Today is Epiphany, the beginning of a season of the church year called epiphanytide. Epiphany is all about signs, the word means to "make manifest." During epiphanytide we remember three signs in Jesus's life that tell us that God was in him. These were the visit of the three wise men, his baptism by John the Baptist (when God spoke) and the turning of water into wine at the wedding of Cana.
Epiphany itself is a celebration of the wise men's visit to the baby Jesus. Their journey from the East, following a star, is a sign that Jesus was divine. It seems strange to me that we don't celebrate the shepherds in epiphanytide. The appearance of the angel on the hillside was a very big sign of Christ's divinity. But the shepherds came earlier in the story of Christ’s birth, so they belong to Christmas. That's why they are already in the crib scene beneath our altar. The wise men had a longer journey and arrived later, maybe up to two years after Christ's birth, so they are being added to the scene today.
Before I became a churchgoer, I thought of the wise men and the shepherds as nothing more than colourful decorative characters in the Nativity story. I didn't realise that their role in the tale highlights some of the major messages of Jesus Christ's ministry. They are signs of what Jesus is all about.
Throughout the Bible we see that God has a thing for turning the world upside down. Conventional human wisdom would say, surely the son of God must be born in a palace. His mother must be a Queen and he must spend his life surrounded by the best, richest and most perfect of people. But that is not what happens. Jesus isn't even born in a house, his bed is an animal feed box, his mother is a peasant girl and he spends his life among the poor, keeping company with prostitutes and tax collectors. These things are a sign that what God values in society, is not what we value. It's the heart that matters, not your status or how much money you have.
Conventional human wisdom would say that the first visitors to baby Jesus must be high status worthies and dignitaries. But that isn't what happened. The first visitors to the baby Jesus were at the bottom of and outside of Jewish society. The shepherds were dirty and unclean, low status people. The wise men were foreigners from another religion.
The shepherds are in the Nativity story because God cares about the poor and the downtrodden. The wise men are there because Christ was not sent for the Jews alone, he was sent for the whole world. You could say that Epiphany is a celebration of the day the Christ story went global.
When I was a child I liked the wise men best because of their colourful glittering costumes. The gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh made them more interesting to me than the shepherds, who dressed in rags and had some boring old sheep. As an adult I've tended to prefer the shepherds. The attention that God pays them is a constant reminder that money and high status don't matter in his Kingdom.
But this image of the wise men as three richly dressed kings isn't the Biblical one. It comes from European art, not the Bible. The Bible doesn't even say there were three men, it doesn't give a number. In the West we assume there were three because they gave three gifts. In the eastern tradition they say there were twelve. The Bible doesn't tell us their names either. Many people will tell you they were called Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, but that's a seventh century invention.
Also, they weren't kings. In the original Greek in which the story was written they were called Magi. Because of this word we're not 100 percent certain who the wise men were, because the word Magi had more than one meaning. One use of the word Magi was to describe people from Persia, now Iran, who were members of a priestly class specialising in astrology and astronomy. The Bible says the wise men came from the East, and so, many people believe the wise men were astrologer priests from Persia.
However, another meaning of the word Magi was that they could be people who told fortunes, interpreted dreams and spoke to the dead. These people were all over the Middle East. They could be magicians or even charlatans who took people's money by pretending to have occult powers. Were the wise men priests of a foreign religion or were they dodgy magicians from somewhere out east? We'll never know.
Whoever they were, the Magi were not people the Jewish establishment of the time would have been keen on. This is why they are in the Nativity story.
It matters that Jesus's first visitors were shepherds and foreigners, just as it matters that the first people in the resurrection story were women. It matters that Jesus's mother was a peasant girl. The Bible is a story of God's love for people who are at the bottom or even outside of polite society. He shows this love in the way that these people are the star characters in the stories. These people are signs.
