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S150104 Epiphany
“By A Different Road”
Matthew 2:7-12 (NRSV)
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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.”
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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.
[Christmas Trees with Angel/Star] How many of you still have your Christmas Tree
up? What do (or did) you have on the top of your Christmas tree: a star or an angel?
How many of you are angel people? How many of you are star people? Last week I got
a call from Barb Kahle. She told me she and others would be taking the tree here down
this past week. I suggested we wait until after this Sunday. Why? The twelve days of
Christmas! This coming Tuesday is the twelfth day, Epiphany. It is the Festival of Light,
of The Light Which is Christ Coming into the World. It is the day in the church calendar
marking the coming of the magii. Many Christians in the world, especially those in
Spanish-speaking areas, consider Epiphany the greater celebration, bigger than
Christmas morning. Why?
Billy Strayhorn suggests there are basically two kinds of people. I know! You think,
“Really?” Hear him out. Angel people are those who have waited for a Messiah.
They’ve had a fairly clear picture of what will solve all their problems. Like the
shepherds, they expect something like an angel announcement of the Messiah’s
coming. But star people are still searching; still questioning; stiull unsure; on a quest to
understand the mysteries of the universe. These magii had studied the stars and
planets, trying to make sense of the world. So when a really strange and different star
appeared they took off without hesitation. They didn’t know exactly what they would
find. They went anyway.
[Hugh Ross] Strayhorn suggests that God sends both angels and stars, because God
meets us where we are. He tells the story of Hugh Ross. He was consumed with a
passion for physics, especially astronomy. He was raised in an atheist household,
never went to church, followed a secular educational path. But the more he studied the
universe, the more he grew to believe in a Divine Creator. So he started devouring
books about the world’s great religions, all of them. He became especially fascinated
with Christian theology, particularly the emphases on essential human goodness and
the power of forgiveness. And so, without entering a church, he committed his life to
Christ as Lord and Savior. Now he is not only a devout Episcopal churchman, but
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executive director of Reasons to Believe, an organization dedicated to publishing
analysis of historical and scientific truths found and discussed in scripture. He wrote,
“As an astronomer I have achieved my ultimate quest: my education led me to the stars;
my faith has led me beyond.”
[Vietnam/ Fort Hood] Last Sunday Ken Chapman caught me a bit off-guard, handing
me a card in worship announcing a gift to come from all of you, then saying I would get
it even though he knew I was a “conscientious objector and draft dodger.” I responded
by saying those are not the same thing. What I meant, is that had I been drafted in the
Vietnam era, I would have served as a medic or in some other non-combative role. I
would not have carried a gun. My brother-in-law Rick was not a conscientious objector.
He went to seminary in order to avoid the draft by staying in school. He told me then he
did not feel called to be a pastor. So, I questioned his integrity. The war ended. He was
ordained and entered Lutheran ministry. He was not so good at it. So, he left the local
church to join the army, and served the rest of his working life as a military chaplain.
When an army psychiatrist gunned down so many on that dark day at Fort Hood, Rick
was the chaplain in charge of ministering to the families and staff. Rick was a starperson. God took him where he was. And used him well.
[Herod with Magii] King Herod is another prominent character in Mathew’s Christmas
and Epiphany story. Herod was king of the Jews, but he was not a Jew. He was an
Idumean, but married into the historic Jewish Hasmonean monarchical line. Herod didn’t
even know the Jewish scriptures. He had to consult the priests and scribes to answer
the magii’s question about where the Messiah would be born. Herod was an astute
political and military leader. He typically sent spies on intelligence missions instead of
soldiers first. So, he was trying to enlist these magii. Of course they agreed. That way
they could be on their way. At that point in the story we are not given any indication that
they won’t comply. They are magical astronomers, not infidel anti-government resisters.
They are following their curiosity. It apparently does not occur to them that Herod might
not be as well.
So you have to wonder just how ‘wise’ these ‘wise men’ really were. Anyone hearing
the story at any point in history would have asked along with us. They seem so
politically naive! Charles Aaron did his research on what ‘wise’ meant in Biblical times.
It meant many things. A ‘wise one’ could be someone with a particular skill, an artisan.
So, if Joseph was an especially skilled carpenter he was a ‘wise carpenter.’ Or it could
be someone like Hugh Ross. ‘Wise ones’ in Proverbs drew analogies: “"The crucible is
for silver, and the furnace is for gold, but the Lord tests the heart" (Proverbs 17:3). We
value this kind of wisdom.
[Journeying Wise Men] But another kind was what they called ‘Mantic Wisdom.’
Mantics could discern in ways beyond just observation, even with a touch of the
supernatural. Mantics could interpret dreams and visions, explain signs and omens.
The magii were mantics. Studying the stars helped them study life. Not so much ‘wise
in the ways of the world,’ the magical magii (that is where we get the word, by the way!)
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saw through, beneath, to a deeper level.
