More Than Due Diligence
DATE: January 3, 2010
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 2:1-12
Friday, as we were winding up our visit in Florida, my daughter-in-law began to take down the Christmas tree. I am sure she was not alone—many folks use the free time they have on New Year's Day to do the same. But the truth is, Christmas isn't over yet—not technically. Indeed, the twelve days of the liturgical season called Christmas stretch right through the fifth. And the sixth is Epiphany. The day we remember the Magi and their visit to Bethlehem.
But you'd never guess by the way the stories are told and celebrated that it was a separate event from the night of Christ's birth!
This is nothing new! Our own Larry Aasen wrote about his childhood experiences of Christmas is a delightful article written for the Hillsboro Banner, the oldest weekly newspaper in North Dakota. Larry, in case you hadn't yet heard, grew up on a farm in the Great Plains, and though he's lived on the East Coast for decades, still takes great pride in his roots.
His article recalls a whole host of Dakotan Christmas memories. The special foods of the season, like lute fish and krumkake; the drooling over toys in the Sears Roebuck catalogue and stockings hung near the coal stove. Larry also recounts the more religious aspects of the holiday.
"The Christmas season would start for us," he writes, ". . . when our Lutheran Sunday school teacher would try to drill the story of Christ's birth into our heads. It was a nice story, we like[d] it, but the part about myrrh and frankincense confused us. The part about the manger and the barn we understood. Barns we knew!" ("Christmas on a Dakota Farm in 1930," Hillsboro Banner, 12-19-08)
Well whether you know barns or not, you too might be confused about the myrrh and frankincense and the unusual visitors who brought them to the babe of Bethlehem. Christmas pageants around the world, and right here at Saugatuck, conflate the events of the nativity into one package! Mary and Joseph show up at the inn, the baby's born, the angels sing, the shepherds arrive and then the wise men. Had it happened in a hospital, they would have gone way over the number of allowed visitors! But of course, it didn't happen in a hospital. And it didn't all happen on the same night. In fact, assuming the visit of the Magi really happened at all, some scholars suggest it may have been as much as two years later!
We often call the Magi the Three Kings, but that is a misnomer. They were astrologers, soothsayers, magicians of a sort. They may have served in the court of a Persian king, but they themselves probably weren't royals at all! Rather, they spent their nights studying the stars, and foretelling the future based on the movements of various celestial bodies. The star of Bethlehem, which is variously explained as an appearance of Haley's comet, the convergence of two or more planets, or a supernova, would have certainly peaked their interest. William Barclay is helpful as he describes the understanding of astrology in the ancient world. He reminds us that it was widely believed in those days, and that people saw a close connection between a person's destiny and the configuration of the stars on the day of their birth. The sudden appearance of an especially bright star would have been understood as heralding an important birth. "We cannot tell what star the Magi saw;" he writes, "but it was their profession to watch the heavens, and some heavenly brilliance spoke to them of the entry of a king into the world." (Daily Study Bible, Matthew, I: 30-31)
All that said, though, this story still has much to teach us, even though we may question some of the basic elements of the tale. For it speaks of perseverance in the face of adversity. They are looking for a king, so it makes sense that when they get to Judea they go to the capital, to Jerusalem—after all where do you usually find kings—new born or otherwise? But the newborn is not there—so they consult with the ruling monarch, a tyrant named Herod. He in turn consults with his advisors, his magi, and is told that there is an ancient prophecy that says a king will be born in Bethlehem. So he sends the magi off, hoping they will find this child, so that he can eliminate any potential competitor. Of course, that's not what he tells them. He's smarter than that. Instead, he tells them he too wants to honor this royal birth. "Go," he tells them, "and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word so that so that I too may pay him homage." (2:8)
Search diligently. Such a telling phrase. For that describes perfectly exactly what the Magi have been doing all along. They have been searching diligently. They have observed the stars, they have read the ancient texts, they have consulted the experts, they have done everything possible to research the matter. To use a legal term, they have most certainly done due diligence.
Due diligence, according to one legal dictionary, "is the process of acquiring objective and reliable information prior to a specific event or decision . . . a systematic research effort which is used to gather [the]critical facts . . . most relevant to the making of an informed decision on a matter of importance." (www.us.legal.com)
The Magi had done due diligence. They'd done it prior to starting their journey, and then, in Jerusalem, when a course correction was needed, they did it again. And then later, after visiting the Christ child, they did it again, taking into account the important information provided in their dream warning them not to go back to Herod. But here's the important point. They didn't just do due diligence. They did more than that. For once they had their facts straight, once they had made their plans to follow the star, to go to Bethlehem, to return home by another way, they acted. You see, while doing due diligence is vital as we make important decisions in our lives, it is just as important to act on those decisions once made!
Now I'm a pretty intelligent guy. And I've got a rather impressive set of educational credentials. I have the tools and ability to do due diligence with the best of them. I can research and study and examine like there's no tomorrow. And sometimes I do just that. I research like there's no tomorrow! I get so caught up in making sure I've weighed all options, consulted all authorities, explored all possibilities, that once I make a decision, I'm too worn out to follow up and take the necessary action! Just ask my wife about my plans to study Spanish, or the guitar. To accomplish anything worthwhile, it takes more than due diligence. It takes decisions and plans that are actually put into motion!
I think sometimes we as a congregation have fallen into the same trap. We are an exceptionally gifted group of human beings! God has given us more brain power, more experience, more knowledge, than we can ever use up! Heavens, some of us have even been trained professionally to do due diligence! We can study and research a matter so thoroughly we leave no stone unturned. We did that with O & A. We did that when we planned our Capital Campaign. We've done that with marketing studies, fiscal projections, safe church policies, and all manner of things. And we've consistently done that well. But sometimes, we've been so worn out by all our research that we've not picked up the plan and put it into action. And so, we've not found the newborn king. We've not been able to open up our gifts of frankincense and myrrh. Instead, like Dakotan schoolboys, we've been a bit confused.
So where does all this leave us? Still, I guess, on the road to Bethlehem. But perhaps, with an opportunity to recommit ourselves to being people of action. Not together, for your path to Bethlehem and mine will soon move in different ways. But each of us, all of us, having learned a lesson or two about following stars and making plans and following up on decisions can take this moment to make a fresh commitment to acting on our findings. Call it an Epiphany resolution. Like the Magi, I trust we will all continue to be people of due diligence. But I pray we will always remember to be people of action. For when we match one with the other, when we pair up due diligence with follow-through Habit houses are built, holiday feasts prepared, persons of all kinds welcomed and children made safer. When we pair up due diligence with follow-through, we are a force of the good. We, like the Magi, are God's people on the move.
Amen.
John H. Danner