January 6, 2008 - The Fourth Magi - Frank Alton

Matthew 2:1-12



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On this Epiphany morning I want to tell a few stories that are evoked by Matthew’s story of the magi from the east coming to pay homage to the baby Jesus. The stories invite us to enter into the story even as they call us to go beyond the story.

In the time of King Herod, wise men from the east came seeking the King of the Jews. When Herod heard this, he was frightened; & he managed to stir up fear in all the citizens of Jerusalem. What were they afraid of? That a rival king was being born? That some foreign nation was playing a trick on them? That these astrologers had some magical power that posed a threat for them? Right at the beginning of his gospel Matthew gives us a reading of the political environment of fear into which Jesus was born. Matthew also suggests that the good news that this new baby was bringing into the midst of all the bad news of his day was part of a larger movement of God’s Spirit – a movement that wasn’t parochial in its boundaries. The presence of the Magi from a foreign land demonstrated that the Spirit of God was stirring up hope & newness in cultures, religions & nations that went beyond Israel.

How does that speak to what’s going on in our world? We stand at the beginning of a year in which we will hold elections for President. That’s one thing we know about the coming year. Who knows what else will happen this year? Whatever else may happen, we are beginning this year on shaky ground. The war on terror shows no sign of ending or of producing what it promised. On the near horizon looms an economic recession that will hurt some more than it will hurt others. On a farther horizon is the threat of global warming that many politicians still aren’t sure we should take seriously. As in Matthew’s story, the leaders of the nations have stirred up fear in their citizens. One specific axis of fear is between Christians & Muslims. Many Christians view Muslims as the greatest threat to peace on the planet. Many Muslims view Christians as the greatest threat to holiness.

Last fall, in the midst of all that, 138 “wise” Muslim scholars and clerics sent an open letter "to leaders of Christian churches, everywhere" to promote constructive engagement between these two major religious communities. It was motivated in part by tension created around the speech that Pope Benedict gave about 15 months ago. But its significance went way beyond that. It addressed one of the central issues of this moment of history: the animosity between Christians and Muslims.

It’s no coincidence that many Muslim scholars & clerics who were signatories to the letter are natives of the same lands from which the wise men came to seek Jesus. What kind of response would be given to these wise readers of the signs of the times?

Unlike Herod, and unlike some politicians in this election year, 300 Christian theologians and leaders responded to the letter with their own generous words: “We receive the open letter as a Muslim hand of conviviality and cooperation extended to Christians worldwide. We extend our own Christian hand in return, so that together with all other human beings we may live in peace and justice as we seek to love God & our neighbors. Muslims & Christians have not always shaken hands in friendship; their relations have sometimes been tense. We acknowledge that in the past and in the present many Christians have been guilty of sinning against Muslim neighbors. Before we "shake your hand" we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community.”

That response, among others, evoked yet another communiqué – this time, a Christmas greeting: “During these joyful holidays we write to you, our Christian neighbors all over the world to express our thanks for the beautiful and gracious responses that we Muslims have been receiving. May the coming year be one in which the sanctity and dignity of human life is upheld by all. May it be a year of humble repentance before God, and mutual forgiveness within and between communities.”

What a beautiful exchange of sentiments. Into an environment of animosity came an invitation to reconciliation. But does the exchange make any difference in the real world? Just as the visit of the magi signaled a broad movement of God’s Spirit in the world so the letter exchange by representatives of religions that are generally at enmity signals something similar. Matthew focuses our attention on what the magi “saw” versus what Herod and all Jerusalem “saw.” Herod’s seeing was ruled by fear. The Magi’s seeing was guided by light. The rest of the Gospel demonstrates that their seeing aligned with God’s agenda, in contrast to what the rulers saw. And that is significant!

This morning we celebrate the beginning of the Season of Epiphany. The word “epiphany” itself comes from the Greek word epifaneia - radiance. The radiance of God’s face is one way God is revealed to people. We know from history that epiphanies of God are by no means a benign thing. Promises of the Day of the Lord warn that its coming will be full of awe (epifanhz). The Magi had been looking at a star whose radiance had led them from the East to the land of Judah. Announcing to Herod that the radiance was close by generated fear; that fear led to the bloodiest scene in the Gospels – the slaughter of an entire generation of babies in Bethlehem. Without that excruciatingly painful story, the Christmas story becomes a sweet tale without much connection to reality – a warm fuzzy story about poor but noble parents who had a beautiful baby who was born in a nice sanitary stable among contented beasts. The shepherds came to admire him, the Magi came to bring expensive gifts, & he lived happily ever after. The slaughter of innocents blows that version out of the water.

