Sunday Evening’s Carol Service Sermon: A Spiritual Journey With The Magi

Last night I said I thought the carol service sermon would be posted in a couple of days. Well I don’t know what happened, but here it is. I had some rough notes a day or two ago and this afternoon it all seemed to flow.

In the meantime I continue my slow, steady recovery from the virus (not as fast as I’d like – I thought I’d be out at an interesting meeting tonight but my legs said ‘no’). However this sermon is for the annual ecumenical village carol service in Broomfield and I shall not have my Anglican vicar colleague with me. He suffered a heart attack yesterday and we are waiting and praying for news of his condition.

Matthew
2:1-12

Introduction
A week before Christmas last year my wife saw a money-making
idea for this Christmas. She noticed that Woolworth’s
were selling off very cheaply all the nativity costumes they had failed to sell
in time for school and church nativity plays. Items previously around £10-15
were being sold off at 3 for £10. She bought nine, put them aside, and then at
the end of last month began auctioning them on eBay.
All but one of them sold, and for anything between £5 and £20.

One costume didn’t sell, and two or three had to be put on
the site twice before finding buyers. One of the harder costumes to sell was
that for one of the ‘wise men’ (or ‘magi’ as I prefer to call them). Shepherds
and Mary were far more popular.

I don’t know whether shepherds are that bit easier for us to
imagine, for the magi were certainly strange, mysterious characters. But tonight
I want to rehabilitate the magi. Although these curious characters seem very
remote from us, I want to suggest we might find some things in common with them
as they made their journey. Like them, we can be on a spiritual journey of
discovery, even if ours does not involve geography. Let me offer you three
descriptions of the magi to show you what I mean.

1. Seekers
Who were the magi? Traditionally, English-speaking people
have called them either ‘kings’ or ‘wise men’. But they were neither. Kings
would not bow down and offer homage to another king as the magi did: they would
be meeting an equal. And they are not regarded in the Gospel as wise men,
either: Matthew later says that God has hidden his wonders from ‘the wise and
the intelligent’ [11:25].

I prefer to see them as seekers after spiritual or mystical
truth. For without doubt they were astrologers. They studied the stars in order
to find meaning and significance in life. Astrology had started in Babylon, and that may
well be where they were from.

And although astrology has changed over the centuries, still
today many people use it to find guidance for their lives. These days it is
joined by many other practices as people seek to make sense of life. Maybe
you’ve felt a disharmony in your house and engaged a Feng Shui consultant to
reorganise your furniture. The disharmony might have been inside of you and you
could have tried an eastern meditation technique or yoga (which is much more
than physical exercise). Business executives can be offered techniques for
success that rest on using psychic powers.

This may be a society where, as Alistair Campbell put it,
‘We don’t do God’, but people are still searching for deep things in life.
There is the need for self-discipline that runs everywhere from the health club
to interests in ancient spiritual wisdom of all sorts and even of the monastic
life. Others are looking for an enthusiastic expression of spiritual things
that seeks to ‘send energy into the future’ or talk with angels. [Loosely adapted from John Drane, Do
Christians Know How To Be Spiritual?, pp
61-70.]

If you are a seeker tonight, welcome! My prayer for you
tonight is that this evening might be a helpful part of your journey, rather
than one of those times when the Christian Church has got in the way and become
part of the problem, rather than part of the answer.

2. Worshippers
When the magi see the star stop at Bethlehem ‘they were overwhelmed with joy’
[verse 10] and when they enter the house they kneel before the young Jesus in
homage and open their treasure-chests [verse 11]. Both these things – the joy
and the kneeling offering their treasures sound like a simple form of worship
to me.

And the hunger for worship hasn’t gone away, even in a ‘We
don’t do God’ society. In a week when we have seen the publication of Lord
Stevens’ report into the death of Princess Diana my mind can’t help but go
back to all those flowers and outpourings of grief, just as we now regularly
see wayside shrines at places where people have been killed in road accidents.

But we worship whatever we give our lives to. It can be
sport, health, money or possessions. Members of this congregation will know
that our next door neighbour worships the shared drive, which he owns. He
doesn’t like to look down his drive on a Sunday night and see our wheelie bin!
All these objects of worship will let us down.

