Sermon Epiphany 2014

Isaiah 60:1-6

Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6

Matthew 2:1-12

When I was a little boy, I am told on reliable authority, I used to sing “We three kings of holly and tar”. I suppose I didn’t know what the word “orient” meant, and holly was clearly something to do with Christmas, so I put it in the carol. Where the tar came from I have no idea.

We might wonder as well why we sing of three kings as well, since the story that Matthew gives us doesn’t say that the mysterious visitors from the east were kings, or that there were three of them. Matthew just says that they were Magi, magoi in Greek, without explaining what that means. He says that they came, literally, from “the land of the sunrise”, which is poetic, but doesn’t actually locate them anywhere. The land of the sunrise is like the end of the rainbow: however far east you travel, it’s always further still. 

So these Magi, these visitors from the land of the sunrise, are quite mysterious. They must have been wise, scholarly, well versed in astronomy, and with the means to undertake a long journey carrying expensive gifts.  They could have been priests or astrologers from Persia or Babylon. But they could equally have come from almost anywhere else. And perhaps that’s the point. The Magi represent the whole gentile world, the whole world outside Judaism, with all its richness, learning, and wisdom. All human intuitions and insights into the truth are there.

Quite early on the tradition of the Church amplified the story of the Magi to make this point. In art, we usually see them as men of three different races, representing the three known continents of the time: Europe, Asia and Africa. Quite often, too, one is old, one young, and one middle aged. They were assigned exotic sounding names - in Western tradition those that stuck were Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, but other parts of the church have different names. The Magi are very inclusive! The very mystery that surrounds them makes them universal. 

But these outsiders to Judaism receive a sign from heaven calling them in to the heart of all that the law and the covenant mean, into the heart of God’s revelation of himself. They represent all the longings and insights of every culture and race, converging on Jesus. They are drawn out of themselves by the mystery of Christ’s birth, only to find themselves on the inside after all, at the heart of the mystery that called to them from afar.

Matthew’s Gospel is in many ways the most “Jewish” of the gospels, always taking care to show how the coming of Jesus is in accordance with Jewish belief and the holy scriptures, emphasising continuity and connection. But this does not mean that Matthew takes an exclusivist approach to faith. He is quite clear that the salvation that God has promised to Israel is not just for them but for all nations and races. He sees in Jesus the fulfilment of prophesies such as we heard from Isaiah this morning, that “Nations shall come to your light, and kings to your dawning brightness”. 

In those days science, religion and philosophy were not separate disciplines. All were together a quest for truth. The story of the Magi tells us that truth, fully realised, leads us to Christ, who is God’s complete revelation of himself. All truth is from God, and leads back to God. But the fact that all truth is from God means that the Church can and does affirm all that is true in science, religion, and culture. All truth is on the way to the fulness of truth. There is something of Christ manifested wherever human endeavour seeks the truth.

But this does mean that science, philosophy, religion, all the aspects of human culture, have a proper calling. They are not random and meaningless pastimes. They are to seek after and serve the truth. The Magi represent that calling to seek the truth; their journey to seek Christ is a pattern for the inner journey of all humanity, which is to seek the Lord in spirit and truth. 

But the calling to seek the truth depends on human freedom, and so it is a calling that can fail. Not all Magi find the truth. Besides the Magi in today’s story, there is another one in the Acts of the Apostles, called Bar-Jesus, whose practice of magic leads him to oppose the preaching of the Gospel and brings him into conflict with St Paul.  

Then there is King Herod. He was in fact a very cultured man, of great learning and achievements. But he refused to see the truth of Christ and instead reacted in fear and envy of someone who he thought was a threat to his power. The Magi came to him and asked after the new-born “King of the Jews”, which was Herod’s own title. Herod could have sought the new insight to truth, the new meaning of kingship, that this unexpected visit offered him, but instead he rejected the truth and turned to violence and murder. So we see the shadow of the Cross in this Epiphany scene, a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own violent death. 

The truth to which the Magi are led is a God who reveals himself in order to suffer and die. He has come to endure the consequences of humanity turning away from the truth. But he does so in order to lead humanity back to the truth, which is himself. 

The quest for truth culminates in faith, which is not about accumulating facts, but is entering into communion. Truth leads us to a person, to Christ. It is in relationship with him that we find our own truth spoken, our own self fully known. This is the mystery which is at the heart of all human seeking after truth. And the mystery that we can also turn away from, and fail to find.

Science and culture seek the truth, but it is not enough for them to be simply utilitarian. They must seek a deeper truth than mere facts and figures, or passing fashions. So if science says that we may do whatever we can do, such as make hybrid animal/human embryos, or more lethal chemical weapons, then it is failing to see the innate truth and dignity of the human person. It is failing to see that human knowledge and skill should serve humanity, and not destroy it, and therefore it is failing in its vocation to seek the truth. 

Or when the art world presents meaningless absurdities to a cynically inflated art market, it has turned away from its own vocation to seek and to mediate the truth which all art, in some way or other, should reflect as an expression of the human spirit.

Religion, also, can turn aside from the quest for truth. God is the mystery who calls us out of ourselves to find our selves in him. But the rigid certainties of fundamentalism, or all too easy accommodations with power and privilege, can turn us aside from that path. And these are things that disfigure all religions. Really these are idols, things that we can hold on to and possess, in place of the true God who wishes to possess us so that we can find our true freedom.

The place of Christians in the public arena is not to insist that everything must have a veneer of religion, or that everyone must believe as we do. Far from it. But we do believe in the fundamental vocation of human beings to seek the truth, and that all truth is from God, wherever it may be found. So Christians are among those who recognise the primacy of the truth for all, and the dignity of human culture in seeking and serving the truth, wherever it may be found and wherever it may lead us. 

And that applies not only in the public forum, but also in our personal relationships, in families, communities and the workplace. If anyone is abused or exploited, or bullied or ignored, then it is the fundamental truth of that human person that is endangered. We cease to see the truth of the person before us: their absolute dignity, created in the image of God. And we place an obstacle for them in the path of the truth, which is their path as much as ours, and whose ultimate end is the love of God revealed in Christ.

The end of our seeking is not more and more facts. Truth is not facts, though facts can lead us to the truth. Truth, in the end, is found in relationship, in communion. Truth is found when we find ourselves in God. The end of our journey, like that of the Magi, is worship, the offering of our lives and selves as we discover the truth of our being in God. 

That is the fundamental calling of all human beings, and of all human culture. And in serving that calling, for ourselves and for others, we are serving Christ in the world that reflects and embodies his truth, and where all who seek may find the path that leads to him.