What Can I Give to the Child of the New Age?
A sermon preached by The Rev. Earl William Greene, Jr. on the Epiphany text, Matthew 2:1-12
The writer of our scripture today reports that when Jesus was born some very interesting visitors came calling. We call them the "wise men." Other sources refer to them as, sages, or "the magi" - or as magicians, or astrologers. Some even refer to them as "the three kings," though "kings" is stretching the point pretty far!. Who they were exactly, is unknown.
Tonight is the official end of Christmas - "the 12th night." A new season in the church year begins tomorrow. It's called Epiphany. Through the years the church has tried - not too successfully to save the story of the wise men until after Christmas, because scholars believe that they didn't come on Christmas at all, but later, when Jesus was almost two years old.
I'm glad that the story is meant to be told a dozen days after Christmas. I think there are special messages in this story that could be easily missed if the story of the wise men is just mixed in with an already over-loaded Christmas story.
We trace our custom of gift giving back to the magi and the gifts they brought for the child Jesus. They had made a long trip from somewhere in the East - maybe Persia. And when they finally found the child, the scripture reports that they "entered the house and saw Mary, and the young child , and they knelt down and paid homage - opening their treasure chests with exotic gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Strange gifts for a small child! It's likely that these gifts were items of great value that they used in their art or trade. After all, the word "magi" is where we get our word for magician. These magi were likely adept in the arts of magic. They studied the ancient art of astronomy. They used incense. They knew rituals, spells, they tried to "read" the future.
I can imagine the stir they created in that little Palestinian town. Here they were - probably dressed the part in exotic garb. In some ways it might have seemed that a circus had come to town and stopped right at Mary and Joseph's very own house. Foreigners. Exotic clothes, camel bells. These strangers had an odd bearing about them. These were no ordinary visitors - not a drop of "Hebrew" in them anywhere. They were from a very, very different place.
We can speculate a lot about the magi and their gifts. Some see significance that they brought myrrh with them. Now, myrrh was a highly perfumed, and highly expensive ointment that was used in some mid-eastern religions to anoint the dead. What kind of gift is that for a first-born son? A bad omen, to be sure. Some think that this perfume was meant to foretell the death of Jesus. Maybe.
It is all very strange! Gold, incense and myrrh. What useless gifts for a baby. How about diapers, instead? How about money for rent, or a basket of food? Mary and Joseph were "dirt poor." How about something practical to help this family along instead of a few sticks of expensive incense, a jar of perfumed ointment, and a lump of gold?
But these wise men came from a very different culture. They were looking for a king, and they found immense significance in what "the stars" told them about this particular time, and so they took the kind of treasures that a priest or magician might use - exotic paraphernalia, and they set out on what was almost a "wild goose chase," - heading first toward Jerusalem and Herod's court. It's no wonder Herod was so interested! He wasn't the kind of man that would let anyone suggest he would lose his throne- and get away with it! He was the king of the Jews! And, considering what the wise men had to say, rather than to take risks, he ordered a slaughter of all boy babes under the age of two. That would take care of it!
Finally, the wise men reach the right place - and it turns out to be a place among the poor, a place where new movements and "new ages" have been born many times before - far away from the institutions and power structures - even some of the power structures that are good - far away from courts and kings - to where people really live. That's always where change comes about - where people actually live.
And what they offer as gifts were not very practical, but it is the very best they know: gold, frankincense and myrrh, the treasures of their craft.
Perhaps more than half the children of Ventura County got inappropriate presents this Christmas. And every year. Oh, there are the practical gifts of socks and shoes, and creative learning toys, and books. But what is appropriate to give a child born and raised in a new age? Credit cards, toy guns, shoot-em-up video games? useless toys that break in an hour, or how about extravagant "status" gifts that all the kids have but yours? So, on Christmas...
What is the very, very best that we can give to the children of the next new age? How about a classroom that's not overcrowded? How about "warmth and good food" rather than junk food. How are children of the new age going to survive on junk food? How about giving the children of a new age the gift of a new world view, a new view of the universe - one where people will want to get along with each other, one where people will want to honor our universal kinship. Proclaim the old order of things as a remnant of the past. Behave as though the new order of things is upon us, waiting to be claimed. We should give everyday gifts to the next generation that show that at least we are ready for a new age, and, when we do, we'll begin connecting with millions of others who are ready for it, too.
What about giving the gift of a world where no child needs to go to bed hungry? Or afraid? Or abused? What about giving a gift of justice rather than what we have now - just volumes of loopholes and regulations - especially for people of privilege? How about giving the children of the new age the gift of a government that serves, that empowers the poor, that brings out the best in all of us, a government where a leader's word is a bond that just doesn't get broken?
Are these gifts way too far beyond our reach? So far that we're not even going to try to claim them, - so far that all we can give is more of the same: nothing really new, nothing really lasting, nothing worthy of children of a "new age?"
This is no easy challenge. But there is something that we can give that will carry the next generation into the new age. It is a gift so meaningful, so unlike any other gift. It is the gift of our heart - the very best we have. It is the gift of core values that we in this church are struggling to claim for our day. It is the gift that tells our children - over and over again - no matter how old they are, "I believe in you. You can do anything, things I've never thought of." It is the gift that says "I won't hold you back. Take a strong hold on your own dreams, and go for it!" It is the gift that says "you can count on me. I'll be on your team. I'm praying for you It's the gift that says "take risks. Don't accept the failures of the past as inevitable for the future."
It's a gift that says, "take the faith into the next century. Adapt it. Expand it. Build on it. Find new coalitions for change, new ways of knowing God, and new structures to embody a new kind of faith."
What a difference these gifts are from gifts of gold , or even an inheritance when we die - things that kids can turn into cash, or a few sticks of incense to aid their smoky dreams, or a perfumed salve for their burying when they burn out too soon, and they settle for a whole lot less than their dreams.
Well, I see that I've taken liberties with the scripture passage - something I was taught to avoid. This isn't responsible expository preaching, but this is where the text took me.
What can I offer to the children of the new age? Pretty much the same as I can offer to the child of Bethlehem, and to the man of Nazareth. My heart, my loyalty, my offer to help, my persistence to stay with it, moving ahead in spite of the risks, dreaming dreams as big as I can dream, and the very best I have - all my heart.