5 Pentecost (Proper 10C)

The Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Saunders III
St. James Episcopal Church
Greeneville, TN

July 10, 2022

Deuteronomy 30:9-14
Psalm 25:1-9
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37

Back in the spring, during the season of Lent, in our Christian formation class, we studied together Stephanie Spellers' book, Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the Other, and the Spirit of Transformation. As Stephanie says, when we hear the words, radical welcome, to easy to initially think of the friendly way we receive people at the door or the quality of our snacks during the social minute following the service, but in her book, that bears the name Radical Welcome, she encourages the reader to stretch beyond… to push beyond the usual way we would think of inclusive welcome and go a bit deeper. 

Stephanie defines Radical Welcome the way I think a church should look at it… She says that Radical Welcome is a "spiritual practice; it is an attitude of welcome that combines a clear awareness of power and patterns of inclusion and exclusion." It's an awareness and acceptance of who you are, your acceptance of others, and the spiritual transformation resulting from the encounter.  

Radical welcome goes beyond diversity and guides us to inclusion… I want to share a quote from Verna Myers, the cultural activist, "Diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance…."

For some information on how Jesus taught Radical Welcome, we can turn to our Gospel reading for today. As familiar as it may seem, the lesson from Luke's gospel says something very profound about who we are and how we should be in relation to the other… of how we should all be agents of radical welcome.

The lawyer questioning Jesus about eternal life made a distinct choice to frame his question this way, trying to trick Jesus… The lawyer asked him a question directly related to the Mosaic law (of which he was considered an expert!). Jesus, as he so often does, answers the question with a question saying, "what is written in the law? What do you read there?" As if they may be two different things… and the lawyer…  who is the resident expert in the law, responds with what we know now as a summary of the law… "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself."

According to Jewish law, the lawyer knew that he was responsible for loving those like him and those who are not like him but who live in close proximity to him, although they are not part of his people, the "children of Israel" as he defines the term. With his answer, the lawyer backstrokes a bit, knowing that Jesus had outsmarted him, and then he tries to "justify" himself by asking Jesus to define neighbor. 

Then Jesus, as he does though-out his ministry, chooses to use a parable story to explain things… We know the parable well, probably because it is one of the first parables that we ever learned as a child in Sunday School… It's called the parable of the Good Samaritan…  

The Good Samaritan… it's sort of an oxymoron to call it "good Samaritan" because Samaritans in Jewish society were not considered anything close to good. There was extreme tension between the Samaritans and the Jews. The Samaritans were most definitely the "other" – or the outsider. 

Jesus presents his parable story, but Luke doesn't explain to the reader why some of the characters involved did what they did. Maybe it's because the folks Jesus was talking to already understood the roles of the characters involved and their predicaments. 

But today, we are out of context, and if we don't understand who these characters are, it makes us start to stereotype the characters and become judgmental. And then, we create the story, causing it to play out the way we want it to rather than focus on what it teaches us. 

The noted biblical scholar, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine (who is also a devout Jew), says that the parable of the good Samaritan has come to mean whatever we want it to mean. As a society, we have co-opted the name for hospitals and do-good agencies. And we have people and politicians associating it with anything or anyone that does good for another. 

Dr. Levine says this action is inevitable and tells us that texts should always take on new meaning as they are encountered by new readers from new cultural contexts. However, she also cautions that texts have their own original context and intent. Like Stephanie Spellers said, in order to understand how a message will transform us, we need to have a clear awareness of power in relation to the actions and patterns that exist. We need to step back a second and take a look… We need to examine the scene more closely and look at the context. Looking at the context of the parable this way allows us to gain a deeper understanding of why the characters in this pericope from Luke and the characters in Jesus' parable stand out the way they do.

The traveler on the road to Jericho in the parable is stripped of his clothing, beaten, and he is left for dead in a ditch. He has not only been robbed of his possessions but also of his dignity and health, and he is left barely alive. Luke describes him as having "wounds." 

We need to remember that this parable was told in response to the lawyer asking about how he gains eternal life — so, initially Jesus insinuates that the lawyer should probably be more worried about those left half-dead in a ditch than about himself.

But still, half-dead is still alive. Those listening to the story who identify with the robbed man can only hope that someone will soon come and rescue him. And because they identify with him, their question — and now our question becomes: "Who will help me?"

Let's look at the priest and the Levite. Some scholars have stereotyped them, giving them an excuse, saying that they needed to remain pure – and maintain their religious purity according to mosaic law – so they pass by on the other side of the road to avoid any contact with the naked, bleeding body. 

