Gift Giving Epiphany

Epiphany season is all about recognition… about recognizing the shining light of God within the person and work of the human being Jesus. Epiphany season is the time when other people discover for themselves what Mary was told by the angel Gabriel, that this child is God among us. But today is the Feast of the Epiphany, Epiphany Day. We are lucky this year; the Epiphany only falls on a Sunday every six years or so. This day, the Feast of the Epiphany, is all about the magi. Their story, of course, is one of recognition; it is an Epiphany story. They recognized in that one particular child born in Bethlehem someone who was worthy of great homage. This is a most appropriate day to launch Epiphany season.

But the story of the magi is rich with other messages, as well. No wonder it is so popular. It is very difficult to make a case for any sort of historical accuracy in this story. That does not diminish the popularity, nor the significance, nor the meaning of the story. Raymond Brown’s book The Birth of the Messiah looks in depth at both Luke and Matthew’s accounts of Jesus’ birth. About the popularity of the story of the magi, he writes: "The mysterious ‘wise men’ from the East caught popular Christian fancy earlier and more often than did Luke’s rather pedestrian shepherd-visitors to Bethlehem…. In the Roman catacombs the magi made their pictorial debut a good two centuries before the shepherds, who belatedly appear in the fourth century as subsidiary to the magi. If interest in relics is taken as a gauge, there is simply no contest between the magi and the shepherds. Indeed, the [purported] corporeal relics of the magi traveled on a grander scale than their original owners, to the point that in the twentieth century the relics were still traveling and even gong back to their earlier home ‘by another route.’"

The story is so familiar, so popular, it is hard to hear it anew. For example, would you believe me if I told you that Holy Scripture does not identify the travelers as kings, nor does Holy Scripture say anywhere that they were three in number. Notwithstanding the hymn "We Three Kings", which I am very glad we get to sing today, Matthew says nothing of three kings. Wise men from the East. Just because they brought three gifts does not prove there were three of them. The allusion to kings probably comes from the long-time association with this morning’s psalm. If this psalm is taken to speak of the Messiah, it says that: "All kings shall bow down before him, and all the nations do him service." The popular legends that have grown up around the story of the magi are fun to explore. Again from Brown: "In the East the earliest known attempt [4^th or 6^th century] to give the magi names identifies them as: Hormizdah, king of Persia; Yazdegerd, king of Saba; and Perozadh, king of Sheba." A later, possibly 8^th century work, from the west includes this classical description (again, not to be found in Matthew): "The magi were the ones who gave gifts to the Lord. The first is said to have been Melchior, an old man with white hair and a long beard… who offered gold to the Lord as to a King. The second, Gaspar by name, young and beardless and ruddy complexioned… honored him as God by his gift of incense, an oblation worthy of divinity. The third, black-skinned and heavily bearded, named Balthasar… by his gift of myrrh testified to the Son of Man who was to die."

The magi were the ones who gave gifts to the Lord. The story of Jesus’ birth, as it is told in Holy Scripture, includes the presence of ones who gave gifts to the Lord. And it is the giving of gifts that is the focal point of the magi’s story. The giving of gifts. But what comes before and what comes after the gift giving are important, too. What comes before is the journey, the motivation, that brought the magi to Bethlehem. They were strangers, foreigners, non-Jews or Gentiles. This was not their story by birth or heritage or social custom. It was a revelation in nature, the star, that impelled them on their journey. The star’s revelation is the part of the story that precedes the gift giving. Then, the focal point, at the baby’s side, the magi offered gifts of great value. And in that offering of gifts, a door was opened, a relationship begun. What came after the gift giving was Paul’s mission to the Gentiles that we heard in this morning’s epistle. The gift giving of the Gentile kings was the action that brought all of us who are not of Jewish descent into the Messiah’s story. The star leads to the giving of the gifts. The whole history of the church follows.

They followed a star. That’s the first thing for us to note in this story. They trusted some instinct, some gnawing voice within themselves, that told them this revelation was worth pursuing. They saw something in nature that was wondrous, something that they could not explain, and they were open to at least the possibility that it was meant for them. It was not an angel or a booming voice. It was not the fulfillment of some prophecy they had been taught at their mother’s knee. They were not, at least as Matthew tells the story, in the midst of deep personal crises seeking miraculous intervention in their lives. The story does not include any of the elements we often demand of God before we will consent to believe. They just noticed something truly wondrous in the night sky of the world in which they lived. A star. Nothing more; nothing less. And they were open… they trusted that this message was for them. May we be so open.

