Speaker 1: Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 2: After 4 weeks of waiting in Advent, we are now living in Christmastide, A 12 day celebration of Jesus' birth that ends with the Feast of Epiphany on January 6th. Now, epiphany comes from Greek for manifest or show. It is one of the larger moments in the church calendar because it celebrates the appearance of God to the Gentiles. And it is the ultimate conclusion to the whole scope of the birth narratives Because it shows that in Jesus, God is committed not only to one specific group of people, but to the whole world. The guiding text for Epiphany is usually the story of the Magi.
And this is where we will be today, even though we're still a few days away from January 6th. But every year, in the darkest season of the year, we return to the infancy narratives, hoping to hear something new in them, Or maybe even in ourselves, as we engage with them from the current context of our lives, with all the changes that Happened to and in us over the year. And this year, we went with the theme of Advent landscapes. Scott started the series by reflecting on Joseph and his low places and his valleys. Then Jeremy took us into the plains with Elizabeth and Mary, reminding us how our experience of grace enables us to make room for someone else who is in need of grace.
In the 3rd week of Advent, Bobby walked us through the story of Mary and mountain spirituality. On Christmas Eve, we look at we look The baby Jesus and Caesar Augustus, true light and counterfeit light. And if you missed Any of those sermons, you can always find them on our podcast or YouTube channel. But today, we wrap up the series with the landscape of Dark and light places. But before we dive in, let us pray.
Loving God, for whom no past is lost To know future is hopeless. As we come to another familiar story today, we confess that your choice To enter this world as a child, as a baby, completely vulnerable, completely dependent, Opens us up to you, but also baffles us. But it also reminds us that to make such a choice, You must have faith in us too. As we reflect on the light and dark places in ancient times, We are mindful of the light and dark places in our world today. As we talk about Bethlehem And Jerusalem of old, we ask for your peace to come to Bethlehem and Jerusalem of today, For your righteousness to manifest in protecting the vulnerable and confronting the strong.
And as we prepare to wake up into a new year tomorrow, there were dark and light places in our lives That defined us this year. So may we have the wisdom to know what we need to leave behind and what we need to bring into the future with us. And in this discernment, may we see ourselves with the eyes you see us. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Alright. Today, we are with the Magi, and we will talk about seekers of light, Disturbing news, the way of Herod and people of hope. But let's Start with an old testament reading for epiphany from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is writing to the community that Returned from the Babylonian exile to rebuild and restore Jerusalem, but found themselves in despair. And Isaiah offers them a much needed vision of hope.
And as we've done in this series, I invite you to stand with me For the reading of God's word, let us stand. We will read from Isaiah 60, verses 1 to 6. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, the darkness covers the Earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples. But the Lord rises upon you, and his glory peers over you.
Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look about you. All assemble and come to you. Your sons come from Far and your daughters are carried on the hip. Then you will look and be radiant.
Your heart will throb And swell with joy. The wealth on the seas will be brought to you. To you, the riches of the nations will come. Herds of camels will cover your land. Young camels of Midian and Ephah, and all from Sheba will come bearing gold And incense, and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Now light is one of the major biblical images. And here, in this text, paired with glory, it is a symbol of the very real and tangible presence of God.
And when God is present, something new is about to happen. Isaiah is filled with anticipation of this new beginning for the people of God. And for the Goyim, the nations of the world that do not yet know Yahweh. And in the time around Jesus' birth, The ancient world was filled with a similar sense of anticipation. You see, by then, the Jewish imagination had Already been deeply formed by waiting for the Messiah.
The king who would come from the line of David, Who would fulfill all God's promises to Israel and who would bring peace to the world. And parts of that imagination echoed through the wider gentile world as well, especially to the east of Judea. One Roman historian wrote that throughout the whole Eastern world, there had spread an old and persistent belief That Destiny had decreed that, at that time, men coming from Judea will seize power and rule the world. And, of course, for an imperial historian, it was a laughable hope. The Roman emperors were always destined to rule the world.
But Matthew is writing about a different kind of ruler. In Matthew chapter 2, we read, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the East came to Jerusalem And asked, where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose And have come to worship him. Now, I have this lovely nativity set that I brought with me from Kazakhstan stand over 10 years ago. It's made of felt and it has a yurt, because if Jesus were born in Kazakhstan, he would be born in a yurt, Not a cave or a stable.
We have, like, conceptualization here. It has Little thought animals, and Mary, and Joseph, and the 3 wise men. And I love that set. But as with most nativity sets, it gives us multiple layers and timelines of one story in one set Picture. And this is what Matthew is doing in his birth narrative too.
