I started this sermon with wondering why "all Jerusalem" was frightened right along with Herod. Then I blissed out at how the Matthew text brings to fruition Isaiah's prophecy. The Isaiah text was extremely important to my parents, and was in fact the sermon text for my mother's funeral, so the imagery of arising in the light of eternity, long lines of camels, children returning from afar, and boatloads of seafood have long brought me joy and comfort.
The Revised Common Lectionary texts for this week are:
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12
I love how this week's word cloud puts "king" and "Jesus" right together, carrying a message in space that matches the message of the written/spoken text.
(Note: forgive the number of words in all caps. In preaching I would emphasize those words but the subtlety of the spoken word gets lost, and I'm not good enough at HTML to make italics and bold and all the other fancy things show up. Maybe someday...)
Come Holy Spirit. Speak through these words, send them where you will, touch our hearts, and show us how to love everyone you love. Amen.
Kings.
Kings are all over this week’s lessons, as we celebrate Epiphany – the arrival of the Magis who had followed a star to the place where Jesus lay. Or, since he might have been as old as 2 and completely human, we might say the place where Jesus ran around being a little cutie and asking “why?” a lot.
In Isaiah, we hear all about kings, and gold, and incense. Also camels, and boats, and sons and daughters. The coming of LIGHT.
In fact, it is this very passage from Isaiah that has been used to supplement Matthew’s description of the wise men.
Were there 3? Because they brought three gifts? Or was it more like the scene Isaiah describes with a caravan of camels, laden with gifts and all the supplies for a crowd of people traveling from far away? Just who were these wise guys?
And why was Herod and ALL JERUSALEM so afraid? Why would a bunch of rich guys looking for a baby be so scary? Academics (wise men) were likely not known for their fighting prowess.
Nope, they were probably Zoroastrian sages from Persia (definitely outsiders!) They were probably astrologers, or proto-astronomers, looking at the stars and trying to learn things from the patterns of movement and signs that showed up in the stars. And their job, the reason they did all that stargazing, was to make sure that THEIR king, the king of Persia, would be protected in his role as King of Kings.
Ah.
The people most responsible for, and therefore mostly likely to be loyal to, the “king of kings” were coming to find and worship a little baby.
Herod knew the prophecy that was in our passage from Isaiah. He knew about the king of Persia. He knew the job these sages played in their own world. And if they were coming to worship a baby king then that was a great big threat to King Herod. Not the most powerful king of all, and probably worried about holding on to his kingdom. But if the most loyal members of the king of kings’ household were changing alliances, well, that baby must be a powerful king indeed.
A new powerful king in the middle of Herod’s kingdom could throw the entire political landscape into turmoil. And if that powerful baby king aligned with the king of Persia, where did that leave the Kingdom of Herod?
Herod and all of Jerusalem were not thinking theologically in their fear, of course they weren’t. They were thinking politically.
As accustomed to thinking about things in political registers these days, we are not accustomed to politicians being babies (at least not infants or toddlers). But in a world of inherited power and intrigue, a baby could be a king and hold power even if the decision-making power was in the hands of, ummm… some wise sages. Who were willing to bring really great gifts. No wonder Herod and all Jerusalem were worried.
I’m sure my theologian friends would want to sit around and argue all those details but you might be thinking… what does any of that have to do with our lives today? We have elections and distributed power, not kings. It’s a different world. You can get gifts anywhere overnight, no need to follow a star! And regardless of how they behave, babies just can’t get elected. There are LAWS.
But we do worry about changes in political landscapes. Note the flurry of special sessions and rapidly passed legislation because of changes in Congress and the state legislature. In that regard things really have not changed all that much.
But it does lead me to ask…
Who is our king of kings? Who is YOUR king of kings? The King of Persia? Herod?
OR… if you are a Christian hearing (or reading) this, you likely immediately answered “Jesus is my king!” But what does that MEAN? What does that mean for us TODAY?
What does it say about outsiders from other faiths or other countries? What does it say about alliances and how we treat each other?
Herod responded to the news of Jesus’ birth by having all the baby boys killed. How do we respond to that same news?
Because unless you are Jewish, then you are also an outsider to the people of the promise. In the Christmas season that ended yesterday, we celebrated a baby… a baby who was not like us in so many ways.
So how do we respond to that news?
For example, when our chosen political party is out of power (or even when it is in power), and we hear the news of Jesus, what do we do?
When money is tight and the future is uncertain, and we hear the news of Jesus, how do we respond?
When you see an impoverished child asking for an expensive toy at Christmas, alongside news of the birth of Jesus, what do we think?
What does that baby king want us to do?
Jesus himself offered some really strong clues in Scripture, in the way he lived his life:
-- He was born to a virgin who traveled with someone who was not the father of her child.
--He prioritized his life at an early age, staying behind to study in the Temple even though it made his parents mad… but then went home and obeyed his parents.
--He declined to participate in stoning a woman who had clearly broken the laws of the day, and got the lawyers to recognize their own imperfections along the way.
--He distinguished between the act of worship and the business of worship, and was clear that the business of worship was not what God intended for the Temple.
--He declared that a criminal, duly convicted of actual crimes, would be in paradise with him. TODAY.
But whose bidding do we do? The civil and secular leaders? Or the leadership and example of our baby king Jesus?
Throughout Scripture Jesus defied the human laws of the systems of the day when they were at odds with loving every person in front of him. Again and again he showed up alongside the outsiders:
The Magi were invited with a star, despite being outsiders from another country, and not Jewish, (but conveniently, they were stargazers)
The women, who consistently got more respect from Jesus than from just about anybody else
The mentally ill, as he consistently brought healing instead of isolation and ostracism
The physically ill and outcast, the blind, diseased, and dead, whom Jesus healed and brought back to life rather than shunning them
Convicted criminals, one of whom was most notably invited into paradise
Yes, it is an important question. WHO IS YOUR KING OF KINGS?
Is it the law? Which law? The law of Congress? Or the law of love?
Is your king of kings financial security? Provided by whom? How?
Is your king of kings yourself? Your own logic of reason or passions?
There are times when each of those things – laws, finances, our own reason, logic, and passion – are important. Life goes better if we make proper use of those gifts. But there is a king who is important than any of them – the King of Kings.
The one worshipped by the Magi.
The one who lived and loved the people that made all the nice, law-abiding people uncomfortable.
The one who place the law of love so far above human law that the human legalists had to lash out and kill him.
The one who loved so much and so completely that even death could not hold him.
The one who rose from the dead and in that Resurrection declared all law fulfilled, so all we had left to do is love all the people:
The depressed
The arrogant
The convicted
The powerful
The powerless
The hungry
The overfed
The psychotic
The homeless
The average
The hopeful
The hopeless
The ones in decent housing and farmsteads and opulent mansions
The women and men, children and teenagers
The one who is precisely and exactly like you – and the one who is as different from you as possible.
There is nothing that excuses us from loving in the midst of suffering, welcoming the stranger, acknowledging the gifts of the outsiders.
There is no acceptable reason to not love in times of boredom, or in times of great excitement and glee and happiness and joy.
With Jesus as our King of Kings we are freed to love in complete confidence that the hard stuff is done. The obstacles are removed. Our redemption from the pain is won and there is plenty of love for everyone. And all each of us has to do is pass it around freely, lavishly, and extravagantly.
Amen
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