Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday January 8, 2023 – Celebration of Epiphany
Scripture Reading: Matthew 2:1-12
One song that is usually associated with Epiphany is “We Three Kings.” There are a couple of problems with this song though, one of which is that there weren’t three of them – if you look carefully at the bible, you’ll see that the number of visitors isn’t given. Another problem with the song is that they weren’t kings. They are named as magi which is the plural of mage, and shares the same word root as magician. It is an obscure word in the ancient Greek that the bible is written in – it’s not quite clear what these “magoi” that Matthew refers to actually are. Some English translations preserve the ambiguity of magi, some English translations refer to them as “wise men,” others call them “scholars,” still others call them “astronomers” or “astrologers.”
But whatever their job description was, or their role in society, these wise ones were people who studied the stars. They studied the stars so carefully that they noticed when a new star appeared in the sky.
I don’t know about you, but if a new star appeared in the night sky, I don’t think that I would notice it. I don’t study the sky carefully, or count the stars that surround the constellations, and so if a new star were to appear, it is very unlikely that I would notice it.
So many Christmas cards show the star shining over Bethlehem as disproportionately large, so bright that it outshines every other star in the sky, so large that anyone could notice it. But the star that shone over Bethlehem couldn’t have been like these Christmas Card stars, because no one other than this group of magi noticed it. There weren’t floods of tourists showing up at Mary and Joseph’s door looking for what this star signified. Only this group of magi – this group of scholars who diligently studied the stars night after night after night noticed when a new star appeared in the sky.
There have been various people over the centuries who have tried to speculate what that star might have been – a comet, a supernova, an alignment of planets. But there is no evidence for any of these things happening at this time. And I wonder if the search for a rational explanation might detract from the story.
There is a lovely poem by Walt Whitman
that goes:
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer when he lectured with much applause in the lecture room,
How soon unaccountable became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.[1]
I think of my time in a chemistry class in undergrad when we were learning quantum chemistry. I didn’t understand it then, and I don’t understand it now; but sitting there in the lecture hall I let my mind wander a little bit, and then out of the metaphorical corner of my mind’s eye I caught a glimpse of something of great wonder and beauty. An epiphany. A sudden revelation. And overwhelming aha moment. A star that says, “look at me!”
But the magi did more than notice the new star – they acted on it. They didn’t observe this new star, then return to their homes at dawn, content with a good night’s work – instead they left their homes behind and made a long and arduous journey westward to learn what the new star signified.
They had done the groundwork to prepare themselves to see the star; they were observant enough to notice it; they were curious enough to see where it would lead; and they were courageous enough to follow. What a great model for us to follow in our journeys of faith! Preparation, observation, curiosity, and courage.
Following the star is the part of the story that is best-remembered by most people – the part of the story that is reproduced in Christmas pageants and on Christmas cards; but there is another part of the story too. After visiting Jesus and his parents and worshiping him, the magi return home by a different route.
King Herod, when he had directed the magi to Bethlehem, had asked them to return to his palace to tell him exactly where the baby was to be found so that he could go and worship him; but in reality King Herod was so afraid of being deposed by a new king, he was so afraid of a baby, that he planned to kill this baby. And worse, if we read the story that follows, we will see that he goes on to kill all of the children under the age of two, just to make sure that the new king is dead.
But the magi – they don’t return to King Herod. They return home by a different road. They have had a dream telling them to do so, and they listened to what the dream was telling them to do. Just as they listened to the guidance of the star, they also listened to the guidance of their dream. Again, they were prepared to notice, and then had the courage to do what the dream told them to do, even when it meant disobeying a notoriously violent king.
And so I wonder, rather than this being a story about “we three kings,” if this is a story of two kings. Herod, the violent despot, willing to murder hundreds of babies out of fear that he might lose his power, representing all of the power and the violence of this world; and Jesus, the vulnerable one, the Prince of Peace, enthroned in a manger and later on a cross, wearing a crown of thorns, humble to the point of death, even death on the cross.
And we, like the magi – we are called to choose which king we are going to give our homage to. And we, like the magi – we are called to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, whether we are led through a star or a dream or a word. We prepare our hearts. We observe so that we can notice. We are open to curiosity. And we then have the courage to do and to go.
Prepare. Notice. Curiosity. Courage.
And may it be so. Amen.
[1] Walt Whitman, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” Drum-tap, 1865.
(“An abstract depicting the light of The Word shattering the darkness.”)
Mike Moyers, 2011
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