January 6, 2008
Matthew 2:1-12

The Rev. David A. Davis

“The Other Road” 

            Homage. When’s the last time you paid homage? Really paid homage? It’s not like paying your taxes, or paying your dues. It’s not like a standing ovation for the lead in the play or the soloist in the orchestra. It’s not like waiting for an autograph at the stage door, or outside the locker room. It’s not like finding yourself in the crowd at a campaign stop; yelling and holding up a sign for someone you are convinced should be the next president. It’s not like saying “I love you” for the first time, or dropping before a drill sergeant who screams “give me twenty”, or trying to please your mother who has long since gone home to glory. Homage.  
            The wise men, the magi, the star-followers, those well-schooled fellows from the East came to Jerusalem. “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to pay him homage?” When King Herod heard about the stately pilgrims who were looking for a child who was to be king, the bible says he was “frightened.” That’s the bible being polite. Kings don’t get scared, they get ticked. He was angry that there would be any talk or rumor spreading, or God forbid, a movement, that would seem to imply a king coming from anywhere other than his family, his own offspring, his own flesh and blood. Herod was “frightened” and all Jerusalem with him. You know how that works, when the king is bothered, everyone is expected to be bothered, when the king is angry, everyone should look angry, when the king is happy, then everyone’s happy. That’s how it works in a culture where you’re supposed to pay homage.
            It’s an odd word and one doesn’t hear it all that often. I’m remembering being told about the silent “h” years before speech classes in seminary. It must have been in preparation for a pageant, or Lessons and Carols. It had to be around the church, no one else talks about homage. “It’s homage---not H-omage”, I was taught. It just sounds old and out of date. It sounds like a word far from our understanding and our experience. For most of us, anyway, when it comes to “paying homage” we just don’t have much to go on.
This week, I was wondering why this “King James sounding” word still found it’s way into the modern translation of the New Revised Standard version. Homage sounds like it belongs with the King’s English; like “thee” and “thou” and “ye” and “begat” and “sore afraid”. Much to my surprise there is no homage in the King James. In Matthew’s gospel, in the King James, the wise men come to worship the one born King of the Jews, not pay him homage. In the King James, Herod, when trying to trick the Wise Men, proclaims that he wants to come and worship him also, not pay him homage. And when those Magi finally arrive at the house, they saw the young child with Mary and his mother, and according to the King James, they fell down and worshiped him, rather than kneeling down and paying him homage. When it comes to the King’s English, I guess you still only pay homage to one king.
Even in the New Revised Standard version of the New Testament, the term homage only occurs one other time. It’s here in Matthew’s gospel with the Wise Men and then it comes in Mark. But the word comes up in a much different setting. Mark 15. “The soldiers clothed Jesus in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And they began saluting him. ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.” So homage can be twisted. It can come with a cruel, violent sarcasm.
Pay homage. To show respect and reverence and honor. To formally and publically declare oneself in service to another. To establish a relationship between servant and lord. It is a foreign word to us, but not to those Wise Men from the East. Given the culture they embodied, that context of kingship and vassals and lords and servanthood and power, they would have understood it. They lived it. They knew it. The Magi, the Wise Men, the star followers, they weren’t coming to simply kneel down and adore the child. Those Wise Men from the East, they weren’t kings. The child was the king. Their visit was more than gift giving, it was even more than praise and worship and adoration. This was kneeling and bowing and submitting. It was a physical action that came with an emotional component and a very real, practical impact. It was an act of humble commitment. Commitment. Covenant. A commitment that came with the expectation of servanthood, with the giving of oneself, and the setting of a relationship. Child and Magi, King and Wise Men, Lord and servants.
When the Magi saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests; they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Before the myrrh, before the frankincense, before the gold, they knelt and paid him homage. It wasn’t quite public there in the house before Mary. But it wasn’t just private either; as in a heart-warming spiritual awakening, or in a rather self-centered moment of deep reflection, or in an ambiguous and vague celebration of the aliveness of the moment. The Wise Men from the East fell before the Christ Child born to Mary, this Child, the one Joseph named Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins; this young child there in his mothers arms, our Immanuel, God with us. The Wise Men from the East, they knelt before the Christ Child and they gave him their lives. They paid him homage.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, because Herod was really mad now. Herod was about to go off, he was about to be enraged and infuriated, he was about to slaughter the innocents. Being warned in a dream, or as another translation says it, “it was made clear to them by God in a dream not to return to Herod.” Herod---yeah, you may not want to go there! They left for their own country by another road.
The Wise Men from the East left by another road never to be heard from again. At least according to scripture, they took that road right off the stage. It was a sudden and complete exit. The other road. Tradition counts the Magi as three and gives them some names. Legend talks about a Fourth Wise Man and the Gift of the Magi. Liturgical celebration emphasizes the Magi as representatives of the whole world and Christ as the Light of all nations. But not much is said about the other road, what happened to them along the way, what their lives looked like then---a change of careers? A different take on astrology? A worldview of wisdom turned upside down? Missionaries back in the East? A witness to the gospel’s bright morning star? a life of being a servant? a life-long journey of loving thy neighbor, and caring for the least of these, and welcoming home the prodigal son? Distance learning about the one who would be crucified only to rise again? Can we know just a bit more about the Wise Men and their life along the other road?
Of course Christmas pageants here and there symbolize the other road by having the Magi exit stage right, when they came in stage left, or they leave by this aisle when they came in that aisle! The other road.  But nothing much has been said about the Magi in the aftermath of homage.   
After the Christ Child drew them in, after the light of God’s grace broke through the darkness of the night trumpeting the news of the Word Made Flesh to far corners of the earth, after the Holy Spirit’s guiding and pushing, a leading that pierced through the world’s canopy of wisdom and culture and power with the clarity of a morning star, after the Christ Child bid them to come. After the rejoicing and the bowing and the submitting, after the respect and the reverence and honor, after they declared themselves in service to the Savior, to the Messiah, to God with us, to the Child Jesus, the relationship of servant and Lord thus being established, after giving themselves to that Christ Child who so brought them to their knees, who so drew them in. Then, it was the other road.
C.S. Lewis once wrote that it was the only thing we were made for—to be drawn into Christ. He argued that at the end of the day, that the church exists for nothing else than to draw people into Christ so that when the Christ Child offers his gift to God in heaven, as Jesus offers himself  to his Father in heaven, he gives us to God as well. That’s the greatest gift: Christ given back to God, and us in him.
It is the “almost impossible” thing to do, Lewis suggests, “to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ.” (to allow yourself to be drawn in). But he says its far easier than trying to remain ourselves, to do it all ourselves, to be good, and keep personal happiness as our goal. The challenge comes, according to CS Lewis, at the very moment you wake up each morning. “All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. But the first job consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to the other voice, taking the other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.” The voice of Christ. Our life in Christ, being drawn into Christ, kneeling before the Christ Child who bids you come. That’s C.S Lewis on starting each day with homage!
“With thanksgiving, we offer our very selves to you, to be a living and holy sacrifice, dedicated to your service”. That’s the Lord’s Supper and homage!
Matthew’s silence on the other road, on the aftermath of homage. It’s a bit frustrating to the reader, to the student of scripture; the Wise Men and their sudden and complete exit when they headed for the other road. But for those who find themselves drawn, drawn in, drawn in to the Christ Child, for those of us who once again find ourselves kneeling before him, for those of us, who by grace, and in the power of the Spirit are discovering anew what it means to pay homage?
Well, the other road, it’s here, it’s now. You and I, we can go together.

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