IMAGINATIVE MEDITATION I

IMAGINATIVE MEDITATION I

One of the things that have happened since we have been attending a more traditional Church is that they put a lot of attention on the Church calendar. I used to view all this with a good bit of suspicion and saw little value in it. After following the calendar through lent and Holy Week for the first time, I not only began to see value in it but my understanding of the events of that time grew a lot and I started to value  the annual repetition of these events.

Now we are at the third Sunday of Advent. I have been focusing my reading and meditating on the stories of the birth of Christ and Isaiah’s prophesies regarding the coming Messiah and reading On The Incarnation by Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373 AD) .  I have found that this season was so important to the ancient Church that they fasted for 40 days prior to Christmas day. (actually the Eastern Orthodox Church still observes this fast (not a strict water fast but more like a ‘Daniel fast’)

One thing that has always perplexed me is the story of the Magi. I have wondered how they knew about the King of The Jews and that He was to be born, and beyond that why the birth of a supposed heir to the throne in a tiny country would be significant, since Israel had been ruled by The Roman Empire since 63 BC. It seems that these Magi, some translations say “wise men” but that is a nice translation for astrologers, must have had more information than just a strange comet appearing in the sky and moving in the direction of the west. What would make them gather up treasures, load up camels, secure the permission of their king and walk as far as they did to find a new born baby? At that point there was no apparent evidence that this baby was destined to be a king, much less a king of a nation that would affect the nation that these astrologers were from.

When they arrived in Israel it seems that they first sought out Herod, the puppet ruler of Judea under the Romans. Perhaps they assumed that, if a king was to be born, it should happen in the palace of the reigning king. There is no biblical evidence that they gave any gifts to Herod or venerated him in any way. They only stayed long enough to get information from the Jewish religious leaders as to where the Messiah was to be born.  When they arrived in Bethlehem and found the house where the baby Jesus and his parents were living, they prostrated themselves flat on their faces before Him in worship and present Him with expensive gifts.

I would like to invite you to participate in a biblical meditation that uses your imagination.

1.      Take the passage before the Lord in prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate the story to you.

2.     Read over the passage in question (Mat. 2:1-12) several times, until you feel that you have the information and the story line in your thinking.  Sometimes it helps to use several different translations.

3.      Imagine yourself as one of the characters in the narrative. Ask yourself some basic questions about the incident.

4.     Imagine yourself as other members of the cast and think about how your presence in the drama might affect them.

5.     In this particular case think about it from Jesus’ perspective.

6.     Talk to the participants in the story; ask them questions about what is happening. (relax, this is not praying to them just an imaginative exercise)

7.     Ask Jesus to teach you how He thinks and sees the situation.

8.     Get in a comfortable and quiet place, close your eyes and attempt to run the “video” of the entire scene in your mind and see what the Spirit of God might show you.

Later I will suggest some background reading that might help answer the original question; that is how these magi knew about the coming birth of the king of the Jews and why they were interested?

Let me know how your time goes with this exercise.

Blessings during this Christmas season

pablo