Curate’s Corner …………………………..
If you are reading this early in the month and live in one of
the many Mediterranean countries – you may still be looking
forward to opening your Christmas presents – for many of
them Epiphany on the 6th January is the big present day.
They remember the story of the wise men bringing gifts to
Jesus and mirror it by giving gifts to each other.
There are a lot of traditions about the wise men but nowhere
in the Bible does it say anything about camels, nor do we
know how many of them there were – we only know that
they came from the East, they studied the stars and they
brought 3 gifts – and very expensive gifts they were too. Frankincense was a gift
for a priest – it was used in the temple as incense - and a symbol of prayer.
Gold of course was expensive – a symbol of power – used to dress and decorate
princes and kings and their palaces.
The last gift myrrh – a paste used to preserve bodies - is a symbol of death.
An odd gift for a baby but it was a foretelling of Jesus suffering on the cross.
So, 3 gifts for a baby – signalling a priest, a king and a suffering servant.
My guess is that those 3 gifts would have become treasured family possessions,
carefully stored somewhere safe in the house and wrapped and taken with them
wherever they travelled. And the story of how they came to be in Jesus’
possession would be part of their family history of when strange men came from
the east.
It wasn’t just the gifts that are important in this story. Historians and theologians
have worked out that it took nearly 2 years for the wise men to arrive in
Bethlehem. This was a journey of some commitment. They didn’t know where
they were going, they didn’t know what they were going to find, they didn’t know
if they were on a wild goose chase.
Sometimes faith can feel like that. Some days we are strong and faith-full, other
days it can all feel like a lot of nonsense, when it feels that prayer is like talking
to a brick wall.
I draw inspiration from those wise men. I expect people thought they were foolish
following some wild notion.
Like the star, God often feels just out of reach but we keep on searching.
We press on from one glimpse of God’s glory to another until ultimately we see
God himself. Thomas Merton puts it briefly and beautifully – if you found God with
great ease, maybe it’s not God you found.
New Year is often a time when we review how life is for us. I wonder what you
are searching for just now?
I remember the story about the little boy talking to his Mum after Sunday School
–“I didn’t know what the question was – but the answer is usually Jesus”!
Every blessing for your journeying this year,
Lynn.
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