Joel Snider's Sermons from FBC Rome

December 16, 2007

Frankincense - A Gift for a Priest

Exodus 30:34-38

During this Advent season, our worship has been guided by considering the gifts of the Wise Men, the Magi. We often think of three. As I have indicated on the other Sundays, we don't know that for sure. We think that because of the number of gifts. There have been some who have speculated there might have been as many as 100 of them. Three religious men coming to Jerusalem looking for a king might have been considered by Herod followers of a cult but not anybody to be threatened by. A hundred, arriving as an entourage looking for the one born King of the Jews, could have been seen by Herod as a potential insurrection. Here are enough people to lead a coup. Perhaps that is why Matthew says he was upset and all Jerusalem with him. The truth is we don't know how many there were.

I would like for you to imagine with me this morning though what it must have been like before they set out on their journey, perhaps just right before. I think maybe ten, maybe a dozen, meeting as something of a council while their servants are out preparing provisions for the journey. The star has been there in the sky and, lately, it has been moving. As it has been moving, they considered that this is the time, we need to get ready, we need to make haste, we need to go find this child. In ancient world, they often believed that great births, significant births, were marked by signs in the heaven and they have seen this star and it is growing brighter, and they say, "We must make haste." The only thing left to do is to confirm their group decision of what the gifts should be.

Later, they decided that the one who suggested gold was really the practical one. Even if this is a king above all other kings, gold is the gift for a king, and no king would be offended by gold so it was a practical decision.

As they looked back on it decades later and understood the complete story, they came to the conclusion that the one who suggested myrrh was inspired. He brought the idea up in the council and it was immediately met with some contempt, myrrh being the perfume that was used to embalm bodies of the dead. They didn't see it a fitting gift for a newborn king. There were two younger members of the council who even caught each other's eye. One tapped his forehead and kind of made motions to the one who suggested myrrh. The other one rolled his eyes in agreement as if to say, "Perhaps he has gone senile on us." But wherever the discussion went, it kept coming back to myrrh. So finally, the leader of the council says, "We have all felt compelled to make this journey. All of us have felt as if God is leading us and we keep coming back to this subject of myrrh and I am not so sure that we are not being compelled to do this. Maybe someday, we will understand what this means." The vote was 10 to 2 with the two younger ones later admitting they were glad they were out voted. When they looked back, they said, "Just as the one who suggested gold was practical, the one who suggested myrrh was certainly inspired."

The one who suggested frankincense, they concluded later that he was prepared. He had used his own money to buy a scroll. Based upon all their calculations about the sky and the star, they determined that their journey would take them to the land of the Jews so he had taken his money and he had purchased a scroll that contained the Hebrew Scriptures and he studied it. He suggested frankincense to the group and they asked, "Why?" He opens the scroll, points his finger, and says, "Every time frankincense is mentioned, it is about an offering to God." There is this one place in their history, when they were a nation of nomads, and all they had was a tent that served as a portable temple. They believed that God resided in that tent and went with them wherever they went. They had a sacred formula of incense that was largely made of frankincense. Someone said, "A secret formula?"

"No," he said. "You can read it for yourself. There is no secret to it." But it was sacred, reserved exclusively for God. If anyone else made this formula and made this formula for themselves, they were to be taken out and ostracized and not allowed in with the other people. He said, "We have spent so much time thinking about a king, what if the person being born is a priest?" What if all these signs in the heaven are an indication to us that this baby is going to minister the presence of God to people, what if he is a priest and needs this frankincense to make the sacred incense that was such a part of the symbol of God's presence in their life? They never even voted on this one. It seemed perfect.

A servant was dispatched to gather the frankincense, to package it up, and they made haste to go.

Obviously, it probably didn't happen exactly that way, but you can imagine that as however many of them gathered together, they did consider what gifts to take. If you are giving an anniversary party for your parents, perhaps it is one of those milestone anniversaries, and the children are planning it, they get together to make sure that they coordinate the gifts.

Brides have registries so that people don't give the same thing so that we make sure that our gifts are coordinated. Surely, they must have discussed it and come to the conclusion that gold, frankincense, and myrrh surely were the right gifts. Gold is the symbol of royalty. Myrrh was used to perfume the dead. Frankincense—study. The only place in the scriptures where frankincense is mentioned, and not about an offering to God, is in the Song of Solomon. It is always about an offering. Very specifically in this one place, it is about the presence of God in their lives. Who could burn this but a priest?