We need to stop making excuses for these guys. But we must be careful of stereotypes and not let them get in the way. Jews are required by law (as the lawyer points out) to love neighbors and strangers. Because the law (Torah) demands that the man in the ditch be cared for.    

But, these men made a conscious choice NOT to stop and offer the man assistance. They don't even go near him. Maybe they were scared themselves. Perhaps they thought it was a trap – Maybe they felt that they would get jumped and robbed too. After all, the trade route between Jericho and Jerusalem was known to be rough.

Then we have the element of storytelling in the parable and what Dr. Levine calls the rule of three… when a Priest and Levite are mentioned in a Jewish story, the third is always expected to be an Israelite. But Jesus is telling the story, and even as a jew, Jesus never tells the story the way one would expect it. So, Instead of an Israelite, who would be expected by those gathered there, the person who stops to help is a Samaritan. The person who makes the decision to go near the man and offer assistance is the very person who is the other – the outsider to Jewish culture… 

In modern story terms, to use a star wars reference, this would be like going from Luke and Has S to someone like Darth Vader. Inserting the Samaritan into the story, Jesus knew he would create a quandary for the lawyer. The Samaritans didn't have any standing in Jewish society. They were despised by the Jews, and they were considered unclean. They were mixed up with their false beliefs and pagan practices. 

This particular Samaritan was presented as traveling back and forth on the road; from Jerusalem to Jericho, he carried oil, wine, and what seemed to be some considerable funds. Some scholars suggest that he might be a merchant or trader of goods. Which makes the parable very complex. A trader of goods at that time was a despised profession because they were thought to have gotten rich at the expense of others. So he has two strikes against him already… But this Samaritan trader decides to stop… 

He decides to stop and help the poor man injured, bleeding, and lying there on the road, Using the wares he carries with him (his livelihood)…  He cleans, anoints, and dresses the man's wounds and then goes above and beyond the call of duty, loads him on his donkey, and takes him to a nearby inn.

So we have Jesus' telling his parable this morning to a group of listeners who understand the story's characters. They also realize the predicament Jesus presents to the lawyer as he serves up the unexpected. 

Although we may have learned this story as a child, we may not have thought about it this way. On the surface, the story seems pretty simple, and it seems Jesus gives the lawyer a clear answer. In the parable, he puts care for a fellow human being ahead of personal fear and prejudice…  

Therefore Jesus explains the true sense of the law – And what it means "to love your neighbor" without worrying about who your neighbor is. He may have not called it radical welcome, but I personally feel like this is how Jesus explains Radical Welcome.

It might make us angry today that the priest and the Levite characters in the story ignore the injured man, but Jesus understood the folks he was talking to. He had the outsider in the story show mercy and compassion. Mercy and compassion for the man he dared to come near – a man injured on the road after being robbed. 

He knew that the folks would wonder why a priest or Levite would decide to pass by on the other side of the road. But Jesus knew his context. He knew that the group he was talking to would-be "outraged" because he used the Samaritan in the story to show mercy to the man. And because he used the Samaritan to be the one who became the neighbor, Jesus established a new standard by which to act.

In our lives, in our journey as followers of Jesus, we are often faced with the question of who our neighbor is, and we are continually challenged to offer our neighbor an attitude of Radical Welcome – To love them as we would love ourselves. 

If we have the attitude of radical welcome in our hearts, and if we love everyone who is "the other" to us without condition, then we are doing precisely what Jesus wants us to do! We are not only inviting them to the party… But we are asking them to dance.

As we go forth from this place, I pray we can take some of the transforming teachings from this very brief yet complex parable by Jesus. From it, we can understand what Radical Welcome means to Jesus – that we not only welcome but care for and love ALL – that we're radical.

We shouldn't jump to conclusions about someone because of stereotypes and then judge them because they act or dress a certain way, but we should strive to engage them and understand and try to get to know them and learn from them.

Just because someone is different doesn't make them bad. We need to let go of our convictions and understandings and do what Jesus teaches us so that we can be a loving, nurturing, healing, and reconciling presence in the broken world around us.

Year C - Ash Wednesday 2022

The Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Saunders III
St. James Episcopal Church
Greeneville, TN 

Ash Wednesday - March 2, 2022

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12 

• Psalm 51:1-17

• 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

• Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

There is something about Ash Wednesday that is completely fascinating to us. On this day, it's both exciting and humbling to see people walking through the streets with black smudges of palm ash on their foreheads. And there are some who question… What's that smudge on your forehead?