1st, the visit of the Magi picks up On the theological layer of the story that Matthew begins to unpack in chapter 1, where he introduces Jesus as the son of David and the Son of Abraham. As the son of David, Jesus is the Messiah promised to Israel. And as the son of Abraham, Jesus is the one from whom In whom the rest of the world, read, Gentile nations, will be blessed. Now another layer to the story is political. The Magi, astrologers, and scholars from the East, maybe Babylon, maybe Persia, One of those places where they could have heard about these messianic expectations from the Jewish diaspora.
So these people show up In the center of Israel's political and religious power, was the reigning king, Herod, in place, And ask a dynamite of a question. Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star. Together with a larger part of the ancient world, the Magi believed in the interconnectedness Of heaven and earth. And that any monumental event happening on earth will be reflected in the dark Skies, especially such a huge thing as the birth of a new king.
Now, there were several celestial phenomena that happened around the time of Jesus' birth. It It could have been a supernova, a comet, or a conjunction of planets that they interpreted. And there is no way for us to know what exactly it was that the Magi observed. But even on the level of symbolism, a star was a royal symbol, a sign of power from above. As Jeremy said last week, the Emperor Caesar Augustus had the star imprinted on his coins.
And guess what? Herod was not the one not to assert his power either. 1 of his largest coins had a helmet on it Topped by a star. So by the time the Magi show up, Herod had been king of the Jews for over 30 years. And for him to hear of a new star rising over Judea and signaling a new king Would indeed be disturbing news.
Now, when King Herod heard this, he was disturbed And all Jerusalem was here. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was be born. In Bethlehem, in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, I by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.
Now, the word for disturbed means a very high level of emotional agitation. But it can also mean setting in motion things that need to remain still. So the news of a Child born in the line of David, and thus, a rightful heir to the throne, was highly troubling for Herod. He was not an ethnic Jew. He was first appointed the governor of Galilee and later made King of Judea by the Roman Empire.
He worked hard to build his own mini empire in Judea, and he worked hard to become Herod the Great. And now, these pesky foreigners, with their questions, threaten it all. The fact that all Jerusalem was disturbed with him can be read in 2 ways. Herod was not really loved by people, And maybe the news of the new king stirred up hope in them for a better future. Or maybe everyone was disturbed because regardless Of whether the rumors were true, people were terrified of what Herod, known for his ruthlessness, could do.
The first thing Herod does is collect information. He gathers the religious and theological elites And poses the question to them. And even without good knowledge of Judaism, Herod knows that King of the Jews Refers to the Messiah, or Christos in Greek, and that's the word that Herod uses here for Jesus. And this is the first time in the gospel of Matthew that someone else, other than the author, applies this title to Jesus. Now religious leaders, they know their scriptures, and the prophecy from Micah rolls off their tongue.
The Davidic King will be born in the town of David, Bethlehem, and he will be a good shepherd for God's people. And with that A plus answer, they disappear from the stage. And Matthew here gives us A truly ironic reversal of roles. Gentile astrologers from the lands and nations living in darkness, Because they do not know the ways of God, become the harbingers of God's light to the very people whose historical memory In spiritual formation, we're supposed to recognize and welcome such light from miles away. And this reversal that Matthew does here is intentional.
Matthew writes this gospel to a mixed community with more and more Gentile believers joining the church. And it is important for him to Tell them that their inclusion was never an afterthought. God has always been after the community that has room for all. Now in the Bible, darkness shows up in many ways. It shows up as chaos, as physical oppression, as being and feeling trapped, As ignorance, as despair, as a closed up mind, as being lost, it shows up as death, It shows up as evil, but also as a place where God dwells.
Our darkness is never, never devoid of God's presence. God is in the incomplete picture of truth that we all carry. God is, in our despair, Speaking to us through friends and community. God is with the oppressed and the imprisoned. God is with those who believe they know everything and with those who believe they do not know enough.
As the sign says, Even the darkness is not dark to you, the night will shine like the sky, for darkness is as light to you. God is light. And in divine freedom, And in divine compassion, light can break into our individual and collective darkness At any point and set us free, it may just not look the way we expect it to. And so the Magi, our unexpected seekers of light, are on a mission to find it. While Herod, of course, remains much less spiritually perceptive, Herod wants to handle the title change His way.
So then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the Star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child. As Soon as you find him, report to me so that I too may go and worship him, Which is, of course, a lie. We know how the story goes. He gives the Magi a piece of information.
He wants them to bring a piece of information back. When they do not return, he sanctions a massacre of children in Bethlehem. These birth stories of Christ are full of divine light, but profound darkness is never too far either. We hear the echo of darkness in this story. We hear the echo of passion in the very title the Magi used for Jesus, king of the Jews.
