Matthew 2:1-12

The Wise Men stand among the few patron saints of Anglican Frontier Missions. They were, after all, unexpected outsiders who came to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, intruding on the expectations and assumptions of those who were on the inside.

They were, in other words, representatives of the millions of the least evangelized of today's world. These are the ones whom the church neglects, while we devote our energies on ourselves and those immediately around us. The gift that the Magi bring to the church is the awareness of God's people beyond the frontiers of our visions..

They also lie beyond our reading of Scripture. A primary purpose of Sunday Scenes is to redress that and put the week's passages in the context of mission. No, this isn't designed to give sermon material or illustrations. Rather the intent has been to highlight the readings of Scripture in their larger theme - the mission of the church to all sinners, no matter how far away they may be.

One serious flaw in exposition that contributes to the dimming of the missions theme is the disconnection of the text from the hermeneutic. (An impressive sounding sentence if ever there was one! Actually I read that somewhere and realized how on the mark it is.) What it means is that if we hone in on the text and forget the larger picture, we will neglect the mission of God.

The larger picture, the theme that runs through the entire length of the Bible, is God's plan of reconciling Him to all the nations of the world. The disconnection from the theme on God's heart also results in disconnecting missions from the essence of the Church. It becomes one program among others - sadly, far from how we read the purpose of the church.

On Easter this year, this column will complete its third year. This is also my first full year in retirement. These events have caused much reflection, and I want to share some of what this has led me to do.

Now that I am retired, I find that "relocated" is a fits my new role. I have relocated myself from the AFM office to my "Upper Room" overlooking a tributary of the Potomac River. My room has books, a printer, and a CD player, two tables, some good pictures, and not much else. Soon, I understand, I will even have high-speed connection to the Internet!

My artist wife, Constance, also has space for her work at a large window downstairs. We sometimes meet at lunch and sometimes talk then, or not. We do enjoy teatime together later and do talk then.

This relocation allows me to pursue the cause of the Magi with greater concentration. The issue raised by the Magi is the central issue of the New Testament. How do the Gentiles fit in a salvation history that was designed for Jews? Do they fit in at all, and if so, how? So far I have at least been able to skim the surface, pick up pertinent authors, become familiar with relevant themes, and identify more reading that lies ahead.

The Lord chose Paul of Tarsus to address this. He was designated to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. He wrote about his calling in the lesson from this past Sunday. He was set apart for 1) to preach the unsearchable riches to the Gentile nations, and 2) to help the established church understand and accept this (new) dimension of the Gospel. (Eph. 3:6-9) Much of my reading has concentrated on Paul and his missions emphasis.

Over Christmas as I was reflecting on all this, something fell into place which will give this column a slightly new direction. It's about the use of Part 2 of the column.

The first part always comments on the lectionary of the coming Sunday from a missions perspective. Part 2 of the column has highlighted a few categories relating to the church's mission to the least evangelized. I gave two to four weeks each on about ten large ethnic groups who remain overlooked by the church's mission. After that I took major themes out of David Barrett's extraordinary work, World Christian Trends. I connected them with what characterizes the least evangelized peoples. Lastly I have written about the missionary compulsion of Anglicans in Nigeria, with their intent to plant churches outside the Anglican Church.

From this point on, I will devote Part 2 to my studies on St. Paul. I will be working on him anyway, so why not combine that work with this column?