Sermon: Wisdom
Barry W. Szymanski
Minister of Pastoral Care
First Congregational Church of Wauwatosa
Sunday January 5, 2014

Reading:
Matthew 2:1-12, 16-18

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together the entire chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’

SERMON

The interpretations of the today’s readings are all over the map. Let me address some of the obvious ones.

There are prophesies made by Isaiah and they are pretty clear: In Isaiah 60:1-6 the prophet is talking to the people and he tells them to: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” Even though “. . . darkness shall cover the earth, and [it may even be] thick darkness . . . the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.” After the nations see the light of the people, they will be drawn to your light. Isaiah tells them that all peoples, all nations, all kings, and their own sons and daughters will come to the light of the Lord.

Then Isaiah becomes even more direct and tells them that: “. . . the wealth of the nations shall come [with] the young camels of Midian and Ephah [and] Sheba . . . They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.”

Isaiah is only one of the prophets to talk about visitors from afar. The psalmist, in Psalm 72, also talks about “. . . the kings of Tarshish and of the isles . . . [and] the kings of Sheba and Seba . . . “

The psalmist tells us those kings give tribute and “. . . bring gifts . . . “ And why does the psalmist believe that all kings should fall down before the Lord? His answers are these: For the Lord delivers the needy, the poor, and those who have no helper, when they call. He has pity on the weak and saves their lives. From oppression and violence he redeems their lives; and precious is their blood in his sight.

Matthew wrote of kings coming from afar. Some say he wrote to fulfill the prophesies.

Some history is called for. Matthew’s Gospel is the one that has the most complete summary of Jesus’ sermons: The Sermon on the Mount. This when Jesus preached the Beatitudes, spoke of you and me as the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. During that Sermon Jesus preached about forgiving others, in fact, he told us to love our enemies. In the sermon that Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer. And Jesus preached that we should not be anxious, and we should not judge others, --- in fact, that is when Jesus gave us the Golden Rule: “. . . whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them . . . “ [Mt 7:12]

So after the birth of Jesus, Matthew tells us of the visit of the wise men, but also, and I think very importantly, of the escape to Egypt, because Herod killed young infants and toddlers. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was poor, as was Joseph, and we learned this because after the baby Jesus was born, and then wrapped up to keep him warm and secure, he was laid in a feeding trough, a manger. After the wise men came to visit, the family became refuges from the terror of Herod. These were the first years of Jesus’ life!

Because we learn that Herod killed all infants and toddlers under the age of two, that means that the wise men’s visit was some months, if not many months, after Jesus was born.

Now, I read two of the prophecies, one was Isaiah, and the other the psalmist. There are others. In the Book of Numbers, there is a prophecy that “. . . a star shall come out of Jacob . . . “ [24:17]

Some geography: Tarshish is mentioned in many of the other books of the Old Testament: Jonah, 1 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Genesis, and Jeremiah. This is what it says in 1 Kings 10:22 <http://www.esvbible.org/1+Kings+10:22/> :“For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.” So, some feel Tarshish was in Africa. Other say it was an island in the Mediterranean. Some say it was as far away as Iberia, Spain. The conclusion: it was a far away, exotic country.

Next place: Sheba. Most of us have heard of The Queen of Sheba. Sheba was located in southwestern Arabia. Her story is told in 2 Chronicles 9:1 <http://www.esvbible.org/2+Chronicles+9:1/>: “Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind.”

The lands of Midian and Ephah were Far East of Israel across the Jordan River and extended down south to the sea.

The picture we have, and the picture that the readers of Matthew’s Gospel would have clearly had in their mind’s imagination was of gold, spices, precious stones, and beautiful handcrafted works of jewelry, brought by camels, from far, far away exotic places. And the wise men who came to Jesus, were the same kind of people who came to visit King Solomon, and learn from his wisdom.

But, instead, these wise men, the Magi, found an infant or toddler. Yet they gave their gifts:

One gift was frankincense: a resin like-incense. According to the Book of Exodus only frankincense was to be used in worship of the Lord, and anyone who used it in any another way was to be cut off from Temple worship of God. Exodus 30.

Myrrh is a sap used to make incense, holy oil, and perfume; it is a stimulant.

Gold, is, well . . . gold!

What the wise men gave as gifts were those worthy of a king. So, imagine the aromas as the baby Jesus was anointed with the wonderful scented myrrh, while incense was burning. Then, according to legend, the gold was used by Joseph to take care of his refugee family as they fled toward Egypt and remained there until it was safe to return.

