Morning Prayer Choral Amen Hymn of Wonder *Lovely Star in the Sky* Witness of Scripture: Matthew 2: 1-12 Anthem *In the bleak midwinter* Harold Darke. Chancel Choir Sermon *Gifting* David Spain
Recorded on January 7, 2024
Language is not static—new words come into our vernacular, old words fall out of use or develop additional meanings over time. A few recent additions to our lexicon include ‘doggo’ meaning dog, ‘cromulent’ meaning acceptable, and ‘grammable’ meaning suitable for posting on Instagram. JoAnn Post reminds us Merriam-Webster is not the only source for new words, re- calling the radio show “Car Talk” in which Tom and Ray Magliozzi, better known as “Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers,” dispense advice about car maintenance.Whether or not their advice was sound, their humor was entertaining. They too would submit new words for our consideration, including ‘inoculatte’ meaning to consume coffee intravenously, ‘giraffiti’ meaning vandalism spray-painted very high, and ‘stupiphany’ meaning to suddenly realize you have been an incredible dolt! Well now we are in the ballpark, a word we can use. ‘Stupiphany’ is grammable!
If we are willing to have a little more fun with words, take a little poetic license, we can modify Click and Clack’s ‘stupiphany’ to ‘stupephany’ as in to stupefy, meaning to amaze or astonish which puts us squarely into the season of Epiphany and the story of the magi. The journey of the Magi, at so many levels, is our journey. Luke and Matthew do more than give us the wondrous birth story—each gospel providing unique perspectives of not only that ‘holy night’ but also some of the back story leading up to the birth of Jesus. After Jesus is born, Luke gives us the beautiful story of Simeon and Anna meeting the infant Jesus, which is tender and joyous. Matthew gives us the Magi, and it is a critical story if for no other reason than it can help keep the post-Christmas blues at bay.Perhaps we all feel that let down at some level—the big build-up, the gatherings of family and friends, the lights and music, the worship and presents—and then the ‘what now’ of Christmas afternoon or the next day. W.H. Auden, in “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio” describes this feeling well when he wrote, “Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree…there are enough leftovers to do, warmed up, for the rest of the week—not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot, stayed up late, attempted—quite unsuccessfully—to love all of our relatives, and in general grossly overestimated our powers.” So, we need the Magi, because their story reminds us that when it comes to Christmas, it is not over—it is only just beginning.
One of the writers for this year’s Advent Book of devotions comments on traveling—that as a young child he was not thrilled with having to get in the car for a long drive to relatives shortly after opening presents at home. But then somewhere along the way, it dawned on him that “as a traveler he was acting out a big part of the Christmas story…that almost everyone in the Christmas story is a traveler, in many ways the story depends on travel…traveling isn’t some accidental element of the Christmas story, it’s at the heart of it…All of us are travelers, we can’t help it. We move through time; we stand on a planet that spins us from day into night and moves us through the cosmos relentlessly…Is it possible the many travelers in the Christmas story are a reminder we cannot travel away from connection with God or God’s love any more than Mary, Joseph, the Magi, and Shepherds could?” (John Trnka, December 23rd reading from “Love Came Down at Christmas” Advent Meditation book from First Christian Church of Norman). Christmas, as our Advent book writer and the gospels of Luke and Matthew attest, sets us on a journey that we would not have otherwise taken, a quest that may well take us in a new direction.
For all the characters on the move, it is the Magi’s move that comes closest to our story. When it comes to the actual story, we have imagined more than Matthew’s gospel tells us.What creche or painting does not include three of them although Matthew mentions only three gifts not three people.Kings they have been called, but they were not that—more astrologers who kept their eyes on the night sky to discern from the heavens about any earthly happenings. Names they did not have in Matthew’s story although Longfellow humanized them with names, and that is always helpful to remember all people have names whether we know them or not. It is one thing to name a category like magi or astrologer and quite another thing to say Gaspar, Balthazar, and Melchior. Even if 2,000 years of handling have stretched the few facts available when Matthew wrote of this journey, something in us knows it is a deeply true story—for we are all travelers in search of what matters most in life, and we like these ancient magi know that what happened in Bethlehem still has the power to set our feet moving in a new way. Something beyond them and beyond us is calling. This birth is a stupephany!