When we start to talk about a priest, it makes Baptists very nervous. We are not sure we quite want to go with Jesus being a priest. A part of our heritage is that you don't have to have a priest, and that is true. I believe, and as a part of heritage, not to disparage anyone else's, it is a part of our heritage to believe that you don't have to have a priest to pray to God, BUT there are times when we need one. That may sound a little radical for a Baptist but think about these experiences.

These are things that people have told me. People have told me that they have been in a conversation, and someone they barely knew, began to confess their sins. Someone who was deeply troubled by something that was going on in their lives begins to talk to someone who is almost a total stranger is kind of wide-eyed thinking, "Why are they telling me this?" Later, they say, "Why did they tell me?" The truth is because they needed someone to stand in for the Holy One. They needed someone to stand in as a representative of God to unburden their hearts and to let it go. You don't have to have a priest but there are times where we need one.

Or the other direction. Have you ever asked anyone to pray for you? Has there ever been a time in your life where you felt like you needed prayer for something in particular, but because of your own grief or something that is going on, you don't feel as if you can verbalize your prayer for yourself and you say to someone, "Would you pray for me?" Why did you ask that? You needed someone in that moment to stand in between you and God and offer the prayer for you. Did you have to have a priest? No. Did you need a priest? Yes.

There are times where we need someone to stand in between us and God, someone who would represent us to God and someone who will speak for God to us. We almost cannot bear to take it directly so we need that person in between.

The New Testament is very clear. The Book of Hebrews, perhaps not one of our more popular books among people who quote scripture, but in the Book of Hebrews, there are extensive sections that describe Jesus as our priest. It is Christ who ministers God's presence to us. Every time, every time, we pray and end "In Christ's name," we are invoking Christ as our priest to mediate our prayers to God. You don't have to have a priest, but there are times where we need one and scripture tells us that Jesus is our high priest.

When I was a kid, I remember flannel graphs. Flannel graphs, for those of you who are younger than I, even pre-date film strips and I am not going to explain a film strip if you don't know what one is, but a flannel graph, I remember the one we used was green and it was made out of felt. They had these little cut-outs and they could make a story by sticking things on this green felt and it would stick. You could put the different characters up as the story went along. I remember learning about the Tabernacle from a flannel graph. The Tabernacle was that portable sanctuary that the children of Israel used until Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. It was a symbol that wherever they went, that God was with them. There was nowhere that they could go that God was not.

This incense that we read about in the Book of Exodus was a special incense reserved to be burned there so that the aroma would remind people that God is with them. We had some burning here on the table this morning and the candle has gone out. I hope you caught a whiff before the candle went out but it is a very distinguishable scent. Frankincense was a part of this sacred formula.

There is an interesting thing about the Tabernacle. In John, you know that verse that we often associate with Christmas that says, "The word became flesh and dwelt among us." The word dwell actually means to pitch a tent. In a nomadic culture, where you lived was determined by where you pitched your tent. It is the same word that is used to translate tabernacle in the Old Testament. Basically, it says, "The word became flesh and tabernacle in our midst." It is a reminder that Jesus Christ has come into the midst of our life, not just their lives, our lives, that Christ is in our midst and Christ is ministering the presence of God to us. Isn't this why Christ came?

We do mention sin at this time of year, and we talk about why Christ came was to die for our sins. But if you really trace it all the way back, what Jesus came for was to bring us into fellowship with God. The whole sin part is because sin is the barrier and something has to be done about it. But the real intention, the reason why he dealt with sin at all was to bring us a peace with God because God wants to be in our midst. Is there anything else that we really want than to know that God is with us, to know that God loves us, that God receives us, that in those moments of great trial we can count on God and that God is there and that our lives are somehow linked with God's life. This is why Jesus came and it is the work of a priest and whichever one of the Magi came to the conclusion that they needed to bring frankincense was one who was prepared, one who had studied the scriptures, one who recognized that it stood for the presence of God in the lives of the people of ancient Israel and it is a symbol of that still.

So the one who suggested gold was very practical. The one who suggested myrrh was probably inspired. Who else would have known what would have come. And the one who suggested frankincense recognizing that there is more than a king here, but a priest who brings God's presence to each and every one of us. Frankincense, a gift for a priest, a gift that reminds us that Christ gives us peace with God. Amen.

Copyright 2007. P. Joel Snider. All rights reserved

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