Thursday, January 16, 2014

Epiphany 2009, Heart Gifts

David Newbatt
1st Epiphany
Matthew 2: 1-12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea—during the time of King Herod—behold: wise priest-kings from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
           
“Where is the one born here King of the Jews? We have seen his star rise in the east and have come to worship him.”
           
When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. And he assembled all the high priests and scribes of the people and inquired of them in what place the Christ was to be born.

And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it was written by the prophet:

And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
Are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come forth the ruler
Who will be shepherd over my people, the true Israel.”

Then Herod, secretly calling the Magi together again, inquired from them the exact time when the star had appeared. He directed them to Bethlehem and said, “Go there and search carefully for the child, and when you find him, report to me, that I too may go and bow down before him.”

After they had heard the King, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen rising went before them, and led them in its course over the cities until it stood over the place where the child was.

Seeing the star, they were filled with [there awakened in them] an exceedingly great and holy joy.

Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; they fell down before him and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and offered him their gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their country by another way.

Epiphany
January 6, 2009
Matthew 2: 1 -12
Constellation Virgo

The priest kings searched the realm of the stars for guidance. They knew that events on earth were reflections of events in the starry realms. They saw that in the star beings of Virgo, the Virgin, a change had taken place: for the Virgin, she who once held the sheaf of grain, now held a child. And so they followed that star image as it descended to the earth and merged with the Mother and Child they found.

With this event, a monumentally important change takes place in human evolution: for what once dwelt in the heavens now descends and takes root in the earth. This Child would literally embody what would from then on bring human evolution on earth forward. No longer would events on earth be mere reflections of events among beings in the starry realms. Now earth and heaven would begin to converse, to interact.

So the kings respond to this great turning point by bringing their heart offerings. In great and joyous devotion, they bring to Him their symbolic gifts. They bring gold as a symbol of the wise divine guidance that had till then resided in the stars; for now the Child has brought it down to be embedded in human history, to dwell forever on earth. They bring frankincense as an emblem of that highest human virtue, sacrificial love, which will be embodied and enacted by this Child. And they bring myrrh as the symbol of the eternal in the human being, brought down from the world of the stars, and now residing in Him who brings a new direction and impulse to earth, He who now carries our immortality.  

Adoration of the Magi, Blake
By bringing their heart gifts they strengthen the Child’s future life. They affirm that what once resided in the stars as guidance, virtue and immortality, would now, through this Child, be embedded on earth, within human historical and social evolution.

So we too, in this act of offering, bring our heart gifts: we bring Him our purest, noblest and most enlivened thoughts; we bring Him our feeling of being united with Him; we bring Him the devotion and strength and motivation of our will. We offer Him our souls, our thinking, our feeling, our willing, so that He may permeate them and work in them.

Now, here on earth, guidance, virtue and eternal life are activated through Him who is still united with earth, through Him who says, “Lo, I am in your midst always, even to the end of earthly time.” Matthew 28:20


            

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