They are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. God reveals Gods-self in dreams:
did for Abraham, did for Jacob, did for Joseph in Egypt, did for Mary and for Joseph the
father of Jesus. What’s so significant here is that these are not Jews or Christians who
are getting a vision from God. They are “men from the east.” They are non-Jewish
Gentiles. Do you see? This is central for our understanding of the story, because it is
set in the context of Matthew’s struggle. A Jew in a Gentile culture, he and Saint Paul
and Saint Peter and all of these other Jewish Christians had to decide what to make of
this new, strange reality, that so many non-Jewish people across the Mediterranean
world were getting it: were flocking to the Jesus story, to the Jesus event, and finding
their lives changed forever. That the lives of these Gentiles were changed, also forever
changed the lives of the Jewish gospel-proclaimers. No longer was “Jew, Chosen of
God” their primary identity. First and foremost now, they were Christ-followers: No
longer angel people, expecting a Messiah. But star-people, setting off into unknown
terrain, listening to the voice of God as Risen Jesus in Holy Spirit in their life together,
guiding them into parts unknown with the gospel story which would transform all of
human history.
See? The magii make a new decision. They go home ‘by a different road.” They
intentionally disobey the orders of the king of the realm. I have to wonder why Herod
would not have sent another spy in a chase chariot. Maybe he did! Maybe that’s how
he knew to send soldiers sweeping into Bethlehem later to kill all the babies under two.
This suffering is the deep tragedy of the story. We learn a stark lesson: Messiahs do not
enter the world without cost. Worldly kings will try to kill them and all they represent. As
we enter this new year, let’s not get discouraged. Instead let’s follow stars, perhaps
even against our better judgment, no matter the cost.
[Domestic Violence] If we were to let that part of the story directly engage our
sensibilities of faith, we might consider focusing on domestic violence in our culture.
Perpetrated primarily by males, its usually based on deep and irrational fear of the
threat of loss. Domestic abuse harms and kills children, spouses and other significant
others, leaving grief and agony behind. We are concerned, of course, by drug abuse
and home invasions and shootings on our streets. But most assaults and killings are
domestic. We might choose as a congregation to have a real, authentic impact in our
local community to curb domestic abuse. That would be a worthy star-people endeavor.
That’s an example. I still am not sure how God is leading us to minister. But I’m getting
some inklings, as I listen to the longings of more and more people in our community.
Maybe you are too.
This, by the way, is how churches grow. People want to be involved in churches which
are doing what they believe a church should do. Gentiles flocked to early Christian
communities, we are told in the Book of Acts, because they ‘cared for the widowed and
the orphan.’ And because they knew no difference between male or female, Jew or
Greek, slave or free.’
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[Star-People] If we want to engage our God-given ‘mantic’ wisdom, we will need to “go
by a different road.” We are in a different time now as Christians in America. The vast
number of Americans, metaphorically speaking, are not ‘Jews’ or ‘Jewish Christians’ or
‘Traditional Christians’ trusting angel voices they have already heard, doing what the
angels told our grandparents and parents and us to do decades ago, as if that will be
the way forever, to which people will eventually return. They will not. Because those not
with us are more like star-people. They are questioning, searching, testing scientific and
secular paradigms, refusing to trust what has been given them from the past, or likely
not interested at all in examining it. Some are just trying to get by. Others are
wondering. What would it look like for us, to wonder with them?
[Transitions/ In-Between] William Bridges wrote a series of books on dealing with
Transitions in our lives. Sometime I’ll pull out the whole sermon series this topic
deserves. But for now, I’l just say that every transition begins with an ending, and ends
with a new beginning. But there is always an in-between. The in-between is a gray
area, unclear, amorphous. Bridges’ main learning is you just can’t go through the
transition process without consciously choosing to be IN the in-between for as long as it
takes. Theologian Phyllis Tickle suggests that as an entire global Christian culture we
are in an in-between. The Age of Christendom no longer exists. We truly do NOT know
what the future will look like. So, in the in-between we have to trust by waiting, by
listening, by discerning, and by…looking for the stars.
Don’t you suppose there were plenty of people who didn’t even notice that star? They
were so busy with their lives that they didn’t even look up. And don’t you suppose there
were others who saw it, but just said “Isn’t that interesting!”, then also went on about
their business. But these magii? They left everything behind, got on their camels, and
took off for who-know’s-where.
In the in-between there’s always some groping in the dark, plodding, trying this and that.
Before some new beginning seems to emerge as a star on the horizon, a star to follow.
Like the magii, we also bring our gifts into the in-between, and we can trust in God, that
those God-given gifts will serve us also in the new beginning.
[Epiphany Communion] So, this morning I invite you once again to come to the
manger with the wise men. I invite you to come to Bethlehem, the “house of bread.”
Come embrace the wine of sorrow, of the babies of Bethlehem, and of salvation, of
Jesus the baby who survived to die as Savior, then rise as our sign of ultimate hope.
Come to the table. Make the journey of faith. Listen as God leads you. Leave your
troubles here at the altar. And consider leaving the table this morning with renewed
commitment, to leave “by a different road.”