I.N.I.

a sermon to be preached at Christ Episcopal Church, Accokeek, MD on the 2nd Sunday after Christmas, a.k.a. 5 January 2020, and based on the Gospel for the day, St. Matthew 2:1-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

I want to open by saying for one last time, “Merry Christmas everyone!” Because it is still Christmas. Today is the 12th day of Christmas. It can be marked by singing the final verse of that song about all those lords a’leaping, gold rings, turtledoves, and the rest. Or maybe by thinking about Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’ (although the play really has nothing at all to do with the liturgical date). Or it could even be marked by a rector and his family having the congregation over to the rectory. There are lots of ways to note the end of the Christmas season.

But I would propose instead to mark the day by looking both backward and forward; backward through Christmas, and forward into Epiphany. What today’s Gospel presents us is the story of the wise men, the Magi, from the east coming to look for the one born King of the Jews. One place to start is to say something about just who those people were. The Magi seem to have been a high-ranking class of royal advisors, maybe priests, who gathered their advice from the stars. So they were astrologers, really. Or maybe, as they spent time observing the natural world, you could think of them as ancient scientists. They’d have been considered to be well-educated in the things of their time and place, therefore making them “wise men.” (And almost certainly, yes, “men” is correct.) “Kings” seems to be the wrong thing to call them. And most assuredly, they were Gentiles, non-Jews, foreigners, outsiders.

On Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning the angels sang in the presence of Jewish shepherds out in the fields watching their flocks by night. But you have to read Luke’s Gospel to hear that story. Here in Matthew, that whole familiar narrative is compacted down to “In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.” (Matt. 2:1). And if you read our text closely you’ll hear Matthew dropping in clues that this bit with the Magi happened a good chunk of time after Christmas Eve, even more than 12 days later. For example, the Magi come looking for “the child” (v. 2) and not ‘the baby.’ When they locate Him, Jesus is in “the house” (v. 11) and not in some temporary setting because there was no room for them in the inn. And finally, when Herod realizes he’s been tricked by the Magi he has his death squads go to Bethlehem and murder all the children there who are “two years old or under” (v. 16) because he had “learned from [the Magi] the exact time the star had appeared.” (v. 7). Herod knew how old the Savior was at that point.

I. Well, so the Magi make a long trip from their homes in the lands east of the Holy Land. Between seeing the star, interpreting its meaning, deciding to go find the King of the Jews whose birth the star indicated, choosing and packing the gifts, getting together their own food and supplies together, securing a leave of absence from their supervisors, loading up the camels or whatever transportation they had, between all that — and don’t forget the actual travel time — it took them a while to get to Jerusalem. It was quite a commitment to a task that they didn’t fully understand. The part they understood best was that they wanted to give this new King something that only they could give Him.

Herod had been ruling some 3 decades at this point and was not at all ready for someone (least of all some foreigners) to tell him there was a new King on the scene. Herod actually had something he could have offered to Jesus, too. He decided against it. And rather than simply getting his immigration and customs people to walk the Magi back to the border, Herod determined to try to uproot this new King altogether. He kept for himself what he could have given Jesus.

Actually, everybody in this story had something they could have given the child Jesus, but only the Magi followed through and gave Him theirs. And I’m not speaking about the gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Those three expensive gifts are partly where we get the idea that the Magi were kings in their own right (who could afford expensive gifts given to a new peer). And the three gifts are definitely where we get the idea that there were 3 Magi (but you notice that the Bible never gives us a head count).

II. Here and now, each of us has the opportunity to come to Jesus and give Him something particular, something our own. Think about the things you’ve already brought to Jesus. I’m guessing here, but I’ll say that most of us have probably brought Jesus our requests when we’ve prayed. We ask Him for lots of things, probably constantly. We ask Him for healing. We ask Him for peace. We ask Him for work, and for safe travel, and to make some things happen or to prevent other things from happening. So we bring Jesus our wants and our needs.

We also bring Him our burdens and cares. We bring Him our pain and sorrow. We bring Him our grief. We bring Him our sins. We bring Him our joys.

And sometimes, yes, we bring Him our version of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Over the years people have found symbolism in the Magi’s gifts (myrrh, for example, is said to have been one of the spices used in burials). And more recently I’ve read remarks that if they’d been the 3 Wise Women, they would have brought practical gifts like diapers and a casserole. But remember that the exotic gifts they brought were fairly easily convertible into cash and therefore very practical. Our own versions of these gifts to Jesus are quite the same when you think about it: gold maybe, or pieces of paper we call checks that are easily convertible into cash; and even skills like plumbing or the ability to teach that are freely given here at church, saving the congregation money. But frankly, anybody can write a check.