We are astonished and amazed by this story, especially as told in Matthew’s gospel who despite his focus on the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ expands beyond that circle. With the journey of the magi—the festival of Epiphany as the church has celebrated—Matthew’s gospel proclaims how far God’s good news is willing to go beyond presumed boundaries and limitations. In fact, when it comes to Christmas and Epiphany, God works outside the margins and extraneous to the elite—a young girl and an older carpenter; shepherds who were socially and economically marginal; Bethlehem a little town so unimportant that when Herod called his own historians to check out the Magi’s claim about a star heralding a new King, they reported that an obscure prophet named Micah made a passing remark a long time ago but it no longer seemed likely much less a threat; and now the Magi themselves.They are gentiles in a Jewish story—Persians or Arabs in the company of Hebrew parents and a little baby still in cloth diapers. Seriously, this is how God decides to be among us? Is it any wonder we need new words?
As the story goes, when the magi park their camels on Mary and Joseph’s front doorstep and knock before entering, she lets them in. It is an act of hospitality that we would not miss, for in so doing Mary allows something of the world into their lives. It is in the brilliant writing of Matthew a foreshadowing of the journey life with Jesus will take. This movement of God in the baby from Bethlehem, this star in the night sky, this welcome by Mary heralds the God who is moving beyond previously understood notions of what it means to be chosen, to be loved, to be worthy, to be redeemed. Years before Isaiah had anticipated God’s trajectory—that all the nations would come to God’s light, even the regal drawn beyond their own shining crowns to bow in the soft glow of Love’s shining Light. Matthew’s Magi proclaim Isaiah’s vision was happening then; our own hearts tell us it can still happen now.
This past year when Queen Elizabeth died, hundreds of thousands waited for more than a day to pay their respects. It was a touching scene, as people in one way or another bowed. It is a reminder that there is a necessary place for reverence.The magi, among their odd and impractical gifts for a little one, give us the most important gift of all when they bowed. King James is dramatic, writing the magi “fell down and worshiped him;’ the NRSV is a bit more tame but no less important, saying the magi “knelt down and paid him homage.” It is with joy the magi bow before the baby, but not before Herod the credentialed king they had met earlier. Liddy Barlow writes, “…there’s still somehow a longing to bow down. The example of the magi shows that we need not kneel to those in formal power; we need not honor their sneering corruption and murderous envy. But we also need not dispense with deference all together. With exceeding joy, we can bow before the presence of the Divine wherever it is found…we pay homage before signs of God’s love and evidence of God’s work…we can honor what is good and holy.” (The Christian Century online for ‘January 6 Epiphany of the Lord A.’). To be sure as inheritors of the Protestant faith, we are hesitant to bow to much of anything; but neither let us lose the search for the Holy One who is apt to appear in as unlikely a place as a humble dwelling in a small town.The magi are gifting us with their reverence for the Holy One in the midst of the world—and this world of disrespect and disregard could use a healthy dose of holy respect and sacred humility.
Two thousand years hence, we know what the Magi were only beginning to know, what was revealed in a dream that having seen this child their lives no longer made sense the way Herod made sense of life. Their traveling, their faith bore witness to the One who, as John Buchanan wrote, “[would] shatter religious tradition and ethnic boundaries and bring strangers center stage. Before the story is over, Jesus will challenge boundaries of race, social class, status…he will welcome outsiders—sinners, the unclean, lepers, tax collectors, poor people, women, children, Roman soldiers—and share meals with them. Jesus will scandalize some with his radical inclusivity. Apparently, he didn’t know or care about the function of a religion to define insiders and outsiders. Instead, he will fling open the doors.”
As our Advent book writer so cleverly concludes, “enjoy your Christmas travels, even if they don’t take you past your front door.” Mary, in this story, never travelled past her front door, but a whole new world was opened to her. The magi, upon crossing that threshold, would never again be tempted by Herod’s imposing gateway. Instead, they gave more than their gifts, indeed they gave their lives to this One who took them in an entirely new direction—this One born to refugee parents, announced to shepherds in a field, and gifted by gentile magi from a far country.This is the One who is good news for all people—the One who is for us, and when we say ‘us’ in the spirit of Christmas, there is no longer ‘them.’ To this One we are invited on the forever adventure of gifting life with our acts of nurture and care, justice and kindness, goodness and respect. In fact, it is such an important way to travel that perhaps we can petition Merriam-Webster or Click and Clack for a new word in our faith lexicon—let’s call it ‘epiphagifting.’