Open our hearts, O Spirit. open our minds and our spirits. Let us use what you have given us. Let us trust what you have shown us. Let us be what you have made us. Amen. (Stephen Charleston)
Happy 12th Day of Christmas!
Anybody else set up a crèche or manger scene during Advent? We used to put the stable or cave in one spot
With other characters at different distances
Mary and Joseph get closer each day during Advent
Arriving Christmas Eve
The shepherds, closer to the cave, arrive Christmas Eve also
At Christmas the Wise Men, Three Kings, Magi begin their journey
Arriving at Epiphany, 13 days after Christmas.
Today we celebrated that arrival. According to Matthew, The Magi arrive at the house where the Holy Family are. Yes, it does say house. No longer are they in a stable or cave. A cave is probably more likely, Being outside Bethlehem. Poor folks frequently lived in caves. It was free shelter. People lived on one side With animals on the other, When they needed to be inside. A manger was stone carved out for animal feed often between the sides. So Jesus’s cradle was an animal trough. Anything works to keep a little one safe.
Think about this….Until Epiphany all the people in the Jesus story are Aramaic speaking Palestinian Jews. But, then the Magi… These were “wise Men from the East” we are told.
They were from a different culture They were wise, learned, holy men. Yes, they were men. Women’s roles were limited at that time, and Mary fulfilled that role. The Nativity scene is full of men and animals, only one woman and only one baby. But they caused the whole gathering!
Matthew’s Gospel says the Magi came to the house where The Holy family were. We don’t know when this visit happened. In fact, we know very little about those wise visitors. I recently read a newly translated document concerning them.
Adoration of the Magi. Fragment from a Roman sarcophagus, fourth century. From the cemetery of Saint Agnes, Rome. Vatican Museums, Museo Pio Cristiano, inv. 31459. St Agnus died 304
The Magi and the Manger: Imaging Christmas in Art and Ritual by Felicity Harley-McGowan and Andrew McGowan
The book, The Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem, by Brent Landau, is a fascinating read. This document was written in Syriac, An unusual language for Biblical studies. Mr Landau has invested years into the study and translation of this document. He makes a good case for it dating to the late second or early 3rd century CE. That is a long time ago. Many documents dating from this time are priceless for the study of the early Church.
So why is this just now being translated to English? Not many scholars know Syriac.
It is the ancient dialect of Aramaic used in Syrian regions. A vibrant Christian community began there in the first century after Christ and remains to this day, They were not recognized by the Western Church centered in Rome. Hence few Western scholars have studied Syriac. In this storyCall it folklore, it is not history.
But understand, History is the record of powerful and victorious men. Folklore is the story of the people, passed down for generations, elders telling the story to the community. These stories contain important truths for them.
And this story of the Journey of the Magi contains the central truth of why we celebrate the Epiphany: it is the recognition of the Incarnation: God with skin on to people who are different from others gathered. The old title of this day is “The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles” That’s a big title, especially for us, because we are gentiles…
frequently thought of as non-Jewish, but it actually means foreign, alien, or pagan (country dwellers, not city folk)
In The Revelation of the Magi we find a people who belong to an ancient culture descended from Seth, the third child of Adam and Eve. They revere a holy mountain and especially a Cave of Treasurers of hidden Mysteries. Each generation they choose the wisest to be kings and Holy men who yearly climb the mountain and pray for three days in silence at the cave of Treasurers. In the cave are treasures placed there by Seth. They were passed to him by Adam who had them Eden. The most important is the star that shone over the Tree of Life in Eden. That Star disappeared when the humans defied God’s plan and ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. It is sealed in the cave along with other sealed treasures.
Generation after generation, for thousands of years, they wait and pray. They were taught that some day those who went to the cave and prayed would see the star.
Finally, one year, in the month of Nisan- when barley ripens and Spring is near- the appointed holy mystics pray outside the cave and see the star.
It is so bright it overtakes both sun and moon. It invites them into the cave where it becomes focused into a star child, a small glowing human child who invites them to follow it to Jerusalem to celebrate his birth.
Only these holy mystics see the star.
They “rejoice with exceeding great joy” and prepare for the long journey.
During the long trip they never run out of food or water. Their camels are always healthy and rested, as are they themselves.
They learn that while the child star appears to them, the child is also present in the manger, and with God.
So in this story, not only is God revealed through the Christ child to those who are not Palestinian, But all God’s revelation to all people comes through the Christ child.
And God’s presence is everywhere at the same time.
These ideas may not seem so foreign to us, though to some today they surely are,
But in the third American fourth centuries they were unusual.
Especially in the later parts of those centuries.
This is around the time when the Nicene Creed was established.
The purpose of the creed was to bring all the followers of Jesus into one belief.
The tenants of this creed were decided upon by the most powerful and influential, especially those in favor with the Emperor Constantine.
Thinkers during that time, like the Gregory of Nyssa, who opposed slavery and preached universal salvation, and his sister Macrina, who founded communal monasteries and cared for the poor, would be considered liberal even by today’s standards. Their thinking is not unlike the universal thought contained in The Revelation of the Magi.
Gifts are in the forefront as well.
While the gold, frankincense, and myrrh are not named,
This gifts from Eden are sealed when they arrive and given.
Then the infant speaks to them and the angels rejoice:
“1And while the savior was speaking all these things with us, that entire cave shone, 197 and it became in our eyes like another world, since [in this world] there was no light like it. 20: 2And many voices of [seraphs] were speaking and [text missing] which are innumerable: “Yea and Amen! 198 20: 3O first-born opener of the secret womb, O holy infant, O completer of the will of the heavenly majesty who is the perfect ‘Yes,’ and through whom everything came into being, 199 and ‘Amen,’ 200 by your light and by your word they were made perfect, and all the worlds seen and unseen were brought to completion.”— Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men's Journey to Bethlehem by Brent Landau
Just imagine this scene of magnificent presence. It takes the breath away!
What do we bring to this image of eternal joy?
What do we bring from it?
The Rev. Danáe Ashley, an Episcopal priest, says There’s a theory that in ancient times, those three gifts represented laying down an old way of living and taking up a new one.
Frankincense was used by the priestly class—those who had special, mysterious power and makes blood sacrifice.
Myrrh was used in death – for mummification and the afterlife;
Gold, the false god, was the substance used to make the false idol of the calf in Moses’ and Aaron’s story. And gold is money, the idol of our time also.
By laying these at the feet of Jesus, the Magi knew they were giving away their old life and beginning a new life.
We, too, in entering into this laying down of gifts,
Can give away the old life we no longer want to live
And be transformed by the joyous love of God to live the new life we desire.
Call it a new way of looking at New Year’s resolutions,
one in which we not only decide on the new,
But consciously give away the old.
Happy 12th Day of Christmas
Happy New Year
Happy Joyous New Life
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