Grace Congregational UCC

“The Sacred Journey”
Matthew 2:1-12
Ephesians 3:1-12

January 6, 2008 - Kim M. Henning

Those wise men are amazing human beings. Admittedly, we don’t know a whole lot about those visitors at the manger. We don’t know their names. We don’t know how many were there; if there were three or fifteen or thirty who took the pilgrimage. We don’t know where they came from, how long they traveled. The story is shrouded with mystery. But what we know is wonderfully exciting.

“In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem......”

A person has to admire those travelers. We call them ‘wise-men.’ Take notice. A person is never born, wise. A person cannot inherit wisdom. A person does not graduate from high school or college or seminary with a piece of gold-leafed paper in hand which says, ‘wisdom.’

The wise become wise by paying attention.

The wise become wise by taking notice of the world out there and the world in here and they understand that the best life is the life that aspires toward holiness.

The wise become wise by taking notice of the world out there and the world in here and they recognize that the beautiful is the life that grows toward God.

The wise become wise by taking notice of the world out there and the world in here and they know that life offers us a journey....that is not necessarily easy.

I personally admire those wise men. In our modern religious world, we would refer to them as seekers. They know that the good life is more than a roof over one’s head and a healthy financial statement. They see a star. And as irrational as this may sound, they follow the star. Like faith, the star draws them, invites them, begs them, the star won’t let them stay at home.

Home is always secure. Home is where we are most comfortable. But when the wise men see that star, they can’t stay home. I love their curiosity. I love their courage because when anyone embarks upon a journey we never know where the road is going to lead us, what we’re going to find, what obstacles we’re going to have to encounter, and we never know what will ultimately be expected of us.

This is exciting. Some wise men follow a star. And when they come to Jerusalem they go to the king’s palace with a simple question, “where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”

Understand: those wise men are on a sacred journey. They are not tourists or vacationers. It is a sacred journey. At the very least they understand that there is more to life than growing old and dying. Life, people of faith understand, has a higher purpose than that.

Last fall, I met a second year student at Eden Seminary. A year and a half ago, this 51 year old woman, her husband, and two children left Florida to begin a theological education. They sold a business and a home, they left their jobs, their friends, their community because Robyn feels compelled to serve a church. She has so much energy and she is so focused and she has so much hope for the future of the church that she hardly seems like a 51 year-old person. But she has seen a star. And she’s willing to do the journey.

I think about the debt that she and her husband are incurring. I think about how ridiculous a decision like hers would sound to anyone outside the faith. But to her and to her husband and to her children, this is a decision for Jesus Christ and I’m certain that she could do no other.

That is what faith does to us. Faith stretches us. Faith invites us to go where we have never gone before----even if that place is to our next door neighbor.

And it is never easy. The wise men come to Jerusalem. They talk with the king. But Herod doesn’t have a clue about ‘sacred journeys.’ Herod isn’t into God. Herod is into power. Herod is in control. Herod doesn’t want his power rivaled by anyone so when the wise men say that they’re looking for a king Herod becomes frightened and he doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

So Herod goes down the street to the temple and he asks the question, ‘do you know anything about a king? These visitors have appeared at my door and they’re searching for the Messiah? What are they talking about?”

Then the scribes and priests unroll one of the scrolls until they come to the place where Micah writes, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”

And that is how the wise men found their way to the Christ child in Bethlehem. It begins by taking notice. They take notice of a star and they take notice of a compulsion within themselves to follow that star. But its more than that. They don’t trip-over the ridiculousness of their faith or what the Apostle Paul would later call ‘the foolishness.’

They’re willing to leave a bundle of things behind because when faith gets in our heads and when faith gets in our hearts and when faith gets in the soul—there’s a ‘never-say-quit’ attitude that follows. They go to Herod. Temporarily they get rebuffed. The journey goes to the scriptures. And the scriptures tell them to go to Bethlehem. And they do.

This was not an easy journey. Remember, the wise men are not tourists. Neither are they vacationers. They do not come to the manger in order to be entertained or to be patted on the back. They were on a sacred journey.

When they come to the manger, we know that they have arrived at the right location. How do we know? Because two things happen.

When the wise men came to the manger, they ‘knelt down and paid him homage.’ That is the first thing they do. For a sacred journey to be sacred, we have to know before whom we kneel. We have to know before whom we’re willing to bow our heads. We have to know who’s in charge, who’s ultimately in charge. And that is why the wise men knelt.

But there is one other thing to take notice of. I began by saying that a sacred journey is costly. If we’re on the right road, spiritually.....it has to cost us something, something has to be required of us. When the wise men arrive, they give gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Now I have read pages and pages of what those three gifts mean as if there’s a special symbolism behind each of the gifts. There may or may not be something symbolic about their gifts. More importantly----they gave gifts, because ‘gift-giving’ is what God does and every time we give gifts we reflect the image of God.