But now the imposition of ashes has made its way to be practiced throughout most of the Christian church. It has become popular across many Christian denominations. It almost seems that people want to go to church to get ashes smeared on their forehead, and be reminded that they are "dust." 

On Ash Wednesday – It marks the beginning of our preparation period before Easter. Our "feasting" gives way to "fasting." Ashes, which is an ancient symbol of sorrow and fasting almost seems more important than a desire for the Eucharistic Bread and Wine.  

For some folks, it is an annual chance to lower ourselves a bit and make ourselves humble… to grovel a bit before the Lord. In the context of the liturgy, we recite Psalm 51 – "Wash me through and through from my wickedness" – And we use the litany of penitence – "We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness..." 

And we kneel at the rail while ashes are rubbed on our foreheads and we are reminded that we are dust... Part of the creation that God made… Part of the creation that will return to God one day. This all hits us with a hard reality... It reaches to a place deep within our souls.

These are times when we are painfully aware that we come up short... that we are not as perfect as we think we are… These are times when we are confronted with and are asked to come to terms with our own death.  

Ash Wednesday presents us with an annual opportunity to do a U turn... to consciously turn around, turn back to God and own the sin that we are guilty of... and we can grovel before God till our heart is content. However, for some – in the need to repent, it may be a celebration of our interconnectedness and community. Where the whole community is told, "Remember that you are dust and to dust, you shall return," It is said to each and every one of us: regardless of who you are…

Regardless of rank and status, the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots... the homeless beggar, the addict, and the millionaire the unemployed and laborer, and even the priest. We are confronted with our commonality as it's said over and over, "you are dust, and to dust you shall return" is repeated time and time again, and each time we hear it repeated, hopefully, it will sink deeper and deeper into our consciousness... "You are dust, and to dust you shall return"

The liturgy of Ash Wednesday expresses in actions those feelings that are extremely hard to put into words. When we pray Psalm 51 and the litany of penitence in the context of the gathered community we do so with those throughout the world who may be preparing for baptism and we do so with those seeking restoration to the church's fellowship. 

The proper liturgy of Ash Wednesday begins our pilgrimage through the Lenten fast…  And in it, we journey with Christ to the cross... A journey that we know will end at the Easter vigil when we will hear the Part of the Exultet that says – "Earth and heaven are joined and man is reconciled to God." 

It brings us all together to handle; All the frustrations of our life. But, we have all come up short… And as the confession says, "We have all followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done… and we have done those things which we ought not to have done." We have missed opportunities to bear witness to the love of Jesus Christ because we didn't want to be considered to be a religious freak.  

The Ash Wednesday Liturgy taps these underlying frustrations, and we experience a small escape as the liturgy helps us deal with those feelings of guilt within us. For me, the whole liturgy of the Ash Wednesday is summarized in the imposition of ashes: being marked with the sign of the cross on my forehead with the ashes of the past Palm Sunday... To be reminded of my mortal nature.

At baptism, it is customary for new Christians to receive the sign of the cross on their foreheads, and we say they are "marked as Christ's own forever." They are signed with a "corporate" identity as children of God, within a community of believers, with other brothers and sisters of Christ, citizens of the household of faith and of the kingdom of God. 

Oil called Sanctum Chrisma or Holy Chrism is used in marking the foreheads. But, like oil, it is nearly clear, so it is hard to make out the mark of the cross. But on Ash Wednesday, we are marked with the sign of the cross, a sign clearly visible. It is almost as if the reality of our identity as inheriters of the kingdom of God and as brothers and sisters in Christ is only revealed by our getting our hands dirty.

I am going to share with you a brief reflection on the imposition of ashes, that has always stuck with me. I hope you will remember this for years to come. I want you to think of the first mark of the cross on your forehead as the shape of a capital "I" scratched out. The capital "I," represents all "that," which is uniquely me our you. I – me - my strengths and my weaknesses. I - my talents and I - my sins. I have imposed and been imposed with hundreds and hundreds of people on Ash Wednesday, and I am always struck by how different each one of us truly is:  

We come in all shapes and sizes, in all colors and textures. Each one of us is different... Each one of us is not like any other. And each individual person is called into a relationship with God that is different from everyone else – not necessarily better or worse, just different. But also understand that the capital "I" is also that which sometimes separates us from God. It represents those things that "I" claim for myself alone: It is my desire or quest for uniqueness and individuality. It enhances selfishness and egocentrisms and it shatters the community around us... the community that feeds us and gives us life.

