Three Scruffy Men
“We three Kings of Orient are _________?”
Are what?
……trying to smoke a rubber cigar?
Well, that’s one version of the story and I expect that if we gave you a few moments to toss your two-bits in, you’d be able to come up with some other very “colourful” variations on the old song: any, or even all of which might be very amusing, but none of which, in fact, really add anything to the historicity of the story that’s before us this morning.
“We three kings of Orient are ____?”
Well- what do we really know about these people?
Truth is, not much! Not much at all…
There were three of them, you say, but look again at your Bible. There’s nothing there to suggest how many there actually were. The old church father, Tertullian, suggested, in the second century that there must have been three because, after all, there were three gifts specifically mentioned in the Bible- hence, three givers.
They were kings, you tell me, but the old saint, Martin Luther argues that that assumption is just plain foolishness. He says of these men:
The three wise men were not kings or princes, but merely honourable men- like our professors and teachers. Notice that Herod treated them as subjects when he “commanded” them to go to Bethlehem and bring him word of the Messiah’s birth. He would not have done this if they had been kings or lords. He would have invited them to dine and would have accompanied them on their way with royal treatment, for all the historians agree that King Herod was a smooth man who observed the etiquette of the courts… Since, it says, he instead summoned them secretly, they must have been, he concluded, of much lower estate.
In the 6th century, probably for the sake of making some play script work better -drama having been a primary teaching tool of the church- someone, arbitrarily assigned these “three” kings names: Melchior, Baltazar and Gasper. There’s nothing Biblical about this, but the drama caught on and the names, and the other colourful details added over time, stuck, to give us, even today, the very beautiful image that we see so often on Christmas cards: three very honourable, distinguished looking men of wealth, power and influence who would make very respectable guests not only at a manger scene but at your house or mine for dinner!
Ronald Horgan,1 of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Huston, Texas paints a very different picture. He suggests that “in the original Biblical manuscripts these guys are referred to as “magi.” This title “magi” comes from an Iranian word “magoi” which was used to describe people who acted in very “strange” ways; people often captivated by spells, magic and incantations; people who often dressed in a very bizzare manner (rather like something out of a Harry Potter movie.)” Horgan’s view of these magi leads me to suggest that they may well have been commercial charlatans seeking to add weight of “authority” to their astrological predictions by living out, and then embellishing mightily, some story about seeing signs and portents in the heavens about a king, going on a journey to find him and having every kind of success… “And, my friends, if we can do THAT, imagine what we can do for you with a few tea leaves, a zodiac wheel and your money in our pockets!”
Horgan’s reconstruction is, of course, a fabrication but he shares it, and I share it, simply by way of pointing out that it has as much scriptural validity as does the more gentrified tale that we usually take to be the Gospel truth…. But, of course, we like the Christmas card version of the story much better- don’t we? …Well, you might, but I rather prefer what I’ve called, in our sermon title this morning, the tale of “Three Scruffy Men.”
Once upon a time, three scruffy men of means took to the road on a business/holiday journey: seeking both to have a real adventure and to enhance their reputation as purveyors of great magic and power. They said they were following a star but isn’t it amazing how that star just happened to take them to the very heart of the economic community of Palestine- a place called Jerusalem. Now although this star bit of the story was important -after all these guys had a reputation to build as great astrologers- when it came to actually trying to find the new king that they proclaimed, even they were quick to abandon the star scam, choosing instead to seek advice from their more customary kind of source- that is, “Hey, guys, this star thing is a bit vague, and it wouldn’t hurt to say that we had an audience with the mighty king Herod, so let’s go see if he’s got any wisdom to shed on our journey.” So, they went to the palace.
Now, normally Herod wouldn’t be caught dead in the company of guys like this, but their talk of a new king fired up his jealous paranoia and so he consented to see them “secretly” and what they said to him rattled him… He quickly called in his advisors –a bunch of priests and scribes who knew where their bread was buttered- and, to his dismay, they suggested that there were some ancient texts that just might add credence to the wild tale told by the three scruffy men… Covering all bases, Herod, somewhat tongue in cheek commanded the three scruffy men to come back and tell him if they really found some kind of new king: or, we might imagine, if they tripped over any pink elephants along the way! Herod really didn’t take the three buffoons seriously. He didn’t even bother to send one of his own hirelings along to keep an eye on them! And, though Bethlehem was just 6 miles away, Herod saw no point launching his own investigation taking the whole story of a new king as a bit of a joke at this point.
So, the three scruffy men went back outside, somewhat intimidated by Herod, but eager to complete their quest so that they could say that they’d uncovered a great king by way of magic. There were lots of stars in the sky so of course there was one over Bethlehem and that was the city the priests had named, so off they went quite pleased with the thought that if they could spin a bit of Jewish prophecy into their ultimate tale it might even market to the Jews back home- increasing the profit margin.
Now, I don’t know how many times you’ve gone outside to look at the stars, but I’m sure you’ve done it often enough to realize two things. First of all, stars don’t move: at least not in the way the Bible story says. Like the sun, our greatest star, all other stars stand still while we on a planet revolve around them. And secondly, for all the Boy Scout stuff about following the north star if you ever get lost in the woods, I’d hate to ever really have to make my way by such a compass. Any given star can be seen from a vantagepoint that at any moment of the night includes thousands of square miles! No way any star acts like a GPS nailing down any kind of pinpoint accurate location!
Whatever! The three scruffy men make their journey to Bethlehem where, lo and behold, they find a baby: actually more of a toddler, but close enough (they were getting a bit impatient by this point). They make a big fuss over the kid and with some fanfare and photo-ops, they present him their gifts and then, without any more howdy-do than that they take off for home to tell and sell their tale… And, that’s the last we hear of them.
I’d love to say that they found Jesus and dedicated their entire lives to serving the King of all Creation, but there’s nothing quite so moving or touching in the actual Bible story, so- no can do. In fact, quite the contrary, if there’s any kind of spiritual story here it must surely be titled “Opportunities Lost!”
And yet, I want to argue vehemently, there is a miracle here! Yes! Really! There is a miracle here.
Years later Jesus said, “I…will draw all men to myself (John 12:32). I will draw all men to myself.” This is a wonderful promise made by God and, I would argue, that today’s tale, especially when we choose to read it as the sordid tale of three scruffy men, serves a proof and illustration of just how tenacious God intends to be about keeping the intent of this promise!
Despite themselves, forgiving the realities that they were using magic as their spiritual guide -more or less, and without being able to nail down the question of their spiritual purity and sincerity or lack thereof, all three of these guys end up, for better, for worse or with no effect at all, and whether they ever even actually knew it or not, end up standing in the presence of the King of Kings.
What’s the odds? …It’s gotta be a miracle!
And, it’s very good news for all of us! We may scoff at the tale of the three scruffy men and we may judge our spiritual questing as being much more deliberate, sincere and well-intended (as I’m sure it is) but, in the end, the outcome of our story, like theirs, is not dependent on anything we can ever do! It will never be by OUR merit and quick wit that we end up in the presence of God. Whatever credit or glory it all goes to God himself. He comes forth to find the “lost sheep.” He keeps his promise to “draw all people to himself!”
What we make of his appearing, well that’s up to us. It’s kind of like the old joke that you all know. Remember the one that tells about the guy hanging on a limb of the edge of a cliff? And along comes (what was it?) a hiker, a helicopter and a rescue squad but the guy refuses them all because he’s “waiting for God.” Then, in the end he falls to his death and is all huffy when he gets to the pearly gates..
“I will come and give you a chance to meet me, to live with, love and know me,” God says. The magi had their chance in today’s story. So did Herod. And, so did his priestly advisors. None of them “deserved” the chance (and neither do we) but God gave it to them anyway. None of them embraced the chance …and that leaves the open question for us- Will we?
The Epiphany season, which we liturgically launch today, is a time for recalling God’s appearings and a time to notice when God appears to us. In this season we raise our antennae to notice, and hopefully we open our hearts to respond, when God appears even at the most unlikely times and in the most unlikely ways whether we’re looking for him at that moment or not! God comes knocking at the door of your life. “Surprise!” he says. “I am here in the infant child of a poverty stricken couple in Bethlehem -or in Bayfield… I am here in the leper, the AIDS patient, the Afghani, the homeless drunk lying in your streets. Find me in the beauty of the sunset, the swirl of fresh snow, the warmth of evening fire or the twinkle of a star filled night. I am here, doing what I promised drawing all people to myself… I am coming- TO YOU!”
He is coming…and I want to end up today giving you a bit of a homework assignment (play along with me, remember, I used to be a teacher). Once upon a time, as part of an opening worship at a church board meeting, I asked people to remember and tell about the last time they felt God really present, really close. In response to this challenge what we got were some wonderful tales of God feeling really close- most often around the time of the death of some loved one. That was good, but what jumped out at us as we heard story after story was a gaping absence of more contemporary epiphanies. When I tried to narrow the focus by qualifying answers to tellings of experiencing or meeting God in the last week, everyone drew a blank! So, as we start this Epiphany season, recognizing that God would be Lord of all our days, here’s the assignment: See if you can recognize God in someone or some experience in the next seven days! He will come to you- that’s the miracle, that’s the promise- see if you can be even wiser than the wise men and really notice… We’d better have some help if we’re going to accomplish this, so let’s make our prayer in song as we remain seated to sing hymn 371 “Open my eyes that I may see…”
Charles Love
Bayfield, Jan 6 2002
1.http://www.sermoncentral.com/contributor_sermon.asp?SermonID=39200&ContributorID=6532&NameFirst=Ronald+&NameLast=Horgan&ImageName=&ImageHeight=&CN=Christ+Evangelical+Pres%2E+Church&CWeb=cepc%2Eorg