Open-source Christ
7 January 2013, Feast of the Epiphany
Matthew 2:1-12: Journey of the Magi
The Rev. B. P. Campbell, Richmond Hill, Richmond, Virginia
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “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.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘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.’” Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then 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.”
When 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. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On 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. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
In the world of computers there is this thing called “Open-source software.” As I understand it, and as it is described by the Cambridge University Dictionary, open-source software is software that is free to use. Also, the original program can be changed by anyone. That is, it is a gift of which you can make anything you want to make.
Tonight, as we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, I want to celebrate an open-source Christ, an open-source Messiah. Because it seems clear to me that that is what the three kings – the three magi — found, and it is what Jesus is in our world.
Let me say, although it is very obvious, that we don’t know anything about whether these three magi existed, or who they were, or where they came from. There are lots of traditions about them. All we know is in these twelve verses from Matthew’s Gospel. Storytellers have filled in the blank places, as storytellers are wont to do, for nearly two millennia. But let me also say that the story of the three kings is true enough – that is to say, the story says something really true about Jesus, and the energy and spirit which Jesus liberated, and what his followers felt about him.
Anyway, we have no idea what these three kings were reading, — or smoking, for that matter. We don’t know for sure what their religious background was, if any. They may have been astrologers, they may have been Zoroastrians, they may have been Persians or Iranians. All we know is that they saw a star in the West and believed that it indicated a King of the Jews was being born, and that they should come and worship him.
We have no indication that they were Jews, but even if they were, there is no known Jewish story which says that a King of the Jews will be born when a certain star appears in the West. We don’t know what they thought, or what dream or prophecy or speculation or scientific or political or economic study they were engaged in that led them to the conclusion which drew them across the desert on this journey. We only know that the baby born, whose name they did not even know, drew their most complete attention, and, it appears, satisfied their deepest longing.
When they went home, what did they say? Jesus hadn’t grown yet. He hadn’t preached yet. How did they pursue this conviction? How did it get content for them?
I’m thinking that the baby was a kind of an open-source messiah to them. They could make what they wanted of him. Only the Holy Spirit would guide them into truth. According to the story, these three wise men understood that the baby would engage their lives in three ways, and so they offered him gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
The open-source messiah received gold, he received frankincense, and he received myrrh.
1. The open-source messiah received gold.
Gold is material wealth. It is what makes the world of commerce go around. It is earthly power, governmental power. It pays armies. It builds temples. It funds feasts. It turns on the lights and buys the groceries. Gold is human organization, human business, human life. The magi gave it to him.
If they gave it to him, and if they were as committed as it appears, that was the beginning of the reconstruction of their own lives.
For when you have a purpose for your life, you rebuild it, or you build it differently. You spend your time and your money in a different way. Things have different meaning. Things that used to mean a lot don’t matter at all, and things that you never imagined all of a sudden become very important. You may even drop what you are doing and take a trip across the desert on a camel.
I don’t know if the three kings ever got ahold of any of Jesus’ teaching. Maybe after this particular trip they at least took a look at some of the Hebrew scriptures. If so, they may have used their lives and their gold to bring justice, and to love mercy. There were, after all, no instructions given them from the manger – just the conviction that this baby whom they had seen with his mother and father was worthy of worship and had something to do with the way they spent their gold. Gold was the theme, but the working out of it was kind of open-source. It was up to them.
2. The open-source messiah received frankincense.
As I said, we don’t know who these three kings were, or where they came from, but when it came to what is important in human life, they hadn’t just gotten off the boat. It wasn’t just gold. The magi brought frankincense to this baby. Acting in response to beliefs and philosophies that we don’t know anything about, they brought the loveliest incense, an incense of prayer and worship, sweetness and kindness. They brought a gift of holiness and reverence with them and gave it to the baby whom they did not know.
It was an open-source gift to him, and to them – for we can assume, I think, that these three magi loved frankincense, and that it symbolized their own lives of prayer. These were reflective, prayerful magi. They were men – and I guess they were men – who had spent time in silence, seeing the truth and the one who was beyond the silence. They were people who had beseeched God as they understood God to sanctify their lives, to lift them up to his presence, to make their days valuable and enlist them in his service. They had burned incense and lit candles in prayer for their own wives, children, neighbors, and leaders. They had sought peace between nations, and knew that the world was under one God.
The prayer of these three magi was not directed by any source we know – it was open-source – they came up with their own prayers – but they believed that source and the source of this baby’s life and witness were one and the same. In bringing him frankincense, they associated his prayer with their own, as they departed to go back to their own country. He did not direct the prayer that led them forward, — this was a visit to an open source – unless there was a holy spirit which traveled with the frankincense and urged and surged within the prayer.
3. The open-source messiah received myrrh.
This is the most stunning of the gifts – the dark spice which is used to anoint for burial. It tells of the deep, dark truths of the grave, of loss, of sickness, of despair – the truths of death-grounded resurrection life. Only a person of hope can give the gift of myrrh to a baby.
Again, we do not know where they got their faith or their intention. – from some religion or no religion. We do know that they, like every human being, had faced death and loss, and had continued to seek for a star. They had searched so definitively that when they saw what they thought was the truth of God they jumped on their camels and rode 970 miles across the desert to find it.
Only a person who has seen the other side of death would dare to give myrrh as a gift to a newborn baby and his mother. Only a baby and parents who were exceptionally in touch with the glory of life out of death would receive that gift in a way that would set the stage for the rest of a giver’s life. What the magi would make of the myrrh no one knows. They would never know of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. But the open-source truth of the myrrh would inform the rest of their days.
There is no copyright on Jesus. There is no copyright on the Bible – although there are some copyrights on some translations of the Bible. People are free to do anything they want to do, or don’t want to do, with the Scripture, with their concept and teaching about Jesus. He is an open-source messiah. They can start any church they want. They can say anything they want on television, from a pulpit, in politics, in a book. They can use their gold any way they think Jesus wants them to; they can do holiness and prayer any way they want; and they can even make anything they want of life and death.
There’s an incredible act of faith here – an act of faith by the eternal God in you and me – which was not lost on these three magi who came from God-knows-where for God-knows-what reason to worship a baby about whom they believed God-knows-what. That act of faith by God is that, sooner or later, through the love and the spirit and the teaching, through the offering of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the true spirit of the messiah, which is the spirit of God, will come to the fore.
He does not control the message. It is open-source. As the Cambridge University Dictionary says, “Open-source software is free to use, and the original program can be changed by anyone.”
That’s the truth – or the beginning of the truth. But if you have seen some kind of star, — if you’ve ridden your camel through the evening and parked it outside on the paving stones, — if you’ve ponied up in your life with some gold, and invested some frankincense, and even been forced to smell some of the myrrh, you know there’s a secret to this open-source Christ, and that is the guidance of the holy spirit.
And that spirit, no matter where on this desert you start, no matter what time of night, no matter what star you follow, no matter how much you mess with the software, that holy spirit of that open-source messiah will, in time, lead you into all truth.
AMEN.
