"A Journey of Faith"

First Presbyterian Church
Peter S. Buehler
January 6, 2008
Matthew 2:1-12

When they saw this star, they felt the deepest and most profound joy.

I wonder how many of you still have some Christmas decorations up? Your tree, maybe, or a wreath, or some Christmas candles? A crèche, perhaps. Even if you'd wanted to take them all down and put them away but you hadn't gotten to it yet -- it's a good thing. It's good to celebrate Christmas longer; after all, it's as a season, it's twelve days, not one day.

The season of Christmas ends not on December 25th but today, January 6. If it helps, imagine yourself on a 600-mile camel ride -- say, Santa Barbara to Medford, Oregon -- the same distance the Wise Men traveled from Persia to Bethlehem, and you'll appreciate why Christmas takes twelve days.

Theirs is an amazing story; it's one we see in our mind's eye. We see the Wise Men appearing at the stable in Bethlehem; one at least is kneeling, offering his gift -- that is the crèche scene we're familiar with -- actually the New Testament language suggests that the kings were face down, prostrate before the newborn king, as that was the position one assumed before royalty.

The gifts they bring are a focal point of the scene: Matthew's Gospel identifies them each as extremely valuable -- gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Interestingly, while the Gospel doesn't say the men were kings, tradition has it that only kings could give such gifts. Tradition has it that the gifts were symbolic, representing Jesus' royalty, his divinity, and his burial, but mainly they were gifts meant only for a king, which startles us because by all appearances the child and his parents don't seem at all like royalty -- they are not in a $1,000-a-day suite at a fancy hotel but in a manger in a stable behind a roadside Bethlehem inn. Today the scene would likely be the back seat of a car in a Motel 6 parking lot somewhere on an interstate highway, a No Vacancy sign flashing outside the office. Hardly a place for dignitaries.

Matthew tells us that the three visitors were Magi, learned men from the East, probably modern-day Iraq. Our English word "magician" comes from the Greek word magos, though the word can also be translated "astrologer." While Christian tradition has looked kindly on the Magi -- to us they are the Wise Men, we assume they had been wise long before their journey to Bethlehem -- to the people of Israel, the people the Gospel was written for, they were nothing more New Age quacks.
Just because the Persians sought them out them didn't mean God's people should have anything to do with them. God's people didn't look to the stars for wisdom, that was idolatry, false religion, heresy. Had it been Presbyterians, the official denominational position on the Wise Men would have been Don't waste your time.

Yet if the star of Bethlehem guides shepherds, the poorest of the poor, to the Christ child, as Luke's Gospel says, then so the same star, according to Matthew, brings to Jesus star-gazers, seekers, New Age-ers, and anyone else today whose spirituality to us seems off-beat.

The good news is that God calls anyone and everyone to Bethlehem, God calls anyone and everyone to Jesus. God includes those we'd likely exclude.

Thankfully, God includes us. We didn't find him on our own, our journey began years ago, decades ago, or maybe just months ago because God by his mercy and grace showed us a star of some kind -- a path, a desire, a need, a way of living that brought us into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Scholar Dale Bruner translates the verse from our passage where the Magi realize that the star they had followed on their journey was now directly above them, that they had arrived at the place of the One they had been seeking:
When they saw this star, they felt the deepest and most profound joy.

The deepest and most profound joy. I'm grateful that Matthew's telling of this amazing story includes how these travelers felt when they knew they were exactly where they were supposed to be!

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever sought something so badly and feared you'd never find it, so that when you finally arrived at your destination you were overcome with surprise and elation and joy? Maybe after several less-than-perfect jobs you finally found the one that perfectly suited you -- and they hired you! Or after dating different people one came along who made you completely happy, more than you ever thought you could feel. Or after being ill and discouraged, and seeing many doctors, someone listened and cared and helped you heal -- and you experienced a deep and profound joy. Or perhaps after years of nagging dissatisfaction you came to a place in your life where you discovered gratitude, and it transformed you, it changed your emotional life, so that all of you was different, and, for once, happy.

