Rector's Letter

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		The Rector's Letter

December 2009/January 2010

The Rector writes:

Dear Friends,

In the nativity play at primary school, I faced the danger of being typecast as “one of the three kings.” I always seemed to be standing with my crown, my gift, and my regal cloak waiting in the wings.

When I was 7 years old, I remember striding towards the audience, standing in the glare of the spotlight and announcing, confidently and proudly, “I am Balthazar.”

Three years later, I, along with my two friends, giggled nervously behind some curtains to the side of the main hall, ready to make our appearance. Eventually we emerged to walk solemnly and a shade piously towards the manger. We presented our gift to baby Jesus before joining Mary and Joseph, innkeeper, angels, and shepherds in the final scene.

Both of these contrasting experiences offer some insight into the role of the Magi in the Christmas story. Unquestionably, they are important figures in Matthew’s gospel. Whilst they acknowledge that the child that they seek is the “King of the Jews”, they represent the truth that Jesus is for the wider world. This point is underlined in the final chapter when Jesus commands his followers to “Go to all nations.” If, on the other hand, we weave the three Kings into Luke’s account, they are among the many witnesses to what God has done, along with Mary, the choirs of angels and the shepherds. In this composite story, they serve with the others to signify the momentous birth of Jesus. Each portrayal emphasises a different aspect of the narrative.

In exploring the experience of the three kings, we can reflect further on our own role in God’s unfolding story. Let’s try to imagine ourselves in their dusty shoes.

On their arduous search, they must have been expectant and curious. To find a poor family and this inarticulate, helpless baby at the end of their quest must have been disconcerting. Yet, they bow down in worship, present their gifts and are overwhelmed with joy. In this humbling, disorientating, wonderful encounter, I sense that their lives were irrevocably transformed. Profoundly disturbed by their meeting with the divine, we may surmise that they could never be comfortable with the status quo again.

In their experience we can find insights to our own. To meet with God in Christ is to find our lives changed. Instead of seeking what we want, we begin to live for Christ. This radical reordering of our priorities is sometimes described as a kind of dying. We discover that we are ‘strangers and pilgrims’ on our journey with God and to God’s Kingdom.

T.S. Eliot in his poem, ‘The Journey of the Magi” describes their experience and, perhaps, our own.

“This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth and Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought that they were quite different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I shall be glad of another death.”

With love

David Tomlinson

November 2009 letter

October 2009 letter

August/September 2009 letter

July 2009 letter

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