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NRS Matthew 2:1 In the time of King
Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came
to Jerusalem, 2 asking, "Where is the child who has been born
king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay
him homage." 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened,
and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests
and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be
born. 5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has
been written by the prophet: 6 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of
Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come
a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" 7 Then Herod
secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the
star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying,
"Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him,
bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." 9 When
they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star
that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the
child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were
overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child
with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening
their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they
left for their own country by another road.
Today we celebrate Epiphany, that moment when we get it, understand it or
have a brain-focused moment. It is also the day when we celebrate the arrival
of the Magi. I like Epiphany as the moment in which we get it, sort of like a
V8 moment. We thought we knew exactly what the answer was and suddenly we are
faced with a new reality, a new understanding and it changes everything. I
believe that is the reason we have this story. It has meanings that are right
in front of us and then innuendo so that we can understand the complete story.
The Magi are the people who spend their lives looking into the heavens for a
sign. Imagine if you will that, you have been born into the family of Magi and
you spend your entire life learning about the celestial movements, what they
are, what we call certain stars that connect together and what they mean. Since
the time of Daniel, we believe that the Magi have been looking for a certain
connection; a certain alignment if you will that proclaims an event that the
people of Israel have been looking for since the beginning of the world.
Generations have come and gone looking into the heavens, sharing the messages
of the stars with those around them and yet they have not seen this one sign
that Daniel has them looking for. Maybe as much as four to seven hundred years
have passed since the time of Daniel and they still search the heavens for the
sign. Then like a V8 moment, there it is. What would you do? I suspect you
would wake everyone in the house to let them know. The excitement would be
overwhelming. After all this time, the prophecy is true and the sign is in the
heavens. What do we do next? Where do we go? How do we get there?
I want to share a suggested answer to the Star of Bethlehem story. The
ancient Magi were astrologers. In their day that was considered science and
many people believed in the stars sharing what was happening in the world. The
people of the first century took much stock in the goings on in the heavens as
signs from God. Therefore, the Magi would have been looking for a celestial
happening to start this whole thing in motion. Moreover, we find such a thing in
the sky around 2/3 BC. There Jupiter, the moon and Saturn all enter into the
constellation Aries, which in those days represented the nation of Judea or the
region of Judea. Jupiter and Moon signify the birth of a significant person.
Since it was in the constellation Aries, which represents Judea the Magi would
have known that there was a significant birth of a ruler in Judea, the sign
that they had been searching for probably since the time of Daniel. That would
have sent them on their quest toward Jerusalem. There are two points to this
story. One is that Jupiter rose in the east for the entire quest and the
celestial history shows us that Jupiter would have been in the eastern sky
during that time. Planets as they pass through the constellations do this
retrograde thing where they appear to stop and reverse their course before
moving forward again. Jupiter does such a thing in 2 BC and would have appeared
to stop over and around Bethlehem. Interesting stuff.
Maybe you have had you whole life mapped out for you and suddenly
everything is changed and now you are faced with a new and different reality.
Has that happened to you? Most of us at one time or another thought we were
going to be something else, do something else, be somewhere our whole lives and
suddenly it all changes. The dream evaporates because we find we cannot do what
we wanted to do or something gets in the way. The job suddenly evaporates and
we face unemployment, job searching and moving to a new location. All of these
things have epiphany moments, that moment when we realize that what we thought
is no longer and now we face new realities and opportunities.
The Magi brings gifts
to Christ and year after year, we rehash what they are and their significance. However,
this year I want to focus on verse 12. NRS Matthew 2:12 And having been
warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by
another road. They have a dream. Now mind you, to get the Magi, all of them
to agree to go a different way I suspect that more than one of them had a
dream. So they leave Bethlehem and go home a different way than they had come.
What did they follow? How did they know where to go or how to get home?
Remember that they are people who study the sky so they likely could use
celestial tracking to get home. But they had to go a different way. All because
of an encounter with the living God! That is what I want to focus on this
morning.
I enjoy Richard Rohr’s
Daily meditation that I get every morning on my e-mail. He is out there somewhat
and it causes me often to ponder what I know and believe and explore new
thoughts and new understandings. Friday he focused on Love, in fact he has been
focusing on love all week. I want to read you some of it.
