The Rev. Dan Rondeau
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Isaiah 60:1-6, 9 | Psalm 72 | Ephesians 3:1-12 | Matthew 2:1-12
If you were here five years ago you may remember this story. A father is with his two children after Sunday Services. "What does it mean to magnify the Lord?" the father asked.
His teenage daughter said, "It means to honor him in sincere worship."
"That’s right. What do you think?" he asked his five year old son.
After thinking for a time, his eyes brightened and with childish enthusiasm he shouted "To magnify the Lord means to make him bigger in your life."1
Making the Lord bigger in our lives seemed a good idea in 1998; it is still an excellent path to follow in 2003. So, I pray on this first Sunday morning in 2003 that you will believe that you are blessed with an inquiring and discerning heart. I pray that in 2003 you will exercise that heart for the glory of God.
"An inquiring and discerning heart;" I have always loved that phrase from our prayer over the newly baptized. What an incredible request we make of God: grant them an inquiring and discerning heart—not just for a little while, but for a lifetime.
It is my belief that all of us who are baptized have been granted an inquiring and discerning heart—for a lifetime; it is the request of the church always and everywhere, and our God would most certainly give us this gift. This Sunday is a good day to remind ourselves about the kind of heart with which we approach all of life.
Come back with me into Matthew’s story of the visit of the Magi. Come with the eyes of faith. Let the Holy Spirit guide our meditation this day. We will use the wise men from the East as an inspiration for our own walk of faith.
As the story begins they are on their way to Jerusalem, and ultimately to Bethlehem. They had seen the star rising and followed it. Many commentators suggest that these wise men were astrologers. They sought truth, understanding, and meaning, in the stars. You could say they were hungering and thirsting for the truth. In order to satisfy the hunger and quench their thirst they looked into the night skies. They desired union with the Holy. They watched, they studied, they discussed, and they drew conclusions. From their search for truth they concluded that the next king of the Jews had been born.
Where do you look for truth? Where do you search for understanding? Where do you search for meaning? Where does your hunger for truth take you? Where is your thirst for truth satisfied? In order to draw closer to the Holy, in order to be one with the Holy, where do you look? Your presence here this morning suggests that like me you look into the Bible, God’s word.
The wise men searched the stars. We search the revealed word of God. They were amazed by the star and followed it. We are amazed as we delve into the word of God by the power and tenderness of our God who has created, and redeemed us and even now sustains us; and we follow the Way, Jesus Christ.
With an inquiring and discerning heart we bring our questions, our hopes, our joys, our sorrows, we bring our whole self to the story recorded in the pages of the Bible. We look among the stories even as the wise men looked into the stars. We are confident that we will find answers to our questions, direction for our hope, and words to express both our sorrow and our joy. We are confident because at some point earlier in our journey we found the Way, the Truth, the Life.
If you are just starting this search for yourself, if you’re taking your first look into the Bible stories, be assured you are looking in the right direction! In your study you, too, will encounter the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
In 2003 continue to look for truth in our scriptures, continue to search for understanding within our sacred story, continue to find meaning for life as you open the revealed word of God, our bible. Let your hunger for truth be satisfied here, and let your thirst for the holy be quenched by God’s word in 2003.
As we turn back to Matthew’s story, notice that it is a community that comes seeking Jesus. It isn’t a single seeker. Wise men from the East came looking for the newborn king. Actually, we may guess that they searched the stars together, their study and their conclusions were arrived at together, and then they went together to follow the star.
In your journey of faith, you have already found a community of believers, of searchers for truth, of followers of the Way; you have already found companions with inquiring and discerning hearts to help you. Baptism is celebrated within the community at worship. With our hands, our hearts, and our voices we welcome the newly baptized every time. You were welcomed once into this fellowship, into this community. We belong to each other in baptism.
In 2003 let yourself become more involved with your fellow travelers; better yet, choose to become more involved within your parish family. And invite others from your family, from your workplace, from your neighborhood, to join you here at St. Margaret’s. It is a community in which you and your neighbor can come to know the Lord, and we are a community that delights in making the Lord known.
Matthew suggests, and we have sung about, a journey of many miles completed by the wise men. Throughout that journey we believe they followed the star they had seen rising. They were focused and thus guided in their journey. They looked to a star, we to look to the Lord who created the star. They were guided by a bright light in a dark sky; we are guided by the source of all light; and no matter what kind of darkness may envelop or threaten us—as we heard last week—the darkness will not overcome the light. Jesus is our light.
In 2003 let us keep our focus on the Lord—source of light and life. Let us take a lesson from the wise men. In 2003 let us determine to let our inquiring and discerning heart, the blessing of our baptism, keep us focused and steady in our following of the Lord, the light of our life.
Upon finding Herod the wise men asked their question and were directed to Bethlehem. Whether they would have returned to him on their own or not, we do not know, for they were warned in a dream not to return and they obeyed. Discernment is like that. Discernment is the process used to guide our choices and actions. The information required for discernment comes from many sources.
For us, as Episcopalians, we gain our most valuable information from three sources: scripture (the Bible), tradition (what we have been doing these 2000 years), and reason (new understandings reached alone and as a group by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit). We find valuable information and guidance, too, in our prayer, worship, study, and service to others.
Discerning that Jesus was the newborn king for whom they were searching, the wise men were "overwhelmed with joy" and they offered their gifts. I’m not sure what they saw when they looked upon him, but the church has celebrated epiphany for centuries now. We have celebrated the fact that even those outside the covenant, outside the People of God, wise men from the East, Gentiles, could discern the glory of God, the power of God, in this little baby in Bethlehem.
A great spiritual guide, Ignatius of Loyola, tells us that the goal of discernment is to distinguish "between different spiritual influences so that only good ones may be admitted, evil ones … rejected."
More often than not this knowledge, this conviction, is the knowledge of the heart (gained in prayer, study, worship, and service to others), the whispers of the heart, the promptings of the heart that guide us steadily to the Lord and his presence and his ministry. So we must pay attention.
As in the story we are sharing, good and truthful advice can even come from deceitful and murderous sources. Like the wise men we must be ever attentive to the knowledge we gain, and weigh it for its goodness and truth and then take action. What kept the wise men safe, what kept Jesus safe, was the grace of God spoken within and recognized by the wise men. May we be equally astute, equally attuned to the grace and movement of God within our hearts. It is, after all, what we have asked of our God for all the baptized.
In 2003, let us sharpen our skills of discernment through continuing and deepening study and prayer and the exercise of our baptismal heart. In 2003 let us determine to see clearly the glory and the power of God in Jesus as we encounter him in the scriptures, in prayer, in worship, and in each other. Let us determine to trust our heart as it whispers "this is of God" or "return another way, for this is not of God" or "here is your Lord." Finding God in your routines, in your homes, in your workplaces, in your neighborhood, let your heart be "overwhelmed with joy" even as were our ancestors in the faith.
The wise men, upon finding and recognizing the newborn king, offered gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They gave gifts from their joy. They did not have to give anything, certainly Mary and Joseph did not demand a gift. The wise men offered the gifts from their joy, pure and simple.
In 2003, our direction is clear: guided by our baptismal heart let us be lavish in giving our gifts—of time, of effort, of material resources—gifts given from the joy of our heart. The giver of all good gifts was lavish, he sent his only Son to live and die as one of us, reconciling us to God forever. The giver of all good gifts has blessed us in our baptism with an inquiring and discerning heart. The giver of all good gifts blesses us in our joys and in our sorrows without hesitation or qualifications. Look around you, see the hand of God at work, discern the love that inspires the giving. In 2003 be lavish in your giving back to the Lord from the joy of your heart.
Let me end conclude with our Baptismal prayer, offered for you and for me, and let it be our prayer, our joy and our way in 2003 as we make God bigger in our lives:
Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon us your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised us to the new life of grace. Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give us an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen.
1
Anonymous. Quoted in The Newsletter Newsletter, April, 19972
Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon these your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised them to the new life of grace. Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen. Book of Common Prayer, p. 308
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