There was a minister in a really big Church who often said in the middle of the service, or his sermons, or the prayers, ‘The Lord be with you’, and the congregation would dutifully reply, ‘And also with you’. This became such a habit that many people didn’t really listen to a lot the minister said, but whenever there was a slight pause they would assume the minister had said, ‘The Lord be with you’ and respond, ‘And also with you’. One day the minister was having trouble with his microphone and said, ‘I think there must be a problem with the microphone’, after a slight pause the congregation replied, ‘And also with you’.
Yesterday in the Church calendar was the Feast of Epiphany, the day on which we remember the Magi visiting the baby Jesus and bringing him their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We know very little about the Magi – we don’t really know how many of them there were, or even whether they were men – although as they have taken on the title of ‘Wise’ I suspect that they were male rather than female !
But regardless of how little we know of the Magi they represent an important part of the Christian history, because they were the evidence of people searching from other lands and other backgrounds for the Saviour who is Jesus, and their gifts represented everything Jesus came to bring.
The gold represented the kingly humanity – this was a king born into a secular world. A king who would see only this gift as a sign of what an earthly king would normally receive, but nevertheless a king who would change history.
The frankincense represented his divinity – the magi were recognising Jesus as more than just someone to change the world, but someone who was God, someone who revealed God to people.
And the myrrh of course was the oil used for embalming a body – and the gift was given as a representation that this was a child who would ultimately face death, not as a normal ending of a human life, but a death which would be brought about by others, and a death that had meaning for everyone.
And so these 3 gifts offer us an example today. Over Christmas a lot of time will have been spent giving presents, and that’s a wonderful thing to do. We will also probably have received gifts, but at the heart of Christmas is us receiving the gift of Jesus. At the heart of Christmas is the recognition that Jesus was born to change the world for each one of us.
So often the Christmas story seems so distant – but the birth of Jesus should be just as important for us today as it was even for his mother 2000 years ago, as we open up our hearts and our whole lives to someone offering us unconditional love, mercy, grace, tolerance, abundance of life…
Someone once said that the wise men did 4 very important things which we also can do. Firstly they followed their vision in the form of the star. Each one of us must have a vision of where we are in our lives, and where God is – a new year is a wonderful time to think through those things again – where are we putting God in our lives, what are we offering him, and what are we prepared to accept from him.
The Christian vision is something that we can be bold about, something which we can be ambitious about, because we know a God who we are told in the Bible can do all things. God blesses so many people of all backgrounds, but if we go back though the history of Christianity we often find it is those who have taken huge steps of faith that he blesses most of all. So the more we lay open our lives to God, the more he will get involved in our lives.
Secondly the wise men sought the Messiah. There are many for whom this search is still ongoing – and for those of us who know Jesus as the Messiah, it is our task to help point people to him. Though as I’ve said we know little about these wise men, one thing that is certain is that they had all of the worldly riches and power – they were important enough to be seen by King Herod and they were wealthy enough to give expensive gifts to the child Jesus. But they knew they wanted and needed more in their lives – they knew that there was more to life than just the riches and the comfort – they sought and they found the Messiah.
Thirdly they brought him these gifts, and one of the great challenges for all of us is to question ourselves about what gifts we are brining to God. What gifts has he given us that we are using for his glory ? Is it money, is it talent, is it hard work, is it a gift of being prayerful, or a combination of these things, or something else all together… All of us have something to give to God and to use for God for his glory…
And the final thing about the wise men is that they went home another way. They knew the perils that faced them if they went back the same way they came – they knew Herod would be ready to interrogate them, and so they chose another path. And as Christians we have chosen to walk another path from the rest of the world.
We have chosen to walk a path of compassion, of love and service, of devotion to God and his people. We have chosen to follow the life of Jesus, a life of caring for others, of fighting for justice and righteousness, and peace. A life of sharing good news and hope for everyone. A life of uncontained love for all people, even those who would seek to kill him.
Today we follow Jesus who still does all of those things, and he calls us to do them as well, firm in the knowledge that he is walking with us wherever we are and whatever we are doing in his name. AMEN
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