Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12
Well, today is another special day in the church.
Today we are celebrating Epiphany Sunday.
Some of these words aren't in our everyday vocabulary, but probably should be.
We learned Emmanuel means "God-With-Us",
and Epiphany means "God has appeared",
God has broken through,
God has revealed a part of itself – a crack in the cosmic egg has allowed the beyond to be glimpsed – and everything is changed ever after.
Epiphany celebrates the visit of the "wise men" to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.
Of course, the Bible says nothing about the timing of their visit, but tradition has long held that the wise men arrived in Bethlehem on the twelfth day after Jesus' birth.
The time in between is what is called the "twelve days of Christmas".
In many cultures around the world, the thirteenth day, Epiphany, when the wise men arrived with gifts to visit the new baby, is celebrated more like we celebrate Christmas.
Christmas, for them, is a time for going to church. And, Epiphany is the time for the gathering of the family and the exchange of gifts.
Now, curiously, what we know about these so-called "wise men" is remarkably little.
The first twelve verses of chapter two of Matthew's gospel, which we just read, are the sum total of the Bible's account of them.
They are mentioned nowhere else.
Matthew tells us only that they were "wise men" or to use an older word, "magi" who came to Bethlehem to pay homage to Jesus.
It isn't stated how many there were. There could have been two, or three, or four, or twenty – it doesn't say.
But, we do know something more about who these guys were.
Actually, the term "wise men" is descriptive of the esteem in which the visitors in our story were widely held.
Magi is the plural of Magus, the root of our word magic – the best translation of the word used is probably "court astrologer".
The group of Magi in question came "from the east".
They might have been Zoroastrians, Medes, Persians, Arabs, or even Jews.
We don't really know.
They were quite knowledgeable about the stars – in fact it is quite remarkable to study some of the ancient charts that were made as they observed the phenomena of the skies.
That the stars and the sun and moon and the planets moved in the skies from night to night, was obvious.
But, they observed patterns to these movements, and could chart where all the different stars and planets, and sun and moon would be in the sky for any particular day of any year – in fact, for any particular minute and any particular second, of any particular day – going back in time to day one, and forward ad infinitum.
They knew their skies.
They served as court advisers,
making forecasts and predictions for their royal patrons based on their study of the stars.
We know that Magi often wandered from court to court, and it was not unusual for them to cover great distances in order to attend the birth of a new king, or a coronation, paying their respects and offering gifts.
It is not surprising, then, that Matthew would mention them as a sort of validation of Jesus' kingship,
or, for that matter, that Herod would regard their arrival as a very serious matter.
Matthew calls these Magi, "wise men."
These men were wise in several ways, and by remembering them every year, we can only hope that we may gain wisdom from their story.
These wise men were wise, first of all, because they eagerly sought knowledge of the natural realm in which humans live.
They sought learning in a variety of ways.
Their search for knowledge,
their search for learning,
their search for wisdom,
was an insatiable desire.
They thought nothing of taking off on journeys of long arduous distances to learn of something new and potentially important that might add to their store of knowledge,
and perhaps, affect their lives.
To them, ignorance was inhuman.
They knew the world to be full of life and knowledge to be learned.
Our Bible affirms that God gives humanity a wonderful world to live in,
to learn about,
to explore,
and to understand
as fully as our God-given minds will allow.
Truly wise men and women seek to know all they possibly can about the world God has placed in human care.
Secondly, the wise men were wise in that they sought religious knowledge.
And, it seems that their quest for religious understanding was as deep and as wide as their search for worldly knowledge.
They came from lands far removed from the territory of Israel,
but once they arrived there, they knew to go to Jerusalem in order to find the proper religious authorities –
those who could help them pinpoint the location of the birth of the new king.
Jerusalem was not the political capital of the region, nor was it the largest city.
Yet the wise men knew without asking, to journey there first.
Obviously, they had studied Hebrew Scriptures prior to their arrival, so that they were well-informed of the religious significance of Jerusalem in Judaism. There were open-minded persons who sought godly truth down many avenues –
even from those religions that were foreign to them.
