St. James Episcopal Church
Greeneville, TN
Year B - Christmas 2 - January 3, 2021
Here we are, it’s the 10th 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 scholars who studied the stars in the western sky and decided to take a chance... 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). A special “anointed one” of God that was promised by the prophets that would come and heal and restore Israel. A promise much like the ones we heard from Jeremiah, about a scattered and forgotten people being gathered together – The blind and lame being healed and led back into a right relationship with God.
Led back to a rejoicing community where there will be singing and praises of joy and gladness because the people 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 different people came from a different land, a foreign land. And even though they were not Jews, they knew that this child was special and they came to pay their respects and worship him.
When King Herod heard about the strangers and what they were doing, he was terrified - afraid that his political life was over, and that he and the Herodian Kingdom would be overthrown. Afraid that somehow the Davidic Kingdom was being restored right before his eyes.
We know that Herod didn’t want to worship Jesus. Herod wanted to kill Jesus 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 brought with them gifts to present to the child... Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.
There’s an old joke going around, that we know 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 really 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. Hope in 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 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 Jesus was.
They say that Gold is important because it was associated with wealth and power it is associated with Kings and kingship. Herod certainly had his share of Gold. It would only be natural for someone regarded as a king to be presented with Gold.
Frankincense is the incense used in worship. It is a high-quality resin with a sweet smell. Thousands of years later, incense is still used in worship. Originally, we can imagine it was used to ward off the stench of the carcasses of dead animals that were sacrificed and in the middle ages possibly the bodily odors of others. But it’s so much more than that. The burning of incense is highly symbolic of our prayers and offerings going to God as the smoke rises to the heavens. With it, we know and are reminded that God is there to hear us and receive our prayers and in return, God always shows us grace and favor. So it would be natural to give incense to someone who was thought to be righteous and faithful.
The third gift, Myrrh, is a precious perfumed oil that is used to anoint a dead body. Care for the deceased is a sacred act in almost every culture. Some scholars speculate that the gift of Myrrh is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ tragic death.
We don’t know the reason for the gifts, the scripture doesn’t say 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 been wiser than we actually realize.
Wise enough to look for God and follow the signs that they recognized in order to find the perfect manifestation of God’s self in the person of Jesus the Anointed one – the Christ. Wise enough to seek God out amid the struggles and stresses of the journey of life. They didn’t come because it was convenient. They came from far away. They made that difficult long journey just to have an opportunity to kneel for a minute and worship this newborn righteous 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 is still somewhat a mystery. A mystery that 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 that allows us to have hope; 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 has done a disservice by lumping it in with the Shepherds and the stable instead of letting it stand in 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 a couple years ago with her posts, so I thought I would share it with you. She called it “magi on the move.” Since Christmas that year, she was posting a group of figurines representing the magi, much like the figures we have here in our crèche. The fun part is that there weren’t just 3 of them nor were any of them the same. In one picture there had to be 10 or 14 big and tall, short and small, of many shapes, sizes, and colors in different positions.
She takes pictures of these magi figures and they can be seen at different places on their journey; even at a visitor’s center asking for directions of where they might find Jesus. Searching for the one who is 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 they knew would deliver Israel and restore the world.
My friend was pretty wise herself. And, in this fun expressive way, 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. We have forgotten how to search for God. We need to be wise enough to keep seeking and searching for God. And we need to let God show up in those unexpected places.
We need to wise enough to let God into this dysfunctional and broken 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.
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