“And when they came into the house . . . they fell down and worshipped Him.”

The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Chapter 2

“Were we led all that way for birth or death?”  The Journey of the Magi, T.S. Elliot

We spend our lives seeking.  We might be seeking tangible objects that we believe promise satisfaction, like careers, cars, houses, wealth or health.  Those, we believe, contribute to the INtangibles that we are seeking, like success, approval, admiration, security, love, etc.  We come to learn, if we are fortunate, that both types of seeking leads us ultimately to a dead end.

The faith journey is a different type of seeking. What is it that we’re seeking on the faith journey?  I believe it is God and Self.  And God in our Self.  An integration, so to speak, of the divine with the human.  It is a seeking after that which is most divine. But what we are seeking is hidden, even though it exists in plain sight.  And what we seeking is elusive, even though it is present with us always.  And what we are seeking at times seems worthless, even though it is priceless.  And what we are seeking seems pointless, even though it is the only thing that matters and gives ultimate meaning and purpose to life..  Part of the struggle that we face lies within the fact that too often we are seeking in the wrong places.  We are seeking God in Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem.

That’s what the Magi were doing.  If you read from the beginning of Matthew 2 you will see the wise men first arrive at Jerusalem.  It makes sense. It’s logical.  That was the capital city.  It was the place where Herod ruled. It was the place of earthly power, and in it was found the palace of Kings.  It was the city of God—or so it was believed.  Jerusalem was resplendent and had great riches and was safe and secure and was a symbol of success.  Jerusalem represented everything that people believed then and now about who and what God should be.  But the Magi didn’t find God in Jerusalem.  And neither will we.  If we are seeking God in the obvious places, or in the locations where we believe we ought to find the divine, or where we’ve been told to travel by others, it is likely that we will be disappointed, just as the Magi were.  They had to continue on to the little hovel of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem, the house of bread, the home of David and before him Ruth, represented all that people despise. It was a backwater chug town.  It was small, and probably dirty and hidden and had nothing to offer, or so it seemed.  Bethlehem was nothing to write home about.  And yet that is where God made his home.  And that is where the Magi found God—and themselves.  And when they found God in Bethlehem they did three things:  Rejoiced with exceeding joy, fell down and worshipped, and presented gifts.  It is likely, if we’ve been on the faith journey and found our Bethlehem, that we’ve done the same.  For when we find Bethlehem it is life-changing.  It is transformational.  We are never the same.  Though, like the Magi, we can’t remain in Bethlehem, we take it with us. 

That is where God resides, deep within us, in a home we’ve made for God in our hearts. Or perhaps better said in the home God has made for us, and with us, and in us.  The Magi had to return to their homes in the East.  But it is certain they would never be the same.  And neither will we when we find our Bethlehem.

What are you seeking?

Where are you seeking it?

When will you know that you find it?

Where is your Bethlehem?

Here is the last part of the poem from T.S. Elliot. It elucidates the change that the Magi experienced after finding Bethlehem.  I would invite you to read all of it.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This:  were we led all that way for

Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly

We had evidence and no doubt.  I had seen birth and death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter and 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 should be glad of another death.