LECTIONARY EPIPHANY: Pilgrims (Matthew 2:1-12)

 

“Sons” of sorcerers,

Voyeurs and stargazers,

Occultists and esoterics,

From the East,

They came,

On the path of a night star,

This bright beacon,

Seen from afar,

Read and interpreted,

Deduced and dissected,

The meaning inscribed,

On night’s dark canvas,

Treading across borders,

And through lands with foreign names,

Seeking something beyond,

Beyond the dalliances of the everyday,

Knowledge,

Power,

Favour,

Acceptance

Wealth,

Gnostic wisdom,

All to be found,

In the foetal form of a king?

This journey undertaken,

A pilgrimage across cultures,

And through the unknown terrain,

Of alien lands,

On and to,

A steward of the people,

Racked with self-doubt,

Weighed down with the expectations,

Of the Consulate,

The Imperial coinage of Caesar,

Tumbling down beside the paper-throne,

Of Herod,

And bidding the soothsayers adieu,

Did he never wonder,

How they came to stand before him?

And what thoughts played on his heart,

That disturbed him so vehemently?

As the magi left him,

Did his stomach churn?

Did he worry for his people?

Or did he worry only for the little patch of Empire,

He had held tight in his hand?

Whatever Herod’s thoughts,

The astronomers from the east,

Had in their hearts only one way to go,

This long pilgrimage was nearing its end,

Nearing a house,

Where a child hung to his mother,

For a moment,

Sheltered from the storms,

Of a future yet to be grasped,

And whatever they felt,

As they knelt in the dust,

And laid out splendour and finery,

In the dirt,

They worshipped,

They lowered their tired eyes,

Their pilgrimage was at its end,

Their course had been travelled,

The heaven’s had been followed,

To its king,

And his mother,

And God spoke,

The Father?

The Spirit?

The Son?

The host of heaven sent on a mission?

God spoke,

And the,

“Sons” of sorcerers,

Voyeurs and stargazers,

Occultists and esoterics,

From the East,

They listened.

And then they left.