By Another Road (Sermon for Epiphany Sunday)

Scriptures:     Isaiah 60:1-6,  Psalm 147:12-20

            Ephesians 3:1-12,  Matthew 2:1-12

On the liturgical calendar, today is the last day of Christmas, and tomorrow, January 6, marks Epiphany, when we celebrate the revealing of the Christ child to the Gentiles – that would be us.  In the story of the church, you could say that Epiphany is where we come in.  In Matthew’s gospel, the revelation to the Gentiles is represented by the wise men or magi coming to bring their gifts to Jesus – and so Hispanic and other communities celebrate Three Kings Day.  

For Matthew’s original readers, the coming of the wise men or magi would have fulfilled the words of this morning’s reading from Isaiah.  In the Old Testament, there’s a very ambivalent attitude toward Gentiles: the Old Testament does not speak with one voice, but can be seen as a conversation with multiple voices at the table.  Jews are seen as God’s chosen, and so in much of the Old Testament, Gentiles are seen as outsiders if not potential enemies.  For example, when Joshua led the Hebrews into the promised land, they were told to kill all the inhabitants, to utterly destroy the Canaanites, and in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which describe the return from Babylonian exile, those who had intermarried with Babylonian wives were ordered to divorce and send away their wives.  But other books have a more welcoming attitude, such as Leviticus 19:33, which instructed the Hebrews to welcome the alien – “the alien among you shall be as the citizen among you”. The book of Ruth  describes how the Moabite Ruth becomes part of the lineage of King David.  Isaiah is part of this more welcoming stream of thought, as he envisions Israel as a light to the nations, and the surrounding nations coming to Israel for instruction and bringing their wealth.   And this ambivalence was also part of the early church, as Christ’s earliest followers struggled with the question of whether and how to include Gentiles in the community of faith.  Really it’s very similar to the debate in our own time about immigrants, those who see immigrants as a threat vs those who see immigrants as a blessing.  And the visit of the wise men gives Matthew’s readers early notice that Jesus is not just a savior for Jews, but for all who would seek Him.  The wise men would have been practitioners of Zoroastrianism, an ancient faith centered in Persia or modern day Iran…..and the current news of rising tensions with Iran, and the possibility of yet another war in the Middle East, casts an unsettling light on our annual remembrance of the Persian wise men, the ancestors of the Iranians, who brought their gifts to the Christ child – gifts which likely enabled the Holy Family to flee to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod.

These magi were wise in reading the stars, but perhaps less so in reading politics - or perhaps they were being deliberately provocative.   They sought one called the King of the Jews, and so of course they assumed the King would be found in the capital city, Jerusalem.  Having arrived in Jerusalem, they came to Herod to ask where they could find the king of the Jews. Just one problem: as far as Herod was concerned, Herod was the king of the Jews (even though in reality Herod was a puppet ruler, a stooge propped up by Rome).  Herod was king: no others need apply for that position.   By inquiring about a baby who Herod would see as a rival, the magi set off Herod's paranoia – as our Gospel said, “he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.”  “All Jerusalem” meant the power structure, including the Temple leadership, who depended on Herod for their own power and privilege.  That Temple leadership informed Herod and the wise men that the one they sought could be found not in Jerusalem, but in Bethlehem, a tiny village six miles down the road as the crow flies.   Herod tried to be cunning, asking the wise men to find the child and then send word so that he could pay homage.  The wise men made their journey and left their gifts – and then they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, who likely would have had them executed had they returned.  But even so, their visit to Jerusalem had tipped Herod off that he had a rival, and thus ensued the flight of Mary, Joseph, and the Babe to Egypt as refugees, and the massacre of the innocents, as Herod ordered all the children in Bethlehem two years and under to be slaughtered.

Jesus was not born in some moment of perfect peace, but "in the time of King Herod", a time of brutal injustice. Figuratively speaking, so long as oppression and injustice surround us, we still live in the time of King Herod.  Of course, the King Herod of history is long dead, but his spiritual descendants are still with us, and have many names.  Throughout history, Herod – or his spiritual descendants - have ruled whenever might makes right, where the rich and powerful can oppress at will and the poor get trampled.  Herod’s spiritual descendants have ruled at various times over all nations, including our own.   And yet the power of God comes to resist the ways of Herod, not with an army, but with a Baby. 

After offering their gifts, the wise men were warned not to return to Herod, but to go home by another way.  Had they returned to Herod, they surely would have been executed.  The ways of Herod are the ways of brutality, oppression, war, the ways of death. Many who claim the name of Christ in reality walk in the ways of Herod, by supporting policies that oppress and destroy. By their fruits you shall know them.  But God’s power brings new life, healing, restoration.  As Christians, as people of faith, we, like the wise men, are called to reject the ways of Herod and walk by another road.  As Moses said, “See, I have set before you life and good, and death and evil; choose life, that you may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:15, 19)  And as Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters.” (Matthew 6:24)  Praising Jesus on Sunday means nothing if we do Herod’s work Monday through Friday.  We need to walk the way we talk.  Of course, no one does this perfectly, and God’s grace restores us when we fall – indeed, it is only by God’s grace that we can even begin to follow in the way of Jesus.  But amid the news of the day, the various rumors and alarms that surround us, we need to keep our heads about us, to ask ourselves who is served by all this – the whipping up of fear, the demonizing of outsiders -  who benefits from all this.   The Herods of our day benefit by whipping up fear.  Herod rules by fear, and fear keeps Herod in power.  But, as John wrote in one of his letters, “Perfect love casts out fear.”  (I John 4:18) 

I’d like to close with some lines from the hymn God of Grace and God of Glory, number 287 (E&R), including one verse that didn’t make that E&R hymnal:

Cure your children's warring madness; bend our pride to your control;
shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, lest we miss your kingdom's goal,

Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore;
let the gift of your salvation be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, serving you whom we adore,

Amen.