MATTHEW 2: 1-12 

Matthew in the Margins…The Epiphany…Revised for 2017

No wonder it shocks Herod - the ‘Pits’ rather than the ‘Great’ - to the core that strangers turn up asking how to find the real king! God sees through him even if everyone else has to kow-tow to him! These astrologers who don't fit the Hebrew faith-mould, briefly take centre stage in history. What we make of the story depends on whether we're open to God's kind of Magi-c, that isn’t bound by limits we set, or try to. MT probably wants us to connect with the magi-cians of Egypt & their battles with Moses. Now a new & greater Moses is on the scene, & it's a no-contest. These magi-cians submit. As a common  car sticker reminds us, 'Magic Happens’. Don’t let’s leave God out of the wonder of life. Magi-c pays homage & invites us, too, to pay homage to the one who's Lord of every sense, even the inexplicable.

The Magi see the star, comet, or whatever it is because they're searchers after truth, looking in the right place at the right time. So may we all be looking through our spiritual telescopes! The story’s not about the 'follow your star' syndrome which has become part of our culture. The star of Bethlehem leads these astrologers & us  to God come among us. We may use all sorts of theological terms to describe the Epiphany, but ‘magi-c’ gets as close as anything else to explaining the inexplicable. Stars made in our own image are simply black holes sucking us in (& spitting us out?). The God-Star, on the other hand always leads us to journey away from ourselves to seek & find the Most High God. 

Are we ready to set out on the journey we need to make to find & enjoy God? Prepared to find God in some pretty unexpected & unpromising places? Beware, though, of carrying too much gold, frankincense, myrrh, stocks & shares, or other baggage.

'King of the Jews' - not simply ‘Judeans’ - isn't a foray into Jewish religious politics on the part of the Magi. Instead, it’s a feeling for, and entering into, the mysterious ways of God. Something HUGE is on the go. An EVENT of Cosmic Magnitude. That star, real or, ‘magi-cal’ still throws light on God's ways. If the Magi had  not followed the God-Star, what might we all have missed out on seeing with the inner eyes of Faith! 

When Herod's disturbed, everyone takes cover. This is life & death business for anyone who gets in his way! The consultants he calls in, his own ‘wise men’, are doubtless smart enough to know they themselves are in danger, along with this new born King. But what can they do except ‘dob the Holy Family in’? Does fear of someone or something ever affect the quality of decisions we make about ourselves & others & God?

To the disgrace of the Church as a whole, for a long while now we’ve shut our eyes to the abuse of children 

by today’s Herods. People pretending to be little kings. Hard as it may be to tackle this, how to address & redress what’s been going on, would be a proper focus for us on a day that marks Herod’s later abuse of the young boys of Bethlehem. Remember, Jesus would have been among them if one of God’s blessed angels hadn’t warned Joseph to flee with Mary & young Jesus! 

When God opens our eyes to the Messiah, & we pay homage in whatever our way is today, & when we dare to address the issues of abuse, can we as churches do anything other than what the Magi, & the Holy Family do: go home a different way. Feeling our way. Step by risky step!