(In the Gospel of Matthew's nativity story, magi from the East come to visit Jesus shortly after his birth, because they have seen his coming in the stars. That the magi were foreigners from another culture and religious tradition, practicing arts of astrology and divination forbidden to the Jews, and that the cosmos itself seems to have been altered by the birth of Jesus all testify to the universal significance that the early church ascribed to the coming of Jesus.)
What if ...
when
the magi appeared in the front yard of the home
where
Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus were living,
when
Joseph looked up from his work in the yard to see
who
this this grand but now-very-dusty entourage was,
and
what they wanted,
when
they said they were magi from the East,
wise
travelers who had come a long way to see
a
new-born king – God’s promised prince of peace
that
all the cosmos was waiting to welcome,
and
could they please see him now to pay homage,
what
if when Joseph saw and heard all that he had said,
“You’re who? And you’re here to do what?
And you think my son is who and what?
I would rather you not puff him up
with such notions of
grandeur and glory.
He’s
not yet proven himself anything,
and better he be
taught a little humility, shame,
confession and
repentance
if he is ever to learn
to be acceptable to God
and of any pride to
me or anyone else.
So, I’m sorry you came all this way,
but I’d rather you
be gone!”
Or
what if ...
when
Joseph did open the door and let the magi in
to see Mary caring for little
Jesus,
when
they introduced themselves and their purpose
and
then opened their gifts –
gold because this little one was a
king
to lead the world in
the ways of peace;
frankincense because like a priest he
would help
to cleanse the world
of evil
and bring an air of
sacred holiness
to every place,
every person and every relationship
in his life;
and myrrh because in the end
he would give his
life and die
for what is right
and good,
for the sake of the
kingdom of God
being implanted that
much more deeply
in the life of the
world,
what
if when Mary saw and heard all that she had said,
“Fie on you! And a pox on your houses!
How dare you offer him gifts like that
–
gifts and ideas of a life that
will lead him away – away from home and safety and me and our family!
Why don’t you just leave my boy
alone?
Have you any idea what this world,
what our land,
what our king is
like?
Please go, and take all these dangerous
gifts with you!”
It
would have been easy.
Because
isn’t what we imagine Joseph saying essentially what a lot of traditional
religion tells us? That really at heart
there’s something wrong with us that the disciplines of humility, shame,
confession and repentance will cure us of, if we only pay good attention to
them. And that then, maybe then, we can
feel right with God and of use to others.
And
what we imagine Mary saying, isn’t that just a natural impulse of any human
heart – mother or father, sister or brother: to wish safety rather than risk,
comfort rather than challenge; to set up a boundary – even a wall around home
and hearth and homeland; to divide the world into us and them; and then wish
for those we love and want to have near us, a long and happy life rather than
risky, life-changing sacrifice for others?
But
they didn’t say any of these things. That’s
not the way this story goes.
Joseph
for his part seems to have opened the door to the magi – to these exotic,
foreign, wise travellers. And Mary for
her part seems to have welcomed them and their gifts into her house and into
the life of her family. Together they
offered these magi and their gifts as open a door and as ready a welcome as
they themselves had longed for when they first arrived in Bethlehem with the
gift that they were bearing for the world.
And in
doing so they let themselves be led and instructed one step further into the
Mystery of the life they were living because of Jesus – the Mystery of his
calling to help lead the world in the ways of peace, to help cleanse the world
of evil and bring an air of sacredness to everything and everyone he touched,
and to give his own life as a seed of God’s kingdom coming to be on Earth.
The
place where they were was inherently holy – holy by birth and divine purpose. And holy requires openness. Because holy is always a pointer to something
bigger than just one place.
And I
wonder if that is one of the things this story teaches us – we who read it more
than two thousand years after its first telling.
I
think sometimes we tend to put a halo on things like this. In pictures of the home where the magi came
to visit and pay homage to Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, we paint an extra
special light around it, maybe place some angels hovering just above it, or
hanging around it as a sign that it’s somehow set apart. Different from all the rest.
And it
becomes one more way of keeping God and what’s holy and what’s truly
life-changing in the world at a distance – somehow set spart. Different from us and where we are, and different
from what our lives are about.
But
what if the message is different than that? If the message is that what we see now, in
and because of the story of Jesus, is that God is in all places, that God always
was but now we see it more truly -- that God is to be named Emmanuel,
“God-with-us” and that all places, all homes and all towns, even all human
lives and hearts are haloed and to be hallowed, because they hold within them
the mystery and the miracle of holy birth, holy presence, holy promise and holy
good purpose?
What
if the message is that the glory and good purpose of God are afoot in the world
and within humanity, that they always have been, and that now it’s just coming
more and more to light?
Very
briefly, three things about this and how we share in it, from the story.
One,
this is something that all humanity is involved in. Looking for the light and living within the
good purpose of God is something that crosses all borders and boundaries. We make a big deal of how, after Jesus’ death
and resurrection, the gospel and the church that preached it very quickly moved
beyond the limits of Judaism and the “covenant community,” and learned to
embrace all the world – all people and all cultures, as people and cultures of
God. But who would have thought – what a
bold twist in the tale, that some of these foreigners – these apparent outsiders
to God’s plan, would have a role like this even before Jesus is known to his
own people? The search for truth,
wisdom, peace and holiness is something shared by all humanity, and all have
something to say – all have something to contribute to the quest.
Two,
this happens best when doors are opened.
When we respond to others not with fear, suspicion and defensiveness
(remember King Herod?), but with wonder, curiosity and openness.
And
three, this happens most often and most productively in the humblest of
places. The journey of the world and of
all its people towards truth, wisdom, peace and holiness is not a top-down
enterprise, but a bottom-up adventure.
It happens most often and most helpfully for the world when it happens
in humble homes, in the daily-ness of neighbourhood and little town life, in
the glorious dust of daily life lived between people just trying to share what
they each have, to make the world a better place to be.
Could
it really be that what we see in Jesus is true of all people – including
ourselves?
That
as the Gospel of John says the Light has come into the world, and the Light is
really the life that is in all people.
That
in our own ways, in our own daily lives, in our own little corner of the world,
we all are called to the Mystery and the miracle
· -
of
helping the world to live in peace,
· -
of
helping to cleanse the world of evil and bring an air of sacredness to
everything and everyone we touch,
· -
and
of giving our own life as we are able as a seed of God’s kingdom coming to be
on Earth?
“We
have seen his star at its rising, and we have come to pay homage to the one God
has promised for the healing of the world.”
Could
it really be us? And others around us,
too?
Could it be all of humanity really,
as we learn to grow up to what and how we are created to be?
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