Eucharistic readings: Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
If this is the end of the season of incarnation, of divine humanity, how special is it to have this be your birthday? Today is Elizabeth's birthday. Each year our winter retreat falls in this week, and we have a silent birthday celebration. I think she's getting tired of it. But silence still allows for good food prepared with love, and cards and gifts. We even have some frankincense and myrrh oil, and I'm sure I can scare up some gold. We just hold off on the air horns and tambourines.
Still, all creation rejoices and sings; for Elizabeth, for everyone celebrating a birthday today, and for all of us beloved children of God. This is the beginning of the season of light, in which we come to see who Jesus is and what he brings. Today, the magi find their way to Bethlehem via Jerusalem, and ask where the new king is. The priests and scribes told them that it was likely to be Bethlehem. Herod was so disturbed he killed all the children under two years old in the area; but the priests and scribes were so unmoved by the prophecy and the appearance of the magi that they stayed home. They knew the words, but they couldn't be moved.
Soren Kierkegaard likens the Christianity of his time to these scribes. "We may know the whole of Christianity," he writes, "yet make no movement. The power that moved heaven and earth leaves us completely unmoved."
Does that sound familiar?
Let yourself be moved today. Get your nose out of that Bible, and get on your knees or your feet. Offer whatever you have, follow whatever star is beckoning you, and go find the real treasure. It will be in some unlikely place. Then go home by another way, and tell what you've seen.
Blessings to you all!
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