"MURDER IN HIS HEART'

 “MURDER IN HIS HEART”

Some of my friends are not fans of the Christmas season because they see it as over-commercialized and too sentimental, with its emphasis on “sweet, little Jesus boy.”  No argument from me on the commercialization issue – Christmas items started appearing in stores in the Atlanta area in late September, and many businesses count on the Christmas season to make their profits for the year.  And, though there are many opportunities to make Christmas only a sappy holiday, the Biblical witness does not bear that out.  In the Biblical Christmas stories, we get down and dirty, with feet on the ground, in all the riskiness and heartaches of human life – a teen-ager pregnant before marriage by someone other than her fiancé (subject to the death penalty), a baby born on the streets, with the first visitors being foreigners.  Not much sap here – just scandalous and difficult stuff.

The final argument for the human realism in the Christmas story is found at the end of Matthew’s account of the narrative in the closing part of chapter two.   As we saw last week, the magi come to visit the baby Jesus, and they engage King Herod on the way to Bethlehem.  Herod indicates that he wants to worship the baby, too, but we know that he has murder in his heart.  The wise magi visit Jesus, then they decide to go home by another way, rather than going back to Herod to tell where the baby is. They aren’t known as “wise men” for nothing.

Herod is infuriated that he has been beaten at his own game, and he returns to the murder in his heart as his endgame position.  Not knowing who this baby his, he orders his soldiers to kill all the baby boys of Jerusalem who are two years old and younger.  Joseph has had another vision from God, telling him to take his family and flee to Egypt, for the murderous Herod is coming for them.  Joseph takes Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt, where they enter the country as immigrants.  Fortunately for us all at this time, Egypt does not have Donald Trump as its leader, and the Holy Family is welcomed and embraced as immigrants.  The baby boys of Bethlehem do not fare so well – they are slaughtered by the man with murder in his heart.  The scene is horrific – Matthew quotes the prophet Jeremiah to describe it: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children.”  

Matthew’s account of the Christmas story does not end in sweet sentiment – it ends in fear and flight and murder and lamentation, a story close to our time.  The birth of Jesus came not when everything was quiet and still and tranquil, but rather in the midst of the muck and murder and blood of human life.  As we look into the new year and wonder how to use this Christmas story, let us recall that God came into our midst not as an escapee from the terror and violence of the world, but right into the midst of our fear and flight and murderous hearts.  Matthew doesn’t waste any time in proclaiming that God has come into our midst in the places where we live and struggle and hurt one another.

And, in our time, we live in the midst of another leader with murder in his heart.  Like Herod, the Trumpster believes that power and might and violence and death make the world go round, as his adviser Stephen Miller told us last week.  Or, as the Trumpster himself put it, there is no limit on his presidency except his own morality – and there seems to be a severe shortage of such morality.  From killing people in Venezuela in order to snatch its president and its first lady, to celebrating the murder of a mother in Minneapolis by his personal ICE agents (very similar to the soldiers of Herod), Trump seems to be the backhand of Herod in Jesus’ day.

“Murder in his heart” – so it was said about Herod, and now it is said about Trump, both of them being tyrants who believe that there is no check on their power.  If you haven’t known it already, the past two weeks have taught us that we are led by a tyrant, who currently seems to have very few checks on his power.  We are called to be witnesses to another way, the way seen in the Christmas stories, which knew just as much blood as we know.  In those stories, there were courageous visionaries who heard a different voice and who chose a different way.  They proclaimed in word and deed that love and justice and mercy make the world go round, and they made this proclamation not in a sweet and tranquil time, but in a time of blood flowing in the streets, blood shed by leaders with murder in their hearts.  

    We may not be Mary or Joseph or the magi or the shepherds, but we are called to seek visions from God, visions that will enable us to proclaim a different way in word and in deed.  Just as Joseph felt an urgency to move to Egypt when he heard the vision from God, so too must we feel that urgency.  It is time to act up and act out, to be witnesses in resistance to those with murder in their hearts. 

"EPIPHANY"

 “EPIPHANY”

Christmastide ends in the West this Wednesday, January 6, a date which the church has traditionally named as Epiphany. It celebrates the arrival of the magi to worship the baby Jesus.  The story in Matthew 2 is filled with intrigue and slyness and violence.  This is the first story in the New Testament about