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January 7, 2007, Epiphany Sunday  All Souls' Episcopal Church    

Are We too Smart to Come to the Manger?

  Tommy had just been promoted from 2nd grade to 3rd grade in Sunday School. He was very happy and proud of his progress. Coming out of his classroom, he met his former teacher whom he liked a great deal and regretted losing him as his teacher. “Mr. Reynolds”, he explained, “I wish you were smart enough to teach me this year too.”

 We may laugh at Tommy’s comment, but there is a strong element of truth in the way we view the Christian faith the older and smarter we become. Some folks feel that they not only outgrow their teachers, but they believe they outgrow the need to believe in a Christmas story with a virgin having a baby that is laid in a manger…….. The premise behind this notion, of course is that the mind in capable of infinite knowledge and solutions to every problem. Belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a virgin birth, a Resurrection, a subjective relationship of faith…….all this is seen by some folks, as a crutch for emotional cripples who don’t have enough intelligence to figure out life on their own!

 So strong is the prejudice in some quarters against the validity of Christian experiences and faith that academic degrees have actually been denied.  A graduate student in a midwestern university was denied a PhD in Social Science and was told, “Believing what you do about God, you are by definition ill equipped to function in a modern classroom.”

 Can the Christian faith provide answers, intelligent answers to the questions that our technology and our social sciences claim to have answered without the need for the so called emotional crutch of faith? ……..The answer is a resounding “Yes”! If we once again  take seriously the need…. the passion and excitement to approach Jesus Christ with the mind as well as the heart. And there is no better beginning than to consider the story of the wise men this Epiphany season who came from the east to find the King and worship him. These were no ignorant shepherds who were looking for a military leader……nor were they following some childish fantasy story. These were men of science, and of learning, and of wealth, men who were skilled in finding answers to the questions of the mind.

What is truth? What can be proven?
Does the universe have order? Why?
Are there predictable patterns of events which can be known

These are the questions of the mind and of the heart and they have not really changed much in thousands of years.

 Astrology was a calculated science providing insight into an orderly and predictable universe. Instead of steering the wisemen away from the adoration of God, it caused them to believe with even greater commitment. Not everyone then, nor everyone now, who is involved with the sciences, finds faith to be incompatible with their scientific observations. B.H.Shadduck, with a PhD in entomology, writes of his studies, (and I quote), “Here is a little bee that organizes a city, that builds 10,000 cells for honey, 12,000 cells for larvae, a holy of holies for the mother queen; a little bee that when it observes the increasing heat, (where the wax may melt and the honey may be lost,) organizes the swarms into squads, and puts sentinels at the entrances. It glues the feet down, and then, with flying wings, creates a system of ventilation to cool the honey that makes an electric fan seem tawdry! ………a little bee that will include 20 square miles of a field whose flowers it has oversight. But if a tiny brain in a bee performs such wonders, who am I to question the existence and guidance of God who guides my life with such wisdom and purpose?" end of quote)

 The Wise Men did not discard their scientific training to seek after the Son of God. They used their very knowledge to guide their journey. “We have seen His star in the East”.

 It was very logical that Jesus, the King of the Jews, would be born in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the center of academic learning and study, the center of the Jewish Nation. It would be similar to Washington, D.C. for you and me. It is logical that if Jesus Christ were to come in the flesh today, He wouldn’t be born in Steubenville, Ohio.  If He were to be our King, it would make sense that He would be born in a center of political power.

 But our great God never has and probably never will accomplish His miracles to fit into man’s logic.  We may use our sciences to observe and understand how He has created to this point in history, but He invariably will use another means to accomplish His purposes with mankind than what makes logical sense.  Jerusalem made sense to the Wise Men.  God chose Bethlehem.  We look for order, for connection, for logic….But what does God give us?  He gives us surprise!  Just when we think we have our feet firmly planted, and we have it figured out, it seems like God pulls the rug out from under our feet,.

 You’ve probably heard the old saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans!”

 God’s way is not necessarily a course of ritual, of tradition, of habit.  And if we follow God’s Will, chances are, our lives won’t always take a logical course.

 The logical course for Moses would have been for him to continue to tend the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro in the land of Midian.  Yet God chose Moses to face the Pharaoh and move the children of Israel across the Red Sea to the Promised Land.

 The logical course for Ruth would be for her to return to Moab to her family after her husband died. But God called her to remain with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to go to a foreign land.  By following God’s lead, Ruth was to become the great grandmother of King David.  The logical course for Joseph would have been to divorce Mary.  But God called Joseph to wed Mary, and give the child a house  and lineage.

 The logical course for the Wise Men would be to stay put in Persia; but God’s course…God’s Star…took them on a difficult journey to the tiny country of Israel.

So………..we conclude: Man’s logic……..God’s Will……..not always compatible!

 The Wise Men, of course, expected God to work in this world.  For them, God was no absentee landlord.  They believed that God could be a work in a little child. They believed that God could speak volumes in the life of this special child born in Bethlehem.  So they rejoiced.  And they fell down on their knees in worship in the presence of the Christ-child (even though found in an “illogical” manger). 

Yes, the Wise Men expected great things from God. And yes, volumes are written with all the accumulated knowledge of scientific study from other wise men over all the ages.  But, the question invariably comes up…. how does science or knowledge ever provide the power of love which heals conflict, which leads neighbors to forgive one another?

As has been said, “Men have been barbarians much longer than they have been civilized.   They are only  precariously civilized, and there is a  propensity, persistent as the force of gravity, to revert under stress or strain, under neglect or temptation, to our first natures.” You see…..the jungle is never far away.  And the only thing  that keeps the jungle at arm’s length is civilization; and the only things that makes civilization possible—is Law!

 …..Civil Law         Moral Law          Religious Law! 

So……. in the end, the Wise Men discovered as many present day scientists have concluded, that civilization with its law and knowledge and book learning will not save mankind no matter how hard they try..  We need a Savior who will save us from moral and physical destruction.

 In truth,  all truly great and wise minds find themselves eventually bowing before the One who came to redeem not only our souls but our hearts and minds as well.  The Epiphany Season celebrates  this manifestation of God to man.  Socrates taught for forty years, Aristotle also for 40 years, Plato for fifty, and Jesus taught for only three…… yet those three years infinitely transcend in influence the combined one hundred and thirty years of teaching of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, three of the greatest men of all antiquity.  Jesus painted no pictures, yet the drawings of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da  Vinci  received their inspiration from Him.  Jesus wrote no poetry: but Dante, Milton, and scores of the world’s greatest poets were inspired by Him.  Jesus composed no music; still Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Bach and Mendelssohn  reached their highest perfection of melody in the hymns, symphonies, and oratorios written in His praise.  Thus every sphere of human greatness has been incomparably enriched  by the humble Carpenter of Nazareth.  But Jesus Christ’s unique contribution to the race of men is the salvation of the soul.   

Philosophy could not accomplish that—nor art—nor literature—nor music.  Only Jesus Christ can break the power of sin and offer salvation!

 The world admires Christ afar off.  Some adopt Him as their example and try to pattern their lives after His.  And some of us open the door of their hearts and invite Him to be their Savior.   As has been said…. 

“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
If  He’s not born in thee, thy soul is still forlorn.”

Starting next Sunday and all the subsequent Sundays of this Epiphany season, we will have the color green for the altar. So, as we enter this Epiphany Season with our minds, and our hearts and our souls………

 May the green of this season…………..
May the growth of this season…………..

Empower and enable us………in our own individual daily living as wise men and wise women……..to reach out, following our star, and ………..to attempt great things for the Christ Child.

AMEN