The Rev. Dan Rondeau
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Isaiah 60:1-6,9 | Psalm 72:1-2, 10-17 | Ephesians 3:1-12 | Matthew 2:1-12
May all the nations bless themselves in him and call him blessed. (Psalm 72:17)
The wonderful thing about Bible stories, stories inspired by the Holy Spirit and handed down from generation to generation in the Sacred Scriptures, is the way they open us to examine ourselves in the light of the story and learn about ourselves and our God.
Matthew's story is a treasure trove for us.
Meditation is a tool for reading and listening to the scriptures, like this Gospel account, that allows us to crawl, or soar, or be brave or be timid; meditating on the scriptures allows us to play with the Word of God and in our play discover who we are, who our God is, how marvelous we can be, how awful we can be, how holy we can be if we allow God to touch and bless us. Yes, I said play with the Word of God.
"Children explore their world through curiosity and wonder. They try everything. [Try approaching the scriptures] with the wonder of a child."1
Try being one of the wise men. Did you notice the star right away (were you the first one)? Did others tell you to look, or were you the one to tell them to look? How long did it take all of you to conclude that this star portended the birth of a king, or did you decide this and seek the affirmation of the others? Was that "scary" to be the one to understand what it meant and risk sharing it with others?
After you decided to follow the star to the king it revealed did you ever doubt yourself, your wisdom, your ability to see this through all the way to the end? What did you think about the newborn as you journeyed? What picture of a newborn king was in your mind and heart?
Why did you choose to bring a gift of gold? of frankincense? of myrrh? What were you thinking as you selected your gift? How sure were you that you would find the newborn, and that the family would accept your gift? How much doubt crept into the days and night of your journey?
Meeting Herod, did you trust him? Did you understand the prophecy about Bethlehem? Did this help you feel better about following the star to this place? Did this help you believe more strongly that the star was connected to the birth of a king? Were you surprised that Herod didn't want to go with you to find this baby?
When you arrived at the house, what was your first impression? As you entered and met Mary, with the baby in her arms, and Joseph, what impression did you have? Did this scene match up well with your expectations (the pictures you made of this moment as you traveled)? In that moment did you doubt? In that moment did you crash to your knees in instant recognition of the Holy One or kind of melt to your knees in reverence and grace as the realization dawned about the sacred space you had entered?
Play with the Word of God. Be Herod. Be conniving, deceitful, petty, murderous, without scruples, a liar and a cheat. In startling contrast, be Joseph who has taken his pregnant wife (you still don't know if the story is true or not, only that she really was pregnant, and really did deliver a baby) on a long journey to register because Caesar said you had to register. How did you provide for them? How did you find a place, this place, for the baby to be born? To what lengths did you have to go for Mary and the baby?
Be Mary. Could this possibly be the place you imagined having a baby? Could this possibly have been the way you imagined the son of God would be born? And as each new event unfolded, holding the child, listening, learning, pondering, growing in wonder and amazement as you understood better who Jesus is, what Jesus will be to you and to the world, does the arrival of these men surprise you? Does the extravagance of the gifts humble you, please you, distress you? And what does it do to you to see them on their knees in humility, in adoration, in respect and awe before your son?
Play with the scriptures. Explore. You could even be the star. Invest the star with feelings, your feelings, and what is it like to know you have an important mission and purpose? With what determination do you shine. With what dismay do you view the clouds that obscure your light? With what joy do you shine as the clouds disappear and your light is once again evident? What is it like to guide others to this wondrous sight?
Of course, the other side of meditating on scriptures, the side that leads us into increased awareness, is to take the play and take the questions and bring them into the present and wonder when in your life you were like that wise man in the east observing the star, wondering at its meaning, deciding the significance of your discovery, and choosing a course of action? Perhaps your star was the person who is now in your life as spouse, as helpmate, partner, companion in good times and bad, comfort in affliction and a delight in joy. When this person first appeared in your life how much like that wise man were you? How much of your journey in the present was like that journey undertaken long ago to Bethlehem? Or is the star something else, like a job, or healing, or opportunity to move (to go or come)?
How did you get here to worship tonight? How did you come to recognize the Christ in Jesus? How were you led here? How much of your journey is like the journey of the wise men? How much have you learned in your journey here to Jesus (and are you asking the right questions)?
Do you come with gifts to offer as did our ancestors in faith? What gifts do you bring? How extravagant have you been? How much do you desire to place these gifts at the feet of this Holy Child?
How much do you (sometimes) resemble Herod? How much do you enjoy being the tyrant? How often do you want to break out of that destructive place and be different? Does it disappoint you to know that you can sometimes behave like Herod? Can you believe that God's love is constant even in your "Herod moments"?
How often do you see the qualities of Joseph called out in you? Can you believe that you and Joseph are clay molded by the same marvelous hand of God? In your play, as you explore Joseph and question him, be sure to keep an eye on yourself and see how much of Joseph is in you. You may be surprised. Is it possible that God has called and gifted you to nurture the lives in your care? Working from your own feelings of being called upon to care for others, can you draw strength from the example of Joseph as he met the challenge placed before him by God?
Then we have Mary. What is it like in your life to give birth to Jesus, to hold this defenseless God-child in your arms and try to comfort, nurture, and protect him? Have you ever had the experience, her experience, of receiving the grateful gifts of others as they recognize the great gift of God held in your arms?
And this leads me to the last playful exploration/meditation. The wise men came expecting to encounter a king. I have no doubt that they had imagined the baby, the setting, the court, the possibilities they would find when the star led them to this new born king. They were led to a house. Still they were filled with joy. They entered to find, not royalty, but peasants. Still they knelt in homage and offered gifts. How surprised they must have been to encounter such a great king in such ordinary trappings. And yet, they recognized the king and knelt and paid him homage.
We have prayed in this season that the Lord would be born in us. We promise that we will seek and serve Christ in others—which means that others around us are promising to seek and serve Christ, that is recognize Christ, in us. Have you ever pictured yourself as the incarnation, the enfleshment, of God's child—a most profound and most sacred gift given us by our God? Have others surprised you as they recognize the newborn king, the Christ, in you? How likely/unlikely is it that you should be perceived as the child of God?
Are you at all surprised to find Christ in the most unlikely persons? Do you have an image, like the wise men, of what the king (Christ) will look like, of where the king (Christ) will be found? And you are open, as the wise men were, to the possibility that God will be in the place you least can imagine or predict; or that God will be in the person you can least picture as a child of the living God? I hope you are open to this. I hope and pray that you can be surprised by God, again and again. It is part of our heritage. It is part of the joy of Epiphany.
Play with the Word of God. Come to know yourself better. Come to know our surprising and wonderful God better. Then go out and share the good news. Let's surprise some people this Epiphany season. Let's be surprised by God. Amen.
1 From a page in Fish! 2003 (a block calendar).