It Begins with Cucumbers

As we move into January, a time of cold and darkness, it is time to look at how Christ allows us to lead an abundant, fruitful life in the here and now, not just holding onto Christianity for the day when we take our last gasps of breath in this world, but understanding how our lives with Christ can be much improved over a life lived without Christ. And that is exactly what I’ll be talking about over the next few weeks.

Our Gospel reading today talks about two men. John the Baptizer, and Jesus, who is the Christ. Both men are in their early thirties at the time in question, somewhere around 30 AD. John has become famous, for he stood in the desert wilderness near the Jordan River, preaching to all who came by, telling them that they must repent, or “rethink” their views of what God wants of them.

At the time, just as now, there were many people who claimed to believe in God’s existence, who claimed to be good religious people, but to objective observers, there was little fruit. The people John preached to claimed to be good people – they did not murder, they did not commit adultery, they did not steal – yet in their hearts and in their daily actions, they ignored God, they assumed God was a distant power, like a man who sits at a desk in a far-off capital and is concerned with far greater things than the lives of the everyday citizen. These people were law-abiding concerning the most obvious laws – but they had hearts of stone, for they assumed that their wealth meant that God had blessed them – and they assumed that people who were poor were somehow being punished by God, and so they ignored the struggling people near them. These presumed good people were very common at the time of John – and they are very common today. They are like a crowd of people climbing on rocks at the side of a river which is rising, so concerned that they will get to the high ground that they never look back to help someone behind them.

And so John called upon people to rethink their understanding of God, to rethink what God wanted of them, to look at their neighbors and lift them out of the rushing water that threatened to carry them away.

And then, he called upon them to be baptized.

Baptism.

It is so central to Christianity, core to who we are. But what is the meaning and purpose of baptism. Why should we be baptized? Who should be baptized? When should we be baptized? How should we be baptized?

Understanding baptism begins with cucumbers…and pickles.

The word baptizo is a Greek verb that first appears about 150 BC in a discussion of cucumbers and pickles. You see, you take a cucumber and baptize it – and this is how the cucumber turns into a pickle.

Notice the subtleties of the action. The cucumber is dipped in the vinegar and remains for some time. When the cucumber is removed from the vinegar, it has changed – not just a surface change – it isn’t just a washing, but a deep change has happened in the cucumber. In fact, it is no longer a natural cucumber, which would quickly decay and rot. It is now a pickle, which will be preserved much longer than a cucumber. It tastes differently. It has a different texture. It is something new and different than the original cucumber.

A hundred years later, the term baptizo was applied to the act of changing the color of cloth through dye – but in several ways. The cloth could be dipped into the dye and the cloth would take on the new color. Or the cloth could be lain on a table and the dye poured onto it. Or the cloth could be hung and the dye sprinkled onto it. All of these actions used the word baptizo.

Now, since the time of Moses, the Jewish Law had stated that washing in water was a manner of purification. Unlike most cultures of the day, Jews washed their hands before meals and before worship to purify themselves. And they purified other things with water. In Mark 7, verse 4, we see that 

“When [Jews] come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, jugs, copper utensils, and dining couches (or tables)” 

The word translated here as “washing” is the word baptisontai, meaning literally, “They wash” or "They baptize".

Clearly, they might have baptized their cups or jugs or copper utensils by immersion, but they would have sprinkled or wiped down their dining couches.

And so, by the time of John, baptism had become to mean a purification by immersion, pouring, or sprinkling, usually with water, but the idea of baptizing something with vinegar or even fire for purification was also present with the word. Baptism isn’t just getting something or someone wet – it is a purification.

John told his listeners to repent – rethink – and be baptized to remove their sins. His listeners were wondering if John was the promised Messiah – high praise indeed! For the Messiah was the future Prophet/King of Israel, the godly man who would be known as the Son of Man – a supernatural person who looked like a man – who would restore Israel, freeing Israel from the pagan Romans, providing justice to the average man and woman. John’s listeners considered John to be so holy that they wondered if he was the Messiah.

But then, John ominously promised that another One more powerful than John was coming. This man who was even more holy than John was so holy that even John wasn’t worthy to be his lowest servant, untying his sandals for him, the sandals that in that day were always covered with dirt and the filth that comes from walking down a road behind donkeys and oxen. John considered himself unworthy of even that task, which was performed by the lowliest servant.

