Epiphany A

Matthew 2:1-12
The gospel today is a familiar one. The story of the three wisemen or magi or kings, were they kings...No, they weren't really kings but there is a lot of legend around this story, part of being so familiar, so today I have a first hand account from the perspective of one of these wise men, of how the whole thing could have gone, hopefully it will clarify things a little bit.

The story of the Journey of the Magi, by Magi #1:
Ah the story of how I came to the cradle side (you know at first it was a feed trough side) of the infant called Jesus:

Well, it started like this...I was sitting around the marketplace with some of my colleagues. I am what they call a magus, though I wish they wouldn't call me that. It isn't really the nicest name, not anymore. People call us that because they don't take us seriously as counselors of the future, readers of the sky, knowers of the prophecies. They say that we just practice cheap magic (our name is where your word for magic comes from) and get lucky with fortune telling sometimes. Well that was how people thought of us but we seemed good enough for your God to send us a sign to see the newborn Messiah, the personally invite us to his nursery!

Anyway, like I said I was sitting with the other Magi in the marketplace as the sun went down and suddenly we saw this star rising in the east. We make it our business to know about all the stars that rise and all of the ones that are scheduled to rise and I have to admit, though please don't repeat this to anyone, that this particular star was a bit of a surprise and mystery to us. But we could tell because of its placement and brightness that it hailed the birth of a king. A Jewish king and so we did what any sensible person might do.

Really we thought we were doing the right thing, though we regret it now. We went to the current King. King Herod the Great. His family had ruled for many years so we assumed this new birth must have been in his family. It could have meant something great that a star had risen for someone in the house of Herod, we thought it signaled a turn in the way the family would deal with the Jewish people because for being Jewish themselves I can't say I ever thought that they did that good of a job representing their people. Herod did rebuild the temple which meant a lot but he also built a lot of fancy palaces for himself. Maybe this new king would be even better, with a little more of a mind for the people.

We showed up ready to share our congratulations and to learn what there was to know about this new king but the only king there was Herod and he wasn't thrilled by what we had to say. He had this funny look on his face, half amused and half, scared I guess, maybe more than half scared. He called together some priests and scribes and they all talked for a long time. We heard them throwing around quotes from their Holy texts, we heard Jerusalem and Bethlehem over and over again like there was a debate about where the king would be,

Jerusalem or Bethlehem. Bethlehem was close by, a few hours by camel but it wasn't much of a birthplace for anyone. Either way it was pretty clear by the uproar that we caused that the king was not anywhere near Herod's court and we magi could have thought of many places that might have been more comfortable for us to be during that time. Really any place would have been more comfortable so Bethlehem sounded just fine. We were relived, to say the least, when we were finally allowed to leave that royal court!

But there is more to it than that, they didn't just let us leave. Herod asked that we come back with news once we find this baby king so that they could all offer their gifts and praise as well. Some of the other magi thought that this sounded nice, how wonderful that the king would be so humble and loving but I knew better I was sure that they had something other than gifts in mind for the child and I was sure we wouldn't come back to lead him there.

Either way we were bound to travel and find him then and all the more anxious and curious with this new information. Perhaps he was an entirely different kind of king, that would explain why the star had appeared to us lowly gentiles.

So off we went and as we were traveling the star stopped. That's right it stopped. It had been moving across the sky from the east since we first saw it and all of a sudden it didn't appear to move at all anymore. This meant we were close, very close. So we found a house that it had stopped over, a humble thing but not as bad as the barn we heard tell of later. Inside was a lovely young couple with a baby that looked just like every other baby we had ever seen but then people started to tell us stories. Lots of folks were coming and going. We learned that shepherds had also come to see the baby before we got there. They had been told by an angel to travel to where the baby was. They seemed pretty sure that he was God's son because they went off and told the whole town and lots of people in the surrounding towns and now everyone wanted to see the baby Jesus.

I was amazed at how much faith people were placing in someone who couldn't even speak yet but I think that faith must nourish faith because it was hard to be there and hear everyone's story and not believe. I guess that is why we were led there. It takes a lot to make someone who has always been on the outside believe that God came to walk with them. We aren't even allowed into the temple but here we were touching God, holding his hand and asking his mother if we could help her, and doing little tasks around the house for his father. Anyway listening to all of their stories we were sure that this was indeed the son of God, of their God.

And after telling our own story we were sure he had come for us as well, so that we would know, as different as we all seemed, that their God was our God too. It was amazing to watch all kinds of people realize that same thing about themselves everyday as we were there. I guess this is why you all call today Epiphany. Many people came to understand who God is because of journeys like mine. Like I say, faith nurtures faith, new or old.

After staying for as long as we felt we could we packed up our things and bid Mary and Joseph goodbye. They were wonderful to welcome us into their family for a time. We bowed to the baby Jesus one more time and we headed home but we took a different road than the one we came on. And not just to avoid Herod and his murderous ways. We no longer needed to pay homage to a king in Jerusalem nor did we need the grand temple he had built. We had given praises to a new type of priest and offered the sacrifice of our love and faith at the alter of the prince of peace.

So this new way we took home was anything but a road and our journey was in service to a very different kind of King. Amen