So why do I think Jesus is worthy of the worship the magi
offered him? It’s not just that he is the Son of God, it’s the kind of God he
reveals to us. Leaving the glory of heaven for the smell of the manger; the
riches of heaven for a life of poverty; the power of heaven for a life
committed to serving people and bringing good news to the poor; conquering sin
by willingly dying for us; offering new life as he is raised from the dead.

And because Jesus is like this I believe his personality and
his actions show that he is trustworthy. You may have got burned in life wholly
giving yourself over to someone who then hurt you or let you down badly. May I
commend Jesus as being different from that?

Coming to the feet of Jesus won’t mean you’ve got all the
answers and it won’t always remove discomfort from life. But it is the place
where you know where you’ve fitted in to life as it was meant to be. And so
finding Jesus leads to the same joy that the magi had when they saw the star
indicating the climax of their journey.

But this worship will be costly. If Jesus is who I said he
is, then he is worth more than singing the odd hymn on a Sunday (and some of
those hymns are pretty odd!) or saying the odd prayer when we are in trouble.
He’s worth us opening up our treasures and offering them to him. We say
something like this, ‘Jesus, if you are what the Gospels show you to be, then
here is my life – all that I am and all that I have. I dedicate it all to you.’

In other words, never mind the beauty adverts for L’Oreal
that are paradoxically ugly – ‘Because I’m worth it’ and all that – seeking
turns to worshipping when we realise it’s ‘Because Jesus is worth it.’

3. Travellers
The final sentence about the magi is this, and then they
disappear into the mists of history:

And having been warned in a dream not
to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
[verse 12]

They seek and they worship. You would think they had
‘arrived’. In a sense they had, but in another sense no, they were still
travellers, still on a journey both spiritual and geographical.

Things have changed drastically. Having met Jesus they now
hear divine guidance in a dream, not astrology, and their lives are being
directed with a clear certainty. But again, it’s not the end, it’s only the end
of the beginning.

Let me put it in terms of popular music. In 1969 The Carpenters sang ‘We’ve
Only Just Begun’. It was a wedding song, and here
is a flavour of the lyrics:

We’ve only just begun to live
White lace and promises
A kiss for luck and we’re on our way
We’ve only just begun

Before the rising sun we fly
So many roads to choose
We start our walking
And learn to run
And yes! We’ve only just begun

Sharing horizons that are new to us
Watching the signs along the way
Talking it over just the two of us
Working together day to day, together

And when the evening comes we smile
So much of life ahead
We’ll find a place where there’s room to grow
And yes! We’ve only just begun.

[Paul Williams/Roger Nichols; Copyright
© Irving Music, BMI]

A wedding can feel like an ending, but it is only the ending
of months of preparation. So too finding Jesus is not an ending but only the
end of the beginning.

Or put it another way in a vastly different style. Let’s go
from the Carpenters to U2. you may know they
mostly come from a Christian background, and so when in 1987 they released the
song ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ it was quite a shock to many
Christians. And the reason was found in the lyrics to the final verse:

I believe in the kingdom come

Then all the colours will bleed into
one

But yes I’m still running

You broke the bonds

You loosed the chains

You carried the cross

And my shame

And my shame

You know I believe it

But I still haven’t found what I’m
looking for

But I still haven’t found what I’m
looking for

[Bono; Copyright © Blue Mountain Music
1987]

I now believe Bono was right. Even finding Jesus leaves you
on a spiritual journey of restlessness for the remainder of your life on this
planet. Just as the magi ‘left for their own country’ so we travel in the faith
and company of Christ, once we meet him.

And what might that mean? Well, here’s a bit of speculation.
Let me take you back to my earlier comment that astrology began in Babylon. It’s quite
likely the magi came from Babylon.
Where is Babylon
today? Modern-day Iraq.
And we know there has been a Christian community in Iraq since the first century AD.
(Today it is in terrible peril.)

I don’t know whether the magi had any hand in forming that
community, but let me at least say this: to enter onto a lifetime of travelling
in the company of Jesus is to open yourself up to all sorts of possible
accomplishments. You may become famous, more likely you will remain obscure.
But Jesus is waiting for partners who will share the challenge of his kingdom,
bringing good news to people who are materially poor, medically poor and
spiritually poor. It just requires that you’re willing to travel with him
throughout life. Are you up for the challenge?

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