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Foundry United Rev. |
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Birth Announcements: To Goyim Sunday, December 17,
2006 |
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Matthew 2: 1-6 Rev. |
They
were magi … wise men from the east. I love
these guys! The
history of the magi goes back to six centuries before the birth of Christ.[i]
The magi were a caste of shamans and priests in ancient Media located in what
is today northwestern
When
the Persians under King Cyrus conquered the Medes in 550 BCE, and Zoroastrianism
became the dominant religion of The
writing of Philo of Alexandria, who lived at the same time as Jesus, suggests
there were two kinds of magi: those the biblical scholar Raymond Brown calls
“scientific magi” and others who were charlatans and magicians.[ii] Presumably
the magi in Matthew’s gospel were the scientific magi – proto-scientists,
proto-astronomers. So
what are these Median/Persian Zoroastrian priests doing in the story of
Jesus’ birth? This
Advent and Christmas I am asking you to think with me about birth
announcements in the nativity stories. Annunciations, they are sometimes
called. The
birth of Christ is announced by angels and cosmic manifestations to
shepherds, to magi, to a peasant teenaged girl, to an unbelieving priest, to a righteous man who discovers
his fiancée is pregnant, and to a despotic king. The
nativity stories in the New Testament, which are found only in Matthew and
Luke, are some of the purest theology in the Bible. The stories were written after the death and
resurrection of Christ as a way of communicating what the early Christians
believed about Jesus, and thus what they believed about the heart of God
which Jesus reveals. So the
question is what are these Median/Persian Zoroastrian astrologers doing in
the story of the birth of Jesus? What are our Christian ancestors trying to
tell us in this story? They
are there, first and most importantly, because they are goyim. “Goyim” is the Hebrew word used in the Old
Testament that means “peoples of the nations of the world.” In the first half
of the Old Testament it is used to refer to all humanity including the
Israelites. In the second half of the Old Testament it came to be used to
mean the people of nations other than The
magi are in the nativity stories as a witness to the Christian affirmation
that Jesus was born for goyim in
the fullest and original sense of the word -- all the peoples of all the
nations and cultures of the world. In Jesus’ coming, the traditions,
practices, stories, and teachings that divide humanity are transcended and
overcome. No more
clean and unclean, no more ins and outs, no more special and ordinary. All peoples are present at Jesus’ birth. The
birth announcement to the goyim magi
was the rising of a star. The magi astrologists came looking for Jesus
because they had “observed his star at its rising.” (Matt. 2:2) They did not have to stop being
Median/Persian Zoroastrian astrologer priests and become something else to
find Jesus. The birth of Christ was announced to them by the stars. They came
to Christ by their own path. Any
path profoundly followed can lead to Christ. Christ is present in the stars and
rhythms of the universe…the Christ reality is present for all who would find
it. Years
ago, when I was a campus ministry, I put a long quote from Fred Buechner
defining the word “Christian” on a brochure we distributed on campus. I inadvertently
caused a theological war on campus. The quote irritated most of the other
Christian groups on campus. This is what it said (Fred Buechner’s definition
of a Christian): “Some think of a Christian as one who necessarily believes certain things. That Jesus
was born the son of God, say, Or that Mary was a virgin. Or that the Pope is
infallible. Or that all other religions are wrong. “Some think of a Christian as one who necessarily does certain things. Such as going to
church. Getting baptized. Giving up liquor and tobacco. Reading the
Bible. Doing a good deed a day. “Some think of a Christian as just a Nice Guy. “Jesus said: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life;
no one comes to the Father, but by me.’ (John 14:6) He didn’t say that any
particular ethic, doctrine, or religion was the way, the truth, and the life.
He said he was. “He didn’t say it was by believing or doing anything in
particular that you could “come to the Father.” He said that it was only by
him – by living, participating in, being caught up by, the way of life that
he embodied that was his way. “Thus it is possible to be on Christ’s way and with his
mark upon you without ever having heard of Christ, and for that reason to be
on your way to God though maybe you don’t even believe in God. “A Christian is one who is on the way, though not
necessarily far along it, and who has at least some dim and half-baked idea
of whom to thank. “A Christian isn’t necessarily any nicer than anybody
else. Just better informed.”[iii] That
quote led to some pretty interesting and vociferous discussions on campus. Any
path profoundly followed can lead to Christ. Christ is present in the stars and
rhythms of the universe…the Christ reality is present for all who would find
it – even those who do not know its name. We are
entering a debate within Christianity, a time of discernment, that may make
the debate about the inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians seem like a
minor discussion in comparison. The question is whether Christianity owns
Christ? Does the institution of the church have a copyright on Christ? In the
midst of the debate are the magi, kneeling at the feet of the Christ child. They
didn’t have to become something else to find Christ. They found Christ by
their path. The
magi at Jesus’ birthplace are testimony that the movements of God cannot be
contained in neat and careful definitions found in church rule books or in official
definitions of membership or in creeds. Christ is in the stars and rhythms of
the universe. Many paths lead to him. www.foundryumc.org |
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