We must understand that there is a fundamental difference between "sin" and "sins." "Sin" is the alienation and feelings of being separated from God, that sense that God is totally transcendent and holy and that we are purely mortal and fallen. "Sins", on the other hand, are those little petty acts that are symptoms of the underlying "sin." The capital "I" etched on our forehead forms that Part of the cross that becomes the "I" that Part that underlies my "sin" – the "mia culpa" – the state of being separated from God. 

In imposing the ashes, we have got to remember that the vertical stroke of the capital "I" is always followed by the horizontal stroke of crossing it out. The "I" that is crossed out is the "I" that leads us to feelings of alienation from God.

We cross out the "I" that separates us from God. Crossing it out wipes out our "I" – our individual sin…  and restores us as a community of the faithful… It is as if the horizontal stroke becomes the loving arms of Christ, the loving arms stretched to welcome us back home. This, and only this gives us the freedom and the ability to reach out to others and be in community.

The cross of ashes is a call to repent of the "sin" that separates us from God – it is a call to forgiveness and wholeness – But at the same time, the cross of ashes is formed by our relationship with God. It's a relationship that intersects with community and shares a commonality with all the others for whom Christ died.

To paraphrase one of the Eucharistic prayers, may this liturgy of Ash Wednesday be not only a rite of solace, but a source of strength; not only a search for pardon, but an act of renewal; may the grace of God be present to us on this day and make us ONE in Christ and encourage us to worthily serve the world in his Holy Name.

Year C - Epiphany 4 - January 30, 2022

The Rev. Dr. Ken Saunders

St. James Episcopal Church

Greeneville, TN

Year C - Epiphany 4 - January 30, 2022

• Jeremiah 1:4-10
• 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
• Luke 4:21-30
• Psalm 71:1-6

There are a few things for us to remember in this Christian life. The first is that God loves you. That’s right, God loves you! No exceptions, no pre-qualifications, no prescriptions... just pure, all encompassing, all surrounding, unconditional love…

The second thing that we need to remember and understand is that God loves all of creation just as much as God loves you. That’s right, even those that you don’t love. God is right there loving them, too. God loves you and me, God loves the outcast and the stranger. God love those that don’t look like you, and don’t act like you. God loves those that don’t dress like you, and don’t make as much money as you, or even those who worship in a different way than you. (Lord have mercy)

The third thing and probably one of the most important - Through our professed faith, God has chosen us for a very important task. God has chosen you and I to show God’s love to the world... Through our every day actions… Through the people we meet, through the way we live. We all are to represent the love of God, who first loved us.

That may be a surprising thing for you to hear this morning. But it shouldn’t have been the first time you’ve ever heard it. n my study, I found some interesting surprises in today’s readings.  

The first, from our old testament reading. Do you remember some months ago, when I said that whenever you read in scripture that “the word of God came” to someone, it means "it happened." Well, the word of God happened to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah is surprised that God knows him, and loves him, and has chosen him to do important work. (Surprise! God happens! And God chooses YOU!)  

Like Jeremiah, we shouldn’t be surprised that God has found us worthy and capable to do the important work that God has given us to do. God calls Jeremiah, who at the time was just a teenager. And even though God tells Jeremiah that he knows him, and has prepared him to bring a great message to the people of Israel, Jeremiah feels inadequate.  

Jeremiah exclaim, "I’m just a boy." But God empowers Jeremiah and guides him and empowers him to to do the work he needs to do to guide the people Israel and orient them back - back toward a right relationship with God and God's love.

God gives us everything we need to accomplish that which we are given to do. Everything that is needed to reconcile the world to God, we have already been given. All we need to do is look deep within ourselves and recognized where God is happening.

The second surprise for us this morning is in the Gospel reading. We pick up where we left off last week. Jesus has returned to his hometown... He returned to Nazareth, a small town in Galilee and he is teaching in the synagogue. He is handed the scroll of Isaiah. When he reads from the scroll of Isaiah, he says "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

When he hands the scroll back, Jesus makes the bold statement and says that “today the scripture 

has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All the people were confused and amazed at his words. Some said, who does this guy think he is? Isn’t he Joseph’s son? And then the crowd wanted to see some sort of sign of who he was. They wanted him to prove that he was indeed a great prophet.

Jesus basically tells them that he’s not going to waste his time proving anything to them. Prophets aren’t heard and respected in their hometown. He tells them that other folks had faith, the folks not like them. Those folks were able to recognize God’s presence among them and God’s miraculous acts. They were able to see God’s provision through things like the sharing of widow in Zarephath and her care for the prophet Elijah. They were able to recognize God’s presence in the healing of Naaman through the prophet Elisha.

