In my two previous articles (read part 1 here and part 2 here) we focused on two of the big truths the three wise men can teach us.

One, only the wise know their wisdom is incomplete and limited.

Two, the wise men not only know their wisdom is incomplete they know they can’t save themselves.

Those who are wise always know that their wisdom is incomplete. When we can’t go any further in the wisdom that is ours, we seek wisdom elsewhere, and when we come to the end of our human understanding, if we are wise, we turn to God.

Why the Wise Men Sought Jesus

The wise men not only know their wisdom is incomplete they know they can’t save themselves; and that their salvation is beyond their science and their system. 

Why did the wise men start on their quest in the first place? The need of their life, the deep yearning for meaning, drove them to it. They had not found salvation and meaning in their studies, their systems, their science even in their stars. So, in their wisdom, they started looking for Christ. In their wisdom, they sought that which they lacked, and they left all to find the King.

When Human Systems Cannot Save Us

I’m afraid many nations today find themselves in the same place as those wise men before their journey. Current answers are insufficient: secular humanism is a rising tide, so the state will define moral norms, and the Church seems to bend to cultural pressure. Wise men know that their wisdom is limited; they cannot save themselves. Where will they go? Where will we go? God alone is our salvation

I closed the prior article sharing a reference to an interview with Chuck Colson. The questioner asked, “Aren’t you bitter? What are your regrets?” Colson said, “Just as Watergate demonstrated the corruption of man, so it helped show me my desperate need for God. It led me to Romans 8 where Paul provides the answer to the tormented cry of the human soul evoked in Chapter 7: “It is in Christ Jesus that we’re set free.” (Rom 8:1-4)

Salvation in Christ Alone

The Touch of the Master’s Hand, a poem by Myra Brooks Welch, captures this monumental truth. The last verse is climactic:

And many a person with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A “mess of pottage,” a glass of wine;
A game – and he travels on.
He is “going” once, and “going” twice,
He’s “going” and almost “gone.”
But the Master comes, and the foolish crows
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand.

Let us take that journey to that house beneath the star. In your mind now, look down at the manger – and the little Baby Jesus cradled there. The wisdom of the ages is here. Paul put it, “In him the fullness of the Godhead chose to dwell bodily. His name is Jesus because He and only He can save His people from their sins.”

Look at Him, and in your mind reach out now, and take that little hand, feel the little fat fingers of the Baby Jesus curl around and cling to your thumb. It’s the most familiar loving touch for anyone who has played with a baby. But the touch is divine. That Baby becomes a Man, a Man who taught and bled and wept, the crucified and risen Man who becomes our Saviour – who touches our lives all along the way – and the touch of the Master’s Hand is our Salvation.

Plant Jesus’ wisdom in your mind and heart. “He who wishes to save his life shall lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it.” That paradox is an impenetrable mystery for the secular mind – but the cardinal truth of the Christian faith.

In my last article, I began reflecting on the Three Wise Men in the Christmas story. I began by insisting only the wise know their wisdom is incomplete and limited.

These wise men had journeyed along a difficult path, looking for a king, using the very best science they knew, following a star.

But somehow, along the way, their guidance seemed to run out. I don’t know whether they lost sight of the star for a time, or whether they simply doubted their science. The scripture does tell us that when they got to Jerusalem, obviously they didn’t know what to do or where to go next. They began to inquire about the city, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.’

Finding Divine Guidance When Human Wisdom Fails

I believe this turn of scripture offers marvelous guidance. Those who are wise always know that their wisdom is incomplete and limited. When we can’t go any further in the wisdom that is ours, we seek wisdom elsewhere, and when we come to the end of our human understanding, if we are wise, we turn to God.

This is a big part of what prayer is about. We don’t have to understand prayer to practice it. We don’t have to have proof to know that intercession works. 

Note this, The wise men not only know their wisdom is incomplete they know they can’t save themselves. They know their salvation is beyond their science and their system. Why did they start on their quest in the first place? The need of their life, the deep yearning for meaning, drove them to it. They had not found salvation and meaning in their studies, their systems, their science, even in their stars. So, in their wisdom, they started looking for Christ.

Why Education and Government Systems Cannot Save Us

Oh for that sort of wisdom. We’ve run the gamut haven’t we? At times we think education will save us, and then in one of the most educated nations of the world, we have a Hitler and a Holocaust. We think government will do it, then in the boldest experiment in democracy, we have a system of slavery and a civil war. We think social enlightenment and secular humanism will do it, and in our nation that prides itself in such, we abort a million babies each year, and every city in the United States has the poor and the homeless to shame us and to show us the limitation of putting our hope in social theories or institutions.

