God Through Us: Jan 4

Matthew 2:13-23                                                        

                My son Joshua has played a variety of parts in many different pageants.  He was the baby Jesus when he was 8 months old, then a sheep for a few years.  When he was 2 ½, he was a reluctant sheep.  He was in a very outspoken and independent phase.  I was terrified of an outburst.  But he did fine and then the pageant directors surprised me a little.  They added an epilogue which included the story of Jesus returning from Egypt with his parents. Jesus would have been about 3 when he returned from Egypt, so they put Joshua in the place of Jesus. Joshua wandered back center stage looking extremely confused and a little scared and I found myself tearing up.  They weren’t really happy tears.  It was the first time I imagined Jesus as a scared child being taken out of the only home he had known (which was Egypt) and brought back to a land his parents had fled because their son’s life had been at risk.  It must have been traumatic for them all.

It was unsettling to feel that grief in the midst of a Christmas Eve pageant.  However,  I think that being unsettled can sometimes be good, even at Christmas.  Christmas is wonderful and joyful day, but there can also be a small (or even large) degree of grief in the midst of it.  It might be a parent or a spouse who has recently died, a child who can’t share the holiday with you, a family that is a little fractured…every loss feels that much bigger on Christmas.  So while it’s not typical or comfortable, today we are hearing the story of the sadness and the loss that happened on the very first Christmas. 

            This story from our Gospel today is referred to as the slaughter or massacre of the innocents.  Typically the reading leaves out the part about Herod killing the children under the age of 2 in and around Bethlehem, but I put it back in. I think the people who put the lectionary together were trying to keep the focus on God’s saving act rather than the actions of a corrupt and power hungry ruler.

            However, the author of Matthew put this story in his Gospel for a reason.  Many biblical scholars have pointed out that there are no historical accounts of this mass killing of children under the age of two, but others have suggested that it was not an unexpected act from a man like Herod. He had killed his wife and three sons to protect his power, what was a few dozen children to him when it meant he could protect himself from the future king? 

This all started with the devoted magi who brought gifts to Jesus and his parents.  We all know that story.  Unfortunately since they were following a star, which never provide exact locations, they first went to Jerusalem and told people that they had observed a star and were looking for “the king of the Jews.” This might seem a little far fetched to us, but it was common for people to associate the birth of kings or great men with the appearance of stars.  When Herod heard that these wise men had come from far away in search of a king, he sensed a potential threat. He sought the counsel of his own advisors and they told him that the prophets said that this messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. He called the wise men to him and shared this helpful information with the request that they tell him once they found him so he too could worship him.  Fortunately the wise men were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they didn’t.  

            That is where our story picks up today.  Joseph was warned by an angel in a dream to flee to Egypt.  The angel doesn’t tell him why, but Joseph obeyed. (He was very good at following angelic directions.) The family fled in the middle of the night and traveled all the way to Egypt.  Egypt was part of the Roman Empire at the time, but Herod had no control there.  We don’t know why this fleeing was necessary until we hear of Herod’s response to the realization that the wise men didn’t return to him and tell him exactly where this baby was.  Herod ordered the execution of children age two and under. Fortunately, by the time he realized this and ordered this slaughter, Jesus and his parents had already fled, but Herod didn’t know this.  Unfortunately, many children were still killed, leaving families heartbroken in Bethlehem.

Then there is this strange reference to Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children;  she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”  There is only one Rachel in the Bible and she is in Genesis.  She was married to Jacob and bore two children—Joseph and Benjamin.  Neither of them died before she did, thus, leaving people confused by this reference.  It is believed that Matthew included these verses because Rachel is considered one of the matriarchs of the Jewish people.  This reference to her weeping is a reminder of the exile of the Jewish people to Babylon.  No doubt, countless people died.  Even though Rachel had died by the time the Babylonian exile happened and by the time Jesus was born, Rachel still wept for all those children who died.  It was a way to recognize the loss.

The author of Matthew loved to find ways to connect the story of Jesus to the story of the Jewish people.  Matthew is essentially resurrecting these lost voices of the mothers and fathers who lost their children long ago.   By including this in the birth story of Jesus, Matthew isn’t only providing a connection to the story of the Hebrew people, he’s also acknowledging the losses that have happened over the centuries…lives that have been lost through war and tyranny.  Every one of those lives was precious.  Every one of those people who died was a child of God (that includes all the people of Israel and Palestine—all the people of the world).  History forgets, but God never does.

