WISE MEN (AND WOMEN)
A Sermon by Dean Scotty McLennan
University Public Worship
Stanford Memorial Church
January 6, 2008
Today is Epiphany in the Christian liturgical calendar. It’s the climax of the Advent-Christmas season, and immediately follows the Twelve Days of Christmas.[i] That’s the long period of gift giving starting on December 25 and celebrated in the popular song which begins with one’s true love presenting a partridge in a pear tree and ends with twelve drummers drumming.[ii] Epiphany is traditionally celebrated as Three Kings Day,[iii] based on today’s gospel lesson.[iv] Three men from the East arrive to pay homage to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem, and they present him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Note that the term used in the gospel of Matthew, though, is not “kings” but “wise men,” – a translation of the Greek word “magi.” It was only after centuries of church tradition that the magi began to be referred to as “kings,” likely because of the connection that was drawn to the reading you heard from the Jewish prophet Isaiah, written some 500 years before the birth of Jesus[v] but later said by Christians to prophesize his coming:[vi] “The Lord will arise upon you…Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”[vii] There’s also a line in Psalms, also written many centuries before Christ,[viii] which was later read as a gloss on Matthew’s story:[ix] “The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents; the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring him gifts, and all the kings of the earth shall adore him.”[x]
Who exactly were these “wise men” as described in Matthew? Modern biblical scholars tend to think they were members of a priestly caste from Persia – Zoroastrians who were well versed in astrology and dream interpretation.[xi] They are the first non-Jews to visit Jesus, and we get the message from the start that his world will be greater than Israel and that Jesus will be relating easily to people outside his own religious circle. Jesus will see beyond culture and race and religion to include pagan outsiders as neighbors and exemplars, like hated Samaritans and Roman soldiers.[xii] These wise men demonstrate both their astrological knowledge (following a star to find Jesus) and their capability to interpret dreams (not returning to King Herod in Jerusalem because of a dream warning). But more importantly, they demonstrate their generosity in paying homage to Jesus with treasure chests of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
These three elements have a long history of meaning in the biblical context. Gold signifies royalty and riches. Frankincense, which means “high quality incense”[xiii] was used in priestly rituals. Myrrh was used for embalming the dead. It’s possible to interpret these gifts, as in the hymn “We Three Kings,”[xiv] as signifying Jesus’ roles as king, as divine object of worship, and as one ultimately to be martyred.[xv] There’s also a long history of Jewish wisdom that these wise men both evoke and contrast with. Jesus as an adult becomes well known as a teacher of wisdom himself.[xvi] What’s this wisdom tradition all about?
In the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament it includes everything from the practical advice of the book of Proverbs to the existential wondering of Ecclesiastes and Job. It’s found in the elevated poetry of the Psalms and the earthy sensuality of the Song of Songs. A lot of it is actually personified in female form as Sophia – not only the Greek word for “wisdom,” but also a female image for God:[xvii] “Her revenue is better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you can desire can compare with her…She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy.”[xviii]
Epiphany always comes at the beginning of the New Year. This is a time for New Year’s resolutions – for applying wisdom to our lives and trying to stay with it for the next twelve months. Is there a threefold lesson for our resolutions that can be derived from the three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, set within the Judeo-Christian wisdom tradition? The current issue of the magazine Christian Century puts it this way: “When the Magi offer Jesus gold, which indicates a king, we are invited to lessen the tribute we offer to the power structures to which we belong and on which we depend; when they offer him frankincense, which indicates a priest, we are invited to tiptoe out from under the delusions of our sacred canopies, to be drawn into the jagged edge sacrifice of presence that this Priest will carry out; and when they offer him myrrh, which indicates a prophet’s death, the Magi invite our hearts to lighten as death loses its hold over our drives and desires.”
That’s a bit poetic and abstract for me. How about stating three New Years resolutions this way: 1) Become less dependent on conventional forms of power and success this year; 2) Pursue the spiritual life less in religious rituals and more in deep relationships with other people; 3) Live every day fully as if it were the last.
