The church I grew up in had a stalwart men’s section in the choir. Normally, I saw them in their choir robes and in their places in the choir itself. One Sunday a year, though, three men stepped out and sang their way up the aisle of the church – each taking a verse of We Three Kings. No more were they in choir garb, they were decked out – exotic and glamorous in costumes with elaborate robes and drapes, feathers and crowns, furs and even a small few bells were stitched into the hems of their costumes and which chimed as they made their way up the aisle.
The congregation would sing the first and last stanzas and the refrain, and each king in turn would sing their verse – moving at a stately pace down the center aisle of the Church – each of them following the star of wonder. The men they were disappeared into the otherness of the part they played and they were majestic.
Perhaps you did something like that here at St. Mark’s in years past. As a child, for me, it was unforgettable.
I’ve been thinking about those three kings or the Magi as they are called in our gospel reading today – and especially because tomorrow January 6th is the Feast of the Epiphany and marks the traditional day of their arrival…. I’ve been wondering about why they made such an impression as a child, and there are some things that come to mind.
First – they were so other – so completely outside day to day life – so foreign - they were from other lands – probably Persia which is in modern day Iraq, perhaps also from India, Arabia, Egypt, Africa – say the ancient kingdoms of Kush or Ghana. Otherness captures the imagination.
I try to imagine what it would have been like when they arrived in Bethlehem…..which was a very small town – an eyeblink of a town… poor and on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It was agricultural and the surrounding area was used for grazing sheep.
So the Magi must have stood out even if their robes were a bit beaten up from the time on the road… Bethlehem, I suspect, was not used to visitors and sometimes, then as now, when we encounter someone who is so different it can be anxiety producing, even fearful. So, perhaps, the residents became afraid as well as intrigued. They were probably more used to flying under the radar screen especially with the occupying Romans forces who were both greedy and violent. Pays to keep your head down I that kind of situation.
The other thing that caught my attention about them -other than how exotic they were- was this: they were following a star. They had been looking up, watching, tracking a pinpoint of light and observing as it grew and came into position…and so, following the star, they set out to find the one it foretold. Their watching, yearning and wondering transformed them into pilgrims and they made their way to Jerusalem.
They said to Herod, as we heard, “ Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews?” - for the star was a sign that a mighty king had been born and they had been drawn irresistibly… Having seen the star, they yearned to greet the new King. In a sense, they are the first pilgrims we have a record of in the Gospels, and I’d like to shift for a moment to the idea of pilgrims and pilgrimages.
In its most basic sense, a pilgrim is a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons. Another description is this: “The journey of a pilgrimage is often difficult. Pilgrims [may] travel long distances. They have few belongings. [and] They carry little baggage. They may encounter hardship and challenges. However, God is always present along the journey; (we as) [and] pilgrims must remain alert to the signs, and cognizant of God’s guidance along the way.”
In our psalm today- Psalm 84 – we have a comment about those who are pilgrims.. v.4 - Happy are the people whose strength is in you! Whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way..
Happy are those whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way..
There is a kind of unsettledness, a yearning that draws us to pilgrimage, and I believe that this is grounded in our longing for a deeper relationship with God, in our hunger for an encounter with the Holy One and a sense of God’s presence with us. The psalmist in Ps 84 goes on to say “They will climb from height to height and the God of gods will reveal himself in Zion.” Did you hear that? It’s a promise that God will bless the spirit of pilgrimage and that yearning for him by revealing Godself.
The Magi had that yearning and it compelled them to follow a star, and God blessed them by leading them to the child Jesus – Immanuel. So, too, many others down through the ages have had that yearning and have sought God’s presence in journeying as pilgrims. It would not be a reach to say that the Church is called to be a pilgrim people.
There’s an old hymn – based on a 17th century John Bunyan verse. It’s entitled, “He who would valiant be,” and it’s in our hymnal. The first verse goes like this:
He who would valiant be, ‘gainst all disaster,
Let him in constancy, follow the master.
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent,
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.
I once went to a funeral of a woman who was a dedicated church member, and we sang that hymn changing the hes and his to shes and hers – it worked just fine.
How are you doing with the yearning for God’s presence? I believe it is built into us. Is there a star you are following? Remember, part of our on-going call is to be pilgrims - to continuously seek the face and presence of God in Jesus… wherever it takes us.
