Mixed Bag in Worship (Epiphany)

A MIXED BAG IN WORSHIP

Every day this week, when I have come over to unlock or lock up the church, I have found myself standing before the crib, deep in thought.

The more I have looked at those crib figures, the more I have been amazed at the mixed bag of humanity which they represent, caught up in the worship of God, as revealed through the Christ child at Bethlehem.

First of all there is Mary. She is the only woman present. All the others are men.

Although we do not know how old she was, we do know that she was a young girl. That is what the Hebrew for "virgin" really means.

And although we do not know what was going on in her mind, we can make an intelligent guess.

She must have been very frightened to give birth to her first child without the support and advice of her mother or family.

She must have felt very lonely, being so far away from home.

And she must have been very worried at giving birth to a child in a stable, cut out of a cave in a rock, because there was no room elsewhere.

Frightened, lonely and worried. I don't know about you. I would have been scared stiff.

Yet the picture we have of Mary, from conception to birth of this child, is one of quiet acceptance.

I think it was the late Malcolm Muggeridge, who remarked some years ago, that had Mary found herself pregnant in similar circumstances today, she might well have had an abortion, and thereby deny the world forever of its Saviour. Every child is a unique gift from God, no matter the circumstances and surroundings of its conception and birth.

And then there is dear old Joseph. I say 'old' Joseph, because tradition suggests that he was much older than Mary, and that he died after fathering several other sons with her. Hence we find no reference to him outside the birth narratives in the Bible.

But what a loyal and supportive person he must have been to Mary.

Many a man would have walked away from a similar situation upon discovering he was not the actual father of the child, which his partner was expecting. But not Joseph. He stuck by Mary, despite the age difference and the wagging tongues back home in Nazareth.

And it was in Nazareth that he had his business. I suppose we would call him a skilled manual worker today, since he was a carpenter.

Although we have no pictures of him, we can imagine him as being pretty strong, because carpenters in those days were responsible for cutting down and transporting their own timber for use.

What else do we know about Mary and Joseph?

They were both very religious people. As practising Jews, they ensured that all the religious rituals were observed as regards Jesus. He was circumcised after eight days and presented at the Temple after 40 days from birth. They presumably took Him with them to the Synagogue, Sabbath by Sabbath, since later on Jesus appears to be very familiar with its worship and religious traditions. They probably also sent him to the local rabbinical school where Jesus would have learned to read and write and become familiar with the Jewish scriptures.

Mary and Joseph, represent for me the Jewish tradition, which looked forward and waited patiently, like old Simeon and Anna, for the coming of the Messiah.

The only problem was that the tradition failed to recognise Him when he came.

Also in the crib scene we see the shepherds.

In his Gospel, St Luke tells us how they left their sheep on the hillside outside Bethlehem, in order to go and worship the Christ child.

Something very dramatic must have happened to persuade them to act so recklessly and irresponsibly. After all, it was the shepherd's job to sleep across the doorway of the stone-enclosed sheepfold and therefore protect the sheep from wild animals during the night.

Thank goodness, this all happened 2000 years ago, because the tall concrete wall, which the Israelis have erected around Bethlehem to protect themselves against Palestinian terrorist attack, would have prevented them today

As we look at our Christmas cards in the warm glow of the log fire, I think we sometimes forget that shepherds were regarded as religious outcasts by the Jews since the nature of their work prevented them from fulfilling all their religious duties.

And so those scruffy shepherds, with the smell of sheep still clinging to their clothes and the dirt of sweat beneath their finger nails, represent for me those whom organised religion have rejected. People, who still find themselves at significant moments in their lives searching for God. A search which often demands courage, since they are often

made only too aware that they do not come up to the standards of those who would describe themselves as "committed".

Finally there are the Wise Men, whose arrival at the crib, we celebrate on the Feast of Epiphany.

But who were those "wise men?" That is how they are described in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The Revised New English Bible calls them "astrologers" though the original Greek word means "magi". "Magi" was a word used originally to describe a Medianite tribe of priests. Later it was used to describe a Zoroastrian priestly caste.

Similarly, we do not know how many there were. Tradition suggests three because, according to St Matthew's Gospel, they offered the three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Likewise, although we know that Mary and Joseph came from Nazareth, and the shepherds came from

farms around Bethlehem, we do not know from where the "wise men" came.

Tradition suggests that they must have travelled some distance, possibly taking up to two years, since Herod later ordered the killing of all the young boys of Bethlehem under the age of two years, in order to remove any possible rivals to the throne.

Some Biblical commentators go so far as to suggest they came from Babylon, others Arabia, and others Mesopotamia or the regions beyond.

However, this does not really make a lot of sense. After all, we know that Jesus was presented in the Temple, some 40 days after his birth. There appears to be no reason why the Holy Family should have returned again to Bethlehem or remained there for up to two years later.

But let us not get too bogged down about the details of the story, such as whether the star which they saw, was Haley's Comet which appeared between 12-11BC, or the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which occurred in 7BC. After all, the gospel writers were not concerned about the historicity of events, let alone the study of astrology.

It is who the 'wise men' represent, that matters for me.

They were obviously foreigners and therefore not Jews. They are representatives of the non-Jewish world - the Gentile world. Hence the old Book of Common Prayer of 1662 describes Epiphany as "The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles".

And so, as I have stood before the crib this past week, I have marvelled at the fact that the Christ child, who is the fulfilment of the Jewish hope, and of others who are searching for a meaning to life, as represented by Mary and Joseph, continues to be the object of worship of those whom organised religion has often rejected, as represented by the Shepherds, and of the non-Jewish world, as represented by the wise men of the East.

He continues to attract the attention of a mixed bag of humanity and evoke a sense of awe and wonder which leads people to fall upon their knees and show him his worth in their lives through worship.

"O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,

bow down before him his glory proclaim

with gold of obedience and incense of lowliness

kneel and adore him, the Lord is his name".