Matthew 2:1-12
Now What?
James Sledge January
6, 2013, Epiphany
Our
family went down to see relatives in South Carolina after Christmas. We’ve always done Christmas at our house, and
then traveled to the grandparents. But
now it’s over. We made the drive back on
Tuesday. There are still remnants of
Christmas morn lying around at the house, but more and more are being put
away. The tree is getting pretty
dry. Time to haul it out. When we had an
artificial tree, we sometimes left it up till late January. But no one acted like it was still Christmas. Christmas is over, and we all know it. Now what?
Although
many of us like to attach the Wise Men to the Christmas story, adding them to our
nativity scenes, they are a post-Christmas story. The shepherds are all gone. The angels are all gone. In fact, they never even made an appearance
in Matthew’s gospel. There is no stable
or manger. Mary and Jesus live in a
house, and Jesus is no longer a newborn.
He crawls or perhaps even walks around the house, getting into things
like any toddler does.
In his gospel, Matthew doesn’t say very much
about Jesus’ actual birth. It is noted
only briefly in the story of the angel telling Joseph to wed the already
pregnant Mary. He took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until
she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus. Jesus has been born and
been named with a name meaning “he saves.”
God’s anointed is here. Now what?
The
story of the Wise Men is a “now what?” story, and so it may be a good thing
that the story has gotten attached to Christmas. As much as we may enjoy the Christmas season
and as much as it may touch us, there is a tendency simply to bask in its
warmth, to drink in its hope and promise without ever asking, “Now what?” But the story of the Wise Men won’t allow
that. It alerts us to choices that must
be made, to powers that do not want God’s new day. It warns us of danger.
Not
that we should be surprised. Luke’s
gospel tells us that Jesus is born in the city of David, but no royalty, no
elite, no powerful are invited to visit, only shepherds, widely regarded as
crass, uneducated, unreligious ruffians. Today we might call them rednecks,
laughing that they prefer Hank Williams Jr. to Bach, theater, or symphony. But
they alone visit the manger.
In
Matthew’s gospel, God invites other, unlikely guests, sages from the east. God
alerts them via a star, but it must not have been anything like the stars on
Christmas cards. It couldn’t because
only these foreigners seem to notice it.
Who knows exactly what it was. Perhaps
a faint comet or distant super nova which appeared as a star where none had
been before. Regardless, its appearance
was such that only these pagan astrologers noticed it and somehow interpreted
it as a divine sign of a newborn Jewish king.
Spurred
by this heavenly sign, the sages investigate, making their way to Jerusalem,
the capital. No one in Jerusalem has
noticed the star, but the sage’s report of it and their questions about a newborn
king shakes up everyone. That reaction
has always struck me. We think the birth
of a Messiah is good news. We celebrate
and sing carols. But all of Jerusalem is
frightened, agitated, stirred up. And Herod
begins planning how to be rid of this Messiah.
Herod calls him “Messiah.” The
Wise Men asked for the child born king of the Jews, but no one will use that
title for Jesus again until Pilate does when Jesus is on trial.
Jesus
is born. Now what? In Matthew’s gospel foreigners, foreigners
with questionable religious backgrounds, get a sign from God and come to
worship. Meanwhile, insiders, including
those with impeccable religious credentials, are all upset. And the power in town looks to preserve that
power by whatever means necessary.
The
story only gets worse, snuffing out any remaining oohs and aahs from Christmas. Perhaps trying to maintain some of the happy
atmosphere of Christmas, the appointed verses for today stop with the Wise Men
avoiding Herod and returning home by another road. But the story does not end there. Herod flew into a rage and ordered all the male
children in Bethlehem younger than two killed.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph escape, but the carnage is horrible. It was like the Sandy Hook shootings, only
carried out by the government.
I’ll
say this for Herod. He realizes what is
at stake. The inhabitants of Jerusalem
seem to realize it too. They know that a
Messiah, a king, means much more than carols and candlelight. He threatens the status quo. He is a danger to all those in power,
religious and otherwise. He is a danger
to all those who are comfortable. If he
is king then Herod and everyone in Jerusalem are his subjects, called to obey
him and do his will. They must answer to
him, and they must be judged by him. For
Herod, the “Now what?” of Christmas meant doing anything to prevent that.
And
for us…? Sometimes it seems hard for us
to find the “now what?” of Christmas. The
end of Christmas is like the end of football season. There’s not much to do except discuss the
last one or wait for the next one. But
Matthew’s gospel insists that Christmas invades our reality, shaking things up
and demanding hard choices. Unexpected
outsiders worship Jesus and offer him the finest gifts they have. But others are threatened by the sound of
this kingdom where the last are first, grudges must be abandoned, loving and
serving God are more important than money or success, enemies must be prayed
for, and everyone must share what they have with those in need. Many, many of
us, want nothing of such a kingdom.
Yet
despite all that opposes it, God’s will moves forward, and the “now what?” of
Christmas emerges. T. S. Eliot hints at this
in his “Journey of the Magi,” where a sage says,
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation.
The
“now what?” of Christmas emerges from this unease with business as usual, from
a discomfort with a world that is
threatened by the ways of King Jesus.
Christmas
is over, and many of us have or will simply slide back into business as usual,
into the ways of a broken world. But
others are ill at ease and can no longer live in quite the same manner. And out
of this dis-ease, God’s will and the ways of Jesus’ kingdom are revealed in the
faithful acts of individuals and congregations and communities.
Christmas
is over. Now what?
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