Friday, January 05, 2007

Things We Thought We Knew...about the Three Kings

Following yesterday's reflection on wisdom in general, I've been doing a bit of thinking about the Three Kings - in preparation for Sunday's Sermon.

Did you know that the Bible says nothing at all about Kings? Nor does it tells us how many of them there were. Instead, it simply says that ‘wise men, from the East, came to Jerusalem’. The text (Matthew 2) also tells us that they arrived something like two years after the birth of Jesus. And believe it or not, they didn’t visit him in the stable, but instead they went to the house where he and his parents were living.

There’s a bit of a lesson in that for us...don’t you think? Sometimes we make assumptions about what the Bible ways, without actually reading the text for ourselves.

For example, despite what you might hear on the streets, Jesus never said that “God helps those who help themselves”.

Nor did he ever say that “Religion and Politics don’t mix”.

He definitely didn't say “An eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth” (A pity that the executioners of Saddam didn't know this. Execution is a statement that there can never be any possibility of remorse or change...and that might equals right. A bad idea, whichever way you look at it).

For more about the Wise Men...you'll have to wait for Sunday's Sermon (which I will post on this blog - I promise!)

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