Encourage the Good

I spend my life trying to encourage the good wherever I can find it. I think about how faith relates to culture and how the Bible applies to every area of life. I am interested in innovation, leadership, creativity and sport. Ideas and stories are the currency of life and open up new horizons. I would like you to know the love of God and the joy, peace and hope that are found in Jesus.

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Encourage the Good

Curiouser and curiouser

January 22, 2022 • Nigel Pollock • Season 4 • Episode 1

Poetry can give us an epiphany. A different perspective or sudden appreciation of understanding something in a new or clear way.

Historical narrative can also give insight, sometimes through recorded observation, sometimes through myth and legend of how unexpected events or experiences brought an epiphany. Archimedes in his bath, Issac Newton heading the apple, Mendeleev’s periodic dream, Einstein on the street car in Bern all produced incredible new insights that shape our understanding of the world.

I know a number of wise men and women around the world who are seeking and still haven’t found what they are looking for. I pray that this will be the time when their thirst is quenched with living water.

I hope that in 2022 we will all be marked by this curiosity to know and experience more of the Lord and a fresh commitment and desire to act on what we know.

Without curiosity we will not have an epiphany!

This is Encourage the Good

I have been thinking about Epiphany recently and have spoken about it a couple of times on Zoom meetings. I think I was initially stimulated by the question of when is the appropriate time in Canada to take down your Christmas decorations. In the UK Twelfth Night also known as Epiphany was deemed to be the target date for the lights coming down and the baubles laid to rest in their tinsel hibernation. We are watching our neighbours here for some cultural clues and cues. We don’t want to be the first or the last but so far no one has blinked.. In Canada there is the issue of the cold, the potential danger of using ladders in the snow and ice and perhaps we keep the lights as a glimmer of colour to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” to quote Dylan Thomas.

Epiphany is so called because in a number of traditions it is when the Wise Men come from the East to visit Jesus.

Perhaps the reason I was thinking about Dylan Thomas is that the line about raging against the dying of the light comes from perhaps his best known poem. “Do not go gentle into that good night”. The same piece has a stanza commenting on wise men.

“Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning

Do not go gentle into that good night.”

Of course Dylan is not talking about the famous wise men but is commenting on the deficiency of wisdom in bringing light and power. He offers similar commentary on the good men, the wild men and the grave men. He is facing mortality with little hope. It is a powerful piece.

Poetry can give us an epiphany. A different perspective or sudden appreciation of understanding something in a new or clear way.

Matthew describes a group of people having an appreciation of something beyond anything they have experienced previously. They have an aha moment where they grasp a simple and striking reality that brings them to their knees.

The story of the wise men is told in Matthew. Luke mentions the actual birth and the shepherds. These events take place later, probably later than twelfth night, possibly up to two years later based on the age of the children Herod has slaughtered. What is clear is that these events do not take place on Christmas night and the setting is not a stable. I am sorry if that is as devastating to you as the revelation that Santa Claus my not be bringing you a gift this year and it is not just because you have been naughty again. This is a different story at a later time and an alternate location.

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “ 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.' ”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” (Matthew 2:1-12)

This is really a story about two sets of wise men. Magi from the East and Religious Experts in Jerusalem. The two groups intersect when the Magi stop in Jerusalem to inquire at the royal palace about the special child they have reason to believe has been born.

If you have travelled far in search of a King a palace is the logical place to head for when you get to the general vicinity. They may well have expected that the child would be found at the royal palace.

Herod though is surprised and inquires of the religious leaders who inform him that the prophecies predict the messiah will be born in Bethlehem. We have strangers in court on a journey seeking someone special and there is confirmation in the sacred scriptures of where this should take place, this could all align.

The wise men know the time, the religious experts know the exact place. The philosophy and religion of the east has lead them so far but it is the word of God that actually points them to where they will find Jesus.

When they arrive in Jerusalem both the Magi and the experts in the law have a piece of the puzzle. By the end of the exchange they all know all the information. The key difference is that the wise men have a curiosity and a commitment to check it out for themselves. Neither the Religious or political elite ventured 10km down the road to investigate what might be going on. Herod resorts to covering his basis with some secret political intrigue which the magi hear but being wise make no promises.

The religious leaders and Herod have better things to do with their time than search for a mystery baby. They are complacent and comfortable but they are also blind.

They exhibit the qualities that first appear in Isaiah and are quoted both in the gospels and in one of Paul’s final sermons in Acts,

“He said, “Go and tell this people: “ 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)

There is a warning here that closeness to something does not mean you can see it clearly. Religion can blind people to spiritual realities and close peoples minds to truth.

The Magi – act on the knowledge that they have. The star guides them to the house where Jesus is and they worship him. The magi have an aha moment and bow down before Jesus. It is why this event is known as Epiphany because it is the ultimate eureka moment. They realise they are facing not just a king but the king of kings. The presentation of the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh follows and continues the worship. It is not that there were three men who all had a gift, it was that together they opened their treasure and presented these named gifts. They become the first gentiles to worship Jesus.

The angel had told the shepherds when Jesus was born:

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11)

The Magi are the first affirmation that this good news is for all people and that the Messiah brings salvation not just to Israel but to the world.

It is extraordinary that the first people recorded as praising God at the amazing advent and worshiping Jesus come from such different backgrounds. Working class local Jewish shepherds and educated astronomers travelling from the East both come to Jesus.

In both cases they have aha moments, where they follow through and experience something unique.

We pray that young people and students would have some real aha moments in high school, camp, campus and work in the year ahead. That experiencing the beauty of creation, appreciating something about humanity in their studies, working through suffering, reading philosophy, exploring religion or seeing something different in a follower of Jesus would give them a curiosity. And that this would lead them to the word of God and that in the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit they would encounter Jesus. Not only the helpless young child in Bethlehem but the risen saviour of the world.

I hope that in 2022 we will all be marked by this curiosity to know and experience more of the Lord and a fresh commitment and desire to act on what we know.

Without curiosity we will not have an epiphany!

And for the record, today is January the 22nd and we are taking down our Christmas tree (but not the lights outside – we haven’t completely given up on our need to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” even if the days are slowly getting longer.)