Granted sometimes we don't know what it is we seek and our guiding star is faint.
I love hearing people share their stories of finding the church after years of seeking, or semi-seeking -- maybe coming to worship on Christmas or Easter but not feeling a connection, until something happens in their life that guides them to Sunday morning and suddenly, walking into church, they feel welcomed by God and by neighbors and they feel they've finally come home.
When they saw this star, they felt the deepest and most profound joy. I wonder if this amazing and transforming happiness the Magi felt isn't what we all experience when we finally arrive at the place God has brought us. We realize that the star has been guiding us all along.

The message between-the-lines of our Gospel story is that the Wise Men became wise. Coming to Jesus, worshipping him, giving him the best they had to offer, their most valuable gifts -- that for them was truly the beginning of wisdom.

Matthew the Gospel-writer uses his words carefully: so the last verse of our story: And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. Or another way. Once we encounter the Christ child, once we come face-to-face with God's Son -- so holy, so loving, so forgiving -- our way is different. We are changed. Suddenly there's the old way and the new way. One way brings us over and over to our destination and to the deepest and most profound joy.

So what wisdom do the Wise Men have for us? Are they mere figurines in a crèche scene made of porcelain, clay, or wood? Are they just visitors, albeit regal ones with costly gifts? Do we forget about them after Christmas? Do they go back in a box in the back of a closet until next Christmas?

The Magi have only one line in the entire New Testament but it is a wonderful line: Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage. But what a perfect question, and what a profound commitment! Seeking the child, the Lord of all humanity. Following God's guidance, listening to their hearts, not giving up on their journey, desiring more than anything else to worship the newborn king.
Seeking Jesus, worshipping Christ -- the wise men teach us the heart of wisdom.
Their journey is ours too.

My prayer for us in the year ahead is two-fold. First, that we recognize every person who comes through our doors is a seeker, everyone who comes is on a journey, to bring their gifts to Christ. People come to church for a reason. Whoever they are -- street person, wealthy person, a neighbor somewhere in-between -- they are following a star God has provided; God's love and grace are their navigation system.

And there is no deserving involved; there is no group of people who "fit" at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Barbara. Every human being who comes through our doors is risking something to be here, they are hoping to find Jesus -- and they have traveled a long way. My prayer is that we greet each visitor to our church as a fellow-traveler.

My second prayer for us as a congregation is that we take risks. That we don't play it safe. That like the Wise Men, we don't just stay home but set out on a journey of faith, following a star.

What might that risk, that star, be for you?

In a few minutes we'll have the chance to take a star -- a piece of paper with a word on it, a word that may speak to us, point us to a new destination, a new adventure on our journey. I look forward to seeing what mine is!

What does the New Year hold in store? What will it bring -- what joys, what opportunities, what challenges? Do we know? Can we know?

It is interesting that there is nothing said about preparations the Magi made for their journey. Matthew is silent when it comes to what they needed to take, where they'd stay, how much water and food to pack. I think I'd want to know all that before I set out on a 600-mile trip. I'd want a good map to show me the way, maybe a GPS system, not just a star.

A line from author Ken Follett's new novel caught my eye. He tells about 13th century England, about travelers and pilgrims -- but I felt that Follett was speaking to me in the 21st century when he wrote: It was said that pilgrims should not spend too much time planning their journey, for they might learn of so many hazards that they would decide not to go.

No doubt it was true for the Wise Men. So many hazards along the way -- miles of desert, dwindling supplies, thieves wanting their riches. Were their astrological calculations absolutely correct? There was no guarantee they would find their king, they just headed west and kept going. They headed west and kept believing.

I wonder: is not being part of a church, being a member of this church, like being on a journey, not knowing ahead of time how everything will go, how we'll get where we want to go, but trusting that God will show us the way? Some say the church is a building; I say it's people on a journey of faith.

Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.

In the year ahead, we will be surprised by who asks that question. Who will the pilgrims be? Will we be ready to receive them?

I suspect we will, for we are like them. We're pilgrims too; worshipping Christ is our deepest and most profound joy. Following him, learning from him, trusting him -- is a journey we take together. It is how we become wise.