This really stirred up the crowd. The people gathered there in Nazareth who were listening to Jesus were surprised! Surprised to learn that God loves the people they don’t. Surprised to learn that God loves the widows and the lepers. Surprised that God’s Love is bigger than theirs! (Surprise! God’s love is bigger than yours!)

This made them feel so angry and frustrated that they drove Jesus out of the Synagogue out to the edge of town, to the edge of a cliff and attempted to throw him off. But Jesus surprised them again and passed through the middle of them and went on his way. 

Paul surprises the Christians in Corinth by telling them that love is more important than anything else they could imagine. That you can have as much faith and hope as you want... You can be intelligent, and think you have all the answers... You can be humble and charitable… But if you don’t have love, you’re just making a lot of noise.

Paul qualifies this love and describes it as patient, kind, joyful and unending. Much how we know and understand the love of God to be. Paul basically tells them that above all, love wins, and it is the only thing that wins.

These readings during the Season after the Epiphany show us everything we need to know to be a true disciple; a true student of Jesus:

We need to know and understand that God loves us beyond anything that we can ask or imagine. God loves us. And we have seen that love poured out for us over and over, time and time again.

Being a follower of Jesus means we’ve been given a mission to reciprocate God’s love to the world. Like Jesus explains, we need to remind those who think or feel that they are unloved... that they are loved. And in reminding them of God’s love, we need to remind ourselves that God loves them, even if we think they don’t deserve it.

In showing others God’s love, we may make others angry. Especially the others who like to judge folks and think that because of this or that, they are somehow don't belong or are unworthy. When people get angry at us because we are loving someone who they don’t think is worthy, and when we are ridiculed and pushed to the edge, we need to follow Jesus’ lead,  and pass on through and be about our business of loving.

Discipleship is costly, is stretches our boundaries. God’s love is all inclusive and abundant and there are no pre-qualifications are restrictions. In order to be a disciple – in order to be a follower of the way of Jesus it means that we must be part of that great source that conveys God’s love to the world.

If we hate, or judge, or exclude, or we insist on our own way, or we try to make up a list of rules of who’s in our who’s out. Then we aren’t doing it right.

So we need to be bold and courageous disciples, loving God, loving each other, and building up God's kingdom, because if we’re not loving like God loves, we’re just making a lot of noise. 

 

Year C - 2 Christmas 2022

The Rev. Dr. Ken Saunders
Greeneville, TN

• Jeremiah 31:7-14
• Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a
• Matthew 2:13-15,19-23
• Psalm 84 or 84:1-8

Here we are, it’s the 9th day of Christmas and we pick up the story of the nativity of Jesus this morning with a visit from eastern strangers. The reading calls them “wise men.” Some translations call them Magi – from which we get the word Magic. They are speculated to be from as far east - as far as the orient, or from as near east as near as Persia (which is modern day Iran).

We don’t exactly know how wise they were, but we do know that they knew something that the rest of the world hadn’t figured out yet. They were astrologers who studied the stars in the western sky and decided to take a chance that one particular star they saw might lead them to something significant.

The Jewish world at the time was looking for and waiting for a messiah (a savior). The special “anointed one” of God that was promised by the prophets to come and heal and restore Israel... Promises made by God, much like the ones we heard from Jeremiah, about a scattered and forgotten people being gathered back together – Gathered together to wholeness the blind and lame being healed and led back to right relationship with God. Led back to a rejoicing community that will sing praises of joy and gladness because they were redeemed and delivered from the hands of their oppressors.

The people of Israel knew what they were looking for, they knew what they were praying for and they got it, but they didn’t even realize it. What is significant to the story is that these are different people that came from a different land…  A foreign land, and even though they were not Jews, they knew who this special child was and they came to pay their respects and worship him.

When Herod the Great heard about these strangers and what they were doing, he was terrified –  afraid that his political life was over, and afraid that he and the Herodian Kingdom would be overthrown. Afraid that somehow the Davidic Kingdom was being restored. As was promised in scripture… We know that Herod didn’t want to worship Jesus. Herod wanted to kill him and selfishly protect his own power. 

We can only imagine how everyone in the house felt when those eastern strangers showed up knocking on doors. Strangers asking questions, wondering where the baby was who was born to be “King of the Jews.” They finally find Jesus in a house in Bethlehem, and they knelt down and worshipped him. These strangers from a strange land. 