In regard to the first resolution, Job is the classic wisdom book about putting wealth and power in perspective. One who was touted as the greatest of all the people of the east – with seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels – loses it all even though he’s a blameless and upright man. His friends come and sit with him in silence for seven days and seven nights, “for they saw that his suffering was very great.”[xix] But then they begin to blame him for his misfortunes, rather than sympathizing with him. Job comes to curse the day of his birth and cries out against God. Ultimately, he realizes that wisdom “cannot be gotten for gold”[xx] and that those that used to respect him, supposedly, were doing so only because he lived like a king, not because he was considered wise. After he loses his wealth and power he is widely mocked and scorned.[xxi]
The perspective he comes to gain is that the universe in which he lives is magnificent in and of itself: the morning stars sing, the ground puts forth grass, the lightening crackles, the mountain goats give birth, the hawk soars – all without any instigation of his or any other human being’s. God’s creation can be beheld and appreciated – and it should be -- regardless of human wealth or power.
My college chaplain used to say that there are two ways to be rich: “One is to have a lot of money; the other is to have few needs.”[xxii] The wise men came to Jesus with great riches, but Jesus was born in a stable and laid in an animals’ feeding trough for a crib. He grew up a poor carpenter’s son, and then he became an itinerant preacher without possessions. This is the model Christians have been given for living a truly liberated and fulfilled life. Wealth, by contrast, can encumber and entrap, and the striving after it can be the most entrapping and encumbering of all. So, my first New Year’s resolution, stimulated by the story of the three wise men, is to look for simple, unconventional ways to find success and fulfillment.
The wisdom book of Proverbs helps me with my second New Year’s resolution: to pursue the life of the spirit less through ritual and institutionalized practices than through trying to deepen my relationships with family members, friends, and my community at large. “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,” we’re told by the author of Proverbs, and “love covers all offenses.”[xxiii] Another saying is that “A generous person will be enriched, and one who gives water will get water.”[xxiv] A third is: “Those who despise their neighbors are sinners, but happy are those who are kind to the poor.”[xxv] The prophet Amos puts it much more starkly, claiming to speak directly for God: “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them… Take away from me the noise of your songs…But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”[xxvi] The prophet Isaiah, also speaking for God, challenges religious convocations, the burning of incense, and even assemblies on the Sabbath, asking us instead simply to “rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, [and] plead for the widow.”[xxvii] The prophet Micah asks, “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings? … What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”[xxviii]
The central sacrament of Christianity is sharing bread and wine in community – finding fellowship, ideally of all people, around the banquet table of communion. The apostle Paul seemed not to see this as much as a religious ritual as eating together in Christian fellowship, waiting for each other and not rushing ahead selfishly to satisfy one’s hunger and thirst alone:[xxix] “One goes hungry and another becomes drunk.”[xxx]Paul also seemed to be concerned that there were significant distinctions being made between rich and poor in the early church: "You show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing."[xxxi] As one biblical commentary I use explains, wealthy Christians in Corinth were apparently invited earlier for the choice food and drink. Then poorer Christians came later to "find, along with tipsy co-worshipers, leftover food at best."[xxxii] Obviously this violated the radical social vision of equality that Jesus continually promoted.
So my second New Year’s resolution is to remember that spiritual meaning is found not so much in waving incense or frankincense around in a church as in deepening relationships among people. For as Jesus exclaimed pointedly, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”[xxxiii]
Ecclesiastes is the key wisdom text for my third resolution: Live every day this year fully, as if it were my last. Live with the realization of death on my shoulder, as a prod and a reminder to appreciate everything I am experiencing, alive, in the here and now. It may seem strange that the third gift of the wise men to the newborn Jesus was a highly scented tree resin named myrrh,[xxxiv] used for embalming the dead. But Ecclesiastes reminds us to “Remember your grave in the days of your youth.”[xxxv] This wisdom teacher explains that “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of everyone, and the living will lay it to heart.”[xxxvi] I’ve found in my own ministry that much as I enjoy celebrating weddings, taking part in memorial services is the much greater privilege. The fullest appreciation of the meaning of life, what the ultimate priorities are, and the power of love comes as we’re gathered after death to remember and celebrate the life of a friend, colleague or loved one. Ecclesiastes insists that “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”[xxxvii]