It would seem that one of the largest problems people of faith have in these first days of the twenty-first century, is ignorance –
ignorance of Christian history,
ignorance of our Bible,
ignorance of what our faith is really all about.
It is the sign of wise men that seeks to know all they possibly can of God's revealed truth to humanity, and make a life-long vigorous pursuit of godly truth.
Thirdly, the wise men proved their wisdom in that they took action in response to both the worldly and the religious knowledge they had obtained.
They studied the Scriptures,
they observed the world around them,
they saw the star,
and they did something about it!
They got off their plush Persian pillows,
got on their camels or horses,
and went off to find the Christ child,
Emmanuel, the manifestation of God, Epiphany.
You know, most of us are so conditioned to inaction.
If it were announced that Jesus was coming to earth tonight, and would be arriving at the local nearby Airport,
I bet that most of us would opt to watch the coverage on television from the comfort of our own living rooms chairs.
But, you know, we've lost something.
Our Christian faith demands activity, not passivity. We can read the Bible religiously,
we can offer the most sincere prayers imagined,
we can pledge our love to Jesus during our favorite tele-evangelist's altar call,
and we can gripe about how the world is falling apart because of a lack of faith.
But, our Bible is clear,
our tradition is clear,
our faith is clear,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Christmas,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Emmanuel,
until we put our faith in action, we don't know Epiphany,
until we put our faith in action, we don't even know what Easter means.
Christianity has never been a spectator sport.
It requires active involvement on the part of every person who would dare to claim the matchless title of Christian.
The apostle James puts it succinctly:
"...be doers of the word, and not merely hearers." Truly wise men and wise women actively respond to the coming to Jesus Christ into the world.
The wise men proved how really wise they were in that they recognized their goal – the end – of all their seeking when they reached it.
Verse 11 of Matthew 2 says, "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."
When they found the Christ child, these wise men knew that their seeking and searching had come to an end.
Henceforth, here would be the center point for their lives.
To the babe of Bethlehem belonged all their worship,
all their honor,
and all their gifts.
They need look no further.
They had found Emmanuel.
Perhaps you remember the old Russian legend about a woman named Babushka.
Like too many of us Babushka was always busy, too busy.
She was a tidy housekeeper, always occupied with the many chores that needed her attention.
One evening as she is cleaning her house she hears a commotion out on the street.
Looking out her window she sees her neighbors pointing to a star high in the heavens.
Off in the distance she sees a caravan approaching.
Babushka is startled to hear a knock at her door. She opens it to find three richly dressed kings. They ask her if they could lodge there overnight. After all, she has the finest house in the whole village.
That night they tell Babushka that they are following a star.
They invite her to go with them in search of the
newborn king.
Babushka makes excuses.
First she tells them she doesn't have a proper gift.
Besides she has to clean up her house before she does anything.
As the three kings are leaving she promises to join them the next day after her work is complete.
And, the kings leave without her.
The next day Babushka cleans her house and finds a proper gift.
All of a sudden she has the urgent desire to catch up with these men.
But, now they are a full day's journey ahead of her but, she hopes to catch them.
Everywhere she goes, she asks if people have seen the three kings.
Finally she tracks them to the village of Bethlehem.
But she is too late.
The kings have come and gone.
And the baby they were searching for is gone too.
Babushka missed the kings and the King of Kings.
According to legend she continues her search year after year.
In fact many believe that she can still be seen
in villages at Christmas time, looking for the Christ Child.
"Is he here?" she asks the villagers, "Is he here?"
Follow the star.
That's good advice for this first Sunday of a New Year.
Carpe Diem – seize the day.
Get into action.
Don't let life pass you by.
Brothers and sisters, the example is given to each of us.
Arise and shine, we are told.
Like the wise men, seek the babe of Bethlehem. Open your eyes to Emmanuel.
Seek the signs of God breaking into our world.
Be sensitive to the clues we are given.
Search your night skies for real evidence of Epiphany.
It took wise men to see God appearing in that Christ child.
May you, and I, be so wise.
Amen.
The congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, experienced a version of this sermon January 6, 2013.
