2nd Sunday After Christmas, Epiphany, Year A
See TEXT below Matthew 2:1-12
The immediate word that comes to mind when offered the Lectionary Gospel reading for this week is absurd. On the face of this it seems an absurd happening. To think that a bevy of foreign kings would search out this humble peasant family and worship at the feet of a child seems the stuff of fairy tales.
However, St. Matthew brings it to us with straight faced seriousness: "magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
Where, indeed? Herod must have wondered why his own soothsayers and henchmen had missed the upstart king, and this prophecy-promise about Bethlehem. But we know why. These men of the "baser sort" were after power and lived to keep it. Remember, it was Gibbon who told us in his history of Rome that to the common people all the empire's religions were equally true, and to the intellectuals they were equally false, but to the politicians they were equally useful. Such is the way of the world. Herod and his gang were interested in the spiritual sense of the world only to the extent that they could use it to their own ends. Their feign desire to worship the new king belied a desire for self-worship as idolatry. Ruthless to the end, and in the end they would receive what they deserved.
We could say this differently: Christian believers are foolish to believe that the answers to the problems we face will come from Washington or our state capitals or our community leaders. To tie our fate to this party or that movement causes us to lose our prophetic voice and eventually it forces us to remove the grace of the Gospel from those with whom we differ.
Here the Magi become our teachers. They teach us that true faith is a journey. They teach us that a true searching heart reaches beyond what is known, that true faith involves deep risk, that true faith demands courageous action, and true faith takes into account ones own foibles and weaknesses but embarks anyhow.
And whom do the Magi find at the end of their search? They find the King -- the Son of GOD -- manifest in a toddlers missteps and skinned knees. Did this detour them? We do not know if they winced when they scrapped the ground with their knees in worship of the child, but I doubt it. Having come so far and having traveled so long they probably were grateful for the end of half the journey, and by this time they may not have been surprised at the doings of this GOD who sent them on this long traverse in the first place. The bumps and bruises of long journeys tend to knock-off the veneer of pride.
There are lessons here for us, the most important of which may be the truth that our search for the Son of GOD is actually arduous and life-long. The wandering Magi confront us with the idea that faith may be simple, but it is never cheap; it may be lightly informed, but it is never without struggle. Said another way, if we think we have arrived and we have all things in this Christian life down, then we deceive ourselves, and this to our own peril. (see Philippians 2:12-13)
Think about this from a different direction. How did Jesus of Nazareth himself respond to his own person? He does not walk around town with a neon "I am God" sign flashing about his neck. Instead, his kingship is quiet and shushed. He is forever forbidding those who claim special knowledge of him from sharing what they think they know; he is forever taking the place of the servant and the least; he is careful in in confrontation of the religious leaders knowing that the time for his mission is limited.
This must be our approach as well. In our search for the manifestation or the epiphany of Jesus as the the Christ we must look inside the subtle cracks of our lives, inside the times of trauma and trial and grief. It is there you will find his handiwork if not his hand; it is there you will discover his strength if not his face.
Matthew 2:1-12
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.” Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.” After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
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