by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy

I have suggested in the past that reflecting on scripture is like going on an archeological dig, as these ancient texts have rich layers of meaning. Today, we'll use another image: it's like going on an ocean cruise with various ports of call. Each island paradise is lush and rich but one may be more to one's liking than another. If so, feel free to stay there and visit for awhile or if it doesn't interest you, feel free to stay on the ship and enjoy the sundeck!

As we think about Matthew's story of the visit to the Christmas crib by the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12), the first stop is the island of scripture.

For Matthew, this story was a story of prophesy fulfilled. We can identify four inspirations for this story. The first comes from Numbers 24:17 and is a prophesy about a star: "A star shall come forth out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel." From Isaiah 60:6 comes a prophesy about royal gifts: "They from Sheba" (a town in southern Arabia) "will come, bringing gold and incense." And from Psalm 72:10 "The Kings of Arabia and Saba will bring gifts." And finally in the story itself, the Jerusalem scribes quote from Malachi that Bethlehem will be the birthplace of the Messiah. For Matthew's community, this is a story about scripture fulfilled. Jesus is the one foretold. He is the one expected. The first island stop is the island of scripture and it is worth exploring how Matthew shaped his story to reveal the truth about Jesus.

The second island is political.

The magi, or wise men, were court advisors to the Persian Empire − basically what is Iraq and Iran today. As religious mediators, they communicated with the Persian deity on behalf of the King of Persia, interestingly enough known as the "king of kings." As the Greeks and later the Romans expanded their empires, the Magi fiercely resisted Western imperialism over the ancient East. But something remarkable happened. In 66 C.E., while engaged in the First Jewish War in Jerusalem, Rome chose to accept the nomination of a Parthian to be the King of Armenia rather than choosing to appoint a puppet king like Herod the Great in Palestine. Perhaps they hoped to avert a second war. Whatever the motivation, a huge entourage of Parthian nobles and their relatives, servants, 3,000 horsemen and a large contingent of Magi, made a nine month all expenses paid (by Rome!) pilgrimage to Rome to accept the crown of Armenia from the Emperor Nero. Following the ceremony, it was said that the Magi returned home by another route (possibly fearing treachery from Nero).

This was "front page, above the fold" news in the Mediterranean world. Everyone would have heard of this event. Did Matthew take this story some 15 years or so later and shape it for his purposes in incorporating elements of this story in his story of the Magi? If so, what was his purpose? What was he trying to say politically?

On this most political island, this is the story of a restoration of a true Eastern kingship which begins, not in the royal courts of Herod, but from peasant stock in Bethlehem. The Magi − fierce opponents of Rome − acknowledge Jesus of Palestine as the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This story tells us that liberation from Roman oppression has begun and that Gentile foreigners recognize him while Judean nobility (Herod and his people) will seek to kill him. Writing to an increasingly Gentile audience in the 80's C.E., perhaps Matthew is saying that Gentiles are a part of salvation history from its inception.

For those who love politics −and there are several of you here − this island is rich in grounding biblical story in the world of human strife and political aspiration.

But there's a third island. It is the island of magic.

The visitors are identified with the Greek word "magoi", which can be rendered as wise men − the political and religious advisors from the East − or as "magicians."

As a motif, "magic" in the Bible refers to a host of supernatural practices including divination (the use of mediums), necromancy (the conjuring of the spirits of the dead to foretell the future), witchcraft and astrology − to name a few. Consistently, the Bible condemns magic as being incompatible with faith and trust in God. We can cite numerous biblical examples. In Egypt, the court magi are unable to interpret Pharaoh's dreams as well as Joseph the Israelite does. In the Exodus story, the magi cannot reproduce the signs which Moses and Aaron perform. Daniel accurately understands Nebuchadnezzar's dreams while the court magi do not. The point here is that God's power is real and the magi are frauds, representing false gods.

In the Christian scriptures, a magus named Bar-Jesus is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as resisting the preaching of Saul and Barnabas in Cyprus.

"When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. But the magician Elymas* (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now listen − the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, and unable to see the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord." (Acts 13:6-12)
*"wonder-worker"

For Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch in the 2nd century, the magi story in Matthew was about the end of magic. In his letter to the Ephesians, he wrote:

"From that time (the appearing of the Star) all sorcery and every evil spell began to lose their power; the ignorance of wickedness began to vanish away; the overthrow of the ancient dominion was being brought to past, since God was appearing in human form unto newness of life eternal." (Letter to the Ephesians).

So if we go with Ignatius here and take the word "magi" to mean "magicians", then the story becomes a story of three astrologists who go on a religious quest and upon entering the stable at Bethlehem, do not so much offer royal gifts, as they surrender substances used in their rituals of magic, their "tricks of the trade," and thus renounce their former practices - symbolized by their returning home by "another route." This is the island that asks of us to renounce magic for true religion.

But what exactly is magic in the religious sense? Magic could be defined as the attempt by humans to harness or control the power of God for our own desired results. We must be on our guard against the temptation to misconstrue mystery as magic. The sacraments, for us as Reformed Catholics, are easily misused in this way.

For example, people once commonly believed that if one were not buried in "hallowed" (consecrated) ground, their soul would be lost for eternity. The Book of Common Prayer still has a prayer of consecration for a grave. (See BCP pg. 487). In the sacrament of healing which we offer each Sunday at the Chapel rail during the second service, people sometimes think that the holy oil used in anointing has magical powers to cure. Our healing team would be quick to point out that all we do is pray to be channels of God's grace but that the healing that comes will always be the healing God intends − and that may not be physical cures. The elements of the Holy Eucharist are securely kept in a locked wall safe (a Tabernacle) against rites of desecration, as some people who practice dark magic believe that the Eucharistic elements can be used in various rites to work evil. But the most difficult one of all may be the rite of baptism.

Oftentimes, grandparents will call the church to set a date for the baptism of their new grandchild. This is always a difficult conversation because we baptize children based on the faith commitments of their parents and as well intentioned as grandparents are, unless they have custody, they simply cannot vow to bring their grandchild up in the Christian faith and life without the involvement of the child's primary role models: his or her mom and dad. But for the grandparents, the issue is eternal damnation of the soul of their grandchild should the unthinkable happen and the child die in infancy. For them, baptism is not so much an initiation into a way of life as it is a talisman against eternal damnation. What I say to those grandparents is that baptism is a sacrament; it is not magic.

Do we really want to say that we believe in a God that would condemn the souls of innocent newborns to hell because humans failed to baptize them quickly enough? That God's action (grace) is bound by human inaction (failure to baptize)? That is not sacrament. It is magical thinking. Baptism is a journey; not an end in itself (or as one grandparent said to me decades ago: "we got to get this kid done!")

We, like the magi, are on a religious journey. But if we are to make progress on that journey, we are called to surrender magical thinking and embrace true religion, the opposite of magic.

So let me say it plainly; if magic is the search for ways to bind God for human purposes, true religion is the process by which we surrender and open our lives to God for God's purposes. It is St. Francis praying "Lord, let me be an instrument for your peace." It is Jesus in the garden praying: "Not my will, but your will be done." It is you and I saying, with Isaiah: "Here I am Lord, send me!"

The island of magic and true religion is the most dangerous of the three stops on our journey because it is the place where we will be changed and transformed by what we encounter there: the spirit of God working through us. It is the island we may be tempted to avoid but I hope that you don't, because it is the richest of the three.

May each of us be an "epiphany" − a manifestation − of God, as God in Christ is manifested in us. Amen.

Copyright © 2009 St. Augustine by-the-Sea