“You cannot earn God. You cannot prove yourself
worthy of God. Knowing God's presence is simply a matter of awareness, of
enjoying the now, of deepening one's own presence. There are moments when it
happens. Then life makes sense.”
“Jesus pushes seeing to the social edge. Can
you see the image of Christ in the least of your brothers and sisters? He uses
that as his only description of the final judgment (Matthew 25). Nothing about
commandments, nothing about church attendance--simply a matter of our ability
to see. Can we see Christ in the "nobodies" who can't play our game
of success? In those who cannot reward us in return? When we can see the image
of God where we are not accustomed to seeing the image of God, then we see with
eyes not our own.”
“The Christian vision is that the world is a
temple. If that is true, then our enemies are sacred, too. Who else created
them but God? The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test
of true seeing. And it doesn't stop with human beings and enemies and the least
of the brothers and sisters. It moves to frogs and pansies and weeds.
Everything becomes enchanting with true sight. One God, one world, one truth,
one suffering, and one love. All we can do is participate.”
“Spirituality is about seeing. It's about
intimate relationship with things rather than achieving results or meeting
requirements. Once you see fully, the rest follows. You don't need to push the
river, because you are already in the river. God's life of love is being lived
within you, and you must simply learn how to say yes to that life.”
I believe that when
we encounter Jesus in our lives, we cannot help but be changed. Nicodemus meets
with Jesus and that encounter changes him profoundly. What do you mean I have
to be born from above with the power of the Holy Spirit within me to get to
heaven? Is that even possible, to be “born again?” Who can forget the
conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus? What a profound encounter he has
with the risen Jesus. Who are you that you would persecute those who follow me,
Jesus asks him. I think in that moment Saul who now uses his Roman name Paul
would say he was profoundly changed. Following Jesus’ crucifixion, his
disciples were devastated. They had forsaken him in the Garden of Gethsemane to
save their own lives. But after they met the resurrected Christ, they were
radically changed. Suddenly, they were willing to give their lives to tell
Jesus’ story to the world. Many were tortured and killed because they
proclaimed Jesus was alive. Skeptics and enemies were also
transformed. Jesus’ younger brother, James, didn’t think Jesus was anybody
special. But after his resurrected brother appeared to him, James not only
believed Jesus was Lord but became the leader of the Jerusalem church and died
a martyr in 62 AD.
Roman governor
Plinius Secundus wrote in his letters that Christians were people who
loved the truth at any cost. Although he was ordered to torture and execute
them for refusing to curse Jesus, he was continually amazed and impressed with
their firm commitments “not to do any wicked deeds, never to commit any fraud,
theft, adultery, never to falsify their word, not to deny a trust when they
should be called upon to deliver it up.” For centuries, true Christians around
the world have stood as shining examples of the standards of truth and love
established by Jesus of Nazareth.
Similarly, the late
C.S. Lewis, professor at Oxford University in England, was an agnostic who
denied the deity of Christ for years. But he, too, in intellectual honesty,
submitted to Jesus as his God and Savior after studying the overwhelming
evidence for his deity. Over the years, he wrote many books to uphold the
ideals of Christianity, including Mere Christianity and The
Screwtape Letters.
When we meet Jesus,
we encounter the true experience of love that God want us to know. Jesus loved
people not because they deserved it or somehow were worthy of the experience.
Jesus loved people because as the divine human experience, God wanted the world
to know that they are loved beyond measure. I am profoundly impacted by the
fact that dog spelled backwards is God. A dog loves its master without
hesitation. I even see that in our cat Morris towards Bonnie. God loves us in
ways we cannot imagine. God calls us to love one another in the same way. When
we do, there is no hatred, no separation, no war, no genocide, no suicide, no
deceptions, twisted perceptions, perverted truth, injustice, inequality, no
prejudice, no homelessness, no... no...no..Just God! Just God! No racism,
classicism, sexism, militarism...Just God! Just God! Jesus is calling you on a
journey – it may not be the way you intended your life to go, but it is the way
that Jesus wants your life to go.
And in a dream they
were told to go another way.
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