Epiphany Part One: How are Ruth & the Wise Men connected?
POST BY MATT MCCOY
5 minute read
As we think about that star that appeared to the Magi (or Wise Men, depending on your English translation), I want us to also remember Ruth. The star appeared in Bethlehem, the Magi followed the start to Bethlehem, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and several centuries before all these events Ruth moved to Bethlehem with her bitter mother-in-law Naomi.
Bethlehem Old Town by Munir Alawi
There is a familiar theme that connects Ruth and the Magi, so let’s spend some time remembering last summer and our study of the book of Ruth as a way to help us prepare for next week’s worship service celebrating the life of the Magi and the star that guided them. And the theme that connects them is this:
God will often use invisible people to disciple us.
So, while we have the story of Ruth the invisible immigrant being used by God to disciple the people of Bethlehem, let’s return to the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem several hundred years after Ruth arrived. Here we have another story of God using invisible people to disciple the people of Bethlehem and God inviting us to read this story as though we’re residents of Bethlehem, too. God has a knack for weaving people that we tend to overlook into our lives in ways that bring us closer to Jesus.
Like Ruth, the “Magi” or “Wise Men” were people outside of the Jewish story showing up to Bethlehem and demonstrating how to live. In next week’s blog, and next Sunday’s service, I’m going to do a deeper dive into who they were, but for now I would love to highlight how Ruth and the Magi are a part of the same theme: God will often use invisible people to disciple us.
And so, for Spring Church, we are back to a familiar theme and we are back to a familiar set of questions. God might be using people who are invisible to us in order to disciple us. Let’s apply this theme to this season of Advent Waiting.
We’ve already defined our “Advent Waiting” as active, with other people, waiting to see where God shows up.
Let’s focus on the second point: With other people.
What if we don’t get to choose some of the people we’re Advent Waiting with? What if God chooses some people to wait with us?
The people of Bethlehem didn’t choose to be discipled by Ruth. God chose Ruth for them.
And, several hundred years later, the Religious Leaders didn’t choose to be discipled by the Magi when they showed up and studied scripture together trying to figure out where the baby would be born. God chose the Magi for them.
Americans, as a culture, are enamored with choice. We want to be able to choose our friends, choose our jobs, choose our families, choose our destiny. But, if God wanted to use invisible people to disciple us, what if our Advent Waiting included people we didn’t choose? Going back to this summer, what if God sends us a discipler in the form of a janitor, or a person with disabilities, or an immigrant, or a small child, or someone who is of the other political party, or a bitter mother-in-law? Returning to this story, what if God sends someone from a foreign religion claiming that our God spoke to them through their religion? Who is God choosing for Spring Church? For you? For me?
Next week we’ll continue this focus on the “with other people” element of Advent Waiting as we learn more about who the Magi were, and why they remained invisible to the Religious Leaders as we prepare for our worship service on January 10th.
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Artist Appreciation
Grace S. from Victoria, Australia. Check out her incredible Biblical illustrations here.
Munir Alawi is a photographer, documentarian, and digital artist. He was born and raised in Bethlehem, Palestine. Browse his collections here.