The next time we see it in Matthew is when Jesus stands before Pilate, when he is beaten and mocked by Roman soldiers, And when these words are nailed as a charge above his head on the cross. An Old Testament scholar, Walter Bruggeman, writes that starting from the time of King Solomon, Messiah was seen as a historical figure And a necessary agent of God's ultimate purposes. The Davidic king would be an advocate for the marginal, Someone with the capacity to care, to suffer, and to die. And Herod the Great, The official king of the Jews is the total opposite of that. As a smart power broker between Rome and Judea, he Thier ruled for 34 years.
He also quite unscrupulously executed anyone who posed any threat, Real or imaginable to his throne. And that included his mother-in-law, one of his wives, and 3 of his sons. Herod wants to live in a world where his success and his power are fixed. For Herod, And perhaps for the religious leaders who are deeply enmeshed in his state machinery by now, change is inconceivable. It is unwelcome.
The religious leaders resist the possibility of change in newness by not acting, and Herod resists it by Actively working against death. Now, the gospel of Matthew is our only source for the story of the Magi And the subsequent killing of children in Bethlehem. And so it is often questioned, how Oracle are the events that Matthew describes. And the thing is, whether the story actually happened this way Or whether Matthew uses it as a literary device to show the difference between two ways of being in the world, The way of Jesus and the way of Herod. One thing is certain, the story tells us that change cannot be Stopped.
And you and I, we are no Herods. But when we experience change, Or when God confronts us with the need to change, the way of Herod is always within reach. You know, we get set in our ways. We get comfortable. We get uncritical of ourselves, and then we get defensive, and then we get reactive.
And in those moments, we need our Magi. People who would ask good questions. People whose very presence will Challenge our reaction to things. Those who have no skin in the game and who can help us see the situation from Inside of our enclosed and fixed world, we need the dreamers and the shakers and the people of hope In our lives. So let's finish.
I'll start. After they had heard the king, they went on their way. And the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child was his mother, Mary, And they bowed down and worship him, and then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another Root. And that's it. We never hear about the Magi again. But they live on in Christian imagination And in our nativity sets, Isaiah says, the kings of the nations will be drawn to your brightness. So the early church turns them into kings.
There are 3 gifts. So Christian imagination tells us there were 3 wise men, Even if it defies all wisdom for a group of 3 to undertake such a journey, Christian imagination even gives them names. Melchior, Caspar, Balthazar. And I think the reason the Magi capture our imagination It's because their response to Jesus is just so wholesome. It looks like faith.
We get our first expression of joy in the presence of Jesus from the Magi. And our English translation does not do justice to Matthew's Greek here, because their joy is extreme. It's emotional. It's pouring out of them. It's overwhelming.
They fall on the ground and prostrate themselves before Jesus, who is about 2 years old and probably finds it all extremely entertaining. They bring out expensive luxury stuff, gold, incense, medicinal raisin. They fill this humble house in a small tiny village with noise and fragrances and wonder. Wonder at the ways of God in our lives, when we sometimes find more Then what we set out to look for. So maybe maybe your Christmas was less perfect than you expected.
Maybe 2023, the whole year or parts of it, were not exactly what you wanted or needed to be. But as we set intentions for the New Year, and there's still a bit of time for it today, here are a few encouragements from the Magi For how we can be people of hope too. The Magi are people of hope because they are a community That is curious, and seeking, and not afraid to give themselves time and space to find answers. They are people of hope because they look for possibility, however fragile, where others might see a threat. And they are people of hope because they do not go back to Herod.
They choose to work with God And to align their actions with divine intentions. They come as seekers, And they live as instruments of grace. So this Christmas tide, may you trust That in the dark and wounded places of our world, and in the dark and suffering places over our lives, And in the hardened and resisting and overprotective places over our souls, the light has come. And that this light does not negate our experience of darkness. It does not gloss over the reality of our pain.
It does not force us to change overnight, but as it slowly and patiently works to make all things new, It will meet us with the grace we need for the moment. Let us pray. Loving God, on this last day of the year, we are grateful For the landscapes we traveled this year, for the moments of joy and connection, For the opportunities to learn and to grow that we had, for the love we extended and received, And we do not fully know what the New Year will bring, but we will certainly walk through some dark patches. And when we do, would you help us to remain hopeful? May we know how to care for each other In places of darkness, and may we know how to be places of light for each other.
In the name of Jesus who walks with us, We pray. Amen.
Speaker 1: Hey. Jeremy here and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at commons, you You can head to our website commons.church for more information. You can find us on all of the socials at commonschurch. You can Subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community.
You can also join our discord server. Head to commons.church/discord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus, we would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.