Happy New Year. And a Happy Christmas. Do keep greeting people with a Happy Christmas. You can certainly get away with it until 6th. Frankly I shall be pushing my luck until Candlemas.
4 points for you today. Stay Curious, Be Courageous, Encounter Christ, and Keep Connected
Firstly Be Curious. It is curiosity that caused these three magi to set out on their journey. I wonder if there were other magi who said ‘We’re just not curious enough, good for you, but we’ll stay here’.
I wonder if they were ever sad afterwards,
perhaps they were able to squeeze out of the returning magi all the wisdom and joy that the Three brought home.
Remember that Magi, they’re not kings, they’re servants of kings, advisors, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego – they would have been Magi; an interesting combination of scientist – they knew that the world was round not flat – and of superstition – they had this idea that certain stars moving like this meant that something interesting should be happening on earth. So, they have seen something and it’s been enough for them to want to know more.
- Stay Curious.
There’s something sad in this story about how the religious experts know the answers to all the questions but lack the curiosity to go with these Magi and see where it leads.
If your faith is to grow this year then be curious, be curious about the bible, about Church history,
about worship and liturgy, or intercessions and silent prayer, I don’t mind what but make a little effort to keep growing in your faith, to keep asking questions.
Before Christmas I went in to Cradle Hill’s year 3 – fabulous children – we talked about Noah and what a Covenant is. One question was ‘Was Adam a monkey when he walked out of Eden?’ Fantastic question. How do evolution and the bible sit alongside each other?
So I said No I think by the time of Adam, he would have been a homosapiens. Science can tell us How we got here, but the Bible will tell us Why we are here, what am I supposed to do with my life.
Another asked if Adam was in the Stone Age or the Bronze age. That’s a brilliant question. I said I think that it would have been the Stone Age because we read in the bible about the bronze age happening later with, say Goliath, who was a giant who had a huge bronze spear – though he was likely at the very end of the bronze age. Oh my. Great questions.
I pray that they will stay Curious. Perhaps you could too. One way might be for you to do an Alpha Course – especially if you’ve never done one, or if its been a while since you had a think over the starting blocks of faith.
Point 1 Stay Curious.
Point 2. Be Courageous.
I’m sorry but at some point in this year you will most likely cry. Something will happen to you, to your friend, in this world, and it will make you sit down and just want to be quiet for a while.
The Magi travel all this way, and they go to Herod’s Court and there’s a logic to everything so far. But at this point it all goes a bit scary. I don’t see the Magi as being stupidly naïve, they are the kings counsellors, but I bet the moment they realise that Herod is not the father, that they are suddenly very very wary.
We read how Herod was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. Oh yes indeed. I talked last week about Herod and his rule of fear. The Magi will have to be courageous.
I wonder if they had thought to just retreat at speed.
“We had thought that something wonderful and divine was leading us to this moment and actually we are so wrong as to be in danger of our lives, we should run away.
“Yes we will me mercilessly laughed at by our colleagues when we get home and tell them how wrong we were to follow the star but at least we shall be alive!”
But they had the courage to say ‘No, there is something wonderful, and we still have enough curiosity and courage to pursue this.’
You might find yourself caught up in something really quite discombobulating. A sorry state of affairs where you find yourself crying out ‘Where is God in all of this.’ I pray that you will have enough courage to hold on to God in the midst of the confusion and to pray, and pray, maybe even to pray scared prayers, even angry prayers.
Stay Curious, Be Courageous, and Encounter Christ.
The Magi come to the toddler Jesus, and here they offer their worship and their gifts. The gifts of Gold Frankincense and Myrrh – we have always presumed to symbolise something about how they saw Jesus. We don’t actually know this; we are reading into it afterwards. It could be as simple as all three gifts being very nicely expensive.
So in the Gold – we see that the Magi saw Jesus as a King. And in the Frankincense that they saw Jesus as a someone to receive their worship, so they see Jesus as Divine.
And in the Myrrh – which is also really just another incense but often used at funerals – and so perhaps we might interpret their gift as in some way pointing to the importance of the death of Jesus.
The scriptures don’t give us enough to go on with this. But its fun.
So instead let me ask you ‘Who gained from this exchange?’ I think that there is a right sort of exchange where you the giver gain from having given your gift. Its quite a complicated concept.
It’s not like I give you a present and you give me a better present and then I can see that somehow I have ended up the winner, I’ve gained more from this exchange of presents. No
Rather there is a sort of encounter in this gift-giving. There’s something almost sacramental about the love that is unseen but it’s there in the Christmas card, in the present.
Now with the Magi and Jesus, I think in this encounter there is something quite wonderful, worshipful. Its not easy to put into words – those of you who like a good hearty sing – there’s something that happens in the midst of your singing where you get a little lost in wonder love and praise, and you find your heart and soul momentarily lifted, and you notice that in the midst of you offering a blessing to God, that God is actually blessing you.
So point 3 today is the call, the invitation, to Encounter Christ. Perhaps through song, perhaps through silence, perhaps in the sacrament of holy communion.
Stay Curious, Be Courageous, Encounter Christ, and Keep Connected.
Stay connected to God. I like how the Magi are initially drawn by some scientific curiosity, but at the end they are led by a dream. Perhaps they may be ready for an angel, Perhaps they took back with them the Jewish scriptures to study – I wonder what they did to maintain that sense of connection.
Keep Connected. So this is point 4 for you to keep connected to Jesus through this year, in worship, in scripture, in Home Groups, in Community. Part of the work of keeping connected is that it needs us each to be looking out for each other, to be noticing who isn’t here and making a point of praying for them or catching up with them.
It will help you in your faith to grow and stay connected, and it will help others to know that they are missed, are not forgotten.
When the Magi got home, I wonder how they were greeted. ‘You went all that way, you took those expensive gifts, have you got anything to show for it. What did you get?’ What will they reply? We got Jesus.
It would be fun when someone says to you What did you get for Christmas, for you to say – I got Jesus. I got Jesus for Christmas.
Stay Curious, Be Courageous, Encounter Christ, and Keep Connected. Amen //