Today’s Epiphany hymn is ‘Wise men, they came to look for wisdom’. The story of the ‘wise men’, otherwise known as ‘magi’ or ‘the three kings’ is well known, though tales of their journey from the East are much embellished. The hymn points out in verses 1, 3 and 4 that the baby they found was greater than themselves in various ways: wiser (as the son of God) than the wisest of men, a better light for their lives than that of the star they had been following, and a ‘gift beyond price’ more valuable than any amount of gold they could bring.
The second of the four verses takes a different approach. It contrasts the magi, ‘pilgrims from unknown countries’ travelling through lands strange to them to an unknown destination, with Jesus who already ‘knows the world’ because as the Word of God he was responsible for its creation in the first place (this is another of those unprovable acts of faith that Christians are asked to participate in: that although born of woman, Jesus was in a unique sense ‘born before all worlds’).
One of the claims of Christianity is that while people may think they are seeking God, it is in reality God, always present by his spirit, who is always seeking people and our task is to let ourselves be found. There are several reference in the Bible to God calling people by their names, from Adam in the Garden of Eden to Saul on the Damascus road, but this second verse also makes a point that we don’t know the names of the magi from the Biblical story (the names Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar are later inventions). This point is reinforced in the last lines of the verse: “Jesus, in you the lost are claimed, strangers are found, and known, and named”. The question I have to ask myself is, when did I last hear God call my name (probably a long time ago) and how can I listen out this year to hear him calling me, finding me, and claiming me again?