Happy are the people whose strength is in you!
whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way.
When I was a kid, I used to love reading those “Choose your own adventure” books. Maybe you’re familiar with them…
These were short chapter books geared to preteens. You started off by choosing your character. Would you be a spy? A scientist? A doctor?
Then, the story began. After a few pages of hijinks and intrigue, you would have the option to choose between two or three tracks, based on some kind of question or pivot in the story. Would you follow the shadowy figure down the dark tunnel or run out of the cave? Would you operate on the patient, or wait and see?
Based on what you chose, you would be prompted to go to a certain page in the book. There, the story would continue on, until, through a series of choices, you finally reached the end.
An enthusiastic neuroscientist on the internet mapped these stories and their many twists and turns. And he found that “Choose your own adventure” books could have as many as 44 different endings! It’s amazing that one little choice after another would eventually lead you to a place far beyond where you started.
When I started thinking about these books last week, it was just a passing thought. It came about because, in this week’s lectionary, the preacher could choose between three different Gospel readings, all having to do with the end of the nativity story.
Let’s say we were characters in the story of Jesus. We would have already been visited by angels and beheld the Christ-child lying in a manger. We would have sung Silent Night and been enveloped in warmth by the body heat of sheep and goats, as they settled into the hay surrounding the holy family on that first Christmas night.
But today, we had to make a choice. Did we want to: A, Escape Herod’s wrath by journeying to Egypt?, B, Lose 12-year-old Jesus at the synagogue in Jerusalem? Or…C, Follow the star with the wise men to give him gold, frankincense, and myrrh?
Unfortunately, I’m not really giving you a choice…Sorry, but I had to write a sermon! So, I went with C. And the reason why is because the Wise Men’s story has all the high stakes and intrigue required for a “Choose your own adventure” book. They journeyed far away from their home, disobeyed a violent king, and chose to believe in a prophetic sign from a God they didn’t even worship.
But who were these so-called Wise Men and what convinced them that this was an adventure worth choosing?
While our translation of the book of Matthew refers to them as “Wise Men,” the Greek word for these mysterious people “from the East” is “magoi,” which comes from the more ancient semitic word, “magus.” You might be familiar with the English translation, “Magi.”
Mentioned in the Bible and in Babylonian texts, “Magi” referred to a group of people who worked as magicians, astrologers, and psychics. The book of Daniel uses the term in a list of ineffective dream interpreters called upon by King Nebuchadnezzar. In the book of Acts, the same term is used to refer to “false prophets.”
While some cultures may have looked upon “Magi” as wise and holy men, the Jewish and Early Christian traditions certainly did not. As far as I could tell in my research, this story is the only positive portrayal of Magi in our scriptures. It’s too bad our translation hides that fact. Scholar Daniel J. Harrington draws on the specifics in our Gospel reading to describe these particular magi. They are likely Persian priests using Babylonian star-charting and bringing gifts from Arabia or the Syrian Desert.
In other words, they are about as “foreign” as anyone could imagine, true outsiders by every cultural, religious, and geographical definition. For its first hearers and witnesses, the Magi’s presence in the story of Jesus must have been shocking. In a very literal sense, they didn’t belong in it.
Nevertheless, the Magi entered the story…
Like a “Choose your own adventure” book, they made one little choice after another that would eventually lead them to a place far beyond their imagination.
Here was the first choice: Would they “travel afar” – away from home, culture, and recognition – or would they stay put? They chose to go…
On their way, they were called into King Herod’s court. Accustomed to working for powerful rulers, they told him what they had seen in the stars. Herod told the Magi to continue on their way, and to report back on what they learned. So, they made another choice. They kept going…
When they finally arrived underneath that bright star, they were filled with “overwhelming joy.” Their spirit recognized that they were in the presence of an unlikely Savior. A child who had been born not just to save the Jews, but the whole world, including them and their people.
Now, they had another choice to make. They had received warning in a divine dream not to return to Herod. But they had made a promise to him, and backing out on it was risky.
Was it worth the risk to disobey the direct orders of a powerful ruler just because they’d had a crazy dream? They were so convinced of God’s presence in the person of Jesus that their choice was clear: they went home by another route. And that divinely directed choice, along with Joseph’s decision to flee, likely saved Jesus’ life.
Which is wild when you think about it: These crackpot foreigners, along with Jesus’ stepdad, saved the one who would save the world.
It didn’t have to end this way. The Magi always had a choice. It would have made far more sense for them to stay home in the comfort and safety of a culture and worldview that accepted them. After all, even if Jesus was some kind of “king of the Jews,” what could that have meant to a foreigner, an outsider, or a false prophet? Still, they went.
They could have gotten to their destination, seen toddler Jesus throwing a temper tantrum, and rejected the sign in the stars. Instead, they worshipped him as a king.
They could have colluded with King Herod, and found their reward in the royal court. But they fled back home like thieves in the night, to find their reward in household of God.
There were 44 other possible endings to their story, all of them more reasonable than this one. But this was the adventure they chose. And because these pagan foreigners followed the star to a podunk town called Bethlehem – where they, inexplicably, found God, we are reminded of two things:
The first is that God makes himself known in unexpected people and places. The Magi are in good company with other unlikely Bible characters: unbathed, bug-eating prophets; tax collectors and fishermen; eunuchs, mouthy women, and Samaritans.
These “side characters” become exemplars and heroes when they enter the story of God, defying cultural norms and common sense. And we would do well to look for God in the faces of outcasts, weirdos, and strangers, too.
And that leads us to the second thing: No matter who we are, where we come from, or what other people say about us, we all get to make choices that bring us into the story, so that we may encounter the “overwhelming joy” of Jesus.
On this adventure with Jesus, we might find ourselves in strange places, among people who don’t seem very much like us. We might find ourselves in contexts way beyond our comfort zone. But we can trust that God will guide us, and we can trust that we will have the courage we need to make the next daring choice on our way.
The Magi teach us that the life of faith is just one little choice after another. Until we find ourselves knocking on a door and finding Jesus on the other side.
Amen.
Leah Wise 