There’s still something, though, that only we can give Jesus.

III. It comes up 3 times in our text from Matthew. First, the Magi show up in Jerusalem asking for the child born King of the Jews, saying that they wanted to give it to Him (v. 2). Herod, that snake, picks up on their language and echoes it back to them when he sends the Magi off to Bethlehem to find Jesus (v. 8). And finally in verse 11 the Magi locate the Holy Family and are able to give their unique gift to Him. Again, it isn’t the expensive gifts. That’s not what Jesus most wanted from them. Expensive gifts are not what He most wants from us.

What the Magi first wanted to give — what Herod lied about wanting to give — what the Magi finally did give — and what every one of us here can give too, the special thing that only you can give Him, that special gift … is our worship.

In verse 2, Matthew records the Magi saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” They don’t want to ask Him for something. They don’t want Him to fix things for them. They don’t want healing. They don’t want the King to take away their guilt. They don’t even merely want to give Him the presents they have in their luggage. The Magi say they have come to worship Him.

Then toward the end of this passage, in verse 11, the Magi went “into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.” Only after achieving their goal, only when they had done this thing they had come to do, only then did they open their treasures and offer Him their gifts.

Worship first. That’s the lesson I am drawing from the story about the Magi this morning. Worship first. Your personal worship of our God and King is something that only you can give to Jesus.

And it’s something He wants, too. Remember how just a couple weeks back there was someone among your family or friends to whom you wanted to give a gift, but you kept thinking, “Well, I don’t know what he wants. He certainly doesn’t need anything.” You could say that God doesn’t need anything from us either. But He does still want our worship.

It’s a deep privilege Christians have, to be able to worship Jesus. It’s something that doesn’t cost money; we don’t need to bring gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We can worship Jesus wherever we are; we don’t need to ride a camel for a year searching for where He is. It doesn’t take fancy words, and carefully crafted speeches; our text doesn’t record that the Magi said anything at all. Worship isn’t the words in the Prayer Book, or the actions and gestures of the priest, or the embroidered vestments, the organ and choir and hymns — although, be sure that all of those things can enhance and enrich our worship! Worship is a right attitude of the heart in the presence of God.

Here’s how it plays out as we are knocking on the door of Epiphany – the season in which we remember Jesus, the light of the world, being revealed to the world beyond the people of His own family and tribe and nation. The “presence of God” is in every place we can imagine, and places we can’t. God is wherever and whenever we can possibly be (as well as places and times we can’t possibly be). So with the right attitude of heart we worship God in all places, at all times, while we do whatever we are doing.

It’s good for us, though, to clear away the noise and distractions as much as we can from time to time. It’s good for us to focus on God instead of just to continue ‘doing whatever we are doing.’ It’s good to come together here at church to worship. And it’s good to sit silently at home daily to worship. No words are necessary. No music. No grand thoughts. Just start with the fact that our God Who is everywhere has forgiven all your sins and lets you be with Him. Your heart will know what to do.

Our right attitude of heart is born in us ‘by water and the Word’ (The Church’s One Foundation; prob based on Ephesians 5:26). Our right attitude is fed and nurtured by the bread-made-Body and the wine-made-Blood of the Eucharist. And crucially, our right attitude of heart is only able to guide us into kneeling before Jesus because He was put to death by being nailed to a cross (partly with the connivance of another Herod, a grandson of the one in today’s Gospel), and because three days later Jesus’s cold dead body was brought back to life and lives still today.

If you’ve followed the Magi to Bethlehem and knelt down before the Child to worship Him, then you’re ready for Epiphany. With the Magi we ‘return to our own country’ perhaps taking a different road. Now we worship our God out in the world wherever we go. We take the light of Jesus, the King of the Jews, to the Gentiles, to the nations, to the ends of the earth. Maybe your personal reach is as far away as New Guinea, or maybe it’s only ever going to be here in Accokeek. Probably it’s somewhere in between.

Today, and through Epiphany, and through the rest of your life, give the King that thing only you can give Him: your worship. Here, and to the ends of the earth, and wherever you find yourself, give the King your worship. In all places, in all times, it is what He wants from you. Be one of the Magi; worship the true King. Amen.

And may the peace of God, that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen

S.D.G.

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