Sermon, January 3, 2016 2 Christmas Jeremiah 31:7-14, Psalm 84, Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19, Matthew 2:1-12 By The Rev. Dr. Kim McNamara As I was taking down and putting away our Christmas decorations on New Year’s Day, my dear husband, John, teased me just a bit about my ritualistic behavior. In many ways, he is right. Christmas, for me, is guided by traditional rituals and symbols. Because I live a very busy life and work in an academic setting divided up into quarterly cycles, the rituals I have marked on the calendar help me to make sure I do everything I want to do in the short amount of time I have to do it in. Along with the rituals, the symbols serve as mental touchstones for me; focusing my attention, my thoughts, my reflections, my memories, and my prayers, on the many meanings of Christmas. My own Christmas rituals start in Advent with two traditional symbols of Christmas, the advent wreath and the nativity. On my birthday, which is exactly two weeks before Christmas, I buy a Christmas tree. (I am not sure what the symbolism is, but it sure is pretty.) As I grade final exams and projects for my students, I reward myself for getting through piles and hours of grading by taking breaks every now and then to decorate for Christmas. According to my ritual schedule, grades and Christmas decorations have to be completed by December 18. I then have two weeks to savor and reflect upon the wonder, beauty, and love of Christmas. On New Year’s Day, the ritual marked on my calendar indicates that Christmas decorations must be taken down and put away because I return to school and start another quarter tomorrow. All the decorations are put away but one. The nativity, which stays up for a few days longer waiting for the wise men, is an exception. My rituals and symbols, for the most part, mimic those here at Church. Advent, with the advent wreath and nativity symbols, prepares our hearts and minds for the Christmas story. A week before Christmas, we green the church. We celebrate Christmas for two Sundays, then we put everything away so that we can celebrate Epiphany next week, the 12th day after Christmas, with fresh new rituals and symbols. (Yesterday, Brooke called me while I was writing this sermon to ask about the right time for removing the Christmas greens. We lamented the fact that the Church calendar does not identify a De-greening the Church Day. We may need a new ritual.) While the traditional rituals are predictable, comforting and often joyful markers of the Christmas season, one of the problems with the timing of our Christmas rituals is that they are a bit out of sync with the Christmas story, especially with the arrival of the wise men, which is the subject of this morning’s gospel reading from Matthew. Last week, Vicki mentioned that Monday, December 28, was the day we remember Herod’s slaughter of the innocent babies in Bethlehem as he attempted to destroy the Christ child. I wanted to stand up and say, “Wait! The three wise men haven’t shown up yet.” Fortunately, I was able to restrain myself, but it bothered me that our dates are so mixed up that the visit from the wise men is an after-thought. My deeply felt reaction to this date confusion got me thinking about the wise men and why they are such an important symbol in our story of the birth of Christ, which is what brought me to today’s sermon. Preparing for past sermons has provided me with opportunities to study the three wise men and the gifts they brought to the Christ child. Although the wise men are generally thought of as astronomer/priests, through the ages, we have come to call these wise men the three kings. Some traditions name each of these three kings or noblemen and identify their land of origin, and even describe their appearance with different religious groups adopting different names and kingdoms. The following names and descriptions of the kings first appeared in a Greek manuscript composed around 500 AD. • Melchior is a King from Persia or Sheba. He is often portrayed as having white hair and a white beard. Melchior brings Gold to Jesus. • Gaspar (or, Casper) is a King from India or Afghanistan. He is often portrayed as having brown hair and a brown beard. Gaspar brings the Frankincense to Jesus. • Balthazar is a King from Arabia or Ethiopia. He is portrayed as having dark brown skin and a black beard. Balthazar brings the gift of Myrrh to Jesus. As Christianity moved into the Western world, some traditions globalized this royal homage and identified the three noblemen as coming from far-away continents of the world based on the origins of their gifts. For example: • The nobleman who brings the gift of gold is given a Western European origin, usually the British Isles or France. • The nobleman who brings the Frankincense is given an Arabian or Far Eastern origin, usually Yemen or China. • The nobleman who brings the Myrrh is given an African origin, usually Abyssinia or Ethiopia. The gifts, themselves, have meanings ascribed to them. In the Christmas carol, We Three Kings, the verses of the song explain that gold symbolizes the crown of a king; a kingship on earth. Frankincense, an incense used in temples and churches, symbolizes the priesthood, prayer and praise. Myrrh, an embalming oil, symbolizes suffering and death. As I began to reflect on the symbolism of the three wise men, I found myself exploring some possible themes of each of the guests who came to visit the infant Jesus in his nativity. The first visitors to show up are the angels. Throughout the Bible, we read about appearances of angels from the Lord and angels certainly had a key role in the story of Christ’s birth. According to Matthew’s Gospel, an angel appeared to Joseph several times in dreams with important advice; first about the child Mary was to give birth to and then about the need to flee to Egypt to escape Herod’s plan to slaughter the innocents. In Luke’s Gospel, an angel of the Lord appears to Zechariah, John’s father, and to Mary, the mother of Jesus, telling them about their two sons. Luke also tells us that a heavenly host of angels were the first to know about the birth of Christ and shared the good news with the shepherds. Angels are the messengers from God and come from the heavens to share good news with us. In many ways, they represent the spiritual aspect of our relationship with God; Jesus Christ; the spiritual realm and its implications; the call from God through a heavenly messenger; and the mysteriously beautiful, yet often unavoidable, response that is evoked within us after an encounter with the spirit. Luke’s Gospel also tells us about the shepherds who, after hearing the news of the birth of the Messiah from the angels, travel to Bethlehem where they find Mary and Joseph and the Christ child lying in a manger. Shepherds seem to represent the very earthy human element of our relationship with the Christ child. Despite their demanding flocks of sheep to guide and care for, they willingly act upon the angel’s call. They seem to represent our feet and hands, as well as our worldly cares and responsibilities as we, too, are called to journey towards and witness Christ. And, then, there are the wise men, not to be forgotten, especially since they are the only ones bringing gifts to the Christ child’s birthday. In my reflections this Christmas, I have come to see the wise men as symbols of our thoughts, our questions, and our intentional and reasoned discovery of and journey toward Christ’s wisdom. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he describes this spirit of wisdom and revelation and shares his hope that “with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.” Thus, out of this mindful presence come the gifts that only we can give to Christ; gifts that include our thoughtful analysis of the word and the teachings of Jesus, as well as the reasoned application and practice of Christ’s principles in our daily lives. Taken together, the three groups of visitors -- angels, shepherds and wise men -- seem to symbolize three vital and vibrant aspects of our relationship with the Messiah; spirituality, humanity, and reason. Interestingly, these themes are echoed in the theology of the Episcopal Church, which recognizes three essential aspects of Christian practice; spirituality, tradition, and reason. It is the presence of all three aspects that shape our lives as Christians and support our ability to give our gifts to Christ and to the people of Christ. In the presence of all three aspects, our lives as Christians emerge from a call to faith, come to life in good works, and grow wise in the thoughtful pursuit of reasoned wisdom. As you can see, there’s a lot of symbolism packed into that tiny nativity just waiting to be explored. So, despite the fact that the calendar says Christmas is over, the ritual of keeping the nativity scene out a couple more days while we wait for the wise men to show up offers us gifts of inspiration and wisdom; gifts worth waiting for. After all, Christmas would not be complete without them.