Yearning can be a very uncomfortable feeling and sometimes we judge ourselves for our yearnings. We may yearn for companionship, or financial security, or for peace from worry or conflict or for justice. Sometimes our yearning is so intense that we repress it. Sometimes it drives us to make foolish decisions. I want to suggest to you that at the heart of any human yearning is our longing – sometimes almost subconscious- for deeper relationship with God who alone can satisfy our restless hearts.
But back to the Magi for a moment because we can pick up some good pointers from them for how to conduct a pilgrimage.
First of all, they went in some innocence – some naivete- to Herod who had been granted the title of “King of Judea” by the Roman Senate…perhaps the Magi assumed a son had been born to Herod who would be the new King. They were mistaken. Their foreignness could have seemed a threat and they probably only escaped with their lives because they promised to come back and tell Herod where the new king might be found. Herod’s yearning was not to worship a new king. Rather, his yearning was to hold onto power by any means possible. He had, in the course of trying to do so, murdered one of his wives, her two sons, his brother-in-law, her grandfather, and her mother because he feared they were plotting against him. He was ruthless and murderous as we see in the slaughter of the Innocents which followed when the magi did not return to him.
So, the first pilgrimage tip would be: be careful when you deal with power structures and consider if you or what you represent poses a threat to them and plan accordingly. As you know, the Christian path often leads into conflict with Empire and with those who would hold onto power at any cost. So, as Jesus counsels us and the disciples as he sent them out – be innocent as doves and smart as snakes as we journey along.
The second tip the Magi would pass along is this: Pay attention to your dreams especially on pilgrimage. God often has spoken to people through dreams as we see throughout the bible. St. Joseph is a great example of this. He not only listened to his dreams but he acted thus saving the Christ Child from death.
In seminary, I had a classmate from Ghana, and once we were talking about this very thing - dreams He said that in the village where he grew up that the elders often spoke of dreams and also interpreted dreams that the people brought to them. He said, ruefully, I wish I had listened more to them and learned how to do that.
The Magi were warned in a dream to not return to Herod and they returned to their own country by another road. Pilgrimage tip number 2 - Listen to your dreams.
Now, I’d like to come back to the yearning that moves us to become pilgrims and seekers and followers after a star. Yearning is centered in the heart. During the time of ancient Israel and during Jesus’ day, the heart was not just a muscle which served a biological function… it represented the center of self – of thought and feeling – of being really. Some recent studies have suggested that the heart functions as a second brain which is really interesting to think about and seems to cohere with a more ancient understanding of its functioning.
So, yearning is centered in the heart but as I suggested earlier, we often suppress our yearnings for God along with so many other things (news reports of war, murder, disaster to say nothing of our own tragedies that we live with).. we repress these things - often just so that we can function and get through the day.. the difficulty is this: the more we repress, the more wooden or stonelike our hearts become. Sometimes this is a necessary and good short term survival mechanism, but long term it causes us to lose our capacity for meaningful relationship not only with each other, or with the natural world, but, most importantly, with God.
So what are we to do? There’s a hint in the last verse of the carol, “In the bleak midwinter” – composed by the brilliant Christina Rossetti - and which we will sing at the presentation of our offering today. It goes like this
What can I give him, poor as I am ?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wiseman, I would do my part;
Yes, what can I give him- give my heart.
I used to think this was just sweet sentimentality but, when you think about it, giving our heart to Jesus is what we invited to do… to love him and place him at the center of our lives, to make his priorities ours, and to trust him with our lives. So today, it is still Christmas , it’s the twelfth day of Christmas and it is not to late to give our heart to Jesus – maybe for the first time or perhaps to renew our willingness to give him this most precious gift. This reminds me of something Martin Luther said. When we are baptized the old man drowns down in the font but, the problem is that he keeps trying to crawl back out. So, too with us. We might have given our heart to Jesus but then taken it back. Sometimes, we may have done this multiple times.
Do you recall that St. Augustine said our hearts are restless until they find our rest in thee? In him alone is our yearning satisfied as we walk the pilgrim way with him by our side and as we follow the star that lights our way.
Let’s take a moment for some silence and then I will close with a prayer.
Let us pray…
Lord Jesus Christ, Give to us fresh courage to be pilgrims and to follow you - our True Star… Receive now for the first time or once again the only gift we truly can give you: our heart, our selves, our souls and bodies. Let us receive anew your life, your light, your peace, your justice, and your love. Breathe these anew also over this Church family that we may truly know you and serve you. This we ask in your most Holy Name. Amen.
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