            Why does this story of atrocity appear in the Gospel of Matthew?  Is it to show that Jesus escaped through God’s divine intervention?  If so, what does that say about the children who died? Why would Matthew even tell this story?  I think he knew it was important what kind of environment Jesus was born into--the fear that gripped his family from the moment he was born.

Just like families today who are forced to flee their homes looking for a place free of persecution, Jesus was part of a family that left their home looking for safety.  That is something that everyone deserves...to be safe. Fortunately, Herod’s reach was limited and they were able to find a place they could stay, even for a while.  It’s ironic that we focus so much around Christmas about the story from Luke and no room in the inn, when the bigger story is where they were welcomed.  They were welcomed in a foreign land for years.  Foreigners welcome Jesus and his family.

Once Herod died, they were able to return to their home…but not quite.  They still had to change course. They couldn’t go to the place they planned because of another corrupt leader. They shifted course one more time thanks to Joseph’s willingness to listen to God and follow where God guided him. 

While part of me finds it strange to have this story of heartbreak and violence so close to the Christmas story, another part of me sees that it is consistent with who Jesus was and who he still is. He is committed to not just serving the least of these, but being with the least of these, with the persecuted and the forgotten. 

But there is another piece of this story that we can overlook if we focus on the violence and persecution. Joseph listened to God every step of the way.  It was his faithfulness and devotion that allowed him to hear God’s word and allow it to guide them through life. I understand the importance of action and protest….but as Christians, we can’t skip the step where we listen for the wisdom of God.  Because if we listen, God will guide us on the right path.  We won’t be guaranteed success---at least not success as the world sees it.  Jesus was still crucified even after all that listening and protecting Joseph did.  But if we listen and lay down our pride and need for control, God will work through us. One of the words we hear on Christmas Eve is Emmanuel, which means, God with us.  After Christmas, we need to focus on a different preposition---God through us.  How can we help other by allowing God to work through us?

I used a lot of information from this article for this sermon: Eugene Park, “Rachel’s Cry for Her Children: Matthew’s Treatment of the Infanticide by Herod,” CBQ 75 (2013): 473–85.

Kings of Defiance: January 5 2025

 Year C, Christmas 2/Epiphany                                  Matthew 2:1-12                                        

        The first church I served put on a rather elaborate Christmas pageant every year.  The sanctuary was transformed to the hills of Bethlehem.  Every year we would try different scripts with slightly different takes on the story.  One year, we decided to include King Herod in the pageant.  Instead of just having three wise men wander up to the manger, we had them stop first at Herod’s palace to inquire about the star that they had been following. We had a teenage boy play the part of Herod.  This boy was kind of meant to play Herod.  He was one of those kids who only had one volume and it was loud and authoritative.  (He’s now a Marine officer if that helps.)  He really leaned into the role and I realized when people gasped a little at his loud proclamation --why Herod doesn’t usually end up in pageants.  It’s just not the vibe people are expecting on Christmas Eve.  We want gentle, joyful, meek and mild---a story told as if we threw a gossamer fabric over the camera lens.   We don’t want gritty and real.  We have all the reality we need.

But today is the 11^th day of Christmas, which means we can remove the gossamer filter and talk about Herod.  Because Herod is clearly an important part of this story. The Gospel of Matthew tells the birth of Jesus in 1 verse.  There are no shepherds, no angels announcing the good news.  We hear nothing about Mary’s thoughts or feelings. There is a reason that we read from the Gospel of Luke on Christmas Eve and not from Matthew.   It’s interesting given the lack of details about the birth, that there would be that much information on Herod and the magi. 

The first line of chapter 2 reads: “In the time of King Herod...” It was important to the author of the Gospel that the person reading or hearing this story knew the historical context...knew the kind of political climate that Jesus was being born into.  Just to clarify, there are a few Herods who appear in the New Testament.  This was Herod the Great---not the same Herod who killed John the Baptist or was involved in Jesus’ trial.  They were related of course and had a fair amount in common.  Both were deeply insecure about their rule and were prone to rash decisions. They would do just about anything to protect their power.  Jesus was born at the end of Herod the Great’s reign.  At this point in Herod the Great’s rule, he was known to be unstable and dangerous. He had killed many at this point, including his 2^nd wife and three of his sons. 