While the wise men, who were called wise because they recognized that someone greater than they had been born, were searching for Jesus, we have Herod, who was not very wise. All that Herod wanted to do was to keep his power, and for that he resorted to treachery and murder. History records that Herod killed one of his own wives, several sons, and other family members. So it would have been no surprise for people to read in Matthew’s Gospel that Herod sent his guards to kill some infants and toddlers in the hill country. According to some, there were probably no more than say, 20 or 30 children killed in that sparse region.

By the way, Archelaus, Herod’s son who took over the throne of Herod, was even more cruel than Herod, so much so, that Caesar Augustus, in order to avoid a revolution, removed and exiled Archelaus!

What the wise men were seeking was more than information. What do wise men and women seek in our own time? What is the meaning of life? What is the source of life? What is the end of life?

What makes a person wise? Is knowledge enough to make a person wise? Is experience enough to make a person wise? Or do we somehow define a wise person as an individual who has good judgment?
Is a wise person one who has become unified in mind, and emotion, and body,
and spirit? Do the concepts of wisdom and righteousness somehow merge?

Aristotle <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2192.Aristotle> said: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Albert Einstein <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9810.Albert_Einstein> said: “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

Galileo Galilei <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14190.Galileo_Galilei> said: “You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.”

An author, L.M. Montgomery <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5350.L_M_Montgomery> wrote this,
and I especially like it: “ When you've learned to laugh at the things that should be laughed at, and not to laugh at those that shouldn't, you’ve got wisdom and understanding.” [Spoken by Aunt Jimsie in L.M. Montgomery <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5350.L_M_Montgomery> ’s book, Anne of the Island <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/535245> .]

If we go back to the story of the Queen of Sheba traveling to visit King Solomon because he was wise, what was she looking for? In 2 Chronicles 9:1-2 it was recorded that: “When the queen of Sheba . . . came to Jerusalem to test [King Solomon] with hard questions, . . . she discussed with him all that was on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her.”

What made Solomon so wise? Was it prudence? and insight? A sense of the divine and his place in both the divine and the created world? Was he able to pierce the veil which prevents us from really experiencing truth? Was King Solomon able to discern reality? When he looked around the world as he saw it, did he see more than what is ordinarily seen?

Did King Solomon see the light of God?

Did King Solomon understand the need to free people from oppression, and violence, and did he understand that precious is the blood of all people?

The Old Testament Book of 2 Chronicles described how wealthy and prosperous King Solomon’s kingdom was. And we realize that the Queen of Sheba had her own riches. We know this, because she brought, as the Old Testament tells us, “. . . a very great retinue [of servants] and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones.” She did not need materials things.

So what was the Queen of Sheba searching for? She was asking for King Solomon to share his wisdom with her.

Psychology Today, a magazine [and website], states this in a section titled: “All About Wisdom “It can be difficult to define Wisdom, but people generally recognize it when they encounter it. Psychologists pretty much agree it involves an integration of knowledge, experience, and deep understanding that incorporates tolerance for the uncertainties of life as well as its ups and downs. There's an awareness of how things play out over time, and it confers a sense of balance. Wise people generally share optimism that life's problems can be solved and experience a certain amount of calm in facing difficult decisions. Intelligence—if only anyone could figure out exactly what it is—may be necessary for wisdom, but it definitely isn't sufficient; an ability to see the big picture, a sense of proportion, and considerable introspection also contribute to its development.”

Therefore, in addition to Matthew putting this story in his Gospel to alert us that prophecies were being fulfilled, and telling us that people from far away places came to give praise to God, even as the baby Jesus, that even wise people were coming to learn from the infant, and that they had traveled for hundreds of miles from exotic places, was that there was a person -- a person wiser than King Solomon – who had come to earth to teach us the Beatitudes, to give us the wisdom of the Golden Rule, and to make sure that we understood that we are not bystanders in the great cosmic universe, but that we are the salt of this earth. We are a needed people. We are the light of the world. Jesus the Christ needs us. There are people with needs all around us: in the pews in front and in back of us --- and to the sides of us. At times every one of us has needs: needs of the soul, needs of the body, needs of the senses and needs of our passions. At times each of us is weak. We suffer.

The wise person fully accepts who she and he is in this universe. And it is in that acceptance where Jesus can put all of the pieces together, so that we can be a fully integrated person – a person of and in God: a wise person.

What the story of the Magi does in Matthew’s Gospel is to point us to Jesus, and then to the specifics of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where we realize the wisdom of Jesus. We, searchers like the Magi, then find the source of wisdom himself: Jesus the Christ.

“May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” 2 Peter 1:2 NRSV