When the magi got to Bethlehem, they gave things away. They gave gifts. The story isn’t about what God did for them. It’s about the gifts they gave to the child. The personal interaction between the Magi and the Lord began with the magi giving gifts. Significant gifts. Over the centuries, the symbolic significance of these particular gifts—gold, frankincense and myrrh—has been much discussed. One of the more enduring perceptions is the ancient one quoted earlier and alluded to in the hymn We Three Kings. Gold represents kingship. Incense, frankincense, represents priesthood or divinity. Myrrh represents death.

Remember this story is about giving. We don’t know if Jesus wanted or appreciated these particular gifts. We don’t know how they were received. This story is not fraught with all of the complications of human Christmas gift giving. Because it is really just about the giving. The magi gave these things up… gave them to Jesus.

What might it mean to give such gifts? When the magi gave Jesus gold they named him king in their lives and, by giving him their gold, they lessened the tribute they paid to other rulers in their lives. Who rules your life? To whom do you pay tribute as king? Look in your checkbook; it will tell you. There are days when I think Comcast rules my life. I’m only partially joking. Have you seen the new commercial where a man must choose between shopping the Magnificent mile buff naked, submit to being tackled by Brian Urlacher or give up Comcast for just one day? He chooses Urlacher, rather than give up Comcast for one day. I can’t quite laugh at the commercial, because it taps into something real… the servitude we voluntarily accept to the cable and communication companies in our lives.  Look at your checkbook.

The more general question is what we value and what we trust and what we depend upon in our lives. Who or what do we designate to reign over us? Can we give those feelings to Jesus? Can we transfer our value for financial security to a valuing of Jesus? Can we transfer our dependence upon entertainment and communication to a dependence upon a relationship with Jesus? Can we transfer our trust in the security of human might to a trust in the mercy of God? It’s about giving. Giving up. Giving away our other kings so that Jesus might rule in our lives.

When the magi gave Jesus the frankincense of divine priesthood they made him the sole bearer of what was sacred for them. They gave Jesus alone the status of being worshiped in their lives. Can we give him that gift? Can we grant to Jesus alone the status of being worshipped in our lives?

When the magi gave Jesus myrrh, the oil of anointing for burial, they give him their deaths. They gave up the power that death had over them. Can you give Jesus your death? He will accept it. Death has a powerful hold over the choices and desires of our lives. I don’t know of any other way to lighten that hold, except to give my death away. When we give our deaths to Jesus, they become his, no longer ours.

Gold, frankincense and myrrh. It is the giving of them that is significant. Giving away the rule or dominion that other things, especially money, has in our lives and trusting Jesus to guide and protect us. Giving away the false gods that we worship and cling to and offering homage only to Jesus. Giving away the fear and power of death, trusting Jesus to bear our deaths for us and open the way to eternal life. These are hard things to give away. They are things we cling to. But they are the gifts the magi offered to the Messiah, setting an example for us.

And it was in the gift giving that the story really began for the magi. Matthew doesn’t tell us what this whole personal experience was like for them except to say they were filled with joy. It’s all over in just a few verses. We usually assume that they gave the gifts because they already knew who Jesus was. And certainly they knew something wondrous was afoot. But maybe, in their living of the story, it was in the gift giving that the epiphany moment of recognition occurred. Maybe it was as they made their offering that the overwhelming recognition came. Their recognition that this baby is God with us.

Epiphany season starts with this story of gift giving; we can’t have Epiphany season without it. Think about how remarkable, almost unbelievable, it was that Gentile magi from a different country, a different culture, recognized Jesus as their Messiah, as their God present with them. Their gift giving is a crucial part of that Epiphany story of recognition. We live thousands of years and thousands of miles and a vast cultural gulf away from that manger in Bethlehem. May our gift giving be the beginning of our Epiphany season, a season in which we recognize anew that Jesus is our Messiah, our God with us.