And John declared that this One to come would baptize the people. He would purify the people not with water like John was, but instead with the Holy Spirit and fire.

And then John used an analogy that all the people of the day would understand. Every fall, the 95% of the people who were farmers would cut their wheat, take it to a place with a hard-packed clay floor and thresh it. In threshing, they would dance on the wheat stalks, with the wheat grains falling to the ground and the chaff, the stalks and the loose covering over the grains blowing away. The winnowing shovel or winnowing fork would be used to toss the mix into the air and the wind would blow the light chaff away to the side while the heavy, dense grain fell down. And then, the shovel would be used to collect the valuable grain into the barn, while the chaff was collected up and burnt, because it was worthless.

John told the people:

 “His winnowing shovel is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn up with a fire that never goes out.” 

And the people understood that John was talking to them, about their lives, about whether they were valuable wheat or worthless chaff. How about you? Have you been fruitful, doing the work that God wants or have you been worthless for God, chaff that needs to be burnt up in an everlasting fire?

Then, as now, most people were distracted by the ordinary cares of life and began to worship other things than God. They worshiped their clothing, they worshiped their animals as we worship our vehicles, they worshiped their nice homes, they worshiped their sports, they worshiped their piles of money as we worship and feed our 401K plans.

They believed that God was only responsible for the miraculous good or the tragic bad. They forgot that every day God provided them with bread to eat, that every day God provided them with something safe to drink, that every minute God provided them with air to breathe, that every second God kept the gravity of the earth functioning and the sun providing light and heat, that God kept the laws of the Universe functioning so our brains and hearts continue to function.

I jump to something that we are only today beginning to realize. You may remember that electrons orbit the nucleus of atoms. You may remember that the electron is negatively charged and the nuclei of atoms are positively charged. So why don’t the electrons quickly spiral into the nucleus and all the atoms of the Universe collapse in a fraction of a second? Physicists will tell you that the rules of quantum mechanics keep it from happening, but if you ask them why the rules of quantum mechanics are the way they are, they will tell you they don’t know. "It’s just the way things are!" It is God who keeps the electrons circling – and keeps us from dying before we even knew we were in trouble.

Why does God keep us alive?

He has no need for us. Nothing we can do will affect God. God does not need our money, our animals, our work. No, God keeps us alive simply because God loves us as His creatures. He loves us.

Many years ago, a Presbyterian preacher named Jonathan Edwards talked about how dependent we are on God’s good will.

Edwards talked about how we are like terrible, loathsome, ugly spiders on thin lines of spider silk dangling above a fire, ready to fall into the fire – but God keeps us from falling. He does not need to throw us into the fire, he only needs to let go and we will fall.

And so, as John the Baptizer asked so many centuries ago, Good People, will you continue to go along in your assumption that you are good, that God will take care of you because you are good – or will you rethink your relationship with God, will you recognize the great debt you owe God, will you read and study God’s scriptures to understand what God wants of you, will you reach a hand out and down to those you considered not so good because you have finally realized that you are not as good as you thought, you are not so self-sufficient as you thought, that your position on the side of the rising flood waters is not as high as you thought? Will you ask God what people you are to go to and bring the good news that God truly loves them, as God loves you?

One day, while John was preaching, his cousin Joshua came to the riverbank and asked John to baptize him. John was in awe of his cousin – his cousin was a much better, more holy man than John, and so John said he did not need to baptize his cousin. But his cousin insisted, and so John baptized his cousin Joshua, the man the Romans called Jesus of Nazareth. And when they were finished, the clouds opened up, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove, and a voice came from Heaven – “You are My beloved Son. I take delight in You!”

And, as they say, the rest is history.

Will you be baptized?

Once is all that is necessary, for when we are baptized, God changes a setting in our hearts, allowing us to do good for the sake of being good, where before we might do good, but it was for selfish reasons. God purifies us – we don’t do it, the water doesn’t do it, the pastor doesn’t do it. God purifies us.

We don’t need to know what it means, we don’t need to understand it, we don’t even need to agree to it ourselves – our parents or guardians can give that permission, just as a parent can save your life by giving permission for a vaccination. You don’t need to know what it means, you don’t need to understand it, the vaccine just works.

