Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
This is an interactive manuscript. To follow links, click the highlighted words below.
Growing up in the church, and in a family of Sunday School teachers, the Bible was always important to me, as well as studying its Word. It was always chief among the stories and teachings I consumed.
There were some around me who took the importance of Scripture so seriously that they would not consume or listen to any other media separate from it. For them, God’s Word was the only teaching they were to hear, and there was nothing aside from the Bible that could provide that word for them.
The question for us, then, is can other teachings aside from Scripture help us listen to God?
The Wise Men answer that question for us today. Here are learnéd men from the East, Gentiles, who would have had no way of knowing anything about the King of the Jews, or the Messiah, or even Jesus.
Yet, through their learnings, they saw a star. Through their learnings, they knew this star was important. They knew enough to know they must follow this star, for it would lead them to the King of the Jews. They knew enough to know that this Child the star was leading them to was important enough to pay homage to Him.
The Wise Men wouldn’t have had the Bible or Scripture, yet their learning brought them to a place where they could listen and follow to make their way to God.
The Wise Men’s search doesn’t end there. They knew enough to know their knowledge alone couldn’t take them where they needed to go. They knew they must look for help. They went to the logical place to learn more about a king: the palace. Fortunately for them Herod was able to call the bearers of Scripture to provide their knowledge of what the Wise Men sought.
The Wise Men too were open to God’s direct provision of knowledge. When they are warned in a dream about Herod, they left for their homeland by a different way. When God calls out to them, they listen.
God speaks to us in a myriad of ways. Sometimes we find what God has to say to us through the natural world, as the Wise Men did. At times, it is through contemplation, our stopping to hear what it is God has to say. Perhaps we hear God through our favorite stories, even something like the Gospel according to Superheroes. These are the ways the Wise Men heard God and answered the Call.
However, the Wise Men show us that we cannot rely on these methods alone. They may help bring us closer to God, but we still require the tried and true methods of Scripture. That is what the Wise Men did by seeking out advice and aid. It is through Scripture that they were able to find the Baby Jesus in the end, that God is fully revealed and made manifest, the meaning of the word “Epiphany”. It is after their first encounter of Scripture that they are able to be open to hearing God’s warning through their dreams.
We need Scripture. We need its tried and true way to listen to God and reveal God to us. Yet God speaks to us and is made manifest to us in a myriad of ways, and we need those paths of listening too.
Whatever you do, take all the opportunities that come your way to listen to God. Just remember to center all those paths in Scripture. This is the method you will see me use when preaching. It is the same method for resources like Gospel according to Superheroes. If you feel you need to learn more about Scripture, these are good places to start, just as the Wise Men found with the chief priests and scribes of Jerusalem. At the same time, make sure these are starting places to help you learn more about Scripture and what God is saying to you personally through those words.