“Following Our Stars”
Rev. Dr. Tom Bohache
Sunday, January 10, 2016 at MCC CTL
Feast of the Epiphany
Ancient Reading—Matthew 2:1-12 (NRSV)
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of
Judea, magi from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “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; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the
people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been
written by the prophet: 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.”
Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them
the exact time when the star had appeared. Then 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.” When 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.
When they saw that the star had stopped, they were
overwhelmed with joy. On 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. And having been warned
in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country
by another road.
Contemporary Reading—From “Matthew 1-2 and Roman
Political Power” by Warren Carter (in the anthology New
Perspectives on the Nativity, edited by Jeremy Corley; London
and New York: T&T Clark International, 2009, pp. 77-78): “To
follow Jesus—crucified by Rome—is to follow one who
disturbs any political system with searching questions about its
vision of society . . . Roman imperial power pervades the world
of Jesus’ birth, as well as the world of the folks for whom
Matthew’s Gospel was written . . . [T]wenty-first-century
readers of Matthew’s story of Jesus’ origins would do well to be
attuned to the imperial realities that Matthew’s Gospel assumes
but that are not often evident to us.”
"How can I say thanks for the things you have done for me-things so undeserved, yet you gave to prove your love for me?" - Andrae Crouch, "My Tribute"
The words from that song resonate with me today as we once
again celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany -- when Mary and
Joseph shared the child Jesus with foreign visitors.
For, you see, Epiphany is all about giving and receiving gifts
and being so thankful for those gifts that you want to share
them.
The magi brought gifts to honor one they were convinced was a
new born King.
They were generous to people they did not even know.
And Mary and Joseph gave them back the gift of showing -manifesting -- the Christ to them.
Epiphany means "manifestation" or "showing."
It is about manifesting the gift we receive each year at Christmas
-- the Christ --- and sharing this Christ with others, perhaps or
especially even outside our comfort zones.
The Daily Word, a devotional I am trying to read every day, said
this in the selection for Friday: "When we use our gifts to bless
and serve others, we are doing holy work."
What good is a gift if you put it away and never use it?
Now I'm not sure that Mary knew what to do with gold,
frankincense, and myrrh, but I'm sure she was grateful in her
own way and used them as best she could.
There's a cartoon making the rounds on Facebook that shows the
3 wiser women who come after the 3 wise men, and they bring
gifts of diapers, blankets, and baby wipes.
But back to our story today.
The birth of Jesus is recorded in two different ways in two
different gospels. But they have been mixed together by
tradition, so that when you see a crèche, it's got the manger, the
animals, the shepherds and the sheep, the angels, the innkeeper,
the three wise men, and even sometimes Santa Claus and the
little drummer boy.
But our story from Matthew about the magi visiting Mary and
Joseph has nothing to do with animals or a manger or shepherds
or angels.
Mary and Joseph appear to be living in a house, and Jesus is a
toddler not an infant.
No matter.
What matters is that these foreign visitors came to see the Christ
child -- following yonder star!
And Mary and Joseph were not afraid of those foreigners the
way we are sometimes afraid of foreigners today.
They accepted their gifts, strange as they were, and gave them
back the gift of Christ.
So the first message from our story is to share Christ with
others.
You've received Christ into your hearts and souls again at
Christmas, and it's up to you to do something with that gift.
How can you pay it forward?
How can you share the love that Christ represents?
How can you reach across barriers and boundaries and manmade divisions to embrace one human family?
It's hard to know how to do that on a daily basis.
Every day we have challenges in our path, obstacles that would
seek to turn us away from the way of justice-making and lovesharing.
But at those times the grace of God shines forth to us like a star
and leads us onward.
The question is, will we follow that star or reject it?
Will we shut ourselves away from others, or will we embrace
them?
Will we sit down in the middle of our journey and refuse to
budge, or will we follow the messages -- the stars -- that God
sends us every day?
I think Warren Carter, the author of today's contemporary
reading, can suggest the second message we can glean from
today's scripture.
He is professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School in
Dallas/Fort Worth, and he is well known for bringing the social
sciences to the study of the Bible.