And so, in the United Methodist Church we never baptize a second time, for we believe that God purifies us – we are not able to purify ourselves, no matter how old, no matter what we understand, no matter what. To re-baptize is the height of arrogance, assuming that we are the ones with the power, rather than understanding that God has the power. 

And just like giving your children a vaccine against a dread disease, parents, do you want your children to like forever, to have life eternal? If so, have your young children baptized.

Baptism with water is only part of the ceremony, though…

There is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Notice our reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had welcomed God’s message, they sent Peter and John to them. After they went down there, they prayed for them, so the Samaritans might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Whenever we baptize in the United Methodist Church, after the water has been applied, we lay hands on the person being baptized and we ask for them to receive the Holy Spirit. This is a key, important part of baptism, for when the Holy Spirit arrives in someone, they are able then to connect with God.

It is like a person lost out in the woods trying to connect to the Internet. Unless there is a cell tower or WiFi signal nearby, the phone is not worth much. But when the phone is able to connect with a cell tower or a WiFi signal, all the knowledge of the planet, every person on earth, all the answers are made available at your fingertips.

The Holy Spirit is the internet of the Trinity, connecting us with the wisdom and knowledge of God, the power of the Creator, the love of Christ. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit: He will lead you to all knowledge. And this Holy Spirit usually arrives with the laying on of hands during the baptism ceremony.

How about you?

Have you been baptized? Have you felt the Holy Spirit speak to you? Or are you still lost out in the woods, trying to connect with God’s love?

The first step toward living an abundant life is to believe that Jesus was God’s Son, part of God Himself walking upon the earth, speaking on behalf of God the Father, having the power given by God the Father, fully God and fully human, sharing our human problems yet having the holiness of God. Do you believe, even a little bit? Do you believe?

The second step toward living an abundant life is for us to rethink our relationship with God, recognizing that God loves us intensely, so strongly that Jesus was sent to be the ultimate sacrifice upon the cross, to pay all the penalties for all the things we’ve done wrong over the years, a God who loves us enough to sacrifice God's own Son, not because of the good we’ve done, but despite all the bad we’ve done. Do you recognize that God loves you and has already been gracious toward you by letting you live and understand who Jesus is?

The third step toward living the abundant life is to be baptized. Someone asked me the other day how old a person should be before they are baptized. I replied, “eight days old”, because that was when Jewish custom circumcised infants. I would baptize a newborn less than an hour old, but generally speaking, I will baptize anyone as soon as they can be brought to church. It does not matter if they need an interpreter because they cannot speak or hear, It does not matter if a guardian must give assent because they cannot comprehend what is being said because of mental deficiency. And it does not matter if they are too young to speak or understand what is going on, for God knows and God will not make a mistake. God purifies us – we don’t.

At a later date, in their early teens, we will give our young people the chance to take upon themselves the vows to follow Christ. This is our Confirmation process. And we will be starting a Confirmation class the last Sunday in January at Mount Clare for all eleven year olds and higher – including adults – who are ready to consider making a full profession of faith. We will talk about Christ, the Church, and what it means to be a Christian – and a United Methodist. If there are those would like to do this at Calvary, let me know and we may have a class at Calvary also.

As part of the baptism, I will lay on hands so that the one being baptized will receive the Holy Spirit. We can baptize here in the church by sprinkling or pouring a pitcher of water on your head, or we can go down to the creek at Center Branch and baptize in the creek. It is your choice. Let me know if you wish to be baptized, or for your children to be baptized.

It is difficult to live in Christ without the Holy Spirit. And it is uncommon to receive the Holy Spirit without being baptized first to have your sins washed away, to have your relationship with God changed by God’s action upon your heart.

And so, to experience the joy of living an abundant life in Christ, it begins with baptism. It begins when you, a cool cucumber are turned into a pickle, changed completely from something that was quickly turning rotten into a new creation that will be preserved, have better taste, and will be beloved of God.

See or call me to be baptized. Amen.

Planning for Success

Today, January 6th, is Epiphany Sunday, the day that God appeared in the flesh to humans. We traditionally celebrate on this day the visit of the wise men of the East, the Magi, to the Holy Family. We celebrate that on this day, the wise men of the East met the baby Jesus – and declared that He was divine.

