Dear Friends -
Here is a copy of the sermon I preached on Sunday, January 6th - Epiphany Sunday. I feel like it's a sermon I have preached before; I just love the idea that the magi who visited Jesus returned home by another road. For me, this has become a metaphor for the Christian life -- we are different after we encounter Jesus (even more so if we give him the gift of our heart) and we return home by another way.
Happy reading.
Pastor John
“Home By Another Way”
A sermon based upon Matthew 2:1-12
preached by Reverend
John H.G. Curtiss on
Sunday, January 6th, 2013, also known as Ephiphany Sunday
Sermon: Home By Another Way
Scripture: Matthew 2:1-13
Key Text: “And having been warned in a dream not to return
to Herod, they (the wise men from the East) left for their own country by
another road.”
My favorite story
of the whole Christmas narrative is the story of the star-gazing wise men from
the East who come to worship the baby Jesus. This story just captures my
imagination year after year. Maybe it’s because we have added our own details
to the story that I find it so captivating. Matthew doesn’t name these visitors
as kings, and yet because of the Christmas carol I imagine them in royal
(bath)robes with turbans. Matthew doesn’t tell us how many visitors there are,
but because there are three gifts, we identify most with three kingly visitors.
Some traditions have given them names (Gaspar, Melchio, and Balthasar) and
identify them as representing different races and people groups – although this
is clearly not in the gospel story.
Because
the story is so sparse, or even silent, with details, every generation of
Christians has added to the story details from its own time and place. What
Christmas pageant is complete without the foil wrapped gifts and kingly
costumes of the visitors who worship and adore the baby Jesus.
For
Matthew the wise men were not only characters in the story of the birth of
Jesus; they were also representative of people in his own community. So, when
we dress the neighborhood children in yellow bathrobes and send them traipsing
down the center aisle toward the manger, carrying foil-wrapped boxes of
simulated gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we are, in a real sense, doing what
Matthew himself did, seeing the characters of this ancient story in the light
of the faithful people around us.
But
what I really like about this story, is what it reveals to us about power and
authority and about how a relationship with Jesus Christ is transformational.
The
story of the wise men is dramatically intricate, full of political intrigue. It
primarily involves interplay among King Herod, the wise men from the East, and
the Chief Priests and Scribes.
King
Herod is the principal villain of the story. Herod the Great (one of six
“Herod’s” mentioned or alluded to in the New Testament) was the ruler of
Palenstine from 37 BC to his death around 4 BC. He was known as a Roman
loyalist and one who mounted large-scale building projects to signal to his
Roman superiors the importance of his Jewish kingdom. In terms of personality,
he was known as a moody, cruel, and sometimes violent ruler, one who often
imprisoned or executed even members of his own family. It is not a king that
would be easy to live under. When the wise men enter Palestine and ask King Herod, “Where is the child who has been born King of
the Jews” they feed into the paranoia of King Herod. You just don’t ask a king
like Herod where to find the other king.
Matthew
also mentions the Chief Priests and the Scribes. These are the religious
leaders and religious scholars of the day. They are the ones with authority and
knowledge about the Jewish bible, our Old Testament.
When
the wise men come to Jerusalem seeking the king
of the Jews, there are complete outsiders to the laws and prophesies of Israel . They
come because they are knowledgeable about astrology and astronomy (linked
together in ancient Israel ).
They have observed a phenomenon in nature, the rising of a star. Their arrival
produces two responses.
First,
Herod “and all of Jerusalem
with him” are frightened. If the wise men are seeking a child who is “king of
the Jews,” this obviously calls into question the standing and stability of
Herod himself, who is currently the political, Roman-authorized king of the
Jews. The birth of the true Messiah undermines all pretenders to the throne.
Indeed, the gospel exposes all human pretense and threatens all who would
dominate others. The wise men’s claim speaks to a new world order of power
ushered in by the birth of the baby Jesus. Whenever and wherever the true
nature of the gospel is understood by the powers-that-be, all swaggering
tyrants and despots turn fearful. Rulers like Herod who use fear to coerce
loyalty are fearful of the one who has divine power.
The
second response to the wise men’s inquiry is that Herod gathers together the religious
officials for some Bible study to determine where the Messiah would be born.
Putting their heads together, and combing through Micah 5:2 and 2 Samuel 5:2,
the authorities inform Herod that the
Messiah, the “ruler who is to shepherd the people of Israel” is to be born in
“Bethlehem, in the land of Judah” (Matthew 2:6). Jesus, the great
shepherd-king, is to be born in the village
of David
I
find it interesting to note at this point in our story the link between
scripture and nature. It takes both for the wise men to find Jesus. Through
nature, (the star in the sky), the wise men know that the Christ has been born,
but they need the scripture to tell the where. They know he is here, they need
help to find him so they can worship and adore him. In other words, they learn
something of God from nature, but their knowledge is still incomplete. We, too, can learn a lot about this God we
worship from the world around us, but we also need scripture and tradition to
have God’s glory fully revealed to us. However we come into the Christian
faith, we come to a faith defined and grounded in the Law (the Old Testament)
and the prophets. Jesus himself says “Do not think that I have come to abolish
the Law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew
5:17). The wise men come to worship the Christ, but they need scripture to do
so fully.
On
the other hand, simply knowing the scripture is not enough to bring one to
authentic Christian worship. The chief priests and the scribes knew their
bible, but they miss the Messiah. They understand the prophecies, but they do
not come to the place of worship. Herod is taught the scripture, but his stated
intention to “go and pay him homage” is a sinister and eventually a murderous lie.
The
world is full of “stars in the East”—events in nature or in your personal life
or in history, that point toward the mystery of God. We experience the beauty
of spring in the opening of a flower bud, a troubled relationship is healed, a
child is born, a soldier is returned. All of these experiences draw our
attention to the divine mystery that pervades and pushes through human events.
Without the defining word of scripture and the foundation of tradition,
however, we could not recognize these holy moments for what they are; we would
not be able to see God’s face clearly in them. Like the wise men, we would be
aware that something holy is happening, but we would not without God’s
revelation through scripture, know how or where to worship.
It
is also true that we could err on the other side. Like the chief priests and
scibes in Jesus’ time, our mastery of scripture is not guarantee of true
worship. We can know the biblical facts, we can memorize the order of the books
in the bible, we can ace the trivia quiz, but we can completely miss deeper
biblical truth. One can memorize a bible verse, but forget the gospel. One can
recite the kings of Israel
in order and overlook the king of Creation.
The
story of the wise men ends with their being warned in a dream not to go back to
Herod, but to go home by another way (2:12) And this is the last we see of the
visitors from afar in the scripture.
They
come seeking the Christ. They worship and adore. They offer gifts of gold,
frankensince and myrhh. They are changed by their encounter by the baby who
holds the salvation of the world in his tiny, uncoordinated hands.
They
go home a different way because they are different.
When
we meet Jesus, we too are changed. And we must travel a different road.
Amen
and amen.
