Today is the 12th Day of
Christmas. Tonight we conclude our Christmas festivities with the
12th Night party (potluck & gift exchange) in Trimble
Hall at 5. Bring a dish to share and, if you so choose, a gift to
exchange and/or steal ($25 suggested limit). It's a fun way to
celebrate the end of the Christmas season. And then tomorrow is the
Feast of the Epiphany, the day we celebrate the arrival of the wise
men.
The gospel passage we heard today is
one of three options, the other two being the Holy Family's flight to
Egypt and Jesus being left behind in Jerusalem as a pre-teen.
Today's gospel is also appointed for tomorrow's Feast of Epiphany.
But since Epiphany doesn't fall on a Sunday that often, I opt to have
it read on this Sunday as a wrap up to the season.
On Christmas Eve we hear the
traditional story of the birth in Bethlehem, shepherds, and angels.
Today we hear the other great Christmas story – that of wise men
from the east bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
There has been a lot written about these men who followed yonder
star, and there has been a lot written about the star itself and
trying to assign a date to this event. I recently read an article
that posited the “star” wasn't a star at all but a conjunction of
Jupiter and one or two other planets, and that their retrograde orbit
gave the appearance of it stopping over Bethlehem. That, however, is
more effort than I want to put into this story.
What I want to look at today is the
reaction the wise men got when they showed up in Jerusalem.
“Where is the child who has been born
king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have
come to pay him homage.”
When King Herod heard this, he was
frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.
For some 32 years Herod ruled his
territory with an iron fist. He was a contemporary of Marc Antony
and Cleopatra. He had multiple wives and executed anyone, including
family, he saw as a threat to his rule. During his reign there was a
time of relative national “peace,” and he instituted many
building projects, including the Temple. But that “peace” was
more a result of “My way or the highway” empirical domination
than of anything else.
Besides King Herod, there were others
who participated in and enabled this system to flourish – think tax
collectors and religious leaders. They had a good system – if you
followed the rules, didn't cause trouble, and supported the empire,
you were fine.
And now, into this system that
benefited the rich, powerful, and well-connected while stepping on
the poor, weak, and outcast come a group of outsiders looking for a
new king. And new kings, like new coaches or new priests, tend to do
things in a new way. So this new king was a threat to the
established system, certainly to the existence of Herod, and to all
who benefited from the status quo. It's no wonder these people were
frightened.
Change can be a scary, frightening
thing. If the fear of change is greater than the fear of doing
nothing, or of continuing on the same path, then nothing will happen
and the status quo, as bad as it is, will remain intact.
I'm reminded
of the formula I presented a few months ago where:
Change = Dissatisfaction x Vision x
First Steps > Resistance
This event of the new king produced a
great vision: we saw his star rising. But the resistance (and they
were afraid) was too much to overcome.
I know you're not supposed to conflate
gospels, but this sense of fear by Herod and others falls in line
with the Magnificat, that great anti-establishment song of Mary: “He
has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the
mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the
hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.”
These are words that should make the
proud and mighty, and those complicit in the systems that benefit
them, very afraid. This resistance to change, this desire to
maintain control, is what drove Herod to act as he did in order to
maintain his power structure. It's also what drives us to act in
certain ways to maintain our preferred power structures.
Herod never intended to pay homage to
the new king. This was made abundantly clear when he sent troops
into Bethlehem to kill every child under two. This was true when a
white man feigned interest in a bible study at a black church and
killed everyone present. This was true when an anti-Semite believed
Jews were taking over the world and attacked several people at a
Hanukkah party. This is true when we quote Canon 40/41: We've never
done it that way/We've always done it this way.
Christmas is, in my opinion, the
biggest miracle we have in scripture. It is the story of the
immortal, invisible, omnipotent God humbling himself to become a
mortal, visible, lowly human being. It is the story of light
breaking through the darkness. It is the story of God with us.
But the Christmas story reminds us that
not everything was a time of rejoicing. Not everything was a silent
night. Not everything was gloria in excelsius. There are powers and
dominions who would be very happy if this never happened or if it
were kept from being made known.
We may not actively advocate or assist
in enforcing a status quo that benefits the powerful and persecutes
the poor and weak. But we all certainly have behaviors and habits
that are resistant to change.
On this Second Sunday after Christmas
we are reminded of the birth of a new king. We are reminded that God
became human to show us a new way of being. We are reminded that God
is with us. And it just might be that this other great story of
Christmas, the story of wise men from the east and their gifts, also
has another important message for us: don't be like Herod and act on
our fears, but face our fears with the knowledge and confidence that
God is doing a new thing.
For unto us a child is born, Messiah
and king. What are we afraid of?
Amen.
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