One
of the best things about being an Episcopalian
is that we celebrate the whole
season of Christmas
– not just the first
day.
The
story is too rich, the meaning is too deep,
to capture in just one worship
service.
So
on Christmas Eve, we hear Luke’s story of the birth
in the days of Caesar Augustus.
Later,
we hear John’s operatic, celestial poem
about the spiritual meaning of the
Word becoming flesh.
Now
we hear from Matthew about the 3 Wise men.
But
Matthew only tells us the bare bones of the story.
Anglicans
base our beliefs on three sources
–
Scripture, Tradition, and Reason.
Sacred
tradition tells the rest of the story.
The Bible
doesn’t tell us how many Wise Men there were,
where they came from, or what their
names may have been.
If we had
nothing more than Matthew’s account,
it would be hard to interpret the
significance of this visit.
But
Christian Tradition around the Wise Men
is long, deep, wide, and rich.
Three of
the world’s greatest religious paintings
– one by Fra Angelico, one by
Esteban Murillo,
and one by
Leonardo DaVinci –
all portray The Adoration of the Magi.
Anyone
who sees these paintings knows they too are divinely inspired.
Around 500
A.D., an anonymous artist in Ravenna, Italy
crafted just as inspiring a mosaic
of the wise men’s journey,
and 1,400 years later, T. S. Eliot
gave that mosaic words
in his poem
The Journey of the Magi.
When we
sing We Three Kings, the symbolic meaning of each gift
set out in the verses goes back to a
Spanish poem
written
by Prudentius in the 4th Century.
That’s as
old as parts of the Nicene Creed.
The Wise
Men’s visit is a lovely old story, we have been telling
in sermons, songs, paintings, and poems
for many centuries because it is
true
in the
deepest and most important sense.
We have
cherished this story not because we are certain
of the historical accuracy of each
detail,
but because it teaches us
the way to
peace and holiness.
We believe
that three Wise Men came from the East.
Different
strands of the tradition give them different names
but
we know them as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.
Certainly
they came a great distance.
And
certainly they were astrologers.
At least one
of them would have been
from Persia or thereabout.
There is a
tradition that one made a round about route
from Africa.
And there
is actually some evidence to support
the idea that one came from China.
Now let us
be clear, these pilgrims were not Christians.
They did
not subscribe to our Creed or our religious practice.
They were
not Jews.
St. Matthew
says that they were astrologers.
And
astrology was strictly forbidden in Jewish law
and condemned by Jewish prophets.
The Persian
was a Zoroastrian worshiper of Ahura-Mazda.
The one
from China lived by the analects of Confucius.
The African
may have followed a traditional African religion,
or perhaps the established paganism
of the Roman Empire.
Most
likely, he followed one of the new mystery cults.
But none of
them were Christians.
None of
them were Jews.
And they
would not have agreed with each other
about much of anything.
They could
not have agreed on what it was they were looking for.
But they
were all looking for something, all seeking something.
When their
search brought them to the humble stable
in the little town of Bethlehem,
they knew they had found it.
So Matthew
tells us, they fell down before the child Jesus
and they worshiped him.
I regret
the modern translators’ choice to soften the language
to say they “paid him homage.”
To say they
worshiped him is a perfectly good translation
of the original Greek.
To fall
down and do prostrations or to kneel is an act of worship.
St. John
Chrysostom’s 6th Century Epiphany sermon
emphasizes that the Wise Men did not
give Jesus
the gifts due to a great man.
Nor did they
give him things of practical value.
Their gifts
were traditional sacrifices offered to God.
So let us
not draw back from the clear truth of this text.
They
worshiped him.
Therein lie
the beauty and the sacred truth of this story.
Therein lie
the beauty and the sacred truth
of
this moment so loved by artists through the ages.
These wise
men who were so utterly and completely different
from each other – different in race,
religion, and nationality –
forgot their differences and knelt
together
in
awestruck reverence before a mystery
they could
not begin to understand.
Brothers
and sisters, the Adoration of the Magi
is not window dressing on the faith.
It is not a quaint tale we can take or leave.
It is
essential because it teaches us what we are here to do.
We are here
to kneel in awestruck reverence
before the holiness of Christ.
Our Gospel
lesson is crystal clear that
the stable was not a debating hall
and
neither is the church.
Like the
Wise Men, we have our differences.
Human
beings are entitled to their opinions.
The fact we
have so many of them is part
of what keeps life interesting.
But the
church is not a town meeting
or
a popular news program
with
a point and counterpoint
exchange
of verbal barbs.
The Church
is not a talk show
for controversial celebrities to
rant at each other.
The church exists
to kneel before the holiness of Christ,
a
mystery we cannot begin to understand.
Like the
Wise Men,
we are different from each other as
we can be.
Some are
liberal. Some are conservative.
Some like
incense and sanctus bells.
Others prefer
their Sunday morning casual and simple.
Some like
one kind of music.
Some prefer
a different style.
Others
don’t want any music at all.
Some like a
priest. Others can’t stand him.
And that’s all
fine.
It’s human
to have opinions and preferences.
The thing
that holds us together isn’t agreeing
about any of those things.
It is our
shared willingness
to lay aside our opinions, tastes,
and preferences
to
kneel before the holiness of God.
The truth
revealed by the Wise Men’s journey
is that, despite their differences,
they traveled together.
And that probably wasn’t always easy.
T. S. Eliot
attributes these words to one of them,
A
cold time we had of it
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long
journey . . .
The cold
may not have been just the weather
and
the length may not have been just the miles.
The Wise
Men probably exchanged an opinion or two
along the road.
Their
differences must have made the trip even colder
and
even longer.
But they
stayed on the road and they stayed together,
until at last, together, they
worshiped the Lord
in the beauty of
holiness.
They came
to Christ without coming to an agreement.
They did
not adopt a common creed or moral code.
But they
knelt and prayed as one.
They followed
the light as best they saw the light,
and when they met the Christ,
they fell silent and worshiped him.
