January 9, 2021

Isaiah 60:1-6 • Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14 • Ephesians 3:1-12 • Matthew 2:1-12

Have you seen the new Netflix movie called: Don’t Look Up? The Magi who came from afar to visit Baby Jesus – looked up a lot -- maybe for three months or more, as they followed the star. But the Magi too were astronomers of sorts, as were the protagonists in the Don’t Look Up movie – astronomers that saw things in the sky that could not and should not be ignored.

Our gospel today about the visit of the “wise men from the east” appears only in Matthew’s gospel and has produced many speculations and legends. The Bible does not tell us there were three of them, nor their names, nor that they were kings, but you know … ‘embellishments’ happen. In the many discussions of what was most likely, one strong theory is that – since they likely travelled from Persia, and they were expert stargazers, they may well have been Zoroastrian astronomers. And I’m not sure how “wise” they were if they went straight to King Herod to explain their quest. But actually our gospel does not say that they did that. It says that they “came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” (v.1-3). So they were just asking around town, maybe figuring that if they could see this special star from so far away, then the local folks must have some knowledge of this special event. Then King Herod hears about this – no doubt he had spies around town to listen for forbidden talk of rival kings – so he hears about them, and then he questions these foreign visitors. If the visitors were kings, you’d think they’d know better than to talk about a new king being born while the old king is still alive and has heirs of his own. Mind you this “Herod the Great” had already killed three of his sons as well as his wife and her mother (Wm Barclay Study Bible on Gospel of Matthew) … but the visiting astronomers might not have known that. Like many other scientists, including Dr. Mindy on “Don’t Look Up” they may have kept their heads or focus too much on the stars -- to know the politics of other countries. Plus, of course, there was no radio, TV or Internet, or even a printing press for newspapers yet.

Anyways we know the story well – how the wise ones finally found Baby Jesus … perhaps around 12 days later since our gospel tells us they found him in a house (v 11), not a stable or cave. And then they decided not to go back and tell Herod, but instead to go home by another way. Hope you enjoyed that “Home by another Way” video I sent you last Tuesday https://youtu.be/v7BBFXps6sg -- I loved the repeated refrains like “Maybe me and you can be wise guys too and go home by another way. … Keep a weather eye to the chart on high and go home by another way.” I was shocked to discover that James Taylor first released this song in 1988, and yet I do not recall ever hearing it before – have you? After almost two years of dealing with Covid 19’s many challenges and restrictions, we too, like much of humanity, long to ‘go home’ to all our delightful freedoms that we had not appreciated before we lost them. As the beloved Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh says – when you have a toothache, you realize how happy you were before you had the toothache. Similarly, we had not realized how fortunate we were with so many freedoms of gathering close together or travelling etc. … until we lost them to Covid 19. And now we long to “go home” to the way things were before, right?
But more and more, from every side, we hear that there’s no guarantee of anything going back to that elusive thing called “normal”. We’ve all been changed by Covid, and so have our churches and other institutions. As our bishop keeps saying we’re in a liminal place ‘betwixt and between’ the past that we remember, and a future whose shape and features are yet to be revealed. As we’ve journeyed through life, many of us have noticed how easy it is to cling to the past, enjoying and preferring the securities of mostly knowing the order of things or what to expect. And many wisdom writers throughout the ages have tried to invite us to ‘leave the shore of the known’ and venture out to uncharted new possibilities. The wise men from the east did that … and they ended up meeting Jesus. Indeed, the Divine or the Sacred, as it manifests in our lives, is often found in unexpected places. So, let us not be afraid to be in this liminal place – a time and place in which we can deepen our trust in God, knowing that the Creator often has surprising plans for us, including plans to go home by another way.

Let me end with the prayer that the street guy named Yule says in the “Don’t Look Up” movie just before the comet hits the earth:
Dearest Father and Almighty Creator,
We ask for your grace tonight, despite our pride.
Your forgiveness, despite our doubt.
Most of all Lord, we ask for your love to soothe us through these dark times.
May we face whatever is to come in your divine will,
With courage and open hearts of acceptance.
Amen.