Loading...Here’s a song I’ll bet you’re familiar with from the radio or the various versions you may have recordings of:
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Yesterday was “12 drummers drumming” day, and the end of the season that seems to have begun just after Hallowe’en! And we are at the end of the season that began here on Christmas Eve with the reading of the beloved Christmas birthday story from Luke’s gospel.
Today, Epiphany day, we hear another version of the story around Jesus’ birth. Or, as Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story”.
Oh, sure, we’re familiar with the three magi/sages/wise men/astronomers/kings from the East/afar. They are in our crèche sets and in our Christmas pageants and plays.
But there’s more in this story than the travel, the arrival, the adoration, and the gifts.
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Herod, the Jewish puppet king – a bit of a tyrannical despot—who freaks out when he hears that there is another king, calls in his Biblical scholars and asks them to fill in the gaps of his knowledge/memory about this so-called king.
(I can just image his wheeling voice telling them to let him know where the baby is so that he, too, can “worship”)
The travellers find Jesus in Bethlehem, as they’d been directed, pay their homage to the baby, and are amazed and astounded.
Then they have a dream: go home another way; avoid Herod.
Being sages and used to messages from unusual sources, they listen and follow.
Herod, thwarted, turns violent and orders the massacre of all of the Jewish boys under the age of two – an event known as the slaughter of the innocents.
Yet, he misses Jesus
because Joseph, bless his heart, had a dream to take his family and RUN.
Run for their lives to Egypt.
Run and take sanctuary in a foreign land.
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No, there is much in this story that we would rather skip over or forget;
except that, for all of the tragedy and grief and ugliness,
this story is telling the real and complete story of the Incarnation.
Today’s story is from Matthew’s Gospel which begins just after the notably short birth narrative that goes like this: “...until [Mary] had borne a son; and [Joseph] named him Jesus.”
For Matthew, the birth itself is not the important thing.
For Matthew, what is valuable and noteworthy is CONTEXT – what is going on when Jesus is born and how is Jesus, even as an infant, THE Messiah and THE salvation, and mercy and grace for the world.
God at work in the world is often not met well by The Powers That Be,
or by those who would rather do it on their own, thankyouverymuch.
God’s salvation and life for the world doesn’t come through politicking, manipulations, power and control, violence, threats, or wealth –
much to our collective chagrin;
in Herod’s time,
in Matthew’s time,
before this story even happened,
throughout the centuries since this story happened,
and even now.
Herod and “all of Jerusalem” threw a temper tantrum,
and Herod exacted terror and violence upon the innocents.
Jesus and his family continued to be vulnerable as they fled as refugees and then crept back a few years later (but had to live in a different town because things STILL weren’t safe at home).
In our world today:
• children and others who are vulnerable experience violence and terror because of war, hunger, and disease – all of which are preventable;
• people in power try to use that power for personal gain in one way or another;
• and even you and I do not have the final say in how the world, or even our lives, will run.
All of us, every last one of us,
NEED the salvation, mercy, forgiveness, and love from God.
This salvation, mercy, forgiveness, grace, and love
come in the most unexpected, revolutionary, startling, surprising, radical, and apple-cart turning-over ways.
For example, God uses foreigners to make sure that the people know about hope – not just the Magi, but remember Ruth?
Jesus chooses to hang out with, befriend, teach, and eat with the rejected ones, the outcasts, and the powerless of society.
Jesus, as an infant and as a full grown man known as a rabbi, is vulnerable himself,
and yet shows great strength in that vulnerability.
God works through the Magi and through dreams.
God helps a family escape violence to become refugees.
Jesus comes in love and mercy.
He comes to save.
He comes with forgiveness and reconciliation, as a bridge builder (even becoming that bridge to cross the chasm).
He comes as love, leaving out no one who is in need –
even if it takes forever for us to admit that we actually NEED help.
This Christmas story is disturbing and a bit shocking.
It can make us feel anger and/or sadness.
Yet, all throughout, there is the presence and the love of God – even for the innocents who are killed, and for the mommas and daddies who wept.
Throughout our world is the presence and love of God
• for the innocents and their parents,
• for the seekers who experience manipulation, but also listen for wisdom,
• for those who wield power yet are frightened,
• for all of us when we worry that we aren’t good enough.
Throughout our world is the presence and love, and mercy of God.
This is our hope.
This is the salvation of us all.
This is the Incarnation in which we live every day.
God is with you, no matter what.
God loves and claims you, no matter what.
This is the Good News of Great Joy
which cannot be thwarted by anything – anything! –
because the power of God’s love is greater.
Amen
