Lydford Parish and Community Magazine
December 2011
The Christmas story ends as those visitors from the far east disappear furtively, leaving Mary and her family with a choice of either escaping themselves, becoming refugees, or facing the death of their new-born son. They get called kings, those visitors. But they weren’t kings. They get called wise men. But they may have just have easily been women. And usually they appear as a threesome. But there’s no evidence of that. There could have been two of them. There could have been ten.
What we do know about them is that they were Magi – astrologers, dedicated to looking for signs in the skies. They would have seemed strange to Mary and Joseph, visitors of a different colour, wearing unusual clothes, coming to them with a wild story about a star and following an odd agenda. They may have been worried about their obsessiveness, or put off by their spiritual fanaticism. But they may also have been encouraged by their faith in the child Jesus, and their determination to find him. They may have seen the Magi as I do today – because today I¹d like to celebrate them as explorers.
Remember Colin Pillinger, the leader of the space probe project, Beagle 2? He’s a classic explorer. I’d put the Magi in the same category as him. Some saw Pillinger as a figure of fun – the archetypical mad scientist. Some were discomforted by his obsession – they could think of other, better, uses for the sixty-million-dollars he spent on a failed spacecraft. Others, rivals in the space race, were perhaps secretly pleased at Beagle 2’s failure. And others again have been inspired by his work: like musician Alex James whose rock band Blur composed the Beagle 2 call sign. James described how rewarding he found working on the project, a team of scientists, artists and musicians working together. “We’re all after the same thing, really,” he said, “life.”
Pillinger’s search for life on Mars failed, as we know. We might recall that it was lost as it entered the Martian atmosphere on Christmas Day in 2003. But this single-minded man has carried on regardless. Because he’s an explorer. Despite suffering from multiple sclerosis Pillinger is currently working with NASA adapting Beagle 2 technology to moon research, and on various other space projects.
The Magi carried on regardless as well. Not even the vicious Herod stopped them following their star. The best thing about the story of the Magi is that it encourages us to keep exploring, to keep searching for God and the truth in our own lives, and in the life of the world around us. Exploring through scientific investigation; exploring through the arts; exploring in our character, our friendships and relationships, exploring through faith and belief.
We know that explorers can be odd, obsessive sorts of people. Not always the sort of people we feel comfortable with. But whatever they may look like, however they behave, we know that explorers bring grace and wonder, truth and insight into the world. We should rejoice to be among them, each of us keenly exploring our world. This is why I love this prayer of Michael Leunig:
We give thanks for those who explore in the cause of understanding; whose search takes them far from what is familiar and comfortable and leads them into danger or terrifying loneliness. Let us try to understand their sometimes strange or difficult ways; their confronting or unusual language; the uncommon life of their emotions, for they have been affected and shaped and changed by their struggle at the frontiers of a wild darkness, just as we may be affected, shaped and changed by the insights they bring back to us. Bless them with strength and peace. Amen.
[Adapted version of my talk, Epiphany: Explorers, given at Wavertree, January 2004]
