find there is absolutely no one listening. Really no one who thinks you are living.
At times this completely overwhelms me and I shut down – I try to shut the feelings out completely. But most of the time it is those people – the invisible – that compel me to make a journey to places I don’t yet know. This is what compels me to come here to worship and to learn, to seek God and try to make sense of it all.
What has God placed in you that compels you to make the journey? What gets you out of bed and keeps you searching for meaning and purpose? What motivates you to action? Maybe it is your encounters with Jesus – in whatever way that happens – that motivate you to continue on the way – and we all encounter Jesus in different ways. Some of us meet Jesus in the scriptures, some of us see Jesus in the life of faithful person. Some see Jesus in the eyes of those who suffer most in this world. Some encounter Jesus in communion, or through worship and community.
These are epiphanies. These are the moments we are set on a journey seeking even more – motivated to be an agent of God, rather than just people who stay where we are and keep doing what we have always done.
To say that we are searching, that we are on a journey rather than settled in one place, is an odd kind of good news, especially in a culture where we are eager for end results, and terribly impatient with the process. But I am convinced that the search contains as much good news as the arrival. Searching is our heartfelt response to God’s call to us. It is the expression of our yearning, the willingness to go out of our way in the hope of encountering God in our own lives. It is the opening for epiphany. Amen
