SETTING THE CONTEXT

Today’s reading is a story that captures the imagination, the story of the wise men. This story is only found in the Gospel of Matthew and there have been additions to the story that are not in the Bible at all. For instance, listen carefully and you will see that this passage never mentions how many wise men came from the East and it never mentions their names. It also never claims that they were kings for they were astrologers, not political figures.

There is irony in the story, too. The magi were Gentiles or non-Jews from the East, the area where the great powers and enemies of Israel, Assyria, Babylonia and Persia ruled throughout Old Testament history. They were astrologers who minutely observed the night sky. The society of that part of the world as well as in Egypt believed that the variations and conjunctions that occurred among the stars and planets could foretell future events that would take place on earth. Evidence from the Old Testament suggests astrology was unknown in ancient Israel.^[i] These are the ones who come seeking Jesus.

Read Matthew 2:1-12

THE SERMON

Where do we find meaning in life? Where do we find joy and satisfaction? Am I really living the way I want to live? I’m not sure how many of us ask ourselves these questions directly, but I think it would be very helpful if we did. Whether we do so consciously or not, we search for meaning in and through different things; we place our priorities and our trust in something. Some search for their meaning in astrology, others in their career, still others in their family, some search for it in ways that our culture pushes sex, consumerism or excess.

The questions of meaning are questions that are asked at every age as well whether it is the twenty-something trying to determine what they want to do with their lives or the sixty-something deciding how to spend their retirement and the last phase of their lives. There are advertisements out about a movie soon to be released that is raising some great discussion already. It’s called “The Bucket List.” The bucket list is the list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket or before you die. I’ve already starting thinking about what is on my bucket list. Where do we find meaning in life?

The first word of any human character in the Gospel of Matthew is where. The wise men ask, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” Herod’s first word is where as well. “Where was the Messiah to be born?” They both ask the question for very different reasons the magi wish to worship Jesus and Herod, a Jew, wishes to kill him. Remember I said in the introduction to the Scripture that this story had great irony? Well here it is, foreigners from enemy territory obediently follow God’s sign on a long and dangerous journey to worship Jesus, the revelation of God, while people of his own faith and his own country plot to kill him. This is important because the Answer to these important “where” questions of meaning and joy are not just for those who have the right credentials, the Answer is for everyone.

God speaks to the magi through a language they know, the pagan language of astronomy to send them on a journey toward Jesus. It is not an easy journey, but a long and difficult one. Their ability brought them close to the fulfillment of their journey, but did you notice that they had to stop a receive direction from the Hebrew Bible before they could make their final leg of the journey?  As one commentary noted, “Revelation outside Scripture motivates them to obey the one God; yet, they do not find their way to Jesus without Scripture.”^[ii]  Scripture is still the place where we find our final directions to the Answer.

The answer to our questions of where to find meaning, fulfillment, and joy is that they are found in a person not in a place or a thing. If we want meaning in our lives, if we want satisfaction, if we want joy we’ll find it through Jesus, the baby in the manger. He is the Answer. Now I don’t want to mislead you. Just because we accept Christ doesn’t mean we’ll always be satisfied or happy because sometimes he places within us a restlessness to move on in the journey so that we might grow more like him. For he didn’t just come to make my life better or your life better, he came to benefit the entire creation. Sometimes he calls us go places we’d rather not go or do things we don’t think we can do to serve his purposes.

When I was in seminary I drove from Cottonwood to Phoenix every week. Inevitably when I passed the Adobe Mountain and Black Canyon prisons for youth, I would check my doors to make sure they were all locked, that may sound a little crazy, but those people scared me. I had never known anyone who went to prison and from the news and crime shows those people hurt people like me. Every time though I read the passage from Matthew 25:31-46 about Jesus judging us and he said,” when I was sick you took care of me and when I was in jail, you visited me” I always knew someday I would be called to do something with “those people”. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too soon and I would have the courage to say, “yes”. Well, God did call me a few years later to be a spiritual leader in a three-day Christian retreat for incarcerated girls called Chayah at the very same prison I had passed every week.  For three days I hugged, sang with, talked to, ate with, shared communion with, and finally said I love you to “those people” all in the name of Christ. At first I did not want to do it, but I did it because I knew he wanted me to do it.  What I discovered was that “those people” are “we people”. In some ways we were worlds apart – some of their experiences and values were totally foreign to me. In other ways, we were so alike – we all wanted to be cared about, we all were wounded by different circumstances of our lives, we all wanted to be hugged, and smiled at and made to feel special. Over the three days I saw girls walk in and they looked hard; as they were bathed in wave after wave of Christian love, of Christ’s love made visible, their faces changed. The hard lines softened and their eyes started to shine and they smiled and laughed and cried. They looked no differently on the outside than my children. You absolutely could not tell them from any other kid. And truthfully I’m not so sure that most of us were really that different on the inside; as the talk team shared their testimonies I realized that we have all faced painful circumstances and made mistakes in our lives.  We all have our own emotional and spiritual scars. We are all sinners in need of a savior. I also realized that like us it is easy to talk the talk but so much harder to walk the walk. It is easy to say, “I am a Christian. I want to follow Jesus.”  It is so much harder to leave behind the attitudes and behaviors that are contrary to Christ’s way.^[iii] I followed the signs that led me to Christ in a place I never expected to find him and I was the one enriched. I was the one who found meaning and fulfillment and a better understanding of what it means to be Christ-like. So don’t be misled, sometimes the journey is hard and some of us go kicking and screaming down the road.

What is holding you back from seeking Christ in your life or more deeply in your life? What is tying you down from making the journey? What is holding us as a church back from seeking Christ more fully and making him more visible? Is there something that you have given your life to or that we have given our life to that is not giving us the freedom to serve God? The journey to the Answer can only be ours when we want God and what God gives more than anything else. It happens when we are ready to let go of whatever stands in the way.

Though the journey can be long and difficult with unexpected turns and destinations, I hope you include journeying closer to Christ on your Bucket List; for I submit to you that through him we will find that which we seek meaning, joy, fulfillment, life. Amen.

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on January 6, 2008.