If we have any sense at all, we realize our lasting need for WISDOM.

Our Gospel today tells of some wise men and their journey from the east. What can we learn from them? What about them qualifies them as “wise?” How might we ourselves become wise?

Consider four attributes of those wise men:

1. First, it seems that an essential prerequisite for wisdom is CURIOSITY. The magi were inquisitive, curious about the universe around them. Their interest was aroused by a new development. The rising of a new and brilliant star. If they hadn’t been curious, they might have ignored this altogether, but they did just the opposite. They didn’t assume that they already knew everything worth knowing. Their intelligence did not make them jaded or cynical (as seems to happen to so many well-educated people today.) Instead, they were curious - eager to learn, and open to new experiences. A case can be made that it was competition with the Soviet Union - or the space race - that drove us to land a man on the moon back in 1969. But it was also our curiosity. What’s it like on the moon? How could we actually get there and back again? What would our world look like from up there?

The same kind of curiosity moved earlier explorers to risk sailing off the end of the world - for power and glory, sure. But also to know more about the world - and themselves.

The greatest object of our curiosity is (or ought to be!) the Living God. This is what the wise men sought - not some astronomical event, but a living King - the King of Kings.

Part of the mission statement of St. Martin in the Fields in London goes like this: “We proclaim the mystery that is God, whom we partly know and partly do not know.” I like that. Mystery provokes curiosity - or it should, unless we are complete dullards! We never know another person completely - and so in any relationship a wise person never grows bored, but remains ever curious. And, if this is so with people, how much more so with Almighty God?

Curiosity was my initial motive for attending seminary. I wasn’t looking for a career. I wanted to know more about God. I wanted to become wiser. And it was there, during my first year, that I heard a professor say something I’ve always remembered: “This world doesn’t lack for wonders - but only for a sense of wonder.”

That is the wisdom of curiosity: to have a sense of wonder about things - and even yourself. To wonder: Why is there something instead of nothing? Why do I do the things I do? What makes people good and/or evil? Wisdom begins with curiosity.

2. A second aspect of wisdom grows out of the first. It’s simply this: GET OFF YOUR DUFF! DO SOMETHING! Curiosity gets one up and moving. Wisdom doesn’t stand still, it seeks!

Wise men and women don’t reside in ivory towers - they go out and search for the living truth. Those wise men of old undertook a long and arduous journey. They didn’t wait for the truth to come to them. The practice of pilgrimage has an honored place in Christian tradition. With resources like TV and the internet, we may assume the whole world is at our finger tips. But there is no substitute for getting up and going. You see, wisdom is gained not only upon our arrival at our destination, but also along the way. The journey is itself our teacher.

One of the wisest things I did was to take a semester off [from school] to travel in Europe. The life of faith is a journey - and wisdom is a process, not a commodity. Wisdom comes through experience.

3. Wisdom is demonstrated in our WORSHIP. The psalm states, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’.” Worship is true wisdom to see beyond ourselves to something, someone far greater. Wisdom does not seek to draw attention, but to give it. Wisdom is the capacity to discern what is of surpassing value - and worship it. And so Jesus tells a parable of a merchant in search of five pearls, who upon finding one pearl of ultimate worth went and sold all he had and bought it. The chief virtue of worship is that it put us in touch with a fundamental truth: God is God, and I’m not. Worship is central to the life of any wise individual - it’s not an extra curricular activity. Remember, worship is the main thing the wise men came to do! They didn’t travel to be entertained. It wasn’t a business trip. It wasn’t an academic junket. When they arrived and saw the Christ child, they fell on their knees and worshipped! It is in the act of worship that both they and we find the right relationship with God, with others and with ourselves. The right relationship is the heart of wisdom.

4. Finally, wisdom takes to heart the familiar words of Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The Christmas tradition of gift giving has been traced to the wise men and the precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh that they brought to Jesus. We have not always shown as lot of wisdom in the way we have appropriated that tradition! We often think about what we can get - the wise men came taking only to give. When we become wise, it dawns on us that life is not about getting, but giving; not about accumulating, but sharing; not about holding onto to stuff, but letting. go. We see the true wisdom in sayings like: “It is in giving that we receive.” “Lose your life to find it.” “Having Christ, I have all things.”

So then this is the wisdom we may glean on this feast of Epiphany.

1. Cultivate your curiosity - wonder about things, especially about the God who loves you. Read God’s word. Expect the unexpected.

2. Get off your duff - actively seek the truth. Take a journey: to the Holy Land, to a monastery, to the library, to your mother’s house, or maybe to see an old friend. Maybe the longest journey of all is moving what you know in your head to live in your heart.

3. Worship the Lord your God in truth - with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Make worship central to your life, not a sideline. If you missed Advent Vespers, don’t make the same mistake in Lent - (not if you wish to become wise).

4. Stop trying to GET, and look for new ways to GIVE - not only stuff, but most of all yourself. Remember, King Herod was very shrewd and so he became rich and powerful; but he was by no means wise.

Apply your hearts to wisdom.

Amen.