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Shear the Sheep -- Catch a Camel!

Matthew 2:1-12

January 8, 2006        (Click this link to see the bulletin)

1. Today is Epiphany Sunday, the Sunday closest to January 6, which the Church celebrates as the day the Magi found Jesus. This explains why we still have our Christmas decorations displayed. I know it can be a bit confusing. The confusion lies in this fact: Jesus taught his disciples to live in the world, but not of the world. He said to "Give to the government what belongs to the government, give to God what belongs to God." And don’t get the two confused! So even today, we find ourselves living in a country that keeps them separate. As citizens of the United States, we "give to the government" things like taxes and good citizenship and military service, as we celebrate all sorts of holidays that the Church does not officially recognize: Memorial Day and Independence Day and Labor Day and even Thanksgiving Day. Our Church doesn’t celebrate those days; the Church celebrates Advent and Christmas and Epiphany. However, living "in the world" as we do, we are greatly influenced by merchants who capitalize on the gift-giving spirit of Christmas. They decorate and play Christmas carols from November 1 to December 25. But on December 26 – down come the decorations and the Christmas music stops. For the Church, though, the celebration of Christmas begins December 24, when the shepherds find the baby Jesus in a manger, and we do not celebrating until the Magi find the boy Jesus in a house. READ Matthew 2:1-12

2. So much of what we believe about Magi comes from tradition and music rather than scripture. You don’t find their names, or how many there were, or how they traveled, in the Bible! All we know from Matthew is there were some Magi. Magi is what the Zoroastrian religion called their priests. They were wise men knowledgeable in astrology and the interpretation of dreams. They were also magicians. They very likely rode camels, since that was how people traveled in those days. Eastern Orthodox tradition says there were twelve. But in the 8^th century an Englishman named Bede the Venerable decided there must have been three [because Matthew mentions three gifts] and he gave each one a name: Gaspar, Melchoir, and Balthasar. About 500 years later, someone decided they were kings. The Magi of which Matthew wrote were probably important men in their country, whatever their country was, and they may well have been of royal birth, but there’s no solid evidence that they were kings. In 1857, John Henry Hopkins wrote our hymn "We Three Kings of Orient Are" for a Christmas pageant, and ever since our nativity scenes and Christmas pageants have included three kings on camels. Most of what we believe about the Magi is purely tradition.

3. I’m going to push that "tradition" envelop a bit today, and remind you of Henry van Dyke’s Story of the Other Wise Man. In 1895, while van Dyke was pastor of Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, he wrote this story. He made up the "facts," they are not in the Bible. But the truth he did not make up. It is biblical, and it weaves in and through the details of his story. Here’s a much-abbreviated version of what he wrote. There was a group of astrologers who believed two great planets were about to converge, signaling the birth of the one promised to be King of Israel. Four of them decided to watch from two different locations, three at the temple in Babylon, and one at home in Persia. If the planets met, the three at the temple would wait for 10 days, until the one in Persia, Artaban, could join them, and together the four Magi would travel to Jerusalem to take their gifts to the king. They already had their gifts – gold, frankincense, myrrh, sapphire, ruby, and a pearl. Well, it happened. The two great planets converged and formed one huge star light. Artaban knew it was the sign, and off he went. He had not gone far when he had to stop to help a Hebrew traveler whose was about to die because his journey lasted longer than his provisions. Artaban gave him his own bread and water, and explained his purpose. And the old man told him their prophecy said the king would be born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. By the time Artaban arrived at the meeting place, the other three had left, and he had to set out on his own to search for the King of Israel. He sold his sapphire to buy camels and food, and arrived in Bethlehem just as the soldiers were killing all the baby boys. So he gave his ruby to bribe a soldier to keep him from killing the young son of the woman who actually knew the couple from Nazareth and their baby son, but they had left for Egypt, she thought. Each place Artaban went, he discovered Jesus had been there, but had just left. At last, his search led him to Jerusalem. Commotion filled the city. He quickly found the cause – three men were being crucified, and one of them was Jesus of Nazareth, who had done so much good for the people. Artaban knew this was the one for whom he had searched all these years, and was about to give the last of his jewels – the pearl – as a ransom to save Jesus’ life. But a young girl fell at his feet. Soldiers were taking her away to be sold as a slave to pay for her father’s debts. She begged Artaban to save her, and with the love in his heart overcoming the logic in his head, he bought her freedom with his last jewel. At that very moment, the sky turned black and the earth shook beneath them. A heavy tile fell from the roof above them, and landed on his head. The young girl cradled his bleeding head in her arms, and in response to faint music somewhere above them, she heard him whisper, "Not so, my Lord! When did I see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty, and give you drink? When did I see you a stranger, and take you in? Or naked and clothe you? When did I see you sick or in prison, and came to visit you? Three-and-thirty years I have looked for you, but I have never seen your face, nor have I ever ministered unto you, my King." Then, as he breathed his last breath, the young now-freed girl heard from the same place that she heard the music, "Truly I tell you, when you did it unto one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me." Henry van Dyke finishes his story with these words: "His journey was ended. His treasures were accepted. The Other Wise Man had found the King."

4. It’s a beautiful story! I cry every time I read it! But what does it have to do with us? After all, this Christmas has been for us The Year of the Shepherd, not the Year of the Magi. We have been encouraged, with words and with music, to be like poor shepherds and come to see the newborn king. But now we hear about Magi, who brought precious gifts. I believe we find the answer, the "what this story has to do with us," by looking at what the shepherds did next, after they found the baby Jesus. Luke tells us that they returned praising God. I’m assuming they returned to their sheep. They went back to life as usual. Leading those passive sheep from one pasture to another to keep them from overgrazing; setting them upright when they became cast down from too many brambles clinging to their heavy wool coats; shearing them so they would stay clean; finding fresh water for them to drink after they had polluted their own water; keeping them safe from wolves and the like. I don’t know for certain, but that’s what I think the shepherds did next. And, yes, there are many places in the Bible that ask us to live that kind of life – be sheep looking to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, for our direction. And there are places that tell us to be shepherds, looking for those sheep who have wandered away from the flock.

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