These wise men came all the way from the East to the tiny town of Jerusalem to find the child who has been born King of the Jews. I wonder why these three who seem to be wealthy, they bring very costly gifts, and important, they get an audience with Herod with no trouble, journey all that way to see this child, who they call King of the Jews. Could the stars in the sky point to something so important and so powerful that these three risk the time, the danger, and the cost to make this journey? They knew nothing of the Prophet Isaiah, they knew nothing of this at all, and yet they come. Once they reached their destination, they were "overwhelmed by joy," and then, whatever drew them far from home sent them back again. So why does Matthew tell us this story? I think because Matthew wants us to hear about the Good News of God's universal and all-encompassing grace. A grace that extends to the farthest reaches of the world, that extends to all people, Jew and non-Jew, that extends to rich, like these Kings, and poor, like the folks that gathered that day the baby was born, the shepherds and Mary and Joseph.
What is happening here is what Mary sang about after the angel visited her. This child who is born in a barn and who is king, is the one who turns the world. From the halls of power to the fortress tower, not a stone will be left on stone. Let the king beware for your justice tears every tyrant from his throne. The hungry poor shall weep no more, for the food they can never earn; There are tables spread, every mouth be fed, for the world is about to turn. These wise men cannot remain at home, they must attend this newborn king. They must observe for themselves this mystery, and in doing so they are changed and they must return home by another way.
A great light has dawned, a light that draws all people and calls us to live our lives illuminated by its truth. That's what Epiphany and the Epiphany season is about. This new light shines on a new age, the age inaugurated by the life, death, and resurrection of this child, this man, this king, Jesus. You and I bear this light, we are like the wise men, we are from a far away land, and God’s universal and all-encompassing grace surrounds us too. We are not excluded, no one is excluded. We witness the light and we, like them must bear the light home, and to our workplaces and our playplaces.
The myrrh’s the thing. We can bear this light because of the myrrh. Remembering that myrrh is an embalming spice, and missing from Isaiah, Matthew’s inclusion of myrrh as one of the gifts the wise men bring points us in the direction of the depth and breadth of God’s intent with Jesus. The Jewish Messiah was expected to come in glory in honor, as a king of all kings, but instead is Jesus, the one who is born in a barn who comes to bring justice, and who is to die to do it. Matthew points us to this reality, and in so doing provides us with the light bearing tools. Jesus isn’t just a baby, whose birthday we celebrate each year. Jesus is the one who inaugurates the new heavens and the new earth, and that means we are living right now in this interstitial time. The in-between time. The time after the beginning and before the end, the alpha and the omega. This is a time when the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overtake it, because of the work Jesus has done on the cross, and is doing in our lives.
We witness to the light, like the wise men before us. We are the proclaimers of God’s universal and all encompassing grace, we receive and bear the abundant and amazing love that God has for all people. You, and me, like the wise men. This journey takes us home by another way.
Our lives are changed by incarnation, our lives our changed by this Light coming into the world, We will spend our lives saying yes to the new creation God intends for us, or we will spend our lives saying no to who God calls us to be. Saying yes is dangerous, as the wise men learned, as we learn, saying yes to God is to enter a relationship that brings us outside of ourselves and causes us to confront our fears and our prejudices, saying yes to God moves us from narcissism to selflessness. Saying no to God means that we can be secure in the way things are, we can live a life untouched by injustice, untouched by prejudice, untouched by the pursuit of greed.
So, what does it look like to bring our own gifts to this Child, God’s gift to us. And what does it look like to go home by another way? What does it look like to live a life of incarnation, what does it look like to carry the light into a world of darkness? On this route home we are called to be Light bearers. We are called to be Love bearers. We are called to bring God’s Love to dark corners, to mountaintops, to raging waters. We are called to bring God’s Love to a fragmented society, to a culture that is pulled apart by greed and by conspicuous consumption. We are called to bring God’s Love to a culture that values contingency and impermanence over commitment, fidelity and covenant.
God’s Love, God’s Power, is the most powerful integrating force in creation. God’s Love moves us from brokenness, from fragmentation, to wholeness, to healing. You and I bear the scars of that brokenness, we bear the scars that fragments cut us with, and we bear the healing Love of God. It is that Love, that Light that we carry into the world. Our work is out there, and it is about bringing the Light into the world.
How do you bring God’s Love and God’s Light into the world, how do you bring God’s wholeness into your work or your school? It is our call, to bring God’s transforming love to those who have not yet seen or felt or known that love. Be the light-bearer, just like those wise ones of so long ago, and you will go home by another way.
Those magic men the Magi
Some people call them wise
Or Oriental, even kings
Well anyway, those guys.
They visited with Jesus
They sure enjoyed their stay
Then warned in a dream of King Herod's scheme
They went home by another way. *
The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.
*James Taylor, Home By Another Way
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