WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
January 4th 2008
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Baby Trouble”
Epiphany Sunday
Communion Sunday
Isaiah 60:1-6; Mark 2:1-18
By the time Epiphany arrives most of us are too tired from Christmas to take much notice. If you are anything like me, there is something strangely satisfying about getting all the Christmas decorations put away. It may be due to the ever lengthening Christmas Season. But whatever the reason, once Christmas day is over, most of us are ready to move on. However in the church Christmas lasts until Epiphany. The celebration of the visitation of the Magi is a celebration most of us have little energy to acknowledge. As a result this part of Christmas gets left out.
Leaving out Epiphany can create the belief that Christmas is an entirely happy occasion. Even the lectionary reading for Epiphany ends with the Magi going home by a different road. The death of the baby boys under the age of two is absent. This exclusion has real life consequences. When we detach Christmas from the resistance of Herod to the birth of Jesus’ Christianity can easily become an overly privatized affair. However, if we consider the entire story of the Magi’s visit we learn that privatized faith is not the intent of Christmas.
The Magi, these visitors from the East are strange folks who were not always well liked or even trusted. They did strange things like listen to dreams and watch stars. The Magi might very well be referred to a spiritual people but not religious. Yet, God chose to speak to and through them in order to announce that a new king had been born. It was not through the religiously faithful or the professional religious folks; instead it took an outsider to see what everyone else could not.
Now while these Magi may have been spiritually astute they do not seem to be particularly politically savvy. After all, they search out the current King to ask about his replacement. The news of this sends shockwaves through all of Jerusalem. The center of the religious and political establishment never takes change as welcome news. In order to deal with baby trouble, Herod speaks with the Magi at night and issues his “secret memo:” When you find the child let me know so I may worship him.
When the Magi find the child they worship him and then listen to a new dream. The Magi return home by another way. Because they trusted dreams more than they feared political power. Their faithfulness allowed Joseph to take his family to safety. It is an impressive faithfulness for folks raised outside the faith.
The lectionary ends with the Magi going home by a different route. But the story is only half complete. Herod flies into a rage knowing that he was tricked by people who followed stars and listened to dreams. (It must have been rather embarrassing.) What Herod does next is horrifying, or at least is should be for those who celebrated the birth of the baby. In order to maintain his power and to bring calm to Jerusalem Herod orders all male babies, under the age of two, murdered. I suppose leaving this part out of the story does make it easier to enjoy a nativity scene.
If you are looking for some solace or way out of this difficult reality there is one, at least sort of. Historians and biblical scholars have concluded that this mass slaughter did not occur. It is believed that if this had indeed occurred that some record would have been kept. Instead, we are told that this passage is to be read as metaphor for the slaughter of babies in Egypt. But I have a different take on things. I do not believe there has to be an either or in this situation. While it is important to know that all those whom God has chosen, have never been welcomed with open arms by the powerful, there is something else we ought to consider.
Is it really so outside the realm of possibility that an event of this nature occur and there be no record? Consider for a few moments that we no longer live in an age where civilian casualties are a major concern. If you think I am overstating the case consider that a new report shows that in our modern wars- post-Vietnam - that ninety percent of all casualties of war are non-combatants, civilians. I will give you a moment to let that sink in. It is no longer the policy of our own nation to keep track of the death of combatants let alone civilians. We live in a time now where we can imagine that these deaths would even go unnoticed. It may be hard to hear but right now most of us have no idea how many civilian casualties have occurred in Iraq or Afghanistan or in Gaza, just to name the most well known conflicts. It is hard to hear these things and even harder to speak them. But they are unacceptable to those of us whose birth caused the destruction of life so serve the political needs of those in charge.
There is no doubt that this text is dealing with larger than life issues. Many of which we really have no power to change. However, I do believe it has much to teach us about living faithfully in this world. It is true that we live in a world where innocent people die in massive numbers. We do know an age where religious leaders act in ways that are less than faithful. And we do know something about politicians who offer secret memos to magi. So who shall we look to for faithful living? The odd twist in this passage is that the faithful ones are those who watch stars and listen to dreams. It is the Magi and Joseph who point us to the way of faithfulness. To remain faithfully engaged in our fragmented world we must take our cues from the odd and unusual places. We must remain faithful to the strange ways in which God is at work in the world. We may not be able to change the course of history by our access to the places of power, but we might be able to change the world when we listen to the voice that says: “Go home by another way!” Amen? Amen!