When God comes close, the response is not uniform. God’s epiphany evoked fear, darkness & death in Herod. But when the Magi arrived at the place where the child was, the star stopped and they were filled with exceeding joy and awe, which made them first kneel down before this baby, then offer their generous gifts. God’s radiance has a double effect – fear & darkness upon those who oppose it; blessing on those who seek God’s face. The Gospel always confronts us with a decision: will we choose light or darkness, life or death, compassionate generosity or fear? That question confronts us today.

In many Christian cultures today is referred to as “King’s Day” –a designation that emerges from this story of the Magi. The Magi have been known as kings in fulfillment of the Psalm we sang this morning: “May the kings of Sheba & Seba bring gifts to him.” (Ps. 72:10). The tradition we celebrate at Immanuel around King’s Day symbolically acts out & invites us to find our place in this story. We bring a Rosca de Reyes to the convivio. The rosca has dolls hidden inside to symbolize the fact that the baby Jesus needed to be hidden from Herod because of the fear he evoked. As John put it, “the light was in the world, yet the world did not know it.” Tradition dictates that those who find one of the dolls representing the Christ child in their piece of bread bring tamales or Hot Chocolate on Feb 2 – Candlemas – when we remember the day Jesus was presented in the temple, 40 days after his birth. The message is that all of us are invited to bring Jesus out of hiding & into the light through acts of compassion that overcome fear.

That brings us to the story that gave the title to this sermon. What really matters in our response to the radiance of God’s face? We sing a song during Advent and Christmas that says, “Every day now Jesus is born.” Henry van Dyke wrote a story a number of years ago that fleshes out that song. I found many versions of the story, so I feel justified in modifying it slightly to make the fourth Magi a woman – Simona. Simona never made it to the manger to pay homage to the new born king. She thought she’d failed in her calling. Her gift was three precious gems: a ruby, a pearl, and an almost perfectly shaped diamond.

Simona was on her way to meet with the other three Magi when she came upon a wagon train that had been waylaid by bandits, its cargo gone, its passengers beaten, left for dead. The Magi were healers by nature, but Simona had nothing to offer. No medicine. No food. Not so much as an extra blanket. Her gifts for the King had exhausted everything she had. Surely to give up the Baby Jesus' gifts would be unthinkable. She reluctantly passed the poor travelers by, when a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and yet nowhere at all, told her, "You know what you have to do."

Well, this scared Simona because, being a healer, she had seen people that heard voices that no one else seemed to hear, and she knew the way they were treated. And yet it made sense. She went back to town and sold the ruby. It yielded enough money to buy medicine to heal the victims of their injuries, feed them, & repair their wagons. This set her so far behind schedule that she missed her compatriots; worse still, they were to arrange passage for the four of them.

So she set out walking towards the Star. She came upon a colony of lepers. Once again a voice that seemed to almost come from within, assured her that she had to put these poor souls first, and so she sold the pearl for just enough to buy enough tannis leaf to heal and make them whole. Well, this took a long time and also took a lot out of her. Many seasons passed before she could resume her journey, and when he finally reached Bethlehem, the Baby Jesus was gone!

She would have given up then, but she began to hear tales of this healer, the likes of which she could only dream of being. She started to follow the stories, but always reached this town or that town, only to hear that he had been here last week, or even yesterday, but he left and headed over the hills, across the sea, east, west, north, south. Simona was always just short of fulfilling her quest.

One year turned to two. Two turned to ten, and ten to thirty. Simon found herself at Calvary, when she felt a tugging at the pouch with the diamond she had carried all these years. It was gone! She turned and saw the thief running away. She gave chase but could not catch him. Finally, she picked up a large stone and took aim at the back of the thief's head. She wound up and . . . was just about to let go when she heard a voice, a voice she heard just twice before whisper "Let him go."

Simona stood there, broken. Not only had she lost all three of her gifts for the King; but, here she was, a healer, about to commit murder! She dropped the stone and burst into tears. If only she knew what to do next! Her prayer was answered soon enough when she heard a cry. When she got to where the cry came from, she saw three men on crosses. The law forbade her to help. She was about to turn when she saw the inscription "King of the Jews" over the cross in the middle. For over thirty years she’d searched; now to miss him one last time. She was about to turn and leave, when she heard the voice she had heard just three times before, and as clear as a bell it told her, "My dear sister, you haven't missed me. You've been with me all my life."

What matters today is that Jesus be born in you by evoking acts of compassion that touch the lives of those who need it most. The 3 Magi worshipped a baby in a stable for animals. That’s a beautiful scene. But the baby grew up to teach that even more important than worshiping the baby is recognizing God’s epiphany in the midst of the fearful realities of the world. The story of the fourth Magi seals that teaching.