Ephiphany

January 6, 2002

"What Kind of People Does God Talk To?"

Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

”‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Sermon:

In these days of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, "Crossing over with Jonathan Edward", the "Psychic Hot Line", Miss Cleo, and a dozen tabloids on the checkout stand at the grocery store all offering the top 10 psychic predictions for the New Year, the whole subject of listening to voices, looking for signs, finding your direction, seeking supernatural guidance for your life can be very difficult to figure out. Who is right? What voice should I be listening to? What kind of person does God speak to? The answer might not be as neat and simple as we would like.

What we would like to say is that God speaks to "Church people", to people who have solid theological credentials, who have made solid faith commitments, and who are living clean, well-ordered moral lives. That is what we would like to say, but in reality it isn't quite that simple.

Certainly when we look in the Bible, we are amazed, sometimes scandalized by the people God chooses to speak to and to work through. A few examples by way of a reminder. God chose Noah to build the ark and preserve the animal life of the earth through the great flood. And when the flood was over, how did Noah express his faithfulness? By getting falling down drunk.

God chose Abraham to be the father of a new nation, a man who was married to his half sister and who, on two occasions, lied that she was not his wife in order to save himself from danger- a man who had a son to a servant woman because he didn't think God was going to fulfill His promise to give Sarah a son.

God chose Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. What were Moses' credentials? He had murdered a man. He had been raised in the home of Pharaoh, his head filled with Egyptian mythology. From his childhood experience, Moses knew almost nothing about the God of Israel or the righteous commands of God. And God allowed all of that to be part of his life, knowing all the while what Moses would have to do to overcome his dark past to become a leader of God's people.

I'm not trying to knock down your spiritual heroes, only to get the facts plainly in view before we start looking at this subject of what kind of people God speaks to. And I'm trying to make the point that if you had asked me to pick a spiritual leader in any of the times and situations that the Bible records for us, I probably would not have chosen the people God chose.

I would never have chosen a trembling coward like Gideon to be a great military leader. I surely would not have sent a little child like David to do battle against a giant like Goliath. I would never have asked Jeremiah to be a prophet, seeing that he would rather he had never been born than to face the opposition that came against him when he spoke God's word.

I certainly would not have chosen someone as impetuous and hot-tempered as Peter to be the leader of the first church. Nor would I have chosen Paul, the "terrorist" who set out to destroy the young Christian movement, to be the evangelist who would plant Christianity solidly across the Roman Empire.

But, that's why God is God, and I am not. We try to remember that every time we gather when we hear those beautiful words from one of the most ancient prayers of the Church: "Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid..." Get it? Before we presume to worship or saying anything at all to God, we need to remember who it is we are dealing with, and to remember that God will not always see things our way because He sees so much more than we ever can. He sees the heart.

And so, if we ask what kind of people God speaks to, the only truthful answer we can give is, God speaks to whomever He chooses to speak, and He chooses by what He sees in the heart.

The distinction that God makes seems to be based on what is in a person's heart more than how orthodox a person's theology is. What I mean is this. God does not come at us assuming that we have our theology all figured out and tied down neatly in clear, orthodox phrases, like reciting the Creed. If you can recite the Creed, and really mean what you say, Hallelujah! You have come a long way in your spiritual growth. But being able to recite the Creed is not a prerequisite for hearing God speak to you.

God knows that we are flesh and blood creatures, fallen human beings who have a very difficult time sorting out our own passions, much less the unruly ways of the entire world of 6 billion sinners. And I don't believe for one minute that God holds us at a distance for fear that we might contaminate Him with our wrong ideas. The Bible tells us repeatedly that God is always seeking us out, speaking to us, working for our good, calling us to Himself, saving us from ourselves, even when we didn't know we needed saving.

That's what grace means. We did not choose Him, He chose us. We did not lift ourselves up to the heights of heaven, but He lowered Himself to the depths of earth. We did not offer up our lives for Him, He gave His life for us. The initiative has always been from God first. Man's response is only to receive by faith what has been done for us.

Yes, we are to know the truth, not because we are so smart, but because God has revealed it to all who will receive it. Yes, we are to turn from sin, not because we are "good" but because God has paid the ultimate price to cancel our debt and make it possible for us to follow Him. In Chrsit, we have been brought "Out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life." None of that was our doing. Righteousness is not the product of human will. It is the response to divine grace- righteousness that comes not through the law, but by grace through faith in the Son of God.

Now, here we have these Kings, Wise Men, Magi. What are we to call these mysterious visitors to the manger? It's hard to pin them down, and that is one of the most intriguing things about them.

