What would you give a king?

This morning I had the privellage to preach at Faith Lutheran Parish in Prince George, VA. The congregation is very small- there were only about 14 people in the pews today, but very responsive.  For the first time I think I made the transition from being "ok" with preaching (already an improvement from being terrified to preach) to having a lot of fun preaching.  Since it was a Lutheran church, there were four scriptures read, three of which are referenced in the sermon so I will include all three of those.  This isn't my best sermon, but it was definitely my best delivery so far and just a very enjoyable experience!  I am definitely looking forward to going back again. (I apologize for the formatting in the sermon... something didn't transfer write in the copy/ paste and I gave up trying to fix it!)

Isaiah 60: 1-6

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. ²For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. ³Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. ⁴Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms. ⁵Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. ⁶A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.        

Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14

¹Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.
²May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
³May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
⁴May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
⁵May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
⁶May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
⁷In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
¹⁰May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
¹¹May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.
¹²For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.
¹³He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
¹⁴From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight. 

Matthew 2: 1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” ³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ⁶‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” ⁷Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”
⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

           Baby showers- they almost seem as if they are a right of passage in a young woman’s life.  A woman’s friends and family plan a day that focuses on her and her soon-to-be-born child, playing games, eating themed snacks, opening gifts and holding clothes up to a very pregnant belly as if she can tell if it will fit the baby or not.  Baby showers have become a very exciting tradition for most women.  I don’t have any children yet, but I do know that I have enjoyed shopping for the perfect gift for my friends' children.  Should I get a blanket or stuffed animal? Or are diapers a better idea… that will definitely save my friends some money.  When buying these gifts I have to keep in mind what my friends have registered for, what the nursery is going to look like, how much room they will have, and of course if the baby is a boy or girl.  If it takes this much thought to give a gift for a “normal” baby, I can only imagine the stress that would come with trying to figure out what to give to a baby who was the Son of God and the King of the Jews- a baby so important that a star shone to guide the way for all those who came to visit.

The story of the magi is a significant one that serves as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah that was read this morning.  In this story we find a group of magi who are travelling east to see the child who was born King of the Jews.  Word has spread of this baby and these magi are travelling to pay homage and leave gifts that have become very iconic over the years - gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  For any other baby these gifts might have seemed a bit extravagant- I definitely wouldn’t give them to my friends’ babies even if I could afford them, but I have never heard anyone question their presentation to Jesus, the baby King of the Jews.  The gift of gold would have been a very common gift for anyone in monarchy and fit for this king.  In addition to myrrh being a royal favorite due to its aromatic nature, it would have been used for anointing purposes- appropriate for the one who would later be called “The Anointed One”.  Frankincense was a holy perfume only used in the sanctuary, possibly looking forward to when this baby would be worshiped as Messiah with his Father.  However, as interesting as the possible meanings behind each gift are since we have the knowledge of all that happened following this night in the house, I seriously doubt that the magi thought anything more than “what would be an appropriate gift for a king?”  One thing is for sure- these gifts are a far cry from the stuffed animals and blankets that we continually debate over when shopping for baby gifts.

            The magi chose to bring gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the king of the Jews because of their royal qualities.  These weren’t gifts for just anyone and were probably heavily guarded throughout their journey to the east.  This morning’s Psalm tells us of all that the people asked God to give to the coming Messiah- justice, righteousness, long life through multiple generations.  However, I can’t help but think about those who weren’t able to bring such extravagant gifts to the house the night that the star appeared, reminding me of  two stories that I have grown to love over the years.

The story of the other wise man tells Arteban’s story.  Arteban wanted to travel to see Jesus with the others so he collected three gifts to take with him- a ruby, a sapphire, and a pearl. On his way to meet the others, Arteban stopped to care for a sick man and missed the other guys so he had to sell his ruby to pay for transportation with a caravan. The night before he was to arrive to see Jesus, Joseph and Mary fled with Jesus after what the angel told them about Herod’s search fro the child in order to destroy him, so Arte stayed at an inn. While at the inn, the soldiers came to kill all the baby boys but Arte saved one by paying off the guards with his sapphire. At this point, he had lost Jesus' trail, but he didn't give up. Arte took different jobs over the years so that he could have money to live off of, but continued to save the pearl for when he did finally find Jesus. Word started to spread of the crucifixion and Arte rushed to see his Lord. On the way, he ran into a woman who was going to be sold as a slave so he gave up his last gift, the pearl, to save her. All of the sudden, an earthquake came and caused a wall to fall on Arte. As he lay there, he called up to God "O Lord, how often have I failed you?" to which God replies, "You have not failed me, for you have given to the least of your brothers..."