        These magi (which means astrologer) had travelled quite a distance. They probably didn’t know of Herod’s reputation.  They were following a star, but as you can imagine, stars probably don’t provide the clearest directions…which is how they ended up in Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem.  They might not have been from the area, but they knew that Jerusalem was the seat of power and if they were looking for someone important enough to be represented by a star, that person was probably in an important city like Jerusalem.  And who better to lead them to that important person, than another important person--- King Herod.

        While King Herod was insecure, power hungry and prone to violence, he did have the information they needed---or more accurately, he had advisors who were experts in the Hebrew scriptures.  These experts were able to point the magi in the right direction, to a small town called Bethlehem. While the magi got the information they needed, their inquiry alarmed Herod and all in his orbit. The text says that all of Jerusalem was terrified by the news that these magi from the east were looking for a special person to worship. 

We just think of this story as a nice little epilogue on to our pageant, but for some reason, the presence of these astrologers threatened a whole city.  Why? Because they wanted to pay him homage.  That is what the text says.  They were there to worship someone, and that person was not Herod.  The knowledge that a greater power was in his midst terrified Herod. The reason that all Jerusalem was terrified was because a scared and threatened Herod was a dangerous Herod.  The people of Jerusalem knew that as long as Herod was threatened, there could be no safety in their city.

         King Herod asked the magi to return to him after they had discovered this child so he could worship him.  We all know that his intentions were bad, but these magi from out of town probably didn’t.  I am sure that they had every intention of returning to this helpful king.  But something altered their path.  The first thing is that they found Jesus and as soon as they saw this infant with his young mother, they worshipped that child and gave him expensive gifts that were gifts much more appropriate for a king than a baby. They saw something in this child. They also trusted the signs that brought them to this place, which required courage and confidence.  I feel like if I was in their situation and travelled all this way to find a regular baby with no special powers born to ordinary parents in a backwater town, I might wonder, was I wrong? Did I follow the right star?

It would seem these men had more than wisdom, more than expertise in the night sky and an adventurous spirit. They also had faith.  That faith enabled them to see something that most others couldn’t see.  It also empowered them to listen to a dream that told them not to return to Herod…which is kind of amazing when you think about it. They were told by a powerful man to return to him and they didn’t.  They found the courage to defy him and return another way.

        I have to admit until this year, I never thought of the courage and defiance of these wise men from the east.  I thought of them as dreamers and seekers. They were so much more than that.  Within just a few days, they encountered 2 kings—1 king who wielded power through threats and displays of violence, and one king who chose to enter the world as vulnerable as possible.

Reading this story as not just a sweet story about magi and stars, but about courage and power has made me wonder how we all identify power in our lives and who we choose to worship, to pay homage to. Who are we bowing before? These magi didn’t simply trust what they were being told by someone in authority, they trusted in their experience of the divine. Imagine the courage that must have required, to defy the order of a king because of what you saw in a star, a baby and a dream.

There are times in our lives when we have to trust our experience and our faith and not listen to whoever the loudest and most authoritative voice is at any given time.  Those voices have a tendency to drown other voices out--- to drown out truth.  I have been ordained for 19 years and there are still many times when I question my own experience of faith, my own encounter of the divine.  What I keep coming back to is the magi and their willingness to bow before an infant, to see power where most would see weakness and to listen to dreams that many would have dismissed. 

It’s kind of amazing the power of dreams in the first few chapters of Matthew. A dream convinced Joseph to take a pregnant Mary as his wife, instead of divorcing her.  A dream led the magi away from Herod and home another way.  A dream convinced Joseph that he, Mary and Jesus had to flee to Egypt because Herod was going to search for and kill all the male children under 2. In this story, dreams saved the King of Peace.

While I am not telling you all to follow every crazy dream you have, I do hope, in this season of the Epiphany that we can open ourselves to see God in the most unexpected of places— to find hope where others see despair, to acknowledge evil when we see it, and to discover the courage we have forgotten we have.  Because that courage will enable us to defy the powers that would seek to control and trample so many of God’s children. Instead, we can embrace the powers that seek to lift others up.  Jesus never wielded power by controlling people.  He displayed power through sacrifice and love.  That is the only God we bow before.