St. Charles' Episcopal Church – St. Charles, IL

The Feast of the Epiphany – Epiphany – Year A RCL

Sunday January 6, 2008 

Isaiah 60:1-6 – Psalm 72:1-7,10-14 – Ephesians 3:1-12 – Matthew 2:1-12

Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Well, they have come at last. The long wait of twelve days is over. The even longer journey from the East is complete. It is fitting that in the year of Matthew, Epiphany should fall on a Sunday, for Matthew is the only gospel that mentions the arrival of the three foreigners from the East. We all know the story of the Three Kings, Melchior, King of Persia, Caspar, King of India and Balthasar, King of Arabia. They see a star in the east and take it as a sign of the birth of a new King. They travel westward and finally arrive at the stable on the twelfth day after Christmas. Entering, they kneel at the manger and offer their gifts to the baby Jesus. Gold to symbolize his kingship, Frankincense to symbolize his priesthood, and myrrh to symbolize the death he would suffer for us all.

It's a wonderful story, but it isn't in the Bible, and what's in the Bible isn't even close. "In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem." Not three. Not Kings. Certainly no names. Just wise men; magi; What we might call scientists today. From the East. There surely is a lot of land east of Jerusalem. So, where in the East might they have come from?

In the first century, it was known that there were three large civilizations east of Jerusalem: Arabia, Persia, and India. If there were any other civilizations that were known beyond that they were too far away to have any impact. Hum. Three civilizations and three gifts, maybe there were three messengers, three wise men. And back in those days wisdom was a rare commodity, limited to the wealthy and those with leisure time, astrologers and scholars and scientists and ...kings! Three different gifts, three different countries, there would be a certain order, don’t you think, if the visitors were actually leaders of those three countries, perhaps even kings.

And so our collective imaginations ran on over the intervening hundreds of years, filling in all the details so inconveniently left out of the Gospel. But if we are to take seriously the canon of scripture, and we are, then we should be very careful about embellishments, no matter how grand or glorious. Remember that this is the Gospel of Matthew and the birth of Jesus happens in the home of Mary and Joseph in the town of Bethlehem where they live. Unlike Luke, there is no world tax, no long ride on a donkey from Nazareth, no stable, no manger, no shepherds, and no heavenly host, if you ignore the star. There are only wise men from the East. Foreigners who don't know about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. People outside of the covenant. Goyem. And by the time they arrive at the home of Jesus he is no longer a baby, he is a child of between one and two. And they kneel and pay him homage, something that kings, let alone scientists, rarely do. Even without all the embellishments, the story of the Magi is filled with wonder enough.

Why was it included in the Gospel, in Matthew's Gospel? It doesn't appear in any of the other Gospels, so what was it about this occurrence that Matthew felt was so important? There is much debate among scholars about whether Matthew was writing for a Jewish audience, or an anti-Jewish audience. Throughout his Gospel Jesus is presented by Matthew as the new Moses. Whether this is meant to convince a Jewish audience that their messiah has come fulfilling their law, or to convince an anti-Jewish audience that Christ supercedes the laws of Judaism is unclear. Either way this encounter points to a deeper reality regardless of audience. The incarnation affects the whole world, not just the Jewish world, and for that matter not just the Christian world. The whole world was changed by this event, indeed the whole of creation. This story serves to remind us, that with wisdom we can see the change effected even in the stars of heaven. And it also reminds us that the change is not only external, but internal as well. The gift of the incarnation given to us by God has the power to change our hearts. Isaiah says, "Then you shall see and be radiant: your heart shall thrill and rejoice."

In this brief encounter with wise men from the East we see played out, the whole dynamic of the Gospel message. Drawn by their awareness of great events to the birth of a King, the wise men arrive in Jerusalem, expecting to find the festivities that normally surround the birth of a monarch.They find instead only ignorance and fear. The response of fear is coming from the powerful and established as they see all that they have hoarded threatened by this new reality. The wise men leave the establishment behind, leaving Jerusalem and climbing into the hills, following this new reality to its source. There they offer themselves in thanksgiving and present gifts that represent this new reality, this first Eucharistic feast foreshadowing the one that is to come. The only true response to this new birth, this new reality, is a radical awareness of the need to respond with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for the immeasurable love of God, shown in the redemption of the whole world by our Lord Jesus Christ. This encounter that drove the wise men even from their own land, and opened their awareness to a new state of grace, still filled them more and more, changing their normal behavior. It is a simple line but so rich in meaning. "They left for their own country by another road."

As wise as they were when they entered that house, they left it far wiser. They went home by a different way. Every Sunday we too come from our homes and travel to the home of Jesus. And we pay homage, offering ourselves in thanksgiving. We bring gifts of bread and wine, breaking them open in the Spirit to reveal the treasure of Christ's body and blood. The question that Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar have come to ask you today is, "When you leave here, do you go home by a different way?" And if not, "Why not?"