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These men of the East, these Magi, are still a mystery. The Gospels do not say that there were three. There may have been two – there may have been a dozen. The traditional listing of three men comes from a story composed hundreds of years later. But more and more, scholars believe that the wise men of the East were members of a group of philosophers, theologians, and scientists from Babylon that were descended from the Jews of the Exile, perhaps even from Daniel and his friends who lived in Babylon a half-millennium earlier. Others believe that they may have been from Persia (modern Iran) or even from the part of India that today is known as Pakistan.

Whoever they were, they certainly planned their journey well. An overland journey from the East would have taken months, if not years. This group of men left with good preparations. Let’s see what they did. Let's see how we can learn from them.

First of all, they apparently left home when the star appeared. They must have expected this star – and there are clues in the Book of Daniel which allow a calculation of when the star might appear, so they could have been prepared. Reading between the lines of Matthew’s account, we see that the star must have appeared up to two years before the Magi arrived to visit the Holy Family in Bethlehem. Judging from Herod’s reaction that we talked about last week, when he sent his soldiers to kill all male children under two years of age, the Magi told Herod that the star had appeared about two years earlier. Please note that there is nothing in the Bible which says that the Magi appeared on Christmas Night, or even the same year that the child was born. We know that Jesus was circumcised at the Temple in Jerusalem 8 days after his birth and that the family then returned to Nazareth, but came back to Jerusalem each year for the feasts. Since Bethlehem is less than ten miles from Jerusalem, the family could have been staying with friends or relatives during one of these feasts when the Magi arrived, especially since the text tells us that the Magi came into the “house” where Mary and the child were.

But this is less important than the other preparations that the Magi made for their journey.

Their second preparation was to study the scriptures carefully. This was probably the reason that they left home in the first place, having read Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” The Magi undoubtedly brought these scriptures with them on their journey so they could refer to them time and again. The desert caravan trails have little for entertainment – reading and re-reading scriptures would have been their daily and nightly habits.

And their third preparation was in their choice of gifts. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold was a gift that you brought a king. With gold, a king could hire soldiers, outfit an army, and buy food for that army. With gold, the Magi were saying that the child would be a king.

Frankincense was a gift you brought to a high priest, who would burn it to a god. Incense was burnt in almost every temple of ancient times. It was costly, found only in the dried sap and resin of certain trees that grow on the Indian Ocean coast of what is today Oman and Yemen, the land of the Queen of Sheba. The incense was burnt and a sweet fragrance wafted up to heaven. Incense was a gift only appropriate for a god or a high priest who made intercession for people to God. With frankincense, the Magi were saying that the child would be a high priest.

Myrrh was a special gift. This embalming spice was used by the morticians of ancient times to coat the bodies of the dead, to cover the odors of death. Myrrh was also seen as an offering that was given to the supernatural beings that took the dead spirit of a dead person to their final resting place in heaven or in the underworld. Myrrh was the gift given to the One who had power over death. With myrrh, the Magi were saying that the child was a god. And since the Magi were Jewish scholars, they were saying that the child was THE GOD, Yahweh, the great I AM THAT I AM who had led the people of Israel out of Egypt, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Jewish Scriptures.

And so, the Magi were well prepared. They may not have been sure whether the Messiah of Israel would be a king, a priest, or a god, but they were prepared. They were ready to meet Messiah, the Savior, the Christ.

And when they met the child Jesus and Mary, they bowed down and worshiped Him and presented all three of their gifts, for they recognized that Jesus would indeed become the King of all the earth, that Jesus was not only the high priest, but God Himself on earth, and that Jesus holds power over death.

But God had intervened even here. Echoes of the past resound throughout this episode.

In 1 Kings 10, a special ruler from the East, the Queen of Sheba, had come to meet Solomon, the King of Israel. She brought gold and spices. The depth of Solomon’s wisdom astounded her. These Magi were so astounded by the Babe, they worshiped Him, the new King of the Jews.

And as mentioned in Isaiah 39, King Hezekiah, a good, but prideful king of Judea at the time of Isaiah, had shown Babylonian representatives his stores of gold and spices, treasures that inspired them to return a few years later to defeat and plunder Jerusalem, taking away the gold and spices to Babylon, where a few years later Daniel would observe the King of Babylon and his friends drinking from golden cups looted from Solomon’s Temple. On this night, the Magi returned some of the loot to Bethlehem, to the city of David, to the rightful king of Israel, the infant Jesus. God’s justice had prevailed. Bethlehem and Jerusalem were regaining their rightful place in the world.

