Readings from the Message for the Second Day of Camp
Micah 6:6-8
Psalm 82
Matthew 2:1-17
This sermon was preached by Fr. Daniel London at Camp Living Waters at Cookson Ranch in Blue Lake CA on Wednesday July 27, 2021. Camp Theme: “Christmas in July”
Today our Gospel reading from Matthew introduces to an important set of characters in the Christmas story who are referred to as “a band of scholars from the East,” but who are more traditionally known as the Three Wise Men or the Three Kings or the Magi (where we get the words magician and imagination). These characters only show up in Matthew’s Gospel and, although the Gospel doesn’t refer to the number or the gender of the scholars, they did indeed bring to Jesus three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And why did they bring these three gifts?
They had studied the two great books given by God to humanity. These are books that I highly recommend. The first book is the book of Creation, through which God has revealed his order and beauty and creativity, which we can see all around us and hear as the wind moves through the trees and as the living waters of the river flow. They specifically learned about God by observing and gazing at the stars at night as you will do tonight.
The other book that they read was the book of the Hebrew Scriptures, which included the writings of the Hebrew prophet Micah, who prophesied about the city of Christ’s birth (Bethlehem) and who also clearly taught us what God expects from us and that is to do what is just, to be compassionate, and to practice humility, because God is a just and compassionate God who humbled himself by becoming incarnate as a vulnerable baby boy.
So, the Magi gave gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Christ because they saw in him the embodiment of God who is a just King worthy of the greatest gold, who responds with compassion to our prayers which rise like sweet-smelling incense, and who gives himself to us, even to the point of death, which the myrrh symbolizes since myrrh was an oil used for embalming the dead.
And after giving Christ the gifts that represent justice (gold) and mercy (frankincense) and humility (myrrh), the Magi then embodied those same values by refusing to cooperate with King Herod, a corrupt and unjust king who pretended to be devout but who was really a selfish and dangerous person who felt threatened by baby Jesus and wanted to kill him. So, by refusing to cooperate with Herod, the Magi made it possible for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph to escape to Egypt as refugees. The Magi teach us that one of the best ways to embody justice, mercy, and humility is to protect those who are vulnerable, such as refugees or friends who are being bullied and mistreated because the way we treat the vulnerable is an expression of our treatment of Christ.
The Magi invite us to ask this question: What are some specific things that you can do this week (and in the weeks to come) to fulfill God’s expectation of us to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God?
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 