The visit of the Wise men... Matthew 2. 1-12
There's a problem here. These "Magi" aren't Jewish. In fact they aren't even using the right means to find out about God. They're from the wrong country; they have the wrong religion (possibly Zoroastrian1) They were astrologers, who believed that they find out about events on earth, by looking at the stars. And they are in the wrong place, asking the wrong person (the jealous and murderous king Herod) the wrong question. "Where is the one born King of the Jews?"
And it gets worse: They then say, "We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him." Any self-respecting Jew would have problems with this: they knew that God had forbidden astrology: consulting the stars was a kind of magic; something that the Bible did not allow. So how could these guys come led by stars? And how could people like that, complete Pagans, take anything to do with a Jewish Messiah? And how could they possibly consider worshipping him? Worship was for God alone. They had apparently got it all wrong! And yet the star led them right to the house where Mary was looking after Jesus.
But, amazingly, God was in this. How can God do this? But this is the missionary God at work. The birth of Jesus was a missional action by a missionary God. The fact that Matthew, the author of the most Jewish of the Gospels, tells us this story, presses home the Missional point. This story shows us some important truths about the Mission of God in Christ, and about our mission too. This - this outrageous approach - is how God does mission.
1. The Shape of Mission...
Worshipping the New Born King was perfectly appropriate - because this baby was Immanuel, God with us. The word - who was in the beginning with the Father - had become flesh. The shape of God's mission is Incarnational - it is an approach that has shape, and form. Jesus took the form, the shape, of a servant (Phil 2. 7). Incarnation, taking a very human shape, humbling and emptying himself. That's God's way of reaching us. It was in a human body that God the Son died for our sins. He humbled himself and became obedient to death, his death on the Cross. It was because Jesus was both God and man that his death was such a significant and powerful event that it could take away our sins. But in Philippians 2, Paul uses the incarnation of Jesus to say "think the same way that Christ Jesus thought" (v5 CEV) Incarnation is the shape of God's mission and it is the shape of the Church's mission.
2. The scope of Mission...
The star was for a king. He is born "king of the Jews" ... but a kingdom recognised by Babylonians, Persians or whoever. The scope of god's mission is more than simply saving souls. The mission of God is not just about saving individual souls. It is not just a about the fact that Jesus was "born to die." Don't get me wrong here. Saving individuals is vitally important. And Jesus was heading, consciously and deliberately, throughout his time on earth, towards the cross. But if you think Jesus was born to die, simply to save your soul from hell, you've missed the point. Jesus died for our sins - which are at the heart of opposition to God's reign - so that the Kingdom of God could come.
The scope of God's mission is about establishing his Kingdom, in the world. It is about bringing the whole universe to the point of acknowledging God's reign and authority. It is about establishing God's reign across the fibre of the universe. The rule of God touches every part of existence, human and otherwise. God is working towards a universe that is in perfect harmony and peace. Thus, when the miracle of the incarnation took place, when God took action to bring the promised Messiah, who would bring the promised Kingdom, the very stars and planets of heaven jumped to attention. Despite the fact that Astrology is something God condemns, it was perfectly to be expected thatch on the day when the Kingdom of God touched the physical universe, that, light years away, the universe itself should be affected in the rising of a new star. For your birth or mine - forget it. But for Messiah's birth, for the birth of the king of the universe - what could be more natural?
3. The Style of Mission
That God should become flesh, and die our death, is an amazing sacrifice. The style of God's mission can be summed up in one word: Generosity.
Here are outsiders racially yet they are spoken to, beckoned and welcomed to bring their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. God's mission is inclusive. He doesn't see his Kingdom, his salvation, his gift of new life, to be just for one particular "type" - Jesus is "born King of the Jews" - but visitors from the east are welcome.
Here are outsiders religiously. These men were doing something that was expressly forbidden in the Old Testament law. They were doing something that I would tell new Christians in Baptism classes they should avoid doing. And not only did God love them; not only did God speak to them about the coming of the King; but God spoke to them through the very thing that they were doing wrong. Doesn't that show us a generous God? Doesn't it speak of a generous style of mission. Sure there were things that needed to be sorted out in their lives. But there was good news for them. Guy Chevraux, a Canadian Bible Scholar, points out that when the word "Repent" is used in the New Testament, it is not first a statement about man but a statement about God: the statement "the Kingdom of God is at hand" comes before the command "Repent and believe!" So the Magi, Zoroastrian magicians, hear first of all not the bad news "You've got it wrong guys" but the Good News, "the Kingdom has come!"
This is our God! Rick Richardson, an American evangelist, tells how when he was little, his wee brother disappeared after a trip to the beach. They wer in teh car on teh way home, in total five kids all singing the "Arky-arky" song, when they realised Chris wasn't in the car. When his mum realised this, she turned the car around and sped back to the beach, where they searched desperately until the child turned up. Richardson describes the experience as "an unforgettable picture of God's heart" That's what God is like. Reading that story I felt God say, "What would I not do for these people?"
Richardson then goes on to liken the church to his Mum's car. He says, "we are at the steering wheel: if we are happy with who is in the car and who is not, we can continue on home singing our ... songs" but God wants us to "turn ...around and race to wherever lost and hurting people can be found" And if this is our God, and this is his mission, it's our mission too.
The Shape of our Mission is incarnational. We do mission, not first of all by speaking words, but by becoming flesh. We find ways to make the words, the concepts we talk about, become flesh. We need to embody love.
The scope of our mission is the Kingdom. We demonstrate the Kingdom; we engage with Kingdom realities - w0th the healing power of God; with the justice of God; with the compassion of God for the poor - today. We need to back up our words with actions.
The style of our mission is Generosity. It is inclusive and it is gracious. We seek to be relevant, open, hospitable to people who are different to us. We offer people first the Good News - the changes that will happen in their lives are between them and God. We need to serve.
Practical service in the power of the Spirit.
How were the Wise Men changed by what they saw and experienced? We don't know. We can only guess from the fact that they were prepared to alter their values, from consulting with a king in a palace to worshipping the King in the carpenter's house, that they were changed: that they recognised that here in Bethlehem in Judea they had seen someone of such significance that they could not risk His well-being. What happened next in their pilgrimage - whether they in fact found faith when the Good News of Jesus was preached among the nations - we don't know. We have to leave that to God.
And that is how it is in mission sometimes: we don't know; we have to leave it to God. God does mission in risky, messy ways.
© Gilmour Lilly January 2011
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