Saturday, January 3, 2015

"A Clash of Two Worlds"

             This Sunday, January 4th, many churches throughout the world will celebrate the Christian holy day, of Epiphany.  In their celebrations of Epiphany, Christians commemorate the Wise Men coming to Bethlehem to worship and pay homage to the newborn baby, Jesus. 

The story of the Wise Men appears in Matthew 2: 1-12.  The Greek word that Matthew uses in his Gospel to refer to the “Wise Men” may also be translated as “astrologers,” “magicians,” or “sorcerers.”  Biblical scholars believe that the Wise Men were priests in the pagan religions of either Persia (present day Iran) or Babylonia (present day Iraq).  They would have been experts in astrology and dream interpretation.  The Wise Men arrive in Jerusalem, announcing that they have seen a new star in their study of the night skies.  They interpret this new star as the herald of a new king of the Jews.  They have travelled from their homes in the East to simply worship and pay homage to this new king.

In Jerusalem, the Wise Men seek out King Herod, who had been placed in charge of governing Israel by the Roman Emperor.  King Herod was religiously a Jew, but he had gained his power through a military conquest of the Jewish people and he colluded with the Emperor in continuing the subjugation and occupation of Judea by the Roman Empire.  Clearly, King Herod felt vulnerable and insecure in his position of power because the arrival of astrologers from the East left him greatly “frightened,” along with all the other official Jewish leaders of Jerusalem. 

When the Wise Men inquire about the location of the newborn king, King Herod seeks the expertise of the “chief priests and scribes of the people” –in other words, King Herod asks the Jewish religious leaders along with scholars and lawyers.  Drawing from a prophecy in the Hebrew scripture of Micah, these experts inform Herod that the prophets had claimed that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. 

The Wise Men then travel to Bethlehem, where they find the baby Jesus and kneel down to “pay him homage.”  Then, they present gifts to the baby Jesus:  gold, along with frankincense and myrrh—two very expensive aromatic resins—which were all gifts suitable for royalty.  Then, being warned by God in a dream, they return to their home, using a different route that allows them to avoid King Herod.

In Matthew’s account of the Wise Men, we have the clash of two different worlds.  First, there is the world of the Wise Men.  The Wise Men were the scientists of their day.  They studied the stars and were very wealthy.  The Wise Men were also the priestly leaders in the pagan religions of their culture.  Yet, even though they were pagans, the Wise Men still discerned the birth of God’s Son many miles away in a distant country.   Not only did the Wise Men discern the birth of the Messiah, they responded immediately by starting a journey that would ultimately take them to Bethlehem, where they would worship the baby Jesus and give him the best of what they owned.  The pagan Wise Men were looking forward to the ways that God would redeem the world through God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

By contrast, King Herod, along with the chief priests, “scribes of the people,” and other Jewish leaders lived in a second world, which was dramatically different from the world of the Wise Men.  Just as the Wise Men, King Herod and the other Jerusalem officials were rich and very powerful leaders within the Jewish faith.  Yet, they were not looking expectedly forward to the time when God would redeem the world through Jesus Christ.  Instead, King Herod and the other officials were very comfortable with the status quo and they were afraid of change.  For Matthew, King Herod and the other officials were religious hypocrites, who proclaimed religious devotion but failed to live out those religious commitments.

The Wise Men were “seekers” and “doers.”  They were still seeking to learn more about the Divine and to deepen their spirituality.  When they found Jesus in Bethlehem, they were “overwhelmed with joy.”  By contrast, King Herod and his officials were neither “seekers” nor “doers.”  Even though they knew exactly where to find the prophesied location of the Messiah’s birth in their sacred texts, they were not interested in seeking out the promised Messiah in Bethlehem.  They didn’t even bother to journey with the Wise Men to find and worship the new Messiah.  Rather than being “overwhelmed with joy” that the Messiah had finally been born, they were frightened that the Messiah might require changes in their lives. 

            In the proclamation this weekend, I will suggest that contemporary Christians can learn a great deal from the Wise Men, as we begin a New Year.  Just like the Wise Men, we must become “seekers,” continually striving to learn more about the Divine and to deepen our spirituality.  That is, we must strive to grow deeper spiritually.  Just as the Wise Men, we must also be “doers,” ready to follow wherever God leads us.  In my message, I will give some examples of what I think it means for twenty-first century Christians to be “seekers” and “doers” in 2015.
 

The New Year is a great time to get back into church. If you already have a church, we urge you to make a New Year's Resolution to attend and support your church. However, if you don't already have a church home, check us out at Meriden United Methodist Church, located at the corner of Main and Dawson Streets in Meriden, Kansas. Our classic worship service starts at 10 am on Sunday mornings. 

Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.

No comments:

Post a Comment