Wiseman?
December 4, 2005
Matthew 2:1-12
It’s Advent! Can you feel it? Time is going faster and slipping by. The days are growing shorter. We see the sun less. The parties have started. The gift buying has commenced. The Christmas music is on the radio and we’re full speed ahead to Christmas! Except, some of us are already weary. Some of us hate shopping, consumerism, long lines. Some of us already have the season colds weary from the busyness of the season. Some of us are grieving and we’re tired of all of the false joy that seems as flimsy as wrapping paper. It is Advent. And we’re not quite sure why it is we’re excited or convinced we’re interested in getting to Christmas at all this year.
And today, we gather together no matter how we’re seeing the dark. No matter if it’s welcome, nurturing, growth oriented. No matter if it’s consuming, disoriented and fear based. We gather together to see the face of God. We gather together to find the stars shining in the dark. We gather together to hear about the hope of new life no matter where we find ourselves.
One of the reasons that I love the Christmas story as told in Matthew is the cast of characters. Each week of Advent the story moves a step further away from Jesus and yet it’s all about him. These stories, these biblical stories are metaphors for our living. These stories mold and shape our understanding of who God is and how God moves. They help us to see parallels in our lives and guide our being. The stories each have opportunities for us to see ourselves in them. To see hope and possibility in them within our own lives, communities, experiences of God. How God can move into our living and the embodiment of God that lives within us. These stories aren’t to be taken literally. They aren’t to be taken as CNN events. They aren’t to be considered the actual events. In fact, all scholars feel today’s passage is a Haggadah. It’s a bunch of older Biblical materials woven together to create a story that gives theological meaning. It is the use of Isaiah texts and others to prove, this is something new God is doing. And, the theological meaning of this passage is to fear not. This new thing that has been born, it is available to every creature known to God. It is possible no matter how you are experiencing the dark or the light. It is available to you this day.
Matthew’s community was fighting a lot. You know, they all got together to be a Jesus movement. And, they agreed that Jesus, he had a message to share. And, they agreed they were disciples aching to share that message through living. However, who was privy to that message was a divisive issue. For as much as Jesus said and did, the disciples and the early church repeatedly worked to keep some of the people out. In order to dismantle this exclusion, Matthew works the story of Jesus beginning to push the margins from the beginning. This isn’t the same story sent to the same people. This is a new story to old and new people.
This is where the wisemen appear in the story. The actual word in Greek that has been translated as wisemen is magi. It comes from the root word for magic. These are magic men that come following the stars. They are astrologers. They were big in the Pagan world. People who were focused beyond this world and into the heavens. They were similar to today’s astrologers and fortune tellers. They didn’t worship in the ways the Jews did. They didn’t worship in the ways that the Jesus movement did. They were pagans. They were different. They were outsiders. They had different liturgical practices. They were unclean. They worshipped a different God, one of the heavens. And yet, these are the ones who come to proclaim, Jesus is the new King.
And, these who are called wise. They see the star rising, so they follow the star. It leads them to Jerusalem. They follow the star. And, the star leads them to King Herod. And, these wise ones tell the current King that they are looking for the new King. You can imagine the response. It basically means their Kingdom will be done. For, no two Kings can reign. So, if a new one is on the radar, the scene is over. So, this was not good news for Herod. It was also not good news for all of Jerusalem. When the King is overturned so are all of those in dominant power. Fear flew through the city. So Herod devised a plan. He planned to allow the wisemen to continue on their path, find this new King and bring word back to him about who and where he is. Then, he would destroy this new King. So the wisemen continued on their way.
And, they use their knowledge of the stars and heavens. They use practices not common to the family of Jesus or the tradition he would grow. And, they come to the place where the star has risen and stopped. And, they are overwhelmed with joy. Isn’t that something! To set out on a course, and when we’re almost there, to take a moment to celebrate and allow ourselves to become overwhelmed with joy. After they finished giving thanks for the deep joy, they entered the house. And, upon entering they saw the baby in the arms of Mary. They gathered close, knelt down and paid him homage. In their own tradition in their own ways. And, they gave him the gifts of their own tradition: gold, frankincense and myrrh. And yet, they are the ones that Matthew chooses to come to acknowledge a new King. They are the ones who come to meet this new Creation of God. This new embodiment of a new hope and peace. And they honor him, before all else. And they are written into the story, to justify, to exemplify, that they are welcome in this new story. They are welcome and accepted and their gifts are enough. Their gifts are appreciated and welcomed.
This is good news for us today. It tells us that God can speak in the midst of strangers. God can speak through the cultural Christmas of shopping, long lines, and wrapping paper. That because of this strange story, we believe that God can move and become a part of our lives through any circumstance, any people, any tradition.
What if this were the advent we decided that by Christmas we would have no enemies, we would never meet a stranger, and that our hospitality would be so great, that each gift would be received as a blessing and with gratitude. No matter our culture, our practice, our family, our faith. That each person is a blessing and an expression of hope. That each creature has a piece of God within. What if this Advent we clear ourselves of prejudice, fear, hostility, and coveting, instead opening our lives to the Christ within all we meet. What if… Let us pray…