Magi's Journey

OT Lesson: Isaiah 60:1-6 (NIV)

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Lift up your eyes and look about you:
all assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters are carried on the hip.
Then you will look and be radiant,
your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come.
Herds of camels will cover your land,
young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
bearing gold and incense
and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 2:1-12 (NRSV)

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “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.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “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.’”

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Sermon

Recognition of Service

Good morning. Today is the second Sunday of the new year. And today I’d like to thank a few people. Meredith Erwin retired from the session as of end of last year. I thank her for her service. Hank Walters retired from the session after serving God for multiple terms. I thank him for his faithful service. Dan Erwin retired from the church and PPM custodian after cleaning the church building for a few decades. I am also thankful for all those who continue to serve God and this church. Arlene Quinn and Sigmon Myers are joining the session this year, and Benjamin Piper is continuing his service in the session. Please keep them in your prayers that God will provide them wisdom and strength to serve this church in the name of God.

Distribution of the Guiding Stars

As you all know, last Friday, January 6th was the Epiphany, and we celebrate it today with our own guiding stars. I will soon go around the pews with a basket full of glittering stars. You can pick stars for each of your family members. The stars have a guiding words on the back of them—random words from the Bible. For the whole year until next Epiphany Sunday, hold on to that word as your guiding star, praying for the guidance of God through that word.

Introduction

Again, good morning. Let me begin my actual sermon now. Last Sunday, I told you that in South Korea about thousand babies are born a day. Can you guess the number of newborn babies in America a day? Take a wild guess. It is about eleven thousand babies a day according to UNICEF USA. Another quiz. How many magi came to worship Jesus? Most of you probably think it is three. Even a famous carol begins like ‘We three kings.’ Speaking of three kings, at the Christmas pageant in my previous church, the visiting kings were supposed to wear crowns, but we were cheap, so we used the paper crowns from Burger King. So after the Christmas service, we jokingly sang like ‘We three kings of Burger Kings are, bearing whoppers traverse afar…” Anyway, the Bible does not say how many magi were there. The Bible, however, does specify the number of gifts, which is three. Just for your information, the word ‘magi’ is plural, and the singular is magus, like one magus, two magi.

Magi’s Gifts

The magi came and worshipped the little Saviour. A friend of mine sent me a cartoon, which says ‘After the three wise men left, the three wiser women arrived.’ And the cartoon is about three middle aged women with the gifts of fresh diapers, casseroles for the week, and lots of formulae. I agree that women are in general wiser and more intelligent than men. Girls tend to do better than boys at school. I agree with the cartoon that women are wiser and probably the ladies in the neighbourhood of Jesus brought baby Jesus and the Holy Family more practical gifts. You can eat casseroles, you need lots of diapers and formulae but we cannot eat gold, frankincense or myrrh. While laughing and enjoying this cartoon, we must be careful not to belittle the gifts of the magi—gold, frankincense and myrrh—not only in their symbolic and theological meaning, but also in their practicality.

After the visit of magi, the Holy Family fled to Egypt in a hurry at night. It is not like moving from Indiana to Illinois. Egypt is a different country in a different continent. Egyptians look different, eat different, and speak totally different language. Clothings, culture, religion, language, and everything were different. Let’s imagine a family living in Iran where mass protests are ongoing and the government is executing hundreds of citizens, and hanging their bodies on the crane up high. Let’s say that the family escaped right before they were arrested by the police, and somehow managed to come to America, and settled in Boone County. Even though they have the legal status as refugees, their life here is not going to be easy. Unless they prepared for the immigration for many years, they are not ready to live here. Not being a citizen, they are not eligible for welfare and/or social security. Because of their poor English, it is not easy to get a job, not to mention a decent job. And the winter weather in Boone County, Indiana is cozy for me and for anyone from Canada, but for the people from Iran it is freezing and cruel. And that imaginary Iranian family will surely struggle very much for mere survival in this wealthiest country. And that was the exact reality which the Holy Family faced two thousand years ago in Egypt, a wealthy country back then. But thankfully right before the flight, the magi, the total strangers gave them very expensive gifts which the Holy Family probably lived off by selling them little by little. It was like that the magi gave them a saving account with several hundred thousand dollars in it. So please don’t think that the gifts of magi were just bling-bling things which are useless in real life. The Holy Family only survived because of those gifts. Wise women’s gifts sustained the family for a week but wise men’s gifts made the family survive for a few years.

Star of Bethlehem

I gave you the guiding stars at the beginning of the sermon, so let me talk about the actual star of Bethlehem. In movies and TV shows, they depict the star as a giant and super bright newly emerging star, which sounds very much like a super nova. Speaking of Nova, there was a car from Chevy called Nova from early 60s through late 80s, if you can remember. It was quite selling well in US. They didn’t really sell much in South Americas, I heard. And Chevy wondered why. The name itself pretty much answers why if you speak Spanish. Anyway, ancient Korea was quite good at keeping records of natural disasters such as earthquakes, exceptional typhoons, and the new stars like novas and super novas. But there is no record at all of a bright new stars around the decades of the birth of Jesus. If the star was that bright, it must have been seen in Korea as well. So the star of Bethlehem is not likely a nova. When the magi visited Jerusalem, none of the towners were aware of the star. That means it was not noticeable at all, and thus it cannot be a super nova.

According to the biblical account, the magi began the journey when the star first appeared. Then the star disappeared so they went to the royal palace of Herod in Jerusalem to ask. And then the star reappeared so they were able to finish their journey to baby Saviour. If the star were a nova, disappearing and reappearing are not possible. So the star of Bethlehem cannot be a super nova. Then what was it?

These days we can calculate the movements of the celestial things. That is how we predict the eclipses. If we can calculate the future movements, we can also calculate back the past movements. So some astronomers did it for us. They found that a few stars crossed together and combined around the time of the birth of Jesus. Those stars were Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and the fixed star of Regulus in the constellation of Leo. Then the stars separated and rejoined about nine months later. This perfectly fits with the biblical accounts. And the astronomers said that this conjunction was not visually impressive at all. No wonder why ancient Koreans or Jerusalem people didn’t notice it.

Magi were Ready and Prepared

If that conjunction was not visually impressive at all that nobody noticed it, then how did the magi notice it?  The answer is simple. They had been observing the night sky everyday. While everybody was sleeping, they stayed awake and observed the night sky. If we can learn some lessons from the Persian magi two thousand years later in a different continent across the Atlantic ocean, this is one of them: We also have to stay awake, alert spiritually and be ready for journey any time. Of course you can sleep at night. I said spiritually. We shall do daily spiritual exercises such as reading and meditating the Bible, and praying, praising, and you name it.

Here is another question. If I look up and observe the night sky everyday, would I be able to notice the star of Bethlehem if that conjunction happens again? I don’t even know the constellations beside Orion, Ursa Major, and Cassiopeia—the easy ones. It is basically W shape. So when I don’t even tell which one is Jupiter, how can I tell the conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and the fixed star of Regulus? There is no way I can tell it. If the star of Bethlehem appears again while I watch the night sky, there is zero chance for me to notice it. Then again how were the magi able to notice and tell it? It is because they had good knowledge about the night sky. They had good knowledge because they had been studying diligently. They were the best in their fields. So the magi had at least three Presbyterian characteristics—education, diligence and doing the best. I guess those magi could have been good Presbyterians if they were in present day America.

Without proper spiritual knowledge from the open heart and mind, we will not be able to recognise Jesus even if He comes to us today. On the contrary, the very Christians, that is, we may crucify Jesus again with our own hands in our ignorance. In Presbyterianism, being ignorant from not studying diligently is a sin to God.

Conclusion

Friends, let us learn from those magi and be good Presbyterians. Let us study the Word of God diligently with wide open mind. Let us do our best in our work. Let us stay alert spiritually. And let us ready ourselves for the spiritual journey all the time and any time. Then as the magi, after the long journey, found Jesus in person and worshipped the Saviour, we will also find and worship Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour after our spiritual journey. Amen.