Wise Ones

On Epiphany Sunday (January 5), Nashville UCC was closed because of the weather. This sermon, which I preached this past Sunday, was intended for Epiphany (the day when the visit of the Magi is celebrated in Christian tradition). It is certainly applicable, however, to more than just that day. If you choose to read it, you might find yourself in it somewhere!

Of the entire cast of characters who inhabit the Christmas story, none seem to inspire more quips than the Wise Men. Have you ever noticed that? The Wise Men are always the ones who receive gentle ribbing about their part in the Christmas story. We don’t make smart comments about Mary or Joseph. Why, we wouldn’t dare joke about the Holy Family! And the shepherds escape that kind of ribbing, as well. They may be rough and uneducated, but they’re sincere. We admire their headlong rush to find that baby!

But the Wise Men… you’ll find plenty of humorous quips about the Wise Men. I saw a Christmas card several years ago that pictured a richly dressed bearded man wearing a crown and holding a gaily wrapped package. He was being turned away from an open doorway by the stern man who guarded it. The caption read something like this: “Unknown to most scholars, a fourth wise man was denied entrance to the manger when it was discovered that his gift was a fruitcake.” And you have probably encountered the quip titled “Three Wise Women”: “If the Wise Men had been women, they would have arrived early, delivered the baby, cleaned the stable, cooked the dinner, and brought practical gifts.” Yes, the Wise Men seem to call forth all kinds of remarks.

I wonder why that is? Maybe we joke about the Wise Men because we really don’t know what to do with them. After all, they’re mysterious and exotic. We don’t have any problems with Mary and Joseph. We all have parents; and many of us are parents ourselves. We understand the inconvenience of a long journey during late pregnancy; and a difficult birth in a strange place. Even if we haven’t experienced it ourselves, we can imagine it. And the shepherds aren’t any problem for us, either. We may not know how it feels to sleep out in the fields with a flock of sheep, but we do know what it’s like to work hard 24/7 and then have people with more money look down on us for doing our job. We’d love to hear an angel’s song break into our lives and be the first ones to hear good news!

But we don’t have any connection with the Wise Men. They’re as different from us as baklava is from apple pie! We imagine them dressed in silks and brocades, adorned with jewels, and wearing turbans. When they pass by, we catch a whiff of strange fragrances – incense, sandalwood, and myrrh. And they ride camels, those exotic beasts who plod regally through desert wasteland and look down their noses with disdain at us mere commoners. It’s no wonder that we joke about the Wise Men! We tend to make jokes about things that we don’t understand; and we certainly don’t understand those Magi!

But we should. Despite their silks and turbans and camels, we have a lot in common with them. We’re really not all that different from the wise men in the hymn “We Three Kings.” Think about the words of the first verse for a moment.

            We three kings of orient are.

            Bearing gifts we traverse afar:

            Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

            Following yonder star.

            Oh, star of wonder, star of night,

            Star with royal beauty bright.

            Westward leading, still proceeding,

            Guide us to thy perfect light.

Who are the Three Kings according to the verse of the hymn that we just sang? They may be rich and exotic; but that’s not what the hymn emphasizes. They’re travelers, folks who are following the guidance of a star as they seek “the perfect Light.” We know that’s the Christ child, born in Bethlehem not so very long ago. And they have gifts for that child, gifts that will be explored in the next three verses of the hymn, before the final verse bursts out in praise. But right now, the most important fact about these Three Kings is that they are travelers. In today’s church lingo, we might even call them “seekers.” They’re looking for something so important that they are willing to go to the ends of the earth to find it.

Now there’s something that we can identify with; because we’re all travelers, too! Most of us aren’t traveling physically, although we do hop in a car and take a vacation now and then. But all of us are traveling spiritually in one way or another. We’re headed somewhere… and like the Wise Men, we’re not really sure where we’ll end up. In the words of a song from the Broadway show Paint Your Wagon, “Where are we going? I don’t know. Where are we bound for? I ain’t certain. All that I know is I am on my way.”

We’re travelling on all kinds of journeys. Some of us are on an intellectual journey, trying to move our minds from one place to another. Those of us who are on this journey can’t square the faith that we were taught as children to the things that we have experienced as adults. We’re asking questions like, “If God is love, then why is there so much hate in the world?” “Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?” And the biggest question of all, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” It’s a difficult journey, but it’s a good one. Others of us are on an emotional journey. Those of us on this trip believe in the Christ child with our heads, but we have never felt him in our hearts. And we want our faith to be real to us, not just a list of beliefs that we can number one through ten. This is a different kind of journey; but it’s just as good. And some of us are on an ethical journey. We want to learn what the Child is asking of us. We believe in the Child, and he is a reality in our lives; and because he is, we want to follow him better than we already do. What a difficult journey this is, maybe the most difficult of all three.

But at the end of all the journeys lies the Child. We know that he is the answer to every question that we ask, and the fulfillment of every need that we experience. When we find him, we have gifts to give him: gifts of wealth and honor and sacrifice. In fact, we will offer him those gifts during this morning’s worship. And those gifts are important, because they symbolize our lives that are dedicated to that Child.

But in the end, what he offers us is far more important than anything that we can offer him. He offers us himself. He offers us love and grace and peace, both in this life and the next. And he offers us his presence. In fact, when we find the Child, we will find something beyond our wildest dreams. We will find that the Child for whom we have been searching for so long… the Child who is waiting for us at the end of our journey… has been traveling with us all the way!