And these wise eastern strangers, these men brought with them gifts to present to the child… Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. There’s an old joke going around, we know that these were wise MEN, because if they were wise WOMEN, they would have brought more practical gifts. 

However, there are some interesting things about this story that we probably need to pay some closer attention to… The first thing is not readily noticed. Probably because the song has more lore in it than scriptural fact. It is the number of these strangers. The scripture doesn’t say how many there were. We know that there was more than one, and that in itself is significant. This wasn’t a random act of one confused traveler. This was an intentional journey. For these strangers, this journey was a pilgrimage of discovery and hope. Not only a hope a restored Israel with a righteous King, and hope in a renewed and restored world. 

We do know that these strangers brought 3 gifts with them. Maybe that’s where they got the three from. Because we all know it wouldn’t be hospitable to show up empty handed.

Over the years, theologians and scholars have thought that these gifts were significant to who these eastern strangers thought that Jesus was. They say that Gold is important because it was associated with Kings. Herod certainly had his share of Gold.  It would be only natural for someone regarded as a king to be presented with Gold.

Frankincense is the type of incense used in worship. It’s the type of incense that is still used in worship. Originally, we can imagine it was used to ward off the stench of the carcasses of the dead animals that were sacrificed and possibly the bodily odors of others. But it’s so much more than that. Burning incense symbolizes our prayers and offerings as the smoke rises to the heavens… Incense reminds us that God is there to hear us and receive our prayers and show us grace and favor. So it would be natural to give incense to someone who was thought to be righteous and faithful. 

Myrrh is a precious perfumed oil that is used to anoint a body to prepare it for burial. Care for the deceased is a sacred act in most every culture. Scholars speculate that the gift of Myrrh is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ tragic death. 

We don’t know what the reason for the gifts, we just know what they are. We can only speculate why these eastern strangers brought them and presented them to Jesus. These eastern strangers…  the magi… the wise men, who may have more wisdom than we realize. 

They were wise enough to look for God and follow the signs that they recognized in order to find the perfect manifestation of God’s self the person of Jesus the Anointed one – the Christ. Wise enough to seek God out amid struggles and stresses of the journey of life. 

They didn’t come because it was convenient. They came a far away land and made a difficult long journey just to have an opportunity to kneel for a minute and worship a righteous newborn they thought was a King.

Wise enough to honor God with gifts of wealth and symbols of worship and honor and respect... Representations of human livelihood and vitality.

We don’t know who these Eastern Strangers were. The scriptures leave it very vague. Their only appearance is in the Gospel according to Matthew, and it remains still somewhat a mystery. A mystery which shows us that the reign of the living God is much bigger than just the nation of Israel… A mystery that shows us that strangers… those that don’t look like us or act like us, sometimes know more about what’s going on than we do…

A mystery which directs us toward hope, so that we can have hope and rejoice in the possibility of a renewed and restored world.

It’s amazing how a simple story of 12 sentences can reveal to us a God who not only loves us but will make everything right that we have made wrong. 

It’s the part of the Christmas story that the modern church tends to lump in with the Shepherds and the stable, instead of it having its own respected place as it relates to the mystery of the incarnation. 

I have a friend from seminary that is on social media. I remember her as super creative, and I loved what she did with her posts a few years ago, so I thought I would share it with you. She calls it “magi on the move.” Since Christmas, she had been posting a group of figurines representing the magi, much like the figures we have here in our crèche.

The fun part is that there isn’t just 3 of them nor are any of them the same. In one picture there’s got to be at least 10 or 12 In all sizes and shapes big and tall, short and small. 

These magi figures can be seen at different places on their journey… even at a visitor’s center asking for directions…  searching for the one who was to be the ruler and shepherd of God’s people. Probably much like we know that those wise men did so long ago in search of a child that they knew would deliver Israel and restore the world.

My friend and colleague was pretty wise herself. And, in this fun expressive way, she came up with a method to remind us what we all seem to have forgotten. That like those eastern strangers of old, we need to be wise again. Because we have forgotten how to search for God. We need to be wise enough to keep seeking and searching. And then we need to let God show up in unexpected places.

We need to wise enough let God into this dysfunctional world and let God restore it with equity, truth, and peace. We need to be wise enough to give of our resources in order to help continue the mission of restoration, so that not only us, but future generations will benefit from knowing God’s love.

We are called to be wise ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, bringing about restoration in our own lives… but not just our own lives, we need to be about the loving work God has given us to do and help restore the lives of others. So that the WHOLE human race will be restored and will know the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.