Home By Another Way

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, the shepherd-king.

            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.