Today we celebrate the feast of The Epiphany and in so doing we are following in the footsteps of Christians down the ages, ever since this festival was introduced into the Western Church in the 4th Century.
This feast is associated with the revelation, the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles in the persons of the Wise Men. These visitors to the infant Jesus were not kings as some of our Christmas cards portray, no they were seers or perhaps astrologers who watched the night sky for signs of new kings - a new star in it's rising. Astrology was an honorable science in the ancient world and this would have afforded the Wise Men an audience with King Herod. An audience with Herod who claimed to be King of the Jews and who showed his true colours as pretender king - feigning the offering of homage to the infant Jesus.
This passage is unique to the Gospel of Matthew and we, and the writers mainly Jewish audience at the time, are sharers in the knowledge that while King Herod and Jerusalem were frightened by the prospect of the birth of God's Messiah which they saw as a threat to their rule, the star was shining for all to see - a call to all nations.
With the Incarnation God made Himself known to us - he took our human likeness to be seen by all people - this would have been important for Matthews audience to understand - they who had always been God's chosen people but their God who, not even they had seen before.
With the coming of Jesus all are called to come to Christ as we are reminded of by Paul - there are no second class citizens - 'the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Jesus Christ through the gospel'. Through Jesus God made known his plan for all mankind - it had been God's plan for all time but only revealed through Jesus. And it is Jesus who is the true king - who when he grows up into a man speaks only the truth. A man who cares for the poor and the oppressed. A king who does not wield his power unjustly.
And the Wise Men who came to worship this King were outsiders, they traveled from the East, they followed the star, they came and looked with fresh eyes. Their journey must have been, a very long, difficult and dangerous - as TS Eliot so vividly writes:
'A cold coming we had of it,
just the worst time of the year for a journey,
and such a long journey:
The ways deep and weather sharp,
the very dead of winter...
A hard time we had of it'.
But they didn't put their journey off until the weather might be better and the days longer thus making travelling easier. No, they were determined to make the journey and bring their gifts - their acceptance of this new King - the Messiah.
Matthew doesn't mention how many Wise Men there were but given that there were three gifts it has been assumed down the centuries that there were three visitors and the giving and receiving of their gifts suggests the acceptance of Gentiles into the Christian community - and this points towards the universal character of the gospel - the Good News - which is meant to be shared by all people. These opening verses - highlight that God is for everyone and are matched in the concluding verses with the commissioning by Jesus of the disciples to go and make disciples of every nation.
We know the story, we have the tradition but what can have been the Wise Men's thoughts when they arrived in Bethlehem, tired and cold after their long journey, the journey they had pursued so determinedly? What must they have thought when they found the infant Jesus and Mary and Joseph in the stable - did they question their belief in this new King born into such humble surroundings? No, they knelt before him and gazed in wonder at what they saw - heaven on earth and they presented their precious and symbolic gifts to Him - Gold for a king, Frankincense for God and Myrrh for one who is to die. These Wise Men were the first Gentiles to accept Jesus and to be accepted by God and not only that - they were looking ahead, looking ahead to the climax - they foreshadowed the events that would take place 30 years or so hence when once again all of Jerusalem would set their hearts against Jesus and lead him on the path to the cross. The cross that led to the resurrection and the proclamation of the Good New for all.
That was the Wise Men's journey and we, like them, have travelled to visit the crib tonight and come to worship Jesus. Jesus says come to us all, the Wise Men came and so do we. As the Wise Men met Him in the stable so we will meet him in this Eucharist and be renewed for service in His Kingdom.
Perhaps as we come before Him we can reflect on our journey here. Where were the bright stars, the signs that we followed, that called us - people, events, mountain top experiences that guided us on our way?
Can we reflect on that journey - its length, the difficult stages, the hard times and the joyous times? Times when we could have postponed it for a little while until the conditions were more favourable, the times when we were keen to push ahead. What about the times when what we found was not what we expected? And just as the Wise Men would have shared the Good News of finding the new King can we too be stars that shine in this world for new believers to be guided to Jesus, to God. In a world where the bright stars, the glamour and the glitz appear to have lost their sparkle, where the, what seemed like certainties of the material world, have lately been shown to be shaky, can we help point the way to a God who we can, and do put our faith and trust in.
As we keel before Him, as the Wise Men did, we can consider and ask ourselves what gifts we can offer. The words of Christina Rossetti's famous words of the final verse in the carol 'In the Bleak Midwinter' may inspire us:
What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man I would do my part;
Yet what can I give him: give my heart.
Can we come to Jesus by whatever route with the best gifts we have to offer - ourselves.
Sermon by: Christine Barclay