Magi

You may have already  taken down decorations, the sweets and food may already be consumed, presents broken and discarded, Christmas is over. 

However, Eastern Orthodox churches are just gearing up to celebrate and traditionally in the West we celebrated over 12 days, twelve days of feasting to follow 40 days of fasting, shortened in more recent times to 20. And the end of Christmas means Epiphany, the feast marking the coning of the wise men.

You know the story, three wise men, or kings come from the east with gold, frankincense and myrrh to see the baby Jesus. Except that we don’t know how many there were and Matthew 2 doesn’t call them kings or even wise men.  They are described as magi from which we get our word magicians.

They were most likely astrologers, watching the stars, not out of astronomical interest but in the belief that they could discover mystical secrets.  The surprise was that this time they did.  God met them even in their pagan superstition and spoke to them

God did not leave them there though. He brings them to a place where they will hear Scripture, he will speak to them and they will meet Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

This is the same God who meets us where we are whether in superstition, scepticism, religious tradition or intellectualism and breaks in, turning our lives around, drawing us to himself.