There’s been quite a hiatus since my
last blog post. Over the past weeks, I
have taken some vacation time and on many of the other Sunday
mornings , the various church choirs at Christ United Methodist Church have been performing. As a result, I have not been posting to this blog because it is designed
principally to preview my sermons and provide more in-depth scriptural
interpretation than the worship service allows.
This Sunday, December 18th, our 8:30
and 11:00 worship services will be led by the “Serenity Singers,” a women’s
choral group that is part of Christ Church’s music program. However, I am collaborating with the Serenity
Singers by offering some theological reflections, interspersed with their
lovely Christmas music. So, I thought
that I would post a blog about our service this weekend.
Our focus this Sunday will be on the
Christmas Star and the story of the Wise Men, who went to visit and pay homage
to Jesus. The story of the Star and the
Wise Men occurs in Matthew 2: 1-12. Biblical
scholars tells us that the Greek word, “magi,”
can be translated variously as “wise men,” “astrologers,” “magicians,” or “sorcerers.” These individuals were affluent scholars, who
belonged to the priestly class of Babylonian experts in the occult, such as
astrology and the interpretation of dreams.
Traditionally, we have assumed that there were three wise men because
there are three gifts: gold,
frankincense, and myrrh. However, the
Gospel does not specify the precise number of wise men. For Matthew, the story of the wise men is
important to tell because the Wise Men are pagan, non-Jews who followed the Star they
had seen in the sky.[i]
In the music which the Serenity
Singers will be performing during our worship, there are these words which
raise an interesting observation:
“When
they [the wise men] saw the star, they rejoiced with great joy!
….
Others
saw the star, but they followed it not;
To
them it would come and pass.
The
wise men kept trusting with all of their hearts
that
the star would find the Baby at last.”[ii]
These lyrics raise an interesting question, which I had
never thought about much. According to Matthew,
the Wise Men saw the Star in the sky and recognized it as a special sign from
God, pointing the way to the Divine. Yet, if the Star was visible in the night
sky, then it was seen by many, many people gazing into the night.
This raises
a very profound question: Why is it that, out of the thousands of
people who saw the Star, only the Wise Men recognized this Star as a sign from
God, pointing the way to the Divine?
Think about it. Why did only the
Wise Men recognize the Star as a sign?
The Wise Men were not even Jews; they were practitioners of pagan
religions. Yet, they recognized the Star
as God’s sign to humanity. Could it be that the Wise Men recognized
the Star because they were actively seeking the Divine in their lives?
This raises several interesting
questions for us today: Are we actively seeking the Divine in
our lives, just as the Wise Men?
What are the signs pointing to the Divine, which God has given to
us? That
is, what is our Star today? Not in a
celestial sense, but rather in a symbolic sense. What
are the signs which God has given to us today, that point the way to the
Divine?
During
our worship service, we will hear an abbreviated version of “The Story of the
Other Wise Man” by Henry van Dyke[iii]. In this imaginative and fictional story, van
Dyke imagines an additional Wise Man, named Artaban.
Artaban plans to take three precious jewels as his gift to the
Messiah: a sapphire, a ruby, and a
pearl. Artaban has already arranged to
rendezvous with the other Wise Men. However, just before he reaches the
pre-arranged rendezvous point, Artaban encounters a dying stranger, lying in
the middle of the road. Artaban
reluctantly stops to aid the stranger.
As a result of his unplanned stop to aid the stranger, Artaban fails to
reach the rendezvous point in time to journey with the other Wise Men.
Desperate
to see the Messiah, Artaban uses one of his jewels to buy camels and supplies
so that he can travel across the desert to Bethlehem. When he reaches Bethlehem, he discovers that
he has once again missed the Wise Men. He has also missed Joseph, Mary, and the young
Jesus, who have already fled to Egypt out of fear for King Herod. So, Artaban decides to follow the
Holy Family to Egypt, so that he can see and pay homage to the Messiah.
As the story unfolds, Artaban spends the
next 30 years searching for the Divine in the person of this great King. Along the way, he helps those around him,
performing incredible acts of charity and doing much good. Artaban decides to travel to Jerusalem,
thinking that perhaps the “King of the Jews” can be found in Jerusalem. When he arrives in Jerusalem, the streets are
filled with discussion of the impending crucifixion of Jesus from Nazareth, the
“King of the Jews.” Artaban decides to
go the place of Christ’s crucifixion, in order to finally see Jesus. However, once again, he is asked to defer his
trip in order to help someone in need.
Using his last jewel, he helps a young woman pay her father's debts and escape
slavery.
After helping the young woman, Artaban is
struck on the head by a falling roof tile, loosed by the earthquake which
occurs at Christ’s death on the Cross; see Matthew 27: 50-54. As he lays dying from the falling tile,
Artaban has a vision in which he sees Christ.
In his vision, Artaban laments that he was never able to realize his
quest to see Christ, the Messiah. In
reply, Jesus tells Artaban that he has seen Christ multiple times, whenever he
has helped someone in need. Quoting
Matthew 25:40, Jesus says: “Truly I tell
you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my
family, you did it to me.”
Since God loves us so much, there is,
undoubtedly, no shortage of signs pointing the way to the Divine. For the Wise Men, it was the Star in the heavens. For the shepherds, it was the
Heavenly Host of Angels. Sometimes for
me, it can be walking in a majestic forest of trees; or being in Worship
celebrating The Lord’s Supper. God
provides us with a plethora of signs.
Yet, Christ is very clear that the most important sign pointing to the
Divine occurs when we reach out to those in need; when we feed the hungry,
clothe the naked, build housing for the homeless, care for the sick and lonely,
visit the imprisoned. There, we will see
the face of the Divine.
If you live in the Lincoln, Nebraska area, come, join us this Sunday, December
18th, at Christ United Methodist Church.
Together, we will experience an inspiring worship service with the music
of the “Serenity Singers” and our reflections on the Star and the Wise
Men. God offers us many signs which lead
us back to God and into a loving relationship with the Divine. I pray that some of these Divine signs will
be evident in our worship together. Our
church is located at 4530 A Street in Lincoln, and our traditional worship services
are at 8:30 and 11:00 on Sunday mornings.
Everyone is welcome and accepted because
God loves us all.
[i]
For this paragraph, I drew from Eugen Boring’s exegesis of The Gospel of Matthew in The
New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 8.
Accessed by CD-ROM.
[ii]
“Rejoice with Exceeding Great Joy,” Lanny Wolfe, arr. By Tom Fettke.
[iii]
Henry van Dyke, The Story of the Other
Wise Man, see http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/story-of-the-other-wise-man-henry-van-dyke/1103574201?ean=9781298497994&st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Core+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP62464.
No comments:
Post a Comment