Wise Outsiders by Mary-Anne Rulfs
While Epiphany, January 6, was a week ago, it remains timely to remember the Magi – the Wise Outsiders – who, following a star, travelled from a far-away kingdom, to find the newborn King. Matthew 2:1-12
Entering a new year we welcome the light of Christ, symbolised by this star. We welcome all wise ones from diverse places and perspectives, coming to us as outsiders, yet determined, with us, to follow the light of truth. Together we discover anew that the search for truth always leads to Jesus – because all light is the light of Christ.
In the words of Simone Weil, in Waiting for God:
“One can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth… If one turns aside from [Jesus] to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms.”
Epiphany and the story of the Wise Outsiders challenges our prejudices and pushes against our boundaries. Every year. Every year we need to be challenged again, so we remain open to God, and the others that God brings to our lives.
Because of those wise outsiders, the idea of following a star has become a metaphor for our ongoing search for God…
If Jesus is the truth then we will keep seeking truth, for the rest of our lives.
And that search will always lead us to Jesus.
Again and again. More and more.
If God is love then we will keep seeking love.
And that search will always lead us to God.
If God is peace, beauty, joy and goodness,
we will keep seeking peace, beauty, joy and goodness,
and we will keep finding God, through Jesus the Christ.
When we follow a true star, it will always lead us to the creator of the stars and the mountains and oceans. To awe and wonder and worship.
Together, as we begin this new year and another season of ministry together as a Christian faith community in the Anglican tradition, let’s reset our inner compass for the year. Let’s follow the truth that leads to Jesus the Christ, so that God might become possible for the other who we encounter, whether family or outsider, friend or stranger.
A blessing adapted from one of Bishop Desmond Tutu’s prayers:
May the Lord disturb us
when we are too well-pleased with ourselves,
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,
because we sailed too close to the shore.
May the Lord disturb us
When, with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the water of life
when, having fallen in love with time,
we have ceased to dream of eternity
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.
May the Lord stir us
to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas
where storms show God’s mastery,
where, losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
May the God who pushed back the horizons of our hopes
and invited the brave to follow,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among us and remain with us always. Amen.
Blessings,
Mary-Anne
With grateful thanks to Rev’d Dr Margaret Wesley, Rector at St Paul’s Ashgrove, for initiating these ideas. https://revdrmargaretwesley.substack.com