In our reading today, he says that you can't fully understand
Jesus unless you realize that the political cannot be separated out
from the story.
Jesus was born into a country and a people who were oppressed
by the Roman Empire.
They were looking for a messiah who would make a difference
not just spiritually but politically and economically.
They were triply taxed -- by Rome, by King Herod, and by the
temple priests.
What little bit they had left had to go a long way.
And there was overcrowding in the towns and overplanting of
the land, famine, drought, poverty and disease.
Moreover, they lived in a society where everybody was
suspicious of and threatened by everybody else.
Those who were different or were in a minority were especially
at risk.
Does that sound familiar at all?
Well, behind the scenes in our story is the looming threat of the
political machinery.
The magi were from a foreign land that the Roman Empire was
there to keep in check -- the Parthian Empire, which was just
beyond Palestine's borders.
Their travel could have been impeded. They could have been on
their equivalent of a "no fly list" and given a hard time just for
being foreign.
And yet they dared to follow the star that they discovered at its
rising because they knew that there would be something
wonderful at the end of their journey.
They encounter King Herod, who was one of the most paranoid
and bloodthirsty rulers in history.
He was in constant fear that his crown and his kingdom would
be taken away from him, and to that end he had a network of
informers and secret police.
He put to death his mother, two of his brothers, one of his wives,
and several of his children, because he was afraid they would
usurp him.
And so when he meets the magi and they tell him that there has
been born one who will be King of the Jews, he is disturbed.
"I'm the King of the Jews!" he bellowed. "No one else!
Find out where the messiah is to be born."
And his advisers tell him in Bethlehem.
So he directs the magi there. But first he tells them to let him
know where they find the child so he too can pay him homage.
Luckily the magi follow the star and another message from God
and go home by another route.
But in the next part of his gospel, just after our reading, Matthew
tells about how Herod sent out his soldiers to slaughter every
boy under 2 years old.
That's how paranoid he was.
Luckily Jesus and his family got away safely, but what we can
learn from this I think is that even though the times might be
difficult politically or economically, we still must keep on
keeping on.
We still must continue to follow our stars.
We still must listen to the messengers God sends into our paths.
Am I making any sense?
What I am trying to say is that we miss the point if we treat this
story with sentimentality.
We miss the point if we see the magi as 3 strange visitors who
arrive a little late for Christmas.
We fail to learn the lesson of our faith if we think that the birth
of Christ means business as usual.
On the contrary, I believe that Christ was sent to earth to stir
things up, to show a different way, to challenge oppression, and
to teach people how to live together beyond their fears and their
suspicions.
If we don't receive that gift this Epiphany, then we will miss out
on a chance to change our world.
And ultimately, that's what a religious community is all about -"community" comes from words meaning "to build together."
When we come together and share our worship together we are
saying that we want to build something together.
What that something is depends on the people making up the
community, but I believe any Christian community must be
about building a world that follows the Christ Way -- the path of
love and justice and liberation and fairness for all people, not
just those who are privileged because of their skin color or their
gender or their sexual orientation or their bank account.
I remind us again of those wise words from the Daily Word:
"When we use our gifts to bless and serve others, we are doing
holy work."
One of the best things about the New Year is that we get a
chance to start over.
We get a chance to make resolutions, many of which we won't
fulfill.
But I'd like to suggest something a little different this year, in
line with the message of receiving and giving gifts.
The greatest gift God gives each one of us is our authentic self,
that piece of the Divine Spirit that lives in you and makes you
the unique creation you are.
Many of us are out of touch with our authentic self.
Society often teaches us that who we are at our most basic point
is wrong or should be changed.
But the Good News of Christ to us is that we were created in the
image and likeness of God.
God knows you inside and out.
God wants you to prosper and thrive and to love the self that
God has given you.
That is how we can give back a gift to God -- by accessing our
authentic self and loving it and using it for the good of all.
So this year, if you'd like a resolution, try thinking about how
you can uncover and find again that basic you that God created
and loves unconditionally.
Allow that authentic self to shine forth like a star and follow it
all year long so that next year you can be proud of the fact that
you not only received God's gift to you but did something with
it.
AMEN!