... For the scientists, and the rest of us;
... For the curious,
people who ask “How does this work?” “Why is it like that?” “What does that mean?” And, an invitation to all of us to be
curious.
This passage, Matthew 2,
the wise men coming to find the newborn king of the Jews whom they knew came
from God; this story from holy scripture is for a town like our and a church
like ours, a town and a church that includes scientists, mathematicians,
doctors and researchers.
The story is also for outsiders. You get this sense
that there’s an “in group,” and you’re not in it. This story is for
you. The birth of Jesus happens in a
Jewish world. The story is told in a
Jewish way, for the Jewish people. Jesus was a Jewish man, prophesied by
Jewish prophets to save the people of Israel.
Yet at the very beginning of his story, while he’s still
a baby, these strange visitors come from the East. They aren’t Jewish
leaders. The Jewish King, Herod, was
caught off guard by their arrival. He
had not been watching for the Messiah’s birth and was unhappy when these
Persian Magi showed up announcing it had happened. His scholars, Jewish
scribes who worked in the temple, knew the stories from Micah and Isaiah, but
they were not ready to greet the Savior sent by God. No these visitors weren’t Jewish at all.
They weren’t Greek either. The Greeks dominated the
cultural scene from Jerusalem to Athens and even to Rome. Greek, not
Latin, was the lingua franca. The Romans
had their hands on the hammer. If Greek
culture was admired, Roman power was feared. There were Jews, Greeks, and
Romans in Jerusalem, uneasily co-existing when Jesus was born. Yet, none of them recognized the monumental
things that had happened. It is these ancient wise men from the east,
Persian star-gazers who came and asked, “Where is the child who has been born
king of the Jews?” They came and
reported, “We have observed his star at its rising.” They saw the
Light! They declared “We have come to pay him homage” (2:2).
The story of Jesus’ birth is a Jewish story, yet non-Jews have a place in
it too. He’s a Savior for everyone.
The late 20th and early 21st centuries have witnessed an
unfortunate historical phenomenon: the disconnect between science and faith.
Anxious conservative Christians are tempted to fear science if discoveries call
into question some of their beliefs. Rather than re-examine their beliefs
in order to fortify their faith, and rather than trust that the God they
believe in will stand up under scrutiny, they disregard scientific voices as
“godless liberal speak.” Instead of learning from the marvelous advances in
science, some Christians consciously or unconsciously engage in a cultural war,
planting their flag in ignorant ground.
For their part, many
scientists become so enamored with progress and the things humans can do, they
forget their need for God altogether and assume the only things that are real
are those things which can be observed and measured. They live in the
delusion that God has been left behind and religion is nothing more than
childish superstition. Without knowing
it, they exhibit religious devotion to an atheistic worldview even as they
decry the notion of religion. Intentionally or unintentionally, they too
engage in the cultural war, opposite the conservatives and
fundamentalists. And the ground in which
the secularists plant their flag is just as ignorant.
In all likelihood, these
sages from the East were interdisciplinary scholars. Experts on the
constellations, they spent countless hours studying the night sky. They
also knew Jewish theology. Jesus was born almost 600 years after the
Jews had been taken into exile in Babylon. The Old Testament reports that
1000’s of Jews returned to Israel after the Persians had defeated the
Babylonians in the early 5th century BC. Under Ezra and Nehemiah, they
rebuilt the city of Jerusalem.
However, not all Jews
returned. Some remained in Babylon and in Persia. The scholars
there, the wise men we meet in Matthew 2, learned Jewish history and
religion from these Jews who had stayed behind. They became experts not
only in astronomy but also in theology. They became scientist-theologians. And
something inside them helped them see that God was at the heart of the Jewish
people. The wise men experienced the exact opposite dynamic we have seen
in the religion v. science culture wars of the past 50-75 years. In their pursuit of truth and knowledge, they
found God. Their scientific research led
them to follow a star, a star that led them to Bethlehem where they got to see
the newborn Jesus, the Christ, the King.
What was that something
inside them that enabled them to connect the star and Jewish theology and the
truth that it was God they were following? My faith tells me it was the
Holy Spirit. Adopting an attitude of
humble learners and earnest seekers, these gentiles met God in Jesus and paid
him homage. The insiders, Herod and the temple scribes, those entrusted
with the scriptures, were blind to God because they stopped wondering. They stood on their own position as keepers
of Israelite culture. They stopped looking to God for new insight. They
assumed history had anointed them the rightful bearers of God’s truth and in
their assuming, they missed God’s arrival.
I began by asserting
that this story in Matthew 2 is one for the scientists and the curious, people
who ask how, why, and what does this mean. I also said this a story for
outsiders, the excluded. In Jerusalem in
2BC, and in Bethlehem less than 10 miles south of Jerusalem, the outsiders
weren’t just gentiles. Poor Jews, the majority, had little access to the
privileges and benefits Herod and his scribes afforded themselves.
Joseph and Mary were
Jewish peasants, ruled by Herod and bullied by Rome. Why did the Savior
come to a low class family like that and not a wealthier one? The
prophets tells us: Amos 5, where God says, “I despise your festivals ... take
away from the noise of your songs; but let justice roll down like waters”
(5:21, 23a, 24a). And Isaiah 58, where God says, “Is this not the fast
that I choose, a day to humble oneself; ... to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless into your house” (58:5, 7)? Herod wasn’t taking
any homeless people into his house.
I believe God did not
come to Herod because Herod did not recognize his need for God. He had
the need, but did not see it. He was
neither curious, nor humble. Joseph and Mary,
devout peasants were ready to receive the gift of God’s grace and, with
courage, answer God’s call. They were certainly Jewish and when the wise
men visited them we see the incredible work of God come to life in the lives of
very real and very different people.
Erudite, rich Persians scholars and a peasant Jewish carpenter’s family
came together around the crib of the son of God. They were united, God
using the scientific curiosity of the Magi and the recognition of need in
Joseph and Mary. In both postures, God
came to people, meeting them where they were.
Herod adopted a posture
that left him blind to what God was doing. And his own arrogance put him
in opposition. He was, without knowing
it in the worst possible place someone can be. An arrogant, self-reliant
insider, he was against God.
The wise men found God
because they were looking for him. Listen to Psalm 9:9 in the New
Living Translation. “The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed.
Those who know your name trust in you, for you O Lord, do not abandon
those who search for you.” Mary and Joseph received God because they knew
they needed him and were ready to live by faith when God came to them.
To see God and not be
blind to His presence, and to be for God and not against Him, requires a new
way of seeing. We are invited to live observantly and seek God in our
everyday places. That’s where we undergo
transformation. When the Holy Spirit
begins to work in us, we need to humbly, prayerfully respond in faith.
The scientist, the curious, the outsider, the one on the margins, and any
and everyone who recognizes his or her own need is welcomed by God and invited
by God into the life of God.
Constantly seeking God,
will completely change how we see the world and live in it. Think of the
most normal, everyday places, experiences, and relationships in your life.
The most mundane, banal, unremarkable places and people: in those places,
that’s where the quest for God begins. That’s where God is going to meet you
and me and begin going to work in us, transforming us into His holiness.
The commitment you and I
are invited to make is the commitment to curiosity and humility. Decide
today you will spend your life seeking God, receiving God, and following -
going wherever God leads and loving and helping everyone you meet along the
way. Step down that path and this account of the wise men comes to life
in your life as God speaks to you when you meet him in the world, and then
speaks to the world through as He speaks through you.
AMEN
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