Ecclesiastes spends a lot of time telling us how much of life is vanity or emptiness. He includes in his litany riches, pleasure-seeking, beautiful houses, concubines, business and busyness, political power, clever speech, and possessions of all kinds. Ultimately, they’re all chasing after wind. But what is valuable and meaningful is appreciating the small everyday aspects of life: “It is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.”[xxxviii] Ecclesiastes says this in a variety of ways throughout the book. Here’s another: “I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves.”[xxxix] Or this: “”Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart…Enjoy life with the wife whom you love…Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might.”[xl]
I don’t believe this is either cynicism or hedonism, as Ecclesiastes’ message is sometimes interpreted. Instead, I see his wisdom as closer to what we might expect from Eastern religious masters like the Dalai Lama or Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism. Ego-attachment and grasping to hold on to material things is the source of suffering. Letting go and appreciating the daily elements of life as they unfold is the source of fulfillment and ultimately of enlightenment.[xli] As Biblical scholar Marcus Borg has described the message of Ecclesiastes: “True wisdom means carpe diem: ‘seize the day.’ Don’t miss it; don’t let it slip by unnoticed; don’t live it in the fog; don’t waste it chasing the wind…[For] death is the teacher of true wisdom.”[xlii]
So, the wise men from the east, bearing gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Jesus, provide an opportunity for us on Epiphany to examine the biblical wisdom tradition in some detail. Christians forget sometimes, in our concentration on the life and teachings of Jesus himself, that the Old Testament tradition presents wisdom as the essence of God himself. Or rather, as God herself, since Sophia or wisdom is referred to biblically in the female form. As we’re told in the first chapter of Proverbs, “Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice…How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?”[xliii] She was with God from the beginning of creation: “When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker.”[xliv] She offers an invitation to all of us now to eat at her table: “Wisdom has built her house…she has also set her table…she calls from the highest places in the town…Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity and live, and walk in the way of insight.”[xlv] May we hear her call in this New Year.
NOTES
1
[i] Dennis Bratcher, “The Season of Epiphany,” The Voice (2007),
[ii] Dennis Bratcher, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” The Voice (2007),
[iii] Bratcher, “Epiphany.”
[iv] Matthew 2: 1-12
[v]The Oxford Bible Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 433.
[vi]The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), Vol. VIII, p. 140.
[vii] Isaiah 60: 2-3.
[viii]HarperCollins Study Bible (New York: HarperCollins, 1993), p. 800.
[ix] “Magi,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), Vol. IX,
[x] Psalm 72: 10-11,
[xi]New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII, pp. 140-142; “Magi,” Catholic Encyclopedia.
[xii] Luke 10: 25-37; John 4: 1-41; Matthew 8: 5-13; Luke 7: 1-10.
[xiii]Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1997), p. 463.
[xiv] John Henry Hopkins, “We Three Kings of Orient Are” (1857) as reproduced in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993), #259.
[xv]New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII, p. 143.
[xvi] Marcus J. Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (HarperSanFrancisco, 1994), p. 69.
[xvii] Marcus J. Borg, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), pp. 145-146, 149-150.
[xviii] Proverbs 3: 14-15, 18
[xix] Job 2:13.
[xx] Job 28:15.
[xxi] Job 29:21 – 30:10.
[xxii] William Sloane Coffin, Credo (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), p. 57.
[xxiii] Proverbs 10: 9, 12.
[xxiv] Proverbs 11: 25.
[xxv] Proverbs 14: 21.
[xxvi] Amos 5: 21-24.
[xxvii] Isaiah 1:17.
[xxviii] Micah 6: 6, 8.
[xxix] I Corinthians 11: 20-34.
[xxx] I Corinthians 11:21.
[xxxi] I Corinthians 11:22.
[xxxii]New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. X, p. 934.
[xxxiii] Mark 2: 27;
[xxxiv]Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, p. 770.
[xxxv] Ecclesiastes 12:1; translation here is Marcus J. Borg’s in his Reading the Bible Again for the First Time (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), pp. 169 and note 34 on page 181.
[xxxvi] Ecclesiastes 7:2.
[xxxvii] Ecclesiastes 7:4.
[xxxviii] Ecclesiastes 3:13,
[xxxix] Ecclesiastes 8:15.
[xl] Ecclesiastes 9: 7-10.
[xli] Borg, Reading the Bible, p. 168.
[xlii] Borg, Reading the Bible, p. 169.
[xliii] Proverbs 1: 20, 22.
[xliv] Proverbs 8: 29-30.
[xlv] Proverbs 9: 1-6.