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Foundry United Rev. |
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“The Mysterious
Magi” Sunday, January 6, 2008
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Matthew 2: 1-12
Rev. |
The
Sistine Chapel was stunning, of course. But the
paintings I remember best were scattered throughout the Some of
them were paintings of the nativity. There would be the holy family – Mary
and Joseph and the baby Jesus – and standing with them would be St. Francis,
or St. Catherine, or Saint Veronica, or some pope who actually lived 1500
years after Jesus was born. My
first reaction was to be amused – how anachronistic! But the
more I thought about it, the more I thought – how fitting that St. Francis
should be at the manger! St Francis and St. Catherine and One of
the reasons an artist included a saint or a pope in a biblical scene, even
though everyone knew they weren’t literally there, was that it was a way of
including a people in the story. Literally
speaking, there were not a lot of Italians present at the birth of Christ.
But if St. Francis was, in a mystical sense, present at the birth of Christ
and you lived in the This is
what Matthew was doing with the story of the magi in his portrayal of the
Nativity of Christ. He was including a people in the story. It is
only in the Gospel of Matthew that the story of the magi is told. Nothing
like it appears anywhere else, not even in Luke who tells story after story
about the nativity. The magi belong to Matthew alone. He is the only one who
knows about them. The
Gospel of Matthew was written, we believe, in the city of Some
argued that Jesus was the Jewish messiah so people had to be Jews in order to
be followers of Jesus. Gentiles could become Christians, but only if they
converted to Judaism first and were circumcised and followed Jewish dietary
laws. Others argued
that Jesus was all humanity’s messiah. Jew and Gentile were equally included
in the community of Christ. It was a
long and a hard battle. The Gospel of Matthew was written during the height
of this conflict. Matthew was a proponent of the inclusion and affirmation of
Gentiles within the Christian church.[i] In
Matthew’s telling of the nativity story, he did what the artists did in the
paintings in the The
magi, the wise men from the east, were Gentiles. In Matthew’s telling of the
story they are actually the very first ones, after Mary and Joseph, to know
about the birth of Christ, and they were the very first ones to pay him
homage and to worship him and to bring him offerings. In Matthew the first
Christian worship service is by a Gentile congregation. The
truth Matthew is affirming is that the Gentiles were there from the very
beginning, spiritually. Their presence in Christ’s church was always intended.
They belong. It doesn’t matter whether the story of the wise men is literally
true or not. It is a spiritual truth, just as St. Francis and Mother Theresa
and my mother being there at the manager is spiritually true. And it
is interesting that Matthew chose the magi to be the Gentiles in his story. Out
of all the Gentiles that Matthew might have chosen to include in the story, of
all people why did he pick the magi? Magi do
not fare well at all in the Bible. The magi were a priestly caste from The Old
Testament warns against them. (Jeremiah 10: 2) or mocks them. (Isaiah 47: 13)
The only other magi mentioned in the New Testament are villains. Simon Magus
and Elymas Magus, magi mentioned in the Book of Acts, were portrayed as
fierce enemies of the first Christians. (Acts 8: 9-24 and Acts 13: 6-11) Of all
the possible Gentiles he might have included in the nativity story, why would
Matthew pick magi? Matthew
picked the magi because the magi were so very, very Gentile. They were not
only Gentiles, they were flaming Gentiles. Hardcore Gentiles. There was nothing
subtle about the magi. They were not Gentiles who could pass as Jews. They
were the most Gentile of Gentiles. The
magi were not only foreigners, they were foreign. If God guided these
particular Gentiles – the magi – to Jesus’ manger, Gentiles everywhere would
know it must be okay for the rest
of us to be here. The
story of the magi in the Gospel of Matthew is not just about the magi, as a matter
of fact it is only secondarily about the magi. It is a story about Gentiles
in the midst of a debate in the early church about whether Gentiles could be
as fully included as those who were there before them. And it is a story
about newcomers, especially those once excluded, coming into the community of
Christ throughout the ages. Whatever
newcomers find their way to Christ, their presence was intended from the very
beginning. And Matthew
is saying more. He is saying that magi, Gentiles and newcomers coming to
Christ is essential to the Christ story. Look at the story of the magi. There
are at least three reasons magi, Gentiles and newcomers are critical to the community
of Christ. First,
they bring new gifts, ones that the community has not appreciated before. The
people of The
old-timers said, “We look for Christ in the Scriptures.” Magi, Gentiles and
newcomers say, “But we have seen his star at its rising.” They open our eyes
to new insights, new understandings, and new ways to truth. Second,
magi, Gentiles and newcomers are critical to the life of the church because
they shake up the power structures. The magi were obviously not very
impressed by King Herod's power. They
walked into King Herod’s palace and said, “We are looking for the child who
has been born king of the Jews.” Did it never occur to them what Herod’s
reaction would be? He thought he was king of the Jews. When
King Herod ordered the magi to return to return to tell him where the child
is, they ignored him. They blew him off. One of
the great gifts of magi, Gentiles and newcomers to the church is that they don’t
know the way we’ve always done it here before. They don’t know who’s really
in charge. They don’t know the questions it is not okay to ask or the things
it is not okay to talk about. Magi,
Gentiles and newcomers shake up the power structures. Third,
magi, Gentiles and newcomers restore a sense of joy to communities whose
lives have become routine, prosaic, and ordinary. “When they saw that the
star had stopped, the [magi] were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house,
they saw the child with Mary his mother and knelt down and paid him homage.”
(Matthew 2: 10-11a) When the sense of awe and joy seeps out of a church and
things begin to become merely routine, magi, Gentiles and newcomers can help
us recover a sense of excitement and joy about the Christ who is born to us. Matthew
wasn’t talking about magi in Christianity
is a missionary religion, not because we have something to share that others
are lost without, but because we need the newness of those who used to be
outsiders. We are lost without them. Evangelism
and reaching out to others is at least as important for us as for them
because they bring new gifts, new vision and new joy into our lives. Really
we don’t have to worry, because God will always bring the magi to where
Christ is being born. As Herod learned, we really can’t stop God from doing
this. I
stayed up past my Saturday night bed time last night to watch the I would
have thought that at least one of the candidates would have read his Bible.
When we build walls, God laughs. The biblical creed begins: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he
went down into Build
your walls. Give God a chuckle. Go ahead, General Conference, write legislation
into the Book of Discipline to keep people out of the Don’t
miss the message of the magi. Those of us who have followed stars and dreams
to Christ…those of us who have traveled through intellectual deserts and wildernesses
of personal doubts…those of us who have fought our way past Herods who wanted
to tell us we don’t belong…those of us who have been told we look funny or
act funny…those of us who have wondered what we are doing here and sometimes
still do…we have always been intended to be here. We were there from the very
beginning. We are the magi.
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