"The Dawn of Wisdom" January 3, 2016

Sirach 24: 1-12 Solomon 10:15-21 Isaiah 60:1-6 Matthew 2:1-12 The Evangelist of Matthew was not the first to imagine 3 rich wise guys from the East coming to Jerusalem. There is an old story that if the story had instead been 3 women, they would have stopped several times to ask directions to Bethlehem, 9 miles from Jerusalem; because of this, the 3 women would have arrived on time; and instead of Frankincense and Myrrh, they would have brought sensible gifts like a Casserole and Quilted baby blankets. While it may have been that 3 Wisemen from the East did arrive 12 days after Jesus' birth, Matthew seems to have borrowed his storyline, characters and plot from Isaiah 60, a poem recited by Jews in 580 BC, regarding returning to Jerusalem from exile in Iraq and Syria, who returned to discover their city bombed-out. Who, after traveling for thousands of miles would want to live in a city where the towers had been torn down, the economy is in ruins, and no one knows how to move forward or what is safe? In this context, the poet invites their depressed discouraged colleagues to have hope, to look up, to expect everything to change: Rise, Shine, for your light has come!” Israel will once again become a center of trade and prosperity: “Nations will come to your light, Kings to the brightness of your dawn.” Caravans loaded with spices and trade goods will come from Asia bringing prosperity. God has promised a future for Jerusalem, and God's promise is certain. Yet, what I would like to suggest this morning that the Wisdom of the Wisemen, the Epiphany that is the 12th Night of Christmas, is especially important for us today, in the first days of this new year, with knowledge of the birth of the Savior close at hand. First, that whomever and however many of these Strangers were, they represent us, non-Jews who have come to faith through knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Books: The Wisdom of Sirach and Solomon, are ancient writings from the era between hearing the last echos of Malachi, and the first words of Matthew. In the 500 years between the First Testament and the New Testament, the Babylonians had fallen to the Medes, the Medes to Alexander the Great who had conquered the whole known world; following Alexander had come Greek Wisdom, Culture and Philosophy, but ultimately the Greek Empire had fallen to a new Egyptian Empire, then to the Roman Empire of the Caesars. Sirach and Solomon, were always part of the Greek Orthodox Bible, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Bibles, but until recently were not included in the Jewish Bible or Protestant Bibles. With knowledge of faith now being disseminated by publishing houses instead of religions, wisdom material is available to us all ecumenically, which may cast a whole new light on our faith and understanding through a new revelation of wisdom. Stephen Hawking is arguably the smartest scientist alive today. Hawking has been working on what he describes as: The Theory of Everything! Behind Einstein's Theory of Relativity is Gravity, describing Mass and Energy and Time. Quantum Mechanics is the theory of Physics and Engineering that behind everything that exists are waves, particles and sub-particles. Hawking's Theory of Everything is attempting to link the two, to explain the connection between these two disconnected theories of how everything exists. Theologians have traditionally spoken of Revelation, that is: God unveiling parts of who God is to we mortals, as being transmitted in one of two ways. Either through General Revelation to all of Creation, accessible through our senses and reason, known through Scientific Laws; or through Special Particular Revelation, in the ways recorded in the story, history and Laws of Religion. General Revelation might be the fall and decomposition of leaves as preparation and nurture for a coming year of growth and possibilities. That every tree, flower, fish, bird, and mammal has within it the seeds of future generations; and that even if you swallow water mellon seeds they cannot grow inside a person; or a baby spring from a turnip patch. General Revelation might come from holding a baby to your breast, witnessing the perfection and completeness of something so new; just as God might also be known in the peace that comes when we are present with loved ones when they die. General Revelation might be described by some as Science, observation of the interconnections, inter-dependencies of all Creation. The difference of whether we describe this as General Revelation or Science is whether behind everything is God or Not. Special Revelation came from God speaking to Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the Prophets. Special Revelation is known through following the Laws given through Moses. This Special Particular Revelation, according to Isaiah revealed that God would call people from the ends of the earth to God's Holy Mountain, that through the particular - all the world would come to know what God reveals. The Wisdom of Sirach and Solomon are books using Greek Philosophy and Reason to encourage the listener to discern and understand the Particular Revelation of wisdom that is Judaism. The distinction being, that instead of being narrated through the story of Religion from those who were present with Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Moses; instead of being narrated with personal identification “When you come into the Promised land, you are to make an offering of First Fruits declaring 'MY ANCESTOR WAS A WANDERING ARAMEAN WHO WENT DOWN TO EGYPT AND SOJOURNED THERE';” instead, that the Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach describe Particular Special Revelations of God as being General Revelations to All through Reason! Where the First Book of Moses (that is Genesis) described Creation when mist covered the earth, and the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the Deep; and in the Psalms of David, “Where can I go, if I traverse the highest heavens Thou art there, if I make my home in Sheol Thou findest me there.” Instead, Sirach entreats the Greek listener to witness the revelation of Creation, and to determine for themselves that the person embodying Wisdom, the Most High, is God! The 10th Chapter of Solomon in particular, poetically describes “A Holy people and blameless race guided by a flame at night, brought over the Red Sea,” without even once mentioning Israel by name. According to Thomas Aquinas, General Revelation is corrected, complimented and made complete by Special Revelation. The Self- Revelation of God may be misunderstood by sinful humanity, so the essential truths of faith are repeated in the history of Israel. John Calvin described the relationship between General Revelation and Particular Revelation as being like the relationship between a Book of Wisdom, and Reading Glasses. Although God has published God's Word for All the World to see, only those with the corrective lenses will ever be able to understand what they see. What I propose this morning, is that those identified as The Wisemen from the East, were the first to discern by logic and reason the reality of the Particular Revelation of God to Israel from only knowing General Revelation. The point is that there are not two realities, two truths, two theories, two worlds of Science and Religion, which are unable to co-exist. But rather, witness of the visitation of the Wisemen from the East, is that everything about Life, everything about Nature, points us to the truths revealed in the First Testament of Israel. And that following that logic, the Wisemen were the first to find the Savior, even before his Baptism, before Calling his Disciples, before his death and Resurrection. Even more, that while “From the East” gives the story a Mysterious flavor, and resulted in some speculating three different ages of these visitors, and that one would be from the China, one from Africa, one from Europe; the Latin word “ORIENS” has the same meaning for us as ORIENTATION. This was not identification of their address or place of origin, but rather their ideology, their focus on life and reality, literally and metaphorically is what Star they follow, is in the text also described as “ANATOLE” meaning “The Rising.” The mindset of these visitors is “Light” the Dawn of the next era of human history; what is new and innovating and exciting; but also as will be demonstrated in the Particular Revelation of Jesus, Rising refers to The Resurrection from the Dead, so their orientation is Salvation. This visitation is of the first believers, who instead of using the revelation of God to justify the Monarchy, or the Priority of David's lineage.or Jerusalem, have used the revelation of God to seek Salvation, to seek the future with God. We become bogged down in whether there were three or four, and what were the meanings of the three gifts; when I believe the point of the Wisemen visiting from the East, is the Dawn of Wisdom, the Dawn of a new faith in Salvation that comes from God and IS AVAILABLE as General Revelation to ALL!