Epiphany

Sent Home by Another Way

The Rev’d Devin McLachlan

Epiphany Sunday (Year C)

5 January 2025

Matthew 2.1-12

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. (Matt 2.12)

One of the remarkable themes of the gospel is the number of people who encounter Jesus and then leave — sometimes with indifference, sometimes going away rejoicing and sharing the Good News. Not only do they not stay, they are not condemned for not staying.

It doesn’t feel like a surprise, that the magi leave. These mysterious Eastern astronomers, it makes narrative sense for Matthew to have them exit, pursued by a king.  But it’s also that the sort of Gospel where the magi stayed, and then every healed leper, and the five thousand who were fed( not to mention the women and children), wouldn’t be the Gospel that gives us life even today. It wouldn’t be the Gospel of God’s redeeming work, but just the story of Jesus, God’s very popular son.

I might sound flippant here, but it’s a serious point I’ll make at greater length another Sunday: The good news isn’t only about Jesus; it is about the lives he changed, and how that change has rippled out throughout the Universe, continuing to redeem us and all Creation.

It’s why Luke pairs his Gospel with the Acts of the Apostles. It’s why Matthew lets us know that the magi went home by another way, and it’s why the work of the church doesn’t end when you walk in this door — The work of the church begins when you walk out that door.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

I wonder what happened to the Magi when they came home, having offered their gifts to the newborn king.

Did they learn what kind of king he became?

Did they hear of his miracles?

Did they hear of his death as a common criminal?

Did they hear of the empty tomb?

Legend tells us that they did; St Thomas, whom history records founded churches along the Malabar coast of India, is said to have baptised the magi; they went on to be great evangelists of the faith, and may eventually have been martyred, forsaking worldly wisdom and titles for the scandal and foolishness of Christ crucified.

But to get there, first they had to go home by another way.

That’s the story for so many who have come here at St Bene’t’s. We’re not a traditional parish church, all of us living within the parish boundaries from cradle to grave. most of us are newcomers to some degree or another. Well, except for Margaret, who told me last week that she remembers when the angels in the north aisle were painted, a few years before WWII began.

But many of us have been here for far fewer than nine decades, and quite a few of you will only be in Cambridge for a few years. We come to this place bearing gifts —greater than gold or frankincense or myrrh: bearing that seed of God’s Word, destined to grow,  meant to nurture the faith of those around you.  We bring our singing hearts, our days’ doxology, our gold. We bring our stillness, our glimpses of serenity, our frankincense. We bring our brokenness, our tears, our myrrh.[1]

And then we go home by another way, to live and speak God’s praise.[2]

For a thousand years and more, St Bene’t’s has stood in this place — not to hoard, not to be the terminal stop, but to send  women and men out from these doors bearing new gifts from Christ to the world.  Our work here at St Bene’t’s is to equip the saints.[3] So that when we go home,  we go by a different way because the Spirit has transformed us in this place. =

For a thousand years we have welcomed in the stranger, of every age, from a great diversity of traditions and languages and backgrounds; and every day, and across the years, sent them out again, building up in love.[4]  We have fed and taught and learned from one another,  wept and sang and been still in prayer together,  until, having found God anew,  we are ready to go home by another way,

What gifts have you brought this day? What tears and songs and stillness have you brought to this home of the Christ child? And today,  when you step out from these doors, forgiven, healed, renewed, what gift, what treasure Good News,  will you carry from this place? Will you go home by a different way, transformed by the news of the boundless riches of Christ, that the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known.[5]

[1] Adapted from a poem by Kate Compston in Bread of Tomorrow: Praying with the World’s Poor, read at the start of this morning’s service:

My singing heart, my days' doxology, my gold

I bring for celebration

My stillness, my glimpses of serenity, my frankincense

I bring for meditation

My brokenness, my tears of rage and sorrow, my myrrh

I bring for sacrifice

[2] Brian A. Wren, “I Come With Joy to Meet My Lord”, hymn, verse 5:

Together met, together bound,

we'll go our different ways

and as his people in the world,

we'll live and speak his praise.

[3] Ephesians 4.12, “…to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”

[4] Ephesians 4.16

[5] Ephesians 3.8, 10