Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption by Deacon Jerry Franzen
Isaiah 60:1-6 ^ Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6 ^ Matthew 2:1-12
Praised Be Jesus Christ. Good Afternoon (Morning).
Let’s begin by being sure
that we know pertinent information
about the characters that are in today’s Gospel.
Jesus is mentioned first.
We all know Him, but we all need
to learn more about Him.
That is always the point of
our proclaiming the Gospel.
King Herod was the ruler of
the Jewish people
when Jesus was born.
He was king only because the
Romans allowed him to be
their “puppet” to keep the Jewish people in line.
He was pathologically
suspicious and fearful of losing his control.
He even killed his wife and
three sons,
because he thought that they were plotting against him.
Even his closest collaborators
hated him.
He wanted the magi to find
this new King
so that he, Herod, could have him, the new King killed,
and, when that didn’t work
he eventually had all Jewish male
newborns killed
in the hope that this would include the new King, Jesus.
And what about the magi?
We really don’t know how
many there were.
The only place they appear
in scripture is here
in St. Matthew’s
Gospel, and it just says “magi.”
The popular notion that
there were three
seems to come from the mention of three gifts, G F M.
Check the Epiphany window on
the south side of the nave;
See if you can identify which of the figures are the magi.
They came from the “east,”
probably the region which is now Iran and Iraq.
They were not Jews; therefore
they were Gentiles.
They were like the earliest
of what we might term “scientists.”
They studied nature,
especially the heavens.
They gathered facts,
knew of the
prophecies about the new King of the Jews
and put it
all together to come to the conclusion
that the star was the indicator
that the new King, the Messiah, had been born.
It seems that they were
valued advisors for kings,
probably scholars, more like “wise men” than actual kings.
Today we celebrate the
arrival of the Magi to the Holy Family.
I
But why is this event so
important? FIRST They brought gifts.
Gift-giving is at the heart
of Christmas.
We enjoy receiving items given
to us by others
as an expression of their friendship and love for us, AND
we enjoy presenting gifts
to others
as
our expression of our love and friendship for them.
Christmas gifts should be
firm reminders
of God’s Christmas
gift of His Son to us.
At least that is the way it
should be.
The gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh were intended
to
be gifts that would help to celebrate the arrival
of this new
King of the Jews.
However, many times what we
do is not gift-giving
in the strictest sense of that term.
We often are involved in an
exchange of presents.
We gather and bring presents
for many of the others present
and generally expect presents from many who are gathered.
It might also be that we
bring one present for one person
whose name
we have drawn,
and expect a gift from one person in the
group.
The exchange of Christmas
cards often follows this same format.
If they sent me a card last year,
I should send them one this year.
Or if they sent me one this
year and I didn’t,
maybe I can dash one off at the last minute.
Oh, I am not against the
Secret Santa exchanges,
the gathering around the tree on Christmas morning
to exchange presents or the sending of Christmas cards.
They all are very warm ways
of expressing our love for others.
But they may
not represent the true giving of gifts.
I would think that with King
Herod,
it would be: “Give me your loyalty, and I will let you
live.”
I have a present for you, if
you have one for me.
The truest form of
gift-giving is done with no strings attached.
It goes on all the time,
especially with the giving trees
that are routinely stripped bare for Christmas time.
II
I wanted to make this
distinction between the exchange of presents
and true
gift-giving,
because it is
gift-giving in its truest sense
that exemplifies what Christmas is all about.
And the feast of the Epiphany reminds us
of that.
In this whole Christmas Season,
we celebrate God’s gift to us,
the gift of his Son, a gift freely given out
of the fullness of love,
the gift of our salvation with no strings attached.
This gift comes with no
expectation of our giving a gift back to God.
How could we give a gift
that could match the gift that God gave us in
Jesus?
I doubt that the magi had
expected a “tit for tat” exchange
with the Messiah.
If they had expected some
favor in return from the King of the Jews,
they would have turned right around
and taken
their gifts with them,
when they saw the conditions
under which this new King was born.
I wonder whether the magi
realized the irony of the situation:
their gifts were nowhere near a match
for the gift
of his Son that God had given them and us.
III
So where are we in this
story? We don’t want to be Herod.
We must be the magi.
Our lives are journeys; we must discern which stars to
follow.
In addition to His Son, God
has given each of us gifts.
They may be gifts that represent wealth,
as did gold, frankincense and myrrh.
They may be gifts that are our talents, our qualities:
The knowledge that teachers impart to students,
The wisdom with which parents shape
the character of their children,
The enthusiasm that youth bring to events,
The creativity of musicians, decorators and
architects,
The organizational skills of managers and coaches,
The innocence and openness of children,
The dedication that prompts volunteers.
Our part is to use these gifts.
We give them to others, and
in doing so,
we give them back to God through others.
It is not a “tit for tat”
situation,
but gifts that are freely given by God,
and
gifts that are freely given to others by us.
God has given us his Son out
his love for us,
not because he expects us to reciprocate with gifts for Him.
God continues to give us the
gift of His Son,
even when we fail to follow His call to use those gifts for
others.
While no gift we can give
can match God’s gift of his Son,
very gift we bring to others,
no matter how small we may think
it is,
is held preciously by God.
Every gift we give to others
becomes our expression of God’s love
for them through us .
Just as God has given us his
Son, we bring Christ to others,
when we freely share our gifts with them.
That is what it means to be
a Christian. That is what the Magi did.
I would expect that, when
they went back to their homelands,
they shared the news of the new-born King
with the non-Jewish world, the Gentiles.
In a sense, they, and the
shepherds, were the first Christians.
This feast of the Epiphany then
serves
a SECOND very important purpose:
not just as a reminder of the true spirit of Christmas:
but also that
God sent the gift of His Son
for the salvation of all,
Jews and Gentile alike, for everyone.
God has given each of us this
beautiful gift of His Son,
AND now today on our part,
we express our love for God in our
freely
giving of that same gift,
Christ, to others.
Guerric of
Igny, a twelfth-century French abbot
said in his sermon on the Nativity:
“The child Jesus was
born not only FOR us,
but also to
be IN us.
We have to conceive
God in our hearts.”
One way we do that is by sharing
the gifts that He has given to us.