            A second story that has become quite important to me is the story of the “Three Wise Women” by Mary Hoffman.  This story tells of the journey that three women made when a star appeared- the first woman was baking bread when she saw a star in the distance and suddenly her bread began to rise and was filled with the light of the star.  When her bread was finished baking she took it and followed the star.  The second woman was singing a lullaby to her baby son when they were both distracted by a star in the distance, the light of which made her baby smile so they got up and followed it.  The third woman was telling stories to her grandchildren when she saw a star and became so distracted by it that the star became the focus of her stories.  After finishing her story, the grandmother got up and followed the star just as the other two ladies did.  The three women met just outside of a small village, not knowing how long they had travelled because they were not tired or hungry.  They followed the star for the remainder of their journey, all the way to a small building where they found a young family- mother, father, and baby.  The women asked if they could come in- the first woman gave the loaf of bread to the mother and the baby reached out as if to bless it.  The grandmother apologized for having nothing to offer, but told the family a story of the starlight while the second woman held her own baby as he reached out to the baby in the crib.  The three women left and went back their own separate ways, comforted and filled with the hope of starlight.  The young baby in the crib grew up and showed that fresh bread tastes better when shared, he told stories to anyone who would listen, and taught that the greatest gift that anyone can offer is love.

            None of these three women nor Arteband were able to give the new born king of the Jews gifts that were seen as suitable for royalty.  Poor Arte never even made it to see the baby because he continued to be  stopped along the way and  had to give away each of the fine gifts that he did have.  However, both stories emphasize that the material gift was not necessary, bringing a whole new light to the question “what do you give a king?”

            Imagine you are busy with life - maybe sitting in the office, working over-time as you try to beat a looming deadline or maybe just like the grandmother in the story, you are spending time with your grandchildren.  You look up from what you are doing because you notice that the room got brighter, and you see a star in the distance that you haven’t ever noticed before.  Imagine that you drop what you are doing and follow the path that is lit by the star and find a house where a young family is resting.  What will you offer to this family? 

Just as Arte brought himself to the Lord by way of giving his most precious gifts to those he met along the way, the least of his brothers and sisters, we can bring our most precious gifts to God because it isn't about the material gifts. While material gifts are nice and we can all enjoy them for a time, the most precious gift that we have is OURSELF. As we reach out and help others, whether that be giving food to the food bank or listening to our friends problems, we should give OURSELVES. WE can be one of the magi.

            There is no better time to give ourselves to our Lord than now, as we are making our New Year's resolutions. Why not set aside some time each week to reach out to those that we might otherwise ignore. It could be that we spend some time on the phone with our brother or sister that we haven't talked to in a while because we were "just too busy" or we might visit a church shut-in and let her tell us some stories from when she was younger.  Maybe we can go to the food bank and help sort food or help build a house with the church at Habitat for Humanity. The monetary gifts help the organizations, but they also need help working with what it is they are buying.  Remember, we don't have to go abroad to help someone. Help is needed right outside our front door, and sometimes, sitting across from us at the dinner table.

Nowhere in the Gospel of Matthew are we told that there are only three magi- we are only told that there were three gifts.  For all we know, there was a crowd of twenty in the house that night.  We may not be able to offer such precious gifts as gold, frankincense, and myrrh but we can offer many other things.  We also don’t have to be in a Christmas pageant in order to be one of the magi.  All we have to do is realize that our own life is gift enough and offer it to our Lord who showed us the way in which to live.

            So, this year as decisions are made about New Year’s Resolutions or even just ways that 
we can live in a way that responds to Christ’s life here on earth, a gift in itself, let us remember- we 
don’t have to track down gold, frankincense, or myrrh on amazon.com- we only need to give our life 
and live in the way that the baby king of the Jews and Son of God grew up to teach us.  When we 
hand our life over we are doing more than just giving ourselves- we are recognizing that there is so 
much more that can be done with our life than we can do on our own, and we are entrusting that to our 
Lord.

            A classic hymn for this time of year and today’s prelude, entitled “In The Bleak Midwinter” sums all of this up quite nicely in the final verse-  What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; yet what I can, I give him:  I give my heart.