Sunday: Epiphany
Reading: Matthew 2:1-12
Preacher: Peter C. Lane

Our wise men are back from their long hiatus in the attic. Our children have carried them from the narthex, mimicking their long hard journey from the East. T. S. Eliot has the magi, the wise men, describe that journey, "A cold coming we had of it, just the worst time of the year for a journey, and such a long journey. The ways deep and the weather sharp, the very dead of winter." The journey from our Narthex was a little easier. The three of them there, a bit tacky in their plasticness, watch over our more valuable porcelain Holy Family. Long ago given the names Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar, they gather to pay homage to the baby Jesus. There is even a small, knit lamb peering into our scene presided over by a gold cardboard star. The familiar tackiness of the scene might be quite appropriate. For our best guess is that these men were not kings at all (another later interpretation) but rather astrologers, 1st century horoscope writers. We know very little about the original Magi. Matthew says they followed a star from the East and dropped by Herod's on the way. And we know they had three gifts but that is no guarantee that there were three of them. I bet there were four: you have to cover the parts; all good boy bands have at least four! However many wise men there were, whatever they did, they were motivated to pay homage to Jesus. Homage. We recreate that scene right here.

Our story about the Magi from the East is part of the author of Matthew's opening argument about who Jesus is. Although Matthew is the book famous for what Jesus demands in his Sermon on the Mount, it begins by making big claims about who this Jesus was. It's not just what Jesus says, it is who Jesus is. Very differently from its source, the Gospel of Mark, the 1st chapter of Matthew opens with a detailed genealogy showing Jesus' descent, oddly through his stepfather Joseph, back through David to Abraham. The point is that Jesus was a true Jew-a descendent of Abraham and as a descendent of David, a true king. Jesus was somebody, Matthew is saying. After the genealogy, Joseph and Mary learn about Jesus through Old Testament prophecy. The author of Matthew is saying, "This baby is special," his coming was predicted throughout the scriptures. That brings us to our passage at the beginning of the second chapter. Jesus is special, Matthew argues, because of who he is not just because of what he teaches. These magi see in the stars that there is something array-someone special has arrived. They use the star, and a tip from Herod's Old Testament scholars, to find Jesus in Bethlehem. Of course it is Bethlehem; it says so in Micah and 2nd Samuel. Again, Matthew is establishing Jesus' bona fides before Jesus ever says a word. How much more clear could Matthew be than when these gentile wise me from another country kneel before Jesus and pay him homage.

Homage. It is an interesting concept. You know, in seminary they teach preacher's to bring in their own experience, but I don't think I can here. I don't think I have ever really paid homage to someone. I've written letters of congratulations, visited the accomplished and admired the powerful. But I haven't gone to someone solely to express my high regard. Now I've seen thousands of Roman Catholics gather in St. Peter's square to express that regard to the pope; I understand that many pay homage to the Dalai Lama. But, for me, growing up as a protestant, the idea of homage was foreign.

But homage is not foreign to our worship here. Have you looked at the stained glass window here in our former baptistery, future columbarium? Flip on the light to the right of it and check it out some time. Jesus is at the center, looking very kingly and holding a globe surrounded by angels. Matthew would approve. Around him are a myriad of figures all-with the exception of Mary and her piously bowed head-turned toward Jesus, paying homage. When the part of us that used to be church of the Redeemer down on 56th and Blackstone commissioned it, they put in all kinds of characters, Tomomu Sugai, Florence Nightingale, the biblical dressmaker Dorcas. I interpret the window as saying that these saints of the church are paying Jesus homage for who he is, Emmanuel, God with us. If you leave that stained glass window and move to the ones in the chapel, the prominence of homage is even clearer. In all six windows, there are people paying homage to Jesus. Most relevantly for us, the second window has three neatly bearded Kings giving gifts and paying homage to a well-fattened baby Jesus. Our stained glass seems to be preaching at us to pay homage to Jesus. And we do. Jim and I will bow just slightly when we sing "Holy, Holy, Holy" paying homage in our own way. Some of you will bow when the cross passes. I have experienced all of you as being quite reverent when you receive the body and blood of Jesus, paying homage almost.

And paying homage to Jesus changes us. Paying homage to the revelation of God, Emmanuel, God with us, changes us. It does. The line in our passage today that really struck me is the last line. "They left for their own country by another road." Even if they were a bunch of nut job Nancy Reagan astrologers, they were changed by their act of homage. They did not go back to Herod, they did not go back to their old ways, but "left for their own country by another road." Or as T.S. Eliot has the magi say, "We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, but no longer at ease here." Paying homage changed them.

On this feast of the epiphany, when Jesus is made known to us and we pay attention to the homage we pay to Jesus, what different roads shall we take? Maybe we start by learning the names of the panhandlers on the road in front of Dunkin' Donuts or Medici. Maybe it means marching down the roads of political protest against guns. Maybe it will mean not going down the anonymously exploitative road of hotel room pornography. Maybe it means doing what is best for our family and not what is best for our careers. For me, it starts by trying to find my way back to the road of private prayer and regular exercise. Paying homage must change us, must send us down another road.

We don't know what the three (or in my mind four) wise men did back in the east. We do know that paying homage to Jesus, Emanuel, God with us, sent them home by another road.