"What
Brought The Magi?" Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – January
5, 2014 Centenary United Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12 This morning we
are going to discuss what caused the three mysterious astrologers to
visit Astrology is an
interesting field. Today, we
still have people that refer to themselves as astrologers and they have
a substantial number of clients that seek their advice.
Some of you may look up your astrological sign in the newspaper
that encompasses your birthday to learn what the stars have in store for
you in the immediate future. In ancient
Persian, astrologers were consulted in the same way that the advice was
sought by Hebrew kings from their prophets.
As happens in many fields, astrologers developed their own
specialties. Some
specialized in forecasting future events in people’s lives.
Some advised merchants about the direction of their businesses.
Still others became spiritual advisors and healers.
One of the
curious elements in today’s scripture lesson is that astrologers from as
far away as India, China and South America saw the same event in the sky
around the time of Jesus’ birth.
Why were only three from this distinguished group motivated to
travel to We are going to
speculate that the three that made the trip to The suspicion
is that these three men knew that a child was entering the world that
would change the direction of human history.
This intuitive belief was the probable cause of their
decision to explore this possibility. This
hunch was also what caused them to bring their gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh. When the three
came seeking directions to the birth place of this child king, they
noticed that King Herod and most of his
lieutenants were upset by
their inquiry once the ancient prophet Micah named Bethlehem as the
town. Before they left Herod’s
court, the three knew their search for the baby had ignited a fire-storm
of anxiety among those in Herod’s court.
They may have known from this reaction that they had placed the
baby in harm’s way. What can we
take home with us this morning from this event?
The three men came to Today, when
people are led to Jesus Christ for the first time, many of them linger
around him, worship him and spend time praising his name.
The focus of such believers remains on Jesus and what Jesus did
for them. While this is
commendable, this was not what Jesus asked his followers to do.
Jesus wanted believers to scatter
all over the world and sow their verbal and behavioral seeds among
others. (Matthew 28:19) One afternoon,
I was working late on repairing the front doors of my former church when
a mechanic came to do major surgery on the office copier. He was way behind schedule and
wanted to finish that evening.
Upon completing his work, he discussed with me everything that he
had done and explained why the work was necessary.
He asked me sign his work order.
As I was doing so I noticed that he had drawn a fish at the
bottom of the document. I said, “Ah,
the fish!” He said, “Do you
know about the fish?” I
said, “Yes, I do. During the
years of Christian persecution, the sign of the fish was a symbol that
was recognized only by those who knew its meaning.”
He said, “I have not heard such recognition from anyone in a long
time.” I am sure he assumed that
I was a church handyman. He continued,
“For me, the fish is my sign to God that I have done the best work I
know how to do on your copier.”
I asked him where he went to church.
He said, “I am Egyptian and I belong to a Coptic Church near my
home.” He said, “It is so
nice to find a brother who understands.”
He was taking
his faith into the world and doing so as a technician that worked on
healing copiers.
Every time he repaired an office machine, he was witnessing to
his faith even if no one noticed. This
is what the three astrologers did.
They visited Jesus as an infant and left without anyone outside
the family knowing. What is
amazing is that someone did notice. They could not
have known that the gifts they left at Jesus’ crib side were destined to
supply the needs of his mom and dad as they fled into In his book
entitled, Letters to Marc About
Jesus, Professor Henry Nouwen of Boston University School of
Theology wrote: The people of the
world often desire publicity, celebrity status, popularity and gaining
the maximum exposure for themselves when they engage in acts of
compassion. God, however,
appears to prefer to work in secret.
It would do well for people to follow God’s example.
In God’s infinite mind, the things that really matter seldom take
place in a way that people will notice. The spread of God’s creative
behavior and attitude patterns all over the world comes mostly from
unknown people that do their work quietly and without fanfare. Notoriety
is not something they seek.
Perhaps the greatest saints
are those that remain anonymous! This was the
model left for us by the three astrologers.
They accomplished what they set out to do and never realized what
they left behind. The only
reason we know about these three men is because someone talked about it
and the story of their appearance was circulating at the time Matthew’s
Gospel was being written. This same model
appeared when Jesus observed a widow dropping two copper coins into the This may be one
of the ways Jesus’ teachings were spread. We
oldsters used to refer to this
way of communicating as the grape
vine. What Jesus could
never have foreseen is that some of his followers would remember his
teachings and stories and still others would preserve them in writing
for future generations – all before printing presses, movies and a book
called The Bible. The other
morning I watched how a story unfolding in today’s world gained wide
social recognition even though such attention was never the intention of
any of the participants. A woman
walked out of a Florida Wal-Mart with a cart loaded with groceries
without paying for them. The
police were notified and she was apprehended as she was transferring the
groceries from the cart to her car.
The arresting officer listened to her story.
The woman claimed that she had three children at home that had
not eaten in days. Before making
the arrest, the curious officer wanted to check the accuracy of her
story. The two drove to her
home in the officer’s cruiser and the policewoman found her three
children at home where there was not a single thing to eat. That officer
paid for the woman’s groceries.
Upon learning what the officer did, the Wal-Mart manager
contacted the media because this was a human-interest story that had to
be told. Since it was
Christmas, the story made most of the The officer and the mother were both interviewed. The mother had been trying to find work in her field for months and she literally had run out of money. She was desperate. She had to feed her children even if that meant that she would be arrested and her children would be taken from her. Someone
watching the story on television called the police station to find out
more details about the woman. The police could not disclose anything to
the caller due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.
However, when he told the police who he was and that he intended
to offer the woman a job that paid a living wage, they cooperated. Wal-Mart
dropped the charges. She
accepted the new position being offered and the story ended well.
This story unfolded as it did because a mother risked the unity
of her family for the sake of her children.
She was prepared to vanish in the
legal system just as the astrologers vanished when they left
As was mentioned last Sunday,
one third of the world’s population is Christian.
The spread of Jesus’ life and teachings happened because for
thousands of years, average people loved one another in its many forms.
Love is contagious and easily spreads from one generation to the
next. No one really knows or
cares about who may be watching. Who knows what
might have happened to Jesus, had those astrologers not left their
gifts? Perhaps the three
really were one of those invisible lynchpins in history that connected the unfolding of
Jesus’ life to how he influenced humankind’s destiny. We know the story
of what happened only because someone noticed and remembered.
Today, we have
hindsight to connect the dots.
We are here, experiencing our worship service because the Magi
helped Jesus to survive his childhood.
We never know how insignificant events are connected. Perhaps
Professor Henry Nouwen has it right -- “In God’s infinite mind the
things that really matter seldom take place in a way that people will
notice.” Now it is our turn
to keep the Jesus’ truth visible in our lives.
God will do the rest. |