Gifts of the Magi
Luther hated long sermons, and so I’ll try to be brief, but don’t count on it. If I wander off topic, I’ll keep coming back to the Magi, Wise Men. What I want to contemplate with you, as an epiphany itself, is a chiasmus - - which seems the right word - - crisscrossing the gifts of Wealth the wise men brought Jesus, over against the gift of Wisdom that wealthy King Solomon asked for and God gifted when Solomon became king. If I seem abstruse, more allusive than specific, work it out for yourself!
We’re starting the Epiphany season, when the idea is for lightbulbs to come on over our heads as we realize more and more truths about Jesus, including from Matthew, that Jesus really is Messiah, Savior, Christ and King, as the Magi gifts are meant to reveal.
To start, I go back two church seasons to Advent, which we got a head start by skipping Advent and going straight to Christmas, a marvelous thing that did wonders for my post-hurricane morale and, I hope, for yours - -
though doing so, we missed the O-antiphons every Sunday singing the Advent hymn (which is essentially a Christmas hymn): “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” with verse 2, which has the title (each verse in the hymn has a Latin title, did you ever notice that in the older hymnals?), verse 2 has the title “Sapientia” because singing we pray to “Wisdom” - -
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high
And order all things, far and nigh.
To us the path of knowledge show
And cause us in Her ways to go.
In her ways, in the ways of Wisdom instead of Folly. And “Her” because Wisdom is a feminine noun, both Sapientia, Latin of the 12th century whence the hymn dates, and also Greek, Sophia, Wisdom: Sophia, a name and trait attributed as the feminine side of God. Just so here, “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” “O come, thou Wisdom” sung to Logos and Sophia, Word and Wisdom, together one and a complete God incarnate in Jesus.
Wisdom that King Solomon prayed for, but Jesus did not need to because as Logos, the Word Incarnate, Jesus came as Wisdom herself. Wisdom came in contrast to Folly, foolishness. Jesus was no fool, as King Solomon, greedy and lusty, might well have been a fool had not God gifted Solomon to rule with Wisdom.
So, going back to our gospel Bible story for this morning, Magi, the wise men did not bring Jesus the gift of the Wisdom that they themselves possessed and were so known for. Instead they brought earthy, earthly, worldly gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Why?
And I wonder what Jesus, or his parents Mary and Joseph, did with those gifts meant for, and fit for, and revealing a king? Did Mary save them in her hope chest, or did they cash in and spend? Matthew does not say, does he, and the Bible never tells us. Rather, Matthew checks off those things from Old Testament messianic prophecy as Matthew sees it, and goes on with his agenda of showing his Jewish-Christian audience that Jesus was/IS the long-expected, long-awaited Jewish messiah, christ, anointed king in David’s line.
Matthew goes through Hebrew scripture, the Greek Septuagint actually, finds everything he and others around him view as scriptural prophecy about the messiah in those days and years of expecting a messiah to overthrow the brutal Roman occupation, when Matthew would have been one of many Jews looking for that messiah: “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And they find him in Jesus.
But then, shocking to Matthew and others, a messiah poor, crucified, dying, dead and raised, Jesus not only would be quite opposite to the messiah everyone expected, but also would become a messiah not only for Judeans and Jews worldwide, but messiah, savior, christ and king for Gentiles as well, for US - -
- - Because, as the Gospel according to John told us last week, Logos the Word came to his own (God’s people the Jews) and “his own received him not” (some scholars say John’s gospel shows anti-Semitism, I don’t know how that can be, as the writer himself seems Jewish to me, but read it and judge for yourself). So Logos, messiah the Word, rejected in Jerusalem, is now offered in death and resurrection, to be the light of all people for all time everywhere.
But the gifts of the Magi, why did they bring gold and stuff? Whatever would Jesus want and do with human wealth, Jesus who is “not anxious about earthly things, but loves things heavenly”?
It does not matter, you see, because the "gold and stuff" is not to spend and use; it’s symbolic, epiphany, revealing and recognizing Jesus as king: “Gold I bring to crown him again,” and so
Crown him with many crowns
the Lamb upon his throne …
and hail him as thy matchless king
through all eternity.
But the gifts of the Magi: why? Is it an etiology, does Matthew lay the foundation, in his story, for something later, in the etiological way that the Israelites plunder gold and silver from the Egyptians who are glad to be shed of them as they set out for forty years in the wilderness with Moses; as that Exodus 12 story lays the foundation for the story twenty chapters later in Exodus 32, when the Israelites give their gold and silver to Aaron so he can make a golden calf for them to worship because Moses is up on the mountain visiting with God so long that they think he’s dead; those two Exodus stories are connected: the early story enables the later one, to answer the question, “Where did poor Israelites, former slaves, get gold and silver for Aaron to melt down into a golden calf?” It’s etiological, lays foundation - -
- - But the gifts of the Wise Magi: there’s nothing etiological here, Matthew, who knows the Hebrew bible, digs out and cites Old Testament messianic prophecy for his story, but lays no foundation with the gold, frankincense and myrrh, they are simply details that Matthew, writing 80 or 90 AD, adds retrospectively to the calendar of what happened almost a century earlier just after Jesus’ birth, an epiphany of Jesus as the long awaited anointed one, messiah, savior, christ and king.
Magi from Persia, now Iran, Wise Men did not bring Jesus, himself Wisdom from on high, the gift of Wisdom that we might have expected from wise men. So that's my chiasm to work out, Solomon the Wealthy king who asked for and received the gift of Wisdom, crisscrossing with Magi the Wise wisely bringing earthy gifts, the best and most desired, precious and valued things of creation, welcoming into creation One who came from beyond the stars to share human life with us.