At this point, I’d like you to think a bit about Mary and Joseph. Joseph isn’t recorded as being present during the visit. Perhaps he was working; perhaps he was making a sacrifice or prayer at the Temple a few miles away in Jerusalem.

Mary’s memory of the visit of the angel Gabriel had probably slipped to the back of her mind. Events – even extraordinary events – tend to do that as the ordinary cares of life take over our days. For example, when I call your attention to it, you remember when you first encountered Jesus, when you first made a commitment of faith. But most days, you forget about it.

Mary had spent months feeding and tending to the needs of the child. She probably spent many hours just looking at him, playing with him, and cleaning, cooking, and doing all those things which ordinary mothers do. And then comes a knock at the door and someone tells her: “There are several wealthy-looking men here to see your child.” Would she have been startled – or frightened?

And then they met her and the child and they worshiped her child as God. It must have all come rushing back, the memories of the angel, the stories Joseph had told her of his dreams, the time spent with Elizabeth, the long ride to Bethlehem when she was very, very pregnant, and the visit of the shepherds that night in the stable and their report of angels when she was so-o-o-o exhausted. And the wonder came back. Her child WAS fathered by the Holy Spirit and divine.

And now, they were opening chests and presenting the chests to Him and to her. Gold, more gold than she had ever thought could exist. Sticks and beads of frankincense, a wonderful smell filled the room. And the dark myrrh, ominous in its smell that reminded her of the funerals she’d attended. And the talk of the strangers, in a strange accent, telling her that she held the Savior of Israel in her hands, the Son of God. It must have been overwhelming. What would you have done?

The strangers leave. A while later, Joseph comes home. “I’m home, Mary! Anything interesting happen while I was out?”

And she tries to explain. She shows him the presents, she tries to explain what they said, how they looked, who they were. He asks many questions. And she stayed awake long into the night, thinking about the visit and what it meant.

Have you traveled a distance in your life looking for someone or something you could worship? Have you tried different philosophies, different religions, different ways of living? Perhaps you have and didn’t realize it.

Have you tried finding happiness by earning money, trying to find happiness in your job, in your spouse, in your home, in your hobbies? Have you tried to find happiness in chemicals, in movies, in the newest toys, in books, in sports, in children, in the people you’ve dated? Can't it be fairly said that you worship that which you spend your time on, your focus upon, your creativity for? But all these things ultimately don't bring happiness, do they? Who shall we worship?

The Magi traveled a very long way to find the One that they could worship. But they planned for a successful journey before they began. They started early, traveling on camels to speed their journey; they studied the writings of wise men, reading scripture; and they brought gifts. Perhaps you already have found Jesus, the One that you can worship. You have found Him – but are you truly ready to worship Him?

Consider these lessons of the Magi. Plan for a successful journey in your life.

Start early. As soon as you see Jesus – or now, if you’ve already seen Jesus, start walking closer to Him. Don’t gaze at Him from a distance of thousands of miles. Do what you can to speed your journey. Find your camel - a Bible study, a way to work in a mission, a ministry. Move from the back of the church to the front of the church to get closer to Jesus.

Spend plenty of time studying the scriptures. It is through the scriptures that we get to know the character of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. That is how we will know when we are getting close to Jesus – by comparing our spiritual position with the Holy Persons we find described in the Bible. The more scripture we read, the more we get to know God, Christ, and Holy Spirit, in the same way that watching years of a television series helps us to understand the leading characters on the series, such as why Jethro Gibbs of NCIS is so strait-laced, why Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory is so weird, why Tom Barnaby of Midsummer Murders doesn’t like to eat at home. Reading scripture helps us understand just how much God loves us, as well as what God wants from us. If these stories from the Old Testament are new to you, you might want to join us on Tuesday evenings at 7 pm, for we will begin this week to study the historical books of the Old Testament, beginning with Joshua.

The third lesson of the Magi is to bring gifts. You have gifts with you. Some of you have the gift of teaching. Some of you have the gift of organizing. Some have the gift of music, or of the other arts. Some can write, some can administer, some are carpenters or electricians, some have the gift of being able to listen and respond in wisdom, some have the gift of generosity, the ability to give generously to the support of the church and individuals, and some have the gift of being able to discern good from evil. Bring these gifts. The Body of Christ can use all gifts – offer your gifts to Jesus.

