On
New Year’s Day, I dropped in on a parishioner for a visit. As I was getting up
to leave, he asked me to wait a second while he got something from another
room.
When
he returned, he handed me a solid gold bar as a donation to the parish. It was
only the size of two Purdy’s chocolates, but I realized at once this was a very
valuable gift.
I
was grateful, of course, but I confessed right away that I had mixed feelings
about the timing.
“If
only you’d waited a week, I could have brought your gift of gold to the Lord on
the feast of the Epiphany!”
Well,
nothing’s perfect. I do have some frankincense here, but sadly the gold is already
locked away in a safe downtown. And I really wouldn’t know where to find myrrh.
But
even if I can’t imitate the Three Kings this morning, we can do some thinking
about their three gifts. Much of it you’ve heard before, but it’s worth
thinking about again.
The
gifts of the magi are all about Jesus, not about them. Gold is a gift for a King.
While it’s obvious that you would only give a king something very precious,
there’s more to it than that.
The
Old Testament makes some important references to how gold is used to pay homage.
The Queen of Sheba brings a large amount of gold to King Solomon (1 Kings
10:1-2), while Psalm 72 and a passage from Isaiah both prophesy that the
nations will pay homage to the king of Israel, offering him gifts of gold and
frankincense. (Curtis Mitch and Edward Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, page
53)
We
see here that Jesus is not only King of the Jews, as the magi first refer to
him when speaking with Herod. By the time they arrive in Bethlehem, the wise
men pay homage to the King of the world.
The
gift of frankincense recognizes that this King is divine. Incense was used
then, as it is now, in worship. We pay homage not to an earthly power but to
the Creator of earth itself.
And
of course, myrrh foretells the death and burial of Jesus. St. Mark tells us
that Jesus was offered wine and myrrh at his crucifixion (Mark 15:23) and in
John's Gospel, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea brought myrrh and aloes to anoint
the Lord’s body (John 19:39).
Thus,
as Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg says in a fine homily for the Epiphany, the
identity of Jesus is shown in the three gifts: “He is King, God (and/or High
Priest) and Man (someone who will die).”
He
then reaches a powerful conclusion: In one way or another, the gifts we offer
from our lives show who Jesus is to us.
“For
some, Jesus is a small part of their lives whose reign extends only to an hour
on Sunday morning. Such a limited understanding of Jesus will be reflected by
an equally limited gift of one’s life to the Lord.
“For
others, Jesus is the Lord of their lives twenty-four hours a day, seven days a
week.”
And
that understanding of Jesus will be reflected in an all-out gift of one’s life
to him.
Obviously,
I am not going to tell you the name of the parishioner who handed me the gold
bar. But I can tell you that for many, many years—long before I came to Christ
the Redeemer—he and his wife made an all-out gift of themselves to the Lord.
I’m
not even thinking of their generous financial support. However much their support for
the church means at this crucial time of change and rebirth, it pales in comparison
to all they did in bringing people to Jesus through evangelization and teaching.
Coincidentally—or not coincidentally!—2022 ended the same way 2023 began, with a budget-balancing donation from other two other very generous parishioners. We’ve talked a lot about ‘engagement’ lately following our ME25 Survey. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the second couple whose gift has made such a difference to the parish are models of engagement—parishioners involved for many years in multiple roles supporting the mission of Christ the Redeemer.
And even though the
magi teach us a lot this morning, we can’t lose sight of the humble
shepherds. Because as we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel, it was the shepherds who
“made known what had been told them about this child.”
The
gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh are precious symbols, but only that.
Today isn’t primarily about the gifts we bring, but about the Gift we have
received—Jesus Christ, true God, and true Man.
Today
we are invited to make him known in the darkness of a world beset by war and an
attack on life worthy of Herod himself. We pay homage to the Lord in the best
possible way when we share in the mission for which he came to earth—the sharing
of Good News to all the earth.
There’s
the key message of today’s homily. If we sincerely acknowledge Jesus as our
divine King and Saviour, we will share our gifts of time, talent, and treasure,
always mindful that the greatest treasure is not gold or silver, but Christ
himself.
We
don’t need angels, camels, or treasure chests to kneel before this Child and
pay him homage. We only need to invite someone to kneel beside us. In the
simplest and most practical of ways, we do that by inviting someone to Alpha, a
modern version of what the shepherds and the magi experienced.
I
visited another parishioner yesterday, on the eve of the Epiphany. No gold, but
a very tasty cake! She told me, as if she’d failed, about unsuccessfully inviting
a family member to Alpha. When I asked about inviting him to Water in the
Desert, she said she’d done that too. And she told me she’d eventually just
asked him to sit in the empty church with her.
A
failure? No, a great success! She had learned the key message we’ve been sharing
at Christ the Redeemer for several years and lived it perfectly. The message is
not “Succeed” but “Invite.” Make the Lord known in simple ways, and let the
Holy Spirit do the rest.
We’ve
been talking lately about becoming an irresistible parish. Even if we’re not
there yet, it’s been a week for me of irresistible parishioners, loving the
newborn King with all their hearts.
The image above is a painting by Alaska artist Kesler Woodward titled “A Small Epiphany.” He explains the work here.
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