First, let's be careful about what we read. I don't mean to spoil the festivities of the day, and we love to sing "We Three Kings" while the men process down the aisle to reenact the scene, but if you look carefully at the story as Matthew tells it, it doesn't say anything about there being three, and he doesn't call them "kings". He simply says, "Wise Men" or "Magi" from the East. We have traditionally assumed there were three because three gifts are named, and we call them "kings" because they probably were powerful and influential, but that is all assumption, speculation.

And what about their title, "Magi"? It's a strange word, not often used in the Bible, and not very flattering in its meaning.

Greek- "Magus"

1a) the name given by the Babylonians (Chaldeans), Medes, Persians, and others, to the wise men, teachers, priests, physicians, astrologers, seers, interpreters of dreams, augers, soothsayers, sorcerers etc.

1b) the oriental wise men (astrologers) who, having discovered by the rising of a remarkable star that the Messiah had just been born, came to Jerusalem to worship him

1c) a false prophet and sorcerer

Apart from this story in Matthew, the uses of this word are always negative. In Acts 8:9 we find another "magus" named Simon:

"Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is the divine power known as the Great Power.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic."

Simon got into trouble because he saw miracles done by the apostles, and he tried to buy the power from them. Even though he had become a Christian himself, he still had the old desire to be a man of power. Peter sternly warned him that trying to buy power from God can have very severe consequences.

Then, in Acts 13:6 we find another "magus" named "Bar-Jesus". This happens just after Paul has been sent out as an evangelist. He and Barnabus are on the isle of Cyprus:

"They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus."

Here we have another piece of the picture of a "magus". Not only a sorcerer, but a "false prophet." This is one who pretends to speak for God but is actually speaking for himself. Again, it is not a pretty picture that we are getting of the work of these "magi". But it's a very accurate description of much of the so-called gurus of our own day who claim to exercise power and make a lot of money by selling their tricks.

Hardly have Paul and Barnabus encountered this man when they run into yet another "magus" named Elymas:

"The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun.”

Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord."

Again, there is mention of sorcery and an opposition to the word of God. It doesn't look very good for these "magi" in the story of the early Church. So, how is it that the Magi that Matthew tells us about play such an entirely different role in the story? How can these "magi" be at one point heralds of the Gospel, welcoming Jesus with expensive gifts, and on another occasion be found opposing the Gospel with occult powers?

Again, the answer lies not in a name or a label or a complicated derivation of some obscure Greek word. The answer lies in the heart.

The one thing that these last three "magi", Simon, Elymas and Bar-Jesus have in common is that they were out to promote themselves. They used lies, tricks, deception and magic to make themselves look powerful. And when they saw the Gospel as a threat to their power, they fought against it.

By contrast, the original Magi that Matthew tells us about have an entirely different purpose. Although we know nothing about where they came from, what their exact position in society was, what their names were, or even how many of them there were, the one thing we do know is that they were seeking the truth. They saw a sign in the heavens that God was doing something very special and very important. And instead of trying to find a way to use this to their advantage, they set out on a journey to honor the One who was coming to bring light and truth to the world.

Instead of looking for a way to get rich, they spent a large amount of their own money to honor Jesus. Instead of trying to take power for themselves, or declare themselves kings of a new world order, they laid down their gifts before the manger, gifts that declare Jesus to be the true King and Lord and Savior that the world has waited for. And when they have offered their gifts, instead of setting up shop and trying to become Jesus' "managers" they disappear quietly into the night, as if to echo the same words that John the Baptist will later say, "He must increase, and we must decrease."

This is why would call Matthew's "Wise Men" kings. It isn't part of the Greek definition of "magi" but it is part of their ministry to us. They give us a moving testimony to true kingship in this world, or at least, what true kingship should be. They tell us that whoever would be truly powerful in this life must first bow the knee to the One who is King of kings, and Lord of lords. What Matthew's Wise Men tell us is that no man can be trusted, no matter what his credentials, no matter how impressive his displays of power, no matter how far his knowledge reaches into the heavens: no man can be trusted who has not knelt before the manger.

The Wise Men leave us a testimony that should not be forgotten: No ruler should be followed except the one who acknowledges himself a subject of the King of Kings. No teacher should be listened to except the one who declares himself a student of the Messiah, the great Teacher of all truth. No miracle worker should be given any attention at all, except if those miracles are worked by the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Let us pray.

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what You would have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in Your light we may see

light, and in Your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.