I’m afraid that’s where we are today. We need to learn from the wise men. Our wisdom is limited. We can’t save ourselves. God alone is our salvation.

Lessons from Watergate: Charles Colson on the Reality of Sin

Charles Colson has helped us to see this in a remarkable way. I continue to be amazed at the perception of the man and his commentary on political and social systems. Watergate happened in 1972. In 1982, the 10th anniversary of Watergate, a bevy of reporters followed Colson around for weeks wanting his reflections on Watergate. They surfaced three main questions. One, could Watergate happen again? Two, are you bitter? What are your regrets? And three, what should be the lessons of Watergate?

In response to the first question, “Could Watergate happen again?”, Colson said that, “a surprising number of Americans seem to have the utopian idea that by throwing one bunch of rascals out of office, we cleanse the system of corruption forever. “Then he drove that issue to the wretched dilemma of the human spirit that is captured in the anguished word of the great apostle: “The good that I wish I do not; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” And then in a deeply personal way, Colson confessed, “Like Paul, I’ve known the awful evil and the insidious way it can masquerade as virtue. Paul’s words remind us that man is, by his very nature, a sinner, incapable of restraining his own sin… that is not to say that all men will breech their public trust as I did; but Watergate was a manifestation of the innate evil within us all.”

We cannot save ourselves. No system will suffice. Where will we turn this season?

Two men were sitting together on an airplane, one an astronomer, the other a theologian. After a while each began to share his understanding of the other’s discipline. The astronomer said, “I believe that all religion can be summed up in the phrase, ‘Jesus Loves Me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’”  The theologian, somewhat miffed at this simplistic understanding of his scholarly discipline, said, “And I believe that all astronomy can be summed up with the phrase, ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.’”

Faith and Science: A False Divide We’ve Learned to Accept

Let’s reflect not on astronomy but on some astronomers, the three wise men in the Christmas story who wondered about a star.

These three wise men who came from the East bearing gifts for the newborn Messiah are as much a part of the Christmas story as shepherds and angels, a frightened but excited mother, and a weary and confused, but faithful, father.  I know the scripture doesn’t say there were three of them. It is easy to assume that because of the three gifts offered. And I know, too, that the wise men came after Christmas, because scripture says they entered the “house’ where Mary and Joseph were, to offer their gifts to the Baby. So obviously it was sometime after Christmas, and Mary and Joseph had moved from a stable into a house.

I know also we would be more liturgically proper to wait until Epiphany, January 6, to talk about these wise men.

But we can be too proper at Christmas, can’t we? So proper, so rational, that we miss the meaning of it all. That’s the point at which I want to begin today.

Let me assert it this way: Only the wise know wisdom is incomplete.

Return to my introductory story of the astronomer and the theologian on the airplane. Both could have, and should have, learned from the other. The gap between religion and science, especially during the past 200 years , has been enormous. The problem is they haven’t talked very much; in fact, they don’t understand each other’s language. I think the problem has been two-fold: ignorance and arrogance. Both religion and science have been guilty of both, though I think the problem of ignorance has probably been greater in religion and arrogance greater in science.

Lessons from the Three Wise Men: Why the Magi Used Science to Find God

Let’s look at our three wise men. Tradition connects them with astrology and astronomy. So note this is about them. They used the very best science available to them. They didn’t abandon their way of understanding the world in order to get to Bethlehem. They followed a star, convinced from their studies that it would lead them to the place where a new king was born.

Do you see what I’m saying? It was their science that led the wise men to Bethlehem. They didn’t abandon who they were and became something else in order to find the Christ. They used the highest learning of their day, and I believe that’s why Matthew told the story.

Why You Don’t Have to Leave Your Brain at the Church Door

Now what does this say to you and me? At least this: you don’t have to leave your mind outside the church when you come to worship. Friends, we don’t need to be frightened of learning.

Many TV and radio preachers, as well as many narrow rigid pastors, would have you believe otherwise. They would have you deposit your brain in the Narthex on entering the church, or disengage your reasoning process when you start reading the Bible. They build straw men and start caricaturing them as apostolic or without spirit or soul which they destroy. With the name of Jesus constantly on their lips, they seem to forget that which Jesus Himself said was the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” 

You don’t deposit your mind at the door when you come to worship, and you don’t disengage it when you sit down with the Bible.