Curiosity to action

January 6 is a particularly important day in the life of the global church. It marks the Epiphany of our Lord, the Manifestation of Christ to the world. The most common element of Epiphany is the arrival of the wise men, or magi, to visit the Christ child.

I’ve always found the characters of the three kings to be a bit intriguing. Scripture doesn’t really talk much about them, if we’re honest. We know they come from a distant land, guided by a star, to visit Jesus and family (Matthew 2:1-2). They were commanded by Herod to visit and give three specific gifts to the baby (2:7-11). However, they returned home by a different route, avoiding Herod because they had a bad feeling about him (2:12).

And that’s all we’re told. Later tradition gave them names: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, and they were depicted from three different lands of various ages (probably to embody humanity). In an eastern tradition, they are given the names Larvandad, Gushnasaph, and Hormisdas. Again, none of those are scriptural, they simply appeared in tradition as the story got handed down.

In the church today, we aren’t necessarily sure what to do with these three roaming royals. We don’t usually celebrate Epiphany at all, unless January 6 falls on a Sunday. We may sing some version of We Three Kings around that date just to make sure we check that box. We aren’t generally sure what to do with them. And maybe that’s ok. Maybe we don’t need to do anything with them.

These three did do one thing that we need to notice though. They heard a rumor that the savior was born, so they went looking. They took some action, they intentionally hit the road to find this baby and honor him.

Herod’s scribes had all the knowledge of what was going on, but it didn’t spur them into any action. What a loss for them! They knew that the world was about to change, but it didn’t motivate them to do anything about it. So, these three kings did both. Motivated by curiosity and informed with what they needed, they pressed on to find that love had come to earth. We may not know much about these three, but we can certainly follow their lead of moving from curiosity to knowledge to action.

The new year always brings new opportunities and new challenges. That’s probably why some of you are beginning an annual self-improvement plan called a resolution. What I pray you find this year is that you don’t need a self-improvement plan to better yourselves, you just need a little bit of curiosity about what God is up to in this world; the Word of God through worship, prayer, bread, and wine to guide you; and then move to action. Taking all of that divine goodness with you, go work for justice and peace in this community, discovering more of that God-breathed grace in the world around you.

-Mark Niethammer, senior pastor

From the January Journey magazine