The Magi brought five gifts that night.

Yes, five gifts.

Just as the Magi did when they brought their gold, you should be looking for a righteous king, someone to give your allegiance to, someone you can trust as a leader, someone you can trust to care about you and to do the right thing – all the time. We cannot always trust our earthly leaders, but we can trust Jesus as our king, the king to whom we owe allegiance and trust. Bring that king your allegiance and trust.

Just as the Magi did with their frankincense, you should be looking for a high priest, who can make things right between yourself and the Creator of the Universe, who can help you understand the way the Universe was designed to operate and to help you get in a proper relationship with that Creator. For it is only in following the rules of the Universe – both physical and spiritual – that we can live at peace in the Universe. Jesus is that high priest. Bring that high priest your sacrifices.

Just as the Magi did with their gift of myrrh, you should be looking for someone who can help you navigate the waters of death when it comes, for none of us mortals leaves this world alive. We need help when we die, so that we will live eternally in a land with our good King – otherwise we may wander for eternity, no better off than we have been in this life. Jesus tells us that He holds the keys to life and death. He claimed to be God walking upon the earth while He taught – and His resurrection proved this. Bring God the Son your love.

And just as the Magi did, bring your fourth gift and leave it at Jesus’ feet. That is the gift of worship. The Magi bowed to demonstrate that this small child, this little baby, was more powerful and wise than they were, the “wise men of the East”. Bow down before Jesus, accepting that there are things you cannot do without His help. Have you ever noticed that only a handful of people come to the altar rail - yet they are those very people who are known among us as the more godly, the wise, our leaders in the faith? Perhaps they come to the altar because they have truly begun to worship Jesus. And here is a secret – the more you worship, the more you CAN worship. Worship Jesus as the One who can do all things, the One who will not break your trust, the One who is God walking upon the earth.

The fifth Gift that the Magi brought was an indirect gift. They gave the gift to Jesus, but they gave the gift through Mary. The fifth gift they brought was the gift of assurance. Their very presence assured Mary that her journey was not alone. Their very presence and worship assured Mary that she was sane, wonderfully sane in her wondrous encounter with the angel Gabriel. The very presence of the three solid gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were something that she could go to, anytime, whenever she was beginning to wonder if the miraculous events in her life were real, she could go and open up the three chests and see the gold, smell the frankincense, and touch the myrrh. And because of that assurance that Mary had, she was able over the coming years and decades to properly raise the Son of God, to KNOW that He was special, to teach Him all she knew of the ways of God.

We have all had times when we felt God was speaking directly to us, but we questioned this because our culture denies the very existence of a God that cares about us individually. If we hear the voice of God, our culture tells us we need therapy, while the Bible tells us we have been blessed. And so we need to assure one another, helping each other to know when the voice of God is real – and when we truly need professional help.

You can bring that fifth Gift of assurance to someone else. Today. You can reach out to someone else and tell them – “I also believe”. You can listen to another person tell of God’s miracles and you can tell them, “I believe you. Let me tell you my God-story.”

And together, you both can tell the skeptic what you have seen and experienced, and show them the gold in your lives where your King has fought for you, the gold that is called the “defeat of sin”, the frankincense in your lives where your High Priest has intervened for you, the frankincense that is called “love”, and the myrrh in your lives which your Christ will use to defeat death for you, the myrrh that is called “faith”.

Jesus left those gifts that He was given with us when He returned to the Father. The sin-fighting gold that the Magi brought still circulates among us – perhaps some of it is in a piece of jewelry you wear, perhaps a wedding band? The smell of the frankincense, much diluted, still blows in the love of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Wind of God. And the myrrh still helps people transfer from this life into the next life through faith.

And Jesus left us another two other gifts. He left us the gifts of bread – which is his broken body – and of wine – which is his shed blood. These gifts are available to all who would accept them – the gift of your King’s protection, the gift of your High Priest’s love, the gift of your God’s faith and eternal life – the gift of physical and spirit food, the gift of physical and spiritual drink. Will you accept these gifts from your King, your high Priest, your God?