And don't think that rich, successful people are excluded from God's love. The Bible is also a story of God's love for people who are deeply flawed, and that's pretty much everyone. Last summer we heard all about God's journeys with Jacob the cheat and his vain son Joseph. And a large chunk of the New Testament – the Christian part of the Bible – was written by St Paul, a man who persecuted Christians before his conversion. (By the by, we should also remember St Paul on Epiphany because he worked to spread Christ's message outside the Jewish world. From the wise men onwards, Jesus was for everyone, not just for Israel.)
So, what can we do with the wise men, apart from thinking how nice it is that their presence in the Nativity story shows us these things? Because as we know, our faith in Christ is more than belief in a story. Our faith calls us to take energy and ideas from the Bible stories and to put them into action in our everyday lives.
Firstly, most obviously, the story of the wise men is a sign that we should be open hearted to travellers from other cultures and to people that society looks down upon. The courage that the wise men showed in going out to seek new things is also a sign to us. They sought knowledge in the stars, and when they saw a star that they believed in, they were brave enough to travel a long way at a time when travelling could be dangerous. When they saw the star they couldn't really know that Jesus would be underneath it, it was just a sign. Their journey was one of faith and trust.
Compared to the wise men, the shepherds have it easy. The angel seeks them out and tells them the good news. When an angel is talking to you, you don't need faith. In 21st-century Britain we aren't likely to share the experience of the shepherds, but we can all be Magi.
Our society is full of Magi, seekers after truth. Go into any book shop in this country and you will find alongside the books on various mainstream religions, at least a few shelves devoted to astrology, to fortune telling, to speaking with the dead, to making contact with aliens from other planets. Many people in this country are deeply attracted to the idea that there is another world beyond our own, but they don't know what to do with that attraction. You can see that in everything from books about the paranormal through to vampire romances. People are seeking a truth beyond the visible world, seriously and light heartedly, sometimes both at the same time.
Occasionally these 21st-century Magi will look at Christianity, think "hmmm, shall I give it a go?" and get on their camels seeking an epiphany of their own. It's up to us to make sure that when they get here they do find signs of Christ among the Christians. We do not want the 21st-century Magi to find an empty manger.
At baptism and confirmation each one of us made the difficult promise to do our best to follow Christ by really loving other people and really trying to deal with our personal flaws.
If we truly manage to do this, there will be a star above us and the warmth of God's love will be detectable around us. Each one of can be a living candle, a sign, if we really try. We can, if we want to, be lights to each other, and to any 21st-century Magi who come to visit.
Claire George
Epiphany itself is a celebration of the wise men's visit to the baby Jesus. Their journey from the East, following a star, is a sign that Jesus was divine. It seems strange to me that we don't celebrate the shepherds in epiphanytide. The appearance of the angel on the hillside was a very big sign of Christ's divinity. But the shepherds came earlier in the story of Christ’s birth, so they belong to Christmas. That's why they are already in the crib scene beneath our altar. The wise men had a longer journey and arrived later, maybe up to two years after Christ's birth, so they are being added to the scene today.
Before I became a churchgoer, I thought of the wise men and the shepherds as nothing more than colourful decorative characters in the Nativity story. I didn't realise that their role in the tale highlights some of the major messages of Jesus Christ's ministry. They are signs of what Jesus is all about.
Throughout the Bible we see that God has a thing for turning the world upside down. Conventional human wisdom would say, surely the son of God must be born in a palace. His mother must be a Queen and he must spend his life surrounded by the best, richest and most perfect of people. But that is not what happens. Jesus isn't even born in a house, his bed is an animal feed box, his mother is a peasant girl and he spends his life among the poor, keeping company with prostitutes and tax collectors. These things are a sign that what God values in society, is not what we value. It's the heart that matters, not your status or how much money you have.
Conventional human wisdom would say that the first visitors to baby Jesus must be high status worthies and dignitaries. But that isn't what happened. The first visitors to the baby Jesus were at the bottom of and outside of Jewish society. The shepherds were dirty and unclean, low status people. The wise men were foreigners from another religion.
When I was a child I liked the wise men best because of their colourful glittering costumes. The gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh made them more interesting to me than the shepherds, who dressed in rags and had some boring old sheep. As an adult I've tended to prefer the shepherds. The attention that God pays them is a constant reminder that money and high status don't matter in his Kingdom.
But this image of the wise men as three richly dressed kings isn't the Biblical one. It comes from European art, not the Bible. The Bible doesn't even say there were three men, it doesn't give a number. In the West we assume there were three because they gave three gifts. In the eastern tradition they say there were twelve. The Bible doesn't tell us their names either. Many people will tell you they were called Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, but that's a seventh century invention.
Also, they weren't kings. In the original Greek in which the story was written they were called Magi. Because of this word we're not 100 percent certain who the wise men were, because the word Magi had more than one meaning. One use of the word Magi was to describe people from Persia, now Iran, who were members of a priestly class specialising in astrology and astronomy. The Bible says the wise men came from the East, and so, many people believe the wise men were astrologer priests from Persia.
However, another meaning of the word Magi was that they could be people who told fortunes, interpreted dreams and spoke to the dead. These people were all over the Middle East. They could be magicians or even charlatans who took people's money by pretending to have occult powers. Were the wise men priests of a foreign religion or were they dodgy magicians from somewhere out east? We'll never know.
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| Gifts made by the 11am congregation |
It matters that Jesus's first visitors were shepherds and foreigners, just as it matters that the first people in the resurrection story were women. It matters that Jesus's mother was a peasant girl. The Bible is a story of God's love for people who are at the bottom or even outside of polite society. He shows this love in the way that these people are the star characters in the stories. These people are signs.
And don't think that rich, successful people are excluded from God's love. The Bible is also a story of God's love for people who are deeply flawed, and that's pretty much everyone. Last summer we heard all about God's journeys with Jacob the cheat and his vain son Joseph. And a large chunk of the New Testament – the Christian part of the Bible – was written by St Paul, a man who persecuted Christians before his conversion. (By the by, we should also remember St Paul on Epiphany because he worked to spread Christ's message outside the Jewish world. From the wise men onwards, Jesus was for everyone, not just for Israel.)
So, what can we do with the wise men, apart from thinking how nice it is that their presence in the Nativity story shows us these things? Because as we know, our faith in Christ is more than belief in a story. Our faith calls us to take energy and ideas from the Bible stories and to put them into action in our everyday lives.
Firstly, most obviously, the story of the wise men is a sign that we should be open hearted to travellers from other cultures and to people that society looks down upon. The courage that the wise men showed in going out to seek new things is also a sign to us. They sought knowledge in the stars, and when they saw a star that they believed in, they were brave enough to travel a long way at a time when travelling could be dangerous. When they saw the star they couldn't really know that Jesus would be underneath it, it was just a sign. Their journey was one of faith and trust.
 |
| Messy Church Christmas banner |
Our society is full of Magi, seekers after truth. Go into any book shop in this country and you will find alongside the books on various mainstream religions, at least a few shelves devoted to astrology, to fortune telling, to speaking with the dead, to making contact with aliens from other planets. Many people in this country are deeply attracted to the idea that there is another world beyond our own, but they don't know what to do with that attraction. You can see that in everything from books about the paranormal through to vampire romances. People are seeking a truth beyond the visible world, seriously and light heartedly, sometimes both at the same time.
Occasionally these 21st-century Magi will look at Christianity, think "hmmm, shall I give it a go?" and get on their camels seeking an epiphany of their own. It's up to us to make sure that when they get here they do find signs of Christ among the Christians. We do not want the 21st-century Magi to find an empty manger.
At baptism and confirmation each one of us made the difficult promise to do our best to follow Christ by really loving other people and really trying to deal with our personal flaws.
If we truly manage to do this, there will be a star above us and the warmth of God's love will be detectable around us. Each one of can be a living candle, a sign, if we really try. We can, if we want to, be lights to each other, and to any 21st-century Magi who come to visit.
Claire George
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