Episode Transcript
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Christmas isn’t just about the birth of the Child
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who is God-with-us.
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It’s certainly about that,
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but it’s also about the human response to the birth of the Child.
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That’s why the Magi
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are such a part of the Christmas story.
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Their journey is the journey of every human being, you and me.
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It reaches deep into our soul.
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The routes travelled by the Magi from the East to Palestine
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were well known trade routes,
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providing everything necessary for the great commercial caravans
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that went back and forth.
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These were roads for doing business,
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the economic arteries of the Ancient Near East.
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But the Magi come not as business men
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bearing goods for profit.
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They come as pilgrims
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bearing gifts for the Child who is the newborn king.
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The journey of Christmas is a journey from goods to gifts,
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from the logic of commerce to the utterly different logic of gratuitousness,
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the one-way traffic that makes no commercial sense,
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the giving that looks for no return.
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That’s why we give gifts to each other at Christmas time.
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Once the Magi set out on their journey, they enter the world of gift;
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and they are led by a star which is itself gift,
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“a lone wanderer between heaven and earth”
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as an old Anglo-Saxon sermon says,
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the star which turns all their wandering into journeying.
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Led by its light,
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the Magi find the Child who is supreme gift,
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not just for some, but for all the people.
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The gifts the Magi bring
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recognise the truth, the gift the Child is.
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They return by a different way
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because they have entered, once and for all,
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the new world of gift.
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The old ways of commerce are left behind.
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Nothing can ever be the same again.
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As they turn for home, they leave the Child,
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but the Child will never leave them.
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May his peace be with you on your journey.
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Happy Christmas to you all.
