Matthew 2:1-12
Today we celebrate Epiphany with the beloved story of the sages who travel from the east to find a newborn king. They are astrologers and the stars told them of the royal birth. Of course they went to Jerusalem first because you find a king in the capital. But the folks there were unaware and didn’t welcome the news. Herod clearly wasn’t as tuned in to the prophecy about God planning regime change as others, like Mary was in last week’s scripture. He had to ask where this birth might have taken place. Even as he sends the visitors on to Bethlehem, he’s plotting to eliminate his competition.
This is a great story! We add it to the long list of great stories of the Bible with questionable historical accuracy. But accuracy isn’t the point of this story. It’s put into Matthew’s Gospel near the end of the first century, written to Jewish people after Jerusalem had been restored. So the proper question about this story isn’t, “Did it really happen?” but “Why is Matthew telling us this?” Matthew is using this story to make important points about Jesus. What are they?
The answer to that question leads us to the Epiphany themes. These are themes of light and global significance.
Jesus is light. A bright star shines at his birth, big enough to be seen across the world. We use the metaphor of light to talk about insight and truth, enlightenment and transformation. The people who followed Jesus literally “saw the light.” We’ve talked often about how the first century was a dark time for those who lived it. Jesus brought light to that darkness.
The light is for the whole world. These scholars traveled over many months to search for something special that the starts foretold. They came to Judea, but this birth wasn’t meant for just the people of Israel. Matthew wants us to know that Jesus impacted the whole world. By the time he wrote his gospel, Jews were living in every corner of the Empire, some by choice and some because they had been sent into exile by violence or sold as slaves. When he writes to the Jewish people about the birth of the Messiah, he’s writing to people who live every known place. He’s telling them that God is doing something earth-changing in all places, not just in the homeland. This birth is for everyone.
The new king has been born and his rule is established. Herod tries to end this challenge by ending the child’s life, but he’s thwarted – by the scholars who don’t give him the information he wants, by Mary and Joseph who hide the child in Egypt and then in Nazareth, by people who refuse to cooperate with the schemes of the powerful. Jesus lives! He grows up to become a great rabbi/prophet and to teach the people about God in new and amazing ways.
We are going to celebrate Epiphany for the next 2 months, and we’ll be talking a lot about these themes. About light and globalization. The teachings of Jesus challenge the powerful and scatter the darkness of Empire. They are for the world. Many countries have Christians aligned with national parties that focus on patriotism for a single nation. Epiphany reminds us that Jesus is for the world, crossing boundaries, reaching everyone.
I was thinking about this story this Advent when Diana Butler Bass posted a new song on her website about this story. It expanded the way I thought about these scholars and I wanted to share it with you. So Chris is going to sing it for us. (For those reading this sermon, here are the words…)
Chorus: Spirit take us home, take us home by another way,
Take us long way ‘round the tyrants and their schemes.
Give us strength to walk, show us dreams of a better day,
And we’ll pave the way with justice going home by another way.
The mountains and the hills laid low, the rough places made plain,
The tyrants thrown down from their thrones ‘til only love remains. (Chorus)
No offerings for billionaires to make them richer still
Bring all your frankincense and myrrh that the hungry may be filled. (Chorus)
So when the Proud Boys and the Klan ask where the Christ child lies
Just tell ‘em that you’ll let them know next time you’re passing by (Chorus)
So, when things get tough and feet are tired we’ll know it’ll be okay
‘cause we’ll pave the way with justice going home by another way.
Until I heard this song, I never thought of the sages being part of a resistance movement. They declined to fill Herod in on the child, finding another way home. And perhaps that saved his life, giving him a chance to grow up, giving us a chance to know about his teaching. Theirs was a silent resistance that protected the light of the world.
We’ve learned much about the first century Jesus followers recently. They lived under a cruel Empire with no open resistance possible. But they formed communities that followed Jesus’ teachings about love and caring for one another. In the face of Empire, they chose to live another way. It was their resistance. It became a hidden kingdom, hiding in plain sight, saying “no” to the evil of their day.
Folks in our time are wondering about rulers and power in many countries, including ours. We wonder what’s next for us. There are rumors that immigrants and human rights and income equality may not be as important as we would like them to be. We don’t know. It strikes me that we may have opportunity to follow the lead of these scholars who simply took a different route home. They weren’t confrontational; they just didn’t play by the rules of the powerful. They found a different way.
This week we have been confronted as a church by some of the harsh realities of our time as we were asked to help one of “our” social workers help a young man without documentation. She’s helping him file an asylum claim. He can’t work legally. He was assaulted at the mission and is afraid to stay in an open shelter. He can’t sleep outside. She found him a coat. We bought him a phone so he can be in contact with helpers. Homeless Helpers paid for a hotel room, and then we’ve paid for more nights. The truth is, there’s no good solution. We can’t support him for months until he can work. If he’s deported, he’ll die. If he doesn’t have shelter here, he’ll die. He’s just one of many who need more help than we can give or our city can give. So we just keep at it a day at a time. We don’t know what resisting quietly in place means for us tomorrow.
But the resistance isn’t the whole story. The story of Epiphany is of light. The scholars came to see the infant Jesus. The stars prompted them to find something new that was happening. Like so many who met this one, their lives were changed. They went home not just by a different route, but as new people. When we come face-to-face with Jesus through his story and through his community, we too become new people.
Some friends of mine who live in Florida sent me a Christmas card that came this week. They summed up what I was feeling better than I can, so I share their words with you…
This is the season we celebrate Glad Tidings as Jesus came with the good news that God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it! Jesus had Good News that God cares about the marginalized who were oppressed by religious folks who called them unclean, for those oppressed by the landlord/serf economy, and the oppression of the imperial politics of his time. Jesus started a good news movement for the transformation of God’s people to become the Beautiful Incarnational Community. As we begin a new year, let us have courage to be instruments of God’s peace when violence hovers, and to show grace and love to those marginalized, excluded, and endangered.
Let us have the courage to find a different way.