Our plans to live stream the Epiphany Worship went astray as church wifi chose to take a breather for a while and left us disconnected. Oh well! I have never before tried to imagine and process the “wise men’s” response as they beheld child and mother; here’s a little attempt.

Below the video is the Gospel and Reflection

Matthew 2 (Message Translation)
2 1-2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory— this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him.”
3-4 When word of their inquiry got to Herod, he was terrified—and not Herod alone, but most of Jerusalem as well. Herod lost no time. He gathered all the high priests and religion scholars in the city together and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
5-6 They told him, “Bethlehem, Judah territory. The prophet Micah wrote it plainly:
It’s you, Bethlehem, in Judah’s land,
no longer bringing up the rear.
From you will come the leader
who will shepherd-rule my people, my Israel.”
7-8 Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars from the East. Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared. Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem, and said, “Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I’ll join you at once in your worship.”
9-10 Instructed by the king, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time!
11 They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.
12 In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country.

 

Reflection – Epiphany 2021
Quotation from “Spying on the South” (Reflecting on Frederick Law Olmstead’s travels in the south in the late 19th century and the author’s attempt to replicate those journeys)
“The great key of travel,” Olmstead writes, “is to place oneself in situations and circumstances, where one will be most liable to accidents. I don’t mean disagreeable accidents. To place oneself where (I mean) one does not know what to expect next.”
Well, these exotic philosophers definitely placed themselves where they did not know what was going to happen next…
1. Miles and miles of travelling, map provided courtesy of a star
2. Engagement with self-centred, megalomaniac despot who threatened their lives as well as their aspirations
3. Confronting the goal of their travails and travels in a messy stable, with messy animals
The outlandish, almost bizarre spiritual explorers are clothed in mystery – what really did they do? What really should they be called? How many of them really were there? And who would bring such outlandish and irrelevant gifts to a new born baby.
And yet these pursuers of truth, urbane, sophisticated, worldly-wise, maybe even cynical and jaded – these trackers of mystery feel compelled to stop in their tracks (physically, mentally and spiritually) when they behold this precious sight… “on entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother”… what do they do? They kneel, worship and offer only the very best from their treasure chest. These past days I have wondered what it was that spoke to them so very powerfully as they beheld this domestic scene?
I believe that they were overcome with wonder and awe as it dawned upon them that this child (so loved by, so in need of his mother) was powerful king, prayerful priest and suffering victim. And all this embraced in the arms of a young, innocent, helpless young woman.
We who come to the Lord for healing, for wholeness must be likewise in awe of this awesome, prodigious scene.
It is with gentleness and sensitivity that Jesus asks to be held; and in our embrace we sense, we know, we are transformed as we acknowledge his authority over that which harms us, his prayers for our wholeness and health and his readiness to suffer with us so we are not alone.
On this Epiphany, may we see clearly the nature of the Lord who is with us, who never leaves us.
A final quotation from “Spying on the South”. We read Olmstead, in matters of belief, was torn between transcendent longings and a hatred of dogma. Olmstead writes, “I crave and value worshipfulness, but I detest and dread dead theology and formalized ethics”. Let us “crave and value” worshipfulness.
AMEN