January 4, 2004
By Jack Price

"On the 12^th day of Christmas, my true love sent to me.".  You know the song highlighting the "twelve days of Christmas".  The Christian season of Christmas began on Christmas Day, celebrating the birth of Jesus.  It culminates with Epiphany, celebrating the coming of the three Magi to visit Jesus and bring their traditional gifts:  gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  "Magi" is the Greek word for astrologer, the source of our word magician.  They would have been called "wise men" because they could read the stars.

Today is Epiphany Sunday, the Sunday closest to the twelfth day of Christmas.  Our New Testament text is the story of the coming of the Magi, found in Matthew's gospel.  The gifts they brought were highly symbolic.  The familiar carol We Three Kings highlights the symbolism:  gold "to crown him a king;" frankincense to "own a deity nigh," as Emmanuel; and myrrh to foreshadow his death, "sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying." 

The story of Jesus' birth in Matthew's gospel is highly symbolic.  It is also foundational for his gospel of Jesus.  In the Star, Matthew proclaims that the cosmos themselves point to his coming.  Luke has angels directing the shepherds, those outcast and disenfranchised people of no account in that culture.  Matthew has the star direct Gentile astrologers.  Not only is Jesus Emmanuel for all Jews, even the outcast and worthless, he is "God with us" for all people.  The Magi were Gentiles, non-Jews, representing a polytheistic (Goddess) religious tradition.  So, both Luke and Matthew proclaim from the beginning of their gospels that Jesus comes for ALL PEOPLE.  The Kingdom of God is not limited.  All people and even the cosmos participate in the joy of what God is doing. 

Those who are outcast of Jewish religious culture participate.  Gentiles participate.  It is the existing power structure that seems clueless.  Herod, literally the king of the Jews, has to be told by pagan travelers.  The Jewish priests and scribes are out of the loop and have to go scrambling for answers.  The powers of that society find themselves isolated in palace and temple.  Even Jerusalem, the city adopted by David as the seat of power, is virtually ignored.  Instead, insignificant Bethlehem, the original city of David, stands at the forefront.

Matthew's narrative about the birth of Jesus is a highly symbolic story that has taken on new layers of symbolism over the years.  As Christianity struggled, survived, and grew through the Middle Ages, new layers of meaning were added to the stories of Christmas and Epiphany.  The Church "baptized" many popular pagan practices.  Even the date of December 25 was originally a winter festival of light.  The dwindling darkness begins to move toward growing light at the winter solstice.  Advent represents hope in the darkest weeks of the year.  Christmas Day comes as light begins to return.  The twelve days of Christmas, twelve being a highly symbolic number, make up the season of Christmastide.   The Yule log, borrowed from the Norsemen, burned for twelve days to symbolic a faith that remaining kindled even in the coldest and darkest times. 

The traditional greeting "Wassail" derives from the Old English wes hal, meaning good health and wholeness.  It means approximately the same thing as the Hebrew word shalom - peace.  The gift giving we do now is reflected in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas.  The twelve days begin on Christmas and end January 6, Epiphany.  The Magi brought gifts.  We exchange gifts.  In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, gifts are still given on Epiphany.

Matthew's birth story is different from that of Luke's Gospel.  Whereas Luke has shepherds and angels, Matthew has Wise Men, Herod the King, Wise men, the mystical star, and gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  There was danger from Herod.  The Magi returned home a different way.  The holy family fled to Egypt.  Innocents were slaughtered by Herod's soldiers.  Finally, Jesus' family returned from Egypt and settled in Nazareth.

What's going on in this story?  What's really going on?  The late singer, songwriter, and  music producer Marvin Gaye experienced a journey of perspective in the middle of his career.  He came through this journey and began to recognize the larger scope of our world's problems.   His music began to reflect an awareness of bigotry, pollution, war, and the need for brotherhood.  He raised the question in his song, "What's Goin' On?"

Mother, mother, there's far too many of you crying.

Brother, brother, brother, there's far too many of you dying.

We've got to find a way to bring some love here to stay.

Father, father, we don't need to escalate.

War is not the answer for only love can conquer hate.

What's goin' on?

We do well to ask that same question, to look at the Matthew birth story and ask, "What's going on here?"  Let's look at the gift-giving and gift-receiving of our Christmas celebration and ask, "What's really going on?"  Christmas is our celebration of God's gift in Jesus.  God's gift to humanity is "wrapped up" in the Christ event.  Let's not miss gift under layers of Christmas and Christian images. 

Writer Madeleine L'Engle warns us not to get caught in the "trap of literal  interpretation"  The New Testament birth narratives were not written as history.  The narratives appear fairly late in Christian tradition.  They do not appear to have been known by Paul or Mark and were not included in John's gospel.  These narratives represent a clear  expansion of the fundamental Christian message, "God was in Christ reconciling world to himself."  The entire Christ event was a single, cohesive unit - his birth, life, death, resurrection, and living presence.  In Christ, the "Holy Other" God comes very near people - Emmanuel. 

Matthew clearly teaches that God's glory is not in the temple in Jerusalem, but has arrived in a humble Bethlehem "house."  This glory is not just for Jews.  Gentiles are included.  Pagans are included.  God is born in human flesh - what we call "incarnation."  Let us not get caught up in arguments about Jesus as divine or human.  Early Christianity saw him as human.  The Gospel writers proclaim him "Son of God," the title given to the Caesars and other near Eastern royalty.  Paul writes that Jesus was translated at resurrection into Spirit and is both present to God and available to all people.  I am willing to go along with Paul at this point!

The greatest gift of this season is God's gift in the manger of Bethlehem.  It is a present truth for each person.  The divine is born in our lives, but always the question remains for each of us  -- is there room?  There are other questions for us as well.  Will we make the journey (like the magi) to Bethlehem?  Will we follow the particular star God sets out to guide us?  Over the next several weeks, we'll explore some implications of the incarnation for us and ask ourselves some important questions:  "When Immanuel is born in my life, what happens to me?  Do I still exist?  Where is my Star?  Can I find it?  Can I see it?  What will it mean for me to follow it?  Will the Herods of my world hate me as Herod hated Jesus?  What will that mean to me?

Incarnation not just individual and not just personal.  God is not just incarnate in a world full of individual people, but incarnate in the world -- in families, in relationships of all kinds, in institutions and societies, even in churches.  Take this congregation - Crossroads Church.  Where is our Star, our direction?  Can we find it?  Will we see it?  Will we follow it?  Will the Herods of this world hate us as Herod hated Jesus?

Advent is now over.  Christmas presents exchanged.  Perhaps you have knelt in Bethlehem during this season.  What now?  What will we do with the Christ, newly born in us?  Let us begin by remembering that the truth of Christmas is the truth of the Christ.  Incarnation is a poet's truth and includes the cradle, the cross, and the living Spirit.  As poet Ann Weems, in Kneeling in Bethlehem, tell us-

If there is no cross in the manger, there is no Christmas.

If the Babe doesn't become an Adult,

there is no Bethlehem star.

If there is no commitment in us,

there are no Wise Men searching.

If we offer no cup of cold water,

there is no gold, no frankincense, no myrrh.

If there is no standing up, no speaking out, no risk,

there is no Herod, no flight into Egypt.

If there is no room in our inn,

then "Merry Christmas" mocks the Christ Child,

and God will loathe our feasts and festivals.

For if there is no reconciliation,

we cannot call Christ "Prince of Peace."

If there is no goodwill toward others,

it can all be packed away in boxes for another year.

If there is no forgiveness in us,

there is no cause for celebration.

If Christmas is not now,

if Christ is not born into the everyday present,

then what is all the noise about?

            Let's be noisy this year and celebrate Christmas each day because Christmas is new.  Christ is born into the everyday present.  There is redemption and there is reconciliation.  The "Prince of Peace" is the reality beneath and beyond all that frightens us.  What's really going on is this -- Emmanuel - God with us.  Amen.