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027 The Wise Men of Christmas and Your Spirituality

We saw his star… and we have come… to worship him

The story of the Wise Men following a star to find the Christ child is one of the most retold stories at Christmas time. While the typical Christmas card version contains a good degree of myth (there were probably more than three of them, they almost certainly were not kings, they wouldn’t have found Jesus in a manger), it’s a story we should hear again and again. Why? Because I believe the Wise Men’s journey symbolises our own. It can be a paradigm for the discovery of a rich spiritual life.

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Three Phases of Spiritual Journeying

Bedouin men and women
Main image: Antonio Cinotti Above: Lee Royal (CC BY NC ND 2.0)

In this talk, recorded at Oxford Community Church, I explore the story of the Wise Men: who they were (surprising, given their hero status in the Christian scriptures), what they followed (could the star have been Haley’s Comet?) and how their journey contains the three phases of all spiritual journeying:

First, there is a Stirring

Second, there is a Searching

Finally, there is a Humbling

Throw in an exploration of the shopping centre being the new cathedral and some contemporary stories of Jesus appearing to people in their dreams, and I hope there is something in this podcast to illuminate your Christmas-New Year season.

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