I warned you it might be abstruse, allusive not specific; but it all makes sense to me.
++++++++++++
Sermon preached in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on Epiphany, Sunday, 6 Jan 2019. The Rev. Tom Weller. Text: Matthew 2:1-12.
We’re starting the Epiphany season, when the idea is for lightbulbs to come on over our heads as we realize more and more truths about Jesus, including from Matthew, that Jesus really is Messiah, Savior, Christ and King, as the Magi gifts are meant to reveal.
To start, I go back two church seasons to Advent, which we got a head start by skipping Advent and going straight to Christmas, a marvelous thing that did wonders for my post-hurricane morale and, I hope, for yours - -
though doing so, we missed the O-antiphons every Sunday singing the Advent hymn (which is essentially a Christmas hymn): “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” with verse 2, which has the title (each verse in the hymn has a Latin title, did you ever notice that in the older hymnals?), verse 2 has the title “Sapientia” because singing we pray to “Wisdom” - -
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high
And order all things, far and nigh.
To us the path of knowledge show
And cause us in Her ways to go.
In her ways, in the ways of Wisdom instead of Folly. And “Her” because Wisdom is a feminine noun, both Sapientia, Latin of the 12th century whence the hymn dates, and also Greek, Sophia, Wisdom: Sophia, a name and trait attributed as the feminine side of God. Just so here, “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” “O come, thou Wisdom” sung to Logos and Sophia, Word and Wisdom, together one and a complete God incarnate in Jesus.
Wisdom that King Solomon prayed for, but Jesus did not need to because as Logos, the Word Incarnate, Jesus came as Wisdom herself. Wisdom came in contrast to Folly, foolishness. Jesus was no fool, as King Solomon, greedy and lusty, might well have been a fool had not God gifted Solomon to rule with Wisdom.
So, going back to our gospel Bible story for this morning, Magi, the wise men did not bring Jesus the gift of the Wisdom that they themselves possessed and were so known for. Instead they brought earthy, earthly, worldly gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Why?
And I wonder what Jesus, or his parents Mary and Joseph, did with those gifts meant for, and fit for, and revealing a king? Did Mary save them in her hope chest, or did they cash in and spend? Matthew does not say, does he, and the Bible never tells us. Rather, Matthew checks off those things from Old Testament messianic prophecy as Matthew sees it, and goes on with his agenda of showing his Jewish-Christian audience that Jesus was/IS the long-expected, long-awaited Jewish messiah, christ, anointed king in David’s line.
Matthew goes through Hebrew scripture, the Greek Septuagint actually, finds everything he and others around him view as scriptural prophecy about the messiah in those days and years of expecting a messiah to overthrow the brutal Roman occupation, when Matthew would have been one of many Jews looking for that messiah: “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And they find him in Jesus.
But then, shocking to Matthew and others, a messiah poor, crucified, dying, dead and raised, Jesus not only would be quite opposite to the messiah everyone expected, but also would become a messiah not only for Judeans and Jews worldwide, but messiah, savior, christ and king for Gentiles as well, for US - -
- - Because, as the Gospel according to John told us last week, Logos the Word came to his own (God’s people the Jews) and “his own received him not” (some scholars say John’s gospel shows anti-Semitism, I don’t know how that can be, as the writer himself seems Jewish to me, but read it and judge for yourself). So Logos, messiah the Word, rejected in Jerusalem, is now offered in death and resurrection, to be the light of all people for all time everywhere.
But the gifts of the Magi, why did they bring gold and stuff? Whatever would Jesus want and do with human wealth, Jesus who is “not anxious about earthly things, but loves things heavenly”?
It does not matter, you see, because the "gold and stuff" is not to spend and use; it’s symbolic, epiphany, revealing and recognizing Jesus as king: “Gold I bring to crown him again,” and so
Crown him with many crowns
the Lamb upon his throne …
and hail him as thy matchless king
through all eternity.
But the gifts of the Magi: why? Is it an etiology, does Matthew lay the foundation, in his story, for something later, in the etiological way that the Israelites plunder gold and silver from the Egyptians who are glad to be shed of them as they set out for forty years in the wilderness with Moses; as that Exodus 12 story lays the foundation for the story twenty chapters later in Exodus 32, when the Israelites give their gold and silver to Aaron so he can make a golden calf for them to worship because Moses is up on the mountain visiting with God so long that they think he’s dead; those two Exodus stories are connected: the early story enables the later one, to answer the question, “Where did poor Israelites, former slaves, get gold and silver for Aaron to melt down into a golden calf?” It’s etiological, lays foundation - -
- - But the gifts of the Wise Magi: there’s nothing etiological here, Matthew, who knows the Hebrew bible, digs out and cites Old Testament messianic prophecy for his story, but lays no foundation with the gold, frankincense and myrrh, they are simply details that Matthew, writing 80 or 90 AD, adds retrospectively to the calendar of what happened almost a century earlier just after Jesus’ birth, an epiphany of Jesus as the long awaited anointed one, messiah, savior, christ and king.
Magi from Persia, now Iran, Wise Men did not bring Jesus, himself Wisdom from on high, the gift of Wisdom that we might have expected from wise men. So that's my chiasm to work out, Solomon the Wealthy king who asked for and received the gift of Wisdom, crisscrossing with Magi the Wise wisely bringing earthy gifts, the best and most desired, precious and valued things of creation, welcoming into creation One who came from beyond the stars to share human life with us.
I warned you it might be abstruse, allusive not specific; but it all makes sense to me.
++++++++++++
Sermon preached in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on Epiphany, Sunday, 6 Jan 2019. The Rev. Tom Weller. Text: Matthew 2:1-12.