Readings:
Sermon:
This Sunday many churches will be celebrating the feast of Epiphany.
Epiphany means a “sudden manifestation or perception of something.” So the season of Epiphany is about the perceiving and revealing of Jesus Christ.
Matthew’s gospel tells us the story of the mysterious magi.
Who were they? Where did they come from? And Why?
In the culture of Jesus’ day, Magi were trusted advisors to kings. They were often proficient in mathematics, medicine, astrology, and dream interpretation.
They weren’t Jewish, or Christian, and yet they were among the first to recognise and realise that Jesus was King.
The Christ child transcends religions, labels, and beliefs.
They came “from the East” from ancient countries now encompassed by Iran and Iraq.
There were not three, and they were not kings. They didn’t come to the manger scene, but later, when Jesus was a toddler.
Legend and Christmas carols have done the rest. All we know from Matthew is that some Magi made the long journey to adore “the one who (had) been born king of the Jews.”
The early church attached great significance to their visit - This story is there for a purpose.
Jesus was born among the Jewish people, in their Roman occupied lands, with angel visions, and shepherds sent to adore him, rumoured to be the prophesied Messiah whom they had long awaited.
But apparently, after that, nothing much happened. There were no delegations of priests or officials coming to worship him.
Perhaps they were expecting a more grandiose and royal birth for God’s anointed one?
The Magi, by contrast, had no scripture or prophecy to guide them. Yet by diligently following a star, they arrived in an unfamiliar place and culture, to pay homage to an ordinary-seeming child, and give gifts of great worth and meaning. Such simple faith, such willingness to follow where God leads.
Why a star? Perhaps God was communicating with these astrologers in a language they could understand?
God transcends languages and speech, is beyond any culture or creed.
Consider the different reactions to Jesus birth in this text:
Herod is fearful and angry. The religious establishment seems indifferent. It is the foreign Magi who joyfully come to worship the new King.
In a culture of insiders and outsiders, God refused to be bound by dividing walls of race or religion.
God’s manifestation in Christ transcends human divisions.
This story reveals God’s intention, as is written in Ephesians, that even the outsiders, the gentiles have become fellow-heirs and sharers in the boundless riches of Christ..
In the words of Malcolm Guite:
‘Here is an Epiphany, a revelation, that the birth of Christ is not one small step for a local religion but a great leap for all humankind’
Questions:
- What does the story of the Magi mean to you?
- What does it mean for your life and how you treat others?
Collect:
Creator of the heavens, who led the Magi by a star to worship the Christ-child: guide and sustain us, that we may find our journey’s end in Jesus Christ our Lord.