Exact Time
Matthew 2:1-12

January 12, 2003

A few exact times are in my memory - the birth of our children, John Kennedy’s assassination, the time Apollo landed on the moon, the moment the plane hit the World Trade Center - 11:08 EDT, 12;13 CST, 1:30 EDT, 1:08 PDT, 6:58 CST.

You may also know the exact times and may dispute the accuracy of my exactness. Of course, some of the above simply reflects when I became aware of the event, which may not be the precise CBC time.

However, the exact times are supplanted by exact locations in most people’s memories. Time is relative, Einstein told us, but places and people for this world are far more exact. Greenfield Hospital, LaVerendrye Hospital, Mechanical Drawing Class, the ampitheatre of Disney Land, my front basement.

There are people who claim exceptions, but the encounters with the divine do not have an exact time. Nor does the time matter, for it is how we live the indefinite time following which validates the authenticity of the encounter.

The time came for Jesus to be born is Matthew’s version of the Nativity. No census, no exhausting trip to Bethlehem because Joseph and Mary already lived in Bethlehem, no inn and no stable - birth happens. The Nativity takes place in a house - and we never read it on Christmas Eve. It would be too upsetting.

Lots of people are born on Christmas Day, and these births are very important for the families and local communities. Matthew tells us that this birth had universal significance - that doesn’t happen as much you think. It’s what happens after that is really important.

The Magi are the exotic characters of the New Testament - and are meant to be. Distant, wise beyond comprehension, we can’t figure out what it is that they really know and how it is that they know it.

The New English Bible called them “astrologers,” and magi is the root of “magic.” They were not scholarly academics with whom we are familiar today; but they use the sciences available to search out the meaning of life in nature. We would not accept their methods or most of their assumptions, but neither is this the basis upon which the Gospel is told.

Everybody has a star that encapsulates, reflects your being and personality. At least in our fairy tale world we still sort of believe that, wishing upon a star. The Magi and others of that era assumed that an unusual or spectacular star or heavenly light signified a great person. Lots of theories abound regarding what star it could have been - nothing really empirical has been settled upon. Talk about exact times: no time of the year or even a set of years is safe from being the time of the Nativity Star. Hailey’s Comet appeared in October 12 B.C.; Mars and Venus crossed paths three times during 7 B.C.; and so on. The possible dates for Christmas multiply exponentially with each new astronomical discovery.

Herod believed all this stuff. Certainly, his paranoia believed anything that smelled of a challenge to his position of power. His title was “King of the Jews.” No wonder all Jerusalem was upset hearing the theories of the Magi.

Herod wanted knowledge, not for the meaning of life, but for destruction, and preservation of self at any costs. He wanted to know the exact time the star had appeared to the astrologers so he could do the math to calculate the offensive birth. We don’t know the math at all and since neither the month, day and year are all debated among Christian traditions, the exact time seems to have been forgotten.

There is no exact time for Herod’s massacre of the infants, and in fact no record. Few doubt Herod was capable of such a horrific feat - he had lots of close associates and relatives assassinated when they got in his way. Augustus was reported saying that he would rather be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son.

Forget about the subtlety of their science and math, the Magi found the King of the Jews. A funny star stopping over the house pointed the way. These exotic, elusive, exalted Magi found him and knew they had found someone infinitely important.

Given their example, we need a few more magi around, not for their precise timing and astrological acumen. They were strangers in a strange land. They knew the world in their way quite well, but that didn’t help them to completely understand the real sense and purpose of the Nativity. They just knew this was the right time, the right place, the right people to make the world right.

If someone says something important in Iran, are we able to listen and comprehend that it is important and real? When an MP from the wrong party says the right thing, do we allow ourselves to say Yes? When someone a Buddhist from China talks about God, can you hear God through her?

We are not the Magi - we can’t be the Magi here, because we are from here. The Magi figure out stuff in front of our eyes, which they did not really understand, but they could see it happening. Our faith calls us to understand and hear the strange sources of God’s wisdom in this very diverse world.

Otherwise, we are just living in Bethlehem, Saskatchewan, and there’s a bright star out tonight, and nothing else is new.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan