LOOKING FOR A KING

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE JANUARY 8, 2006

Matthew 2:11 “Going into the house over which the star had halted they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.”

So the mysterious kings from the East had arrived at the end of their pilgrimage. Outwardly their journey was now over and fulfilled. They had reached their goal. But now a new journey began for them, an inner pilgrimage, which changed their lives. What motivated their journey? It was not to find God - though surely they did find God. Or rather God found them.

At the beginning of their journey what image did they have? What did they imagine they were coming to see? an infant king of course. So they headed for Jerusalem, to the palace, seeking out King Herod for news of the newly born king in Jerusalem.

Perhaps they knew of the old Jewish prophecies - foretelling a king of Israel who would be intimately united with God. Of a king who would restore order to a chaotic world, acting for God, and in his name. Perhaps their hearts were a mix of being troubled at the disorder of the world they knew, and being expectant and hopeful that this was the answer.

Perhaps they were just following that star out of some hope in their hearts? But there were no royal babies recently born in Jerusalem. What were they to do? They were in search of true justice that could only come from God. They were looking for a king that they could serve. One to fall prostrates before. To worship and adore. They were surely among those whom Jesus says “hunger and thirst after righteousness.”

Like many of us, when they were young they were in search of justice and a peaceful world - the sort of thing that one expects from God. Like us they wanted to devote themselves to this cause of justice and righteousness. Those who stayed home considered they were utopian dreamers. That perhaps they would become the angry young men and women of their age. And yet they were not dreamers - they were actually people who had their feet on the ground. They knew that in order to change the world it is necessary to have power. So they sought a powerful one who could save and change the world.

In order to change the world it is necessary to have power. Thus it ever was, even in the church. Consider: those in the church who have power are usually the ones who change it.

So Bethlehem was a surprise. Now they are bowing down before the child of poor people, not in a palace. They were seeking this king from God - but surprisingly He had found them.

Soon they realized the king that had the power, Herod, intended to use his power to trap them and dispose of this new threat to his earthly power - so he thought.

The scene was not what they expected. God was not as they imagined him to be. Isn’t that true of our world today?

Many people follow stars and all sorts of guiding lights, and many discover new religions and churches - often based on personal power and fulfillment, even in own church. That is not where Jesus was found. The Magi, the great men from the East, had to change their ideas about power, God and pilgrimage. And in so doing they also had to change themselves. Thus today they kneel before this child and worship him - just as we do at the heart of the Eucharist. Just as we kneel and worship at the very heart of receiving Holy Communion.

Now on this day they are able to see that God’s power is not like the powerful of this world. That God’s ways are not as we imagine - or as we might want them to be. That God does not send legions of angels to help us and to rescue us, even should we be in the Garden of Gesthemane. For God’s way is none other than the defenseless power of love.

So being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned home by another way, the scripture says. One tradition is they went all around the Mediterranean, eventually through Bavaria to Köln. Even today there is a shrine to the Magi in the great Köln Cathedral. From this we get the tradition of Epiphany chalk, where homes were marked with the initials of these three kings. They would know they would be welcomed, and could come in and share their joy of the new born king and his light.

And so it should be with us. All these sentiments of this great feast, which is the conclusion of our Christmas celebration, I find beautifully expressed in a prayer from a French Hospital Chapel:

Lord Jesus, in the course of your earthly life

you were the face of the tenderness of God amongst men.

Now that we cannot see your face

it is for us, your disciples,

to show your face of light to others.

(From a Hospital Chaplaincy in Tonnerre)