A homily for the Feast of the Epiphany, January 2, 2022
Is 60:1-6, Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6, Mt 2:1-12
The calendar of events for seniors in a Central Jersey local newspaper, now defunct, used to occasionally include a listing for a “mystery trip.” The Old Age Club — yes, that’s what they called themselves back in the 1980s — would rent a bus and sell tickets, and the participants would find out where they were going once they were underway.
These trips were so popular that every one of them had a waiting list. Obviously, the Old Age Clubbers were the adventurous sort and, obviously, they were pleased with how their adventure turned out, or they wouldn’t have gone again. And again.
Obviously, the participants had faith in the organizers.
As did the Magi.
Do we?
As Scripture tells us, and as songs and stories and lintel chalk marks of 20+C+M+B+22 echo, the men we know as Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar were compelled to follow the star that announced the birth of Christ. Some divine force drew them to Bethlehem via Jerusalem, convinced they were going to meet a newborn king.
Some irresistible power that forced them to act.
A mystery that forced them to take a leap of faith.
Curiosity that would have killed a thousand cats.
Since the Middle Ages and long before, Christianity has crafted myriad stories about them, far more than what the Gospels tell us. We have come to love The Three Kings, even though…
We don’t actually know how many they were, only that whoever they were, they brought three types of deeply symbolic gifts — gold, frankincense and myrrh. Hence the notion of three. Some Orthodox traditions believe there were 12. Either number has religious significance.
We don’t actually know who they were, only that they were highly educated and had enough riches to muster a massive caravan with costly gifts and plentiful supplies and beasts of burden for a long journey. Were they kings, really? Perhaps early astronomers? Zoroastrian priests?
We don’t really know where they came from, only that they traveled from the east of Judea. Persia? India? China? Were they all from the same land or did they meet up along the way and join forces once they realized they were following the same star? Scholars have lost sleep for almost 2,000 years pondering.
Even their names are traditional rather than biblical, and the spellings vary from nation to nation.
But their significance in salvation history is great, so Christians have found great value, and great comfort, in making them as real and personable as possible. Even canonizing them as saints.
The Magi, significantly, were the first gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as Somebody Important Over Whom A Star Shone.
The Magi were the first gentiles to recognize that Jesus was someone they needed to meet, no matter how far they had to go and no matter what it cost them, financially or otherwise.
As gentiles — pagans — they likely had spent their lives until then worshipping their own local gods while interpreting the movement of the stars and planets as signs and omens and other guides for living in sync with the universe.
And yet, whatever their religious traditions, the Magi had the faith and courage to follow where they were called by the One True God.
We, too, are called to be Magi.
To search, to find, to see.
To recognize Jesus as Emmanuel, God-With-Us, and worship him and serve him with faith and courage, no matter how far we have to go and no matter what it costs us.
To be wise men and women, following science with our mind and senses and following compassion and empathy with our hearts and hands.
To see a star over everyone we meet, especially those people whom we sometimes struggle to love, let alone like. The people pushed to the edges of society because they look different or love differently or disagree with us or just plain smell bad. Because they all are created in the image and likeness of God, the same as every one of us. Because they are our sisters and brothers. Because they all have a divine spark within them. Because we all do.
We don’t need camel caravans and thousand-mile journeys to offer our gifts, because Christ dwells within everyone. Because God gave us everything in the first place: our lives, our families and friends, our skills and talents and imaginations, and all of Creation. Because we are called to give. Because we are called to love.
As modern Magi, as modern wise women and men, we can see that. And through the Wisdom that God showers upon us, we know how to do Christ homage in 2022 and forever.
