Sermon for SMHP, Worship at our house, Epiphany Sunday, Jan.
7, 2018
In the time
of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the
East came to Jerusalem, 2asking,
“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.” 3When King Herod heard this, he was
frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and
calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired
of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5They
told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a
ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” 7Then
Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time
when the star had appeared. 8Then
he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and
when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him
homage.”
9When they had heard the king, they set
out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising,
until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw that the star had stopped,
they were overwhelmed with joy. 11On
entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt
down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him
gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12And
having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own
country by another road.
Herod…was
a liar.
It
happens, sometimes, that the political leadership of a territory, a kingdom, a
nation…falls into the hands of someone who is a despicable liar.
It
falls then to the people who live under the rule of that leader—the despicable
liar—to decide how they shall live in the territory, kingdom, nation.
Will
they huddle together in safe spaces—catacombs, churches…social media…and
denounce the leader…thereby effecting no change, but allowing themselves to
bask in the glow of their own right-ness?
Or
will they find ways to subvert a system gone corrupt? Will they practice liberation…the best
resistance technique for those whose power is neither monetary nor political?
The
story before us this morning is a story of liberation.
The
nativity of Jesus Christ is a story of liberation.
This
is the story of how God liberated God’s people, not through military might, nor
through a political coup—but by the brave witness of a long string of people
who belong more to the margins than to the halls of power.
Think
about how this story lines up. Remember
how Luke begins his telling?
In those days a
decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be
registered. This was the first registration and
was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Men
of power: Caesar Augustus—first Roman
Emperor—renamed “Augustus”—the illustrious one—by the Roman Senate. (Sometimes the Senate goes along with a
despotic ruler.)
Publius
Sulpicius Quirinius—Governor of Syria, to which Judea was added for the purpose
of the census.
Luke
opens the story of the birth of Jesus with men of power. But what happens next? The baby is born, and laid in a manger,
“because there was no place for them at the inn.”
Jesus
was born in the world of Augustus and Quirinius…in a stable.
What’s
the next line? “In that region, there
were shepherds, abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by
night.”
The
Word came into the world of Augustus and Quirinius. And the first to hear of it, and tell of it,
were shepherds.
This
is a story of liberation.
Matthew
tells the story differently. See if you
hear an echo, though: In the time of
King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East
came to Jerusalem.
Herod
the Great. Jesus the baby. Wise men from the East.
This
is a story of liberation. It is a story
that is sometimes used to separate people from one another, which makes no
sense if we truly listen to the
story.
Persian
astrologers—people pretty far outside mainstream Judean society—came to find
Jesus. Indeed, they saved Jesus, by taking a different road home.
It
was a subversive act: taking a different
road. One of the tools of liberation, as
the prophets and evangelists have taught them to us, is simply refusing to
participate in an unjust system. Those
wise guys from the margins subverted
Herod the Despicable Liar by simply refusing to participate in his plan to
destroy the good which came into the world with Jesus.
It
was good news for the whole world—Persians, and shepherds, and working class
folks from Nazareth.
Addicts
and janitors and investment bankers—good news for them all!
And
allowing the good news to grow and be heard by the whole world sometimes means
taking a different road.
Taking
a different road can be an act of liberation.
We
are living in a time of deep division. A
time in which faith in Jesus Christ has been twisted into a justification for
drawing lines between groups of people.
Those
wise men who saved Jesus…would fall under the current travel ban and be
precluded from traveling to the US.
The
separation in our nation and beyond is palpable these days. White supremacists are recreating the horrors
of forgotten decades…and centuries, and often dragging Jesus into their
rhetoric.
From
those who have little, more is being demanded.
And
the response of those who find the whole thing…despicable…is often a lot of
foot-stamping that changes nothing. I am
chief among the foot-stampers, so I know of which I speak.
So
I feel fully able to say, “let’s take a different road,” since I need that word
myself.
There’s
got to be a different road than tweeting and posting and grousing about all the
people who look and think and act differently than we do. Because the road we are on is taking us to
Herod’s Palace of Paranoia.
It’s
a new year. It’s Epiphany Sunday. And we need a new road.
I
think all of those ideas fit together rather nicely.
What
if in this new year (and maybe the next couple of years as well) we commit to
listening to people who have ideas different from ours. And really listening, not that listening you
do when you’re really just formulating what you’re going to say next. What if we saw everyone else as a beloved
child of God, and worked hard to reveal the love of Jesus to them?
Which
means we continue to stand up for what Jesus has revealed to us, right? We continue to witness to the child who was
revealed to the ones on the margins. We
continue to work for the liberation of those on the margins.
But
we do that by loving the ones at the center, as we love the ones on the margins.
And everybody in between.
Because
if we can reveal Christ to Herod, we can set this whole world on a different
road.
If
we can reveal Christ to those who know only Herod’s ways, the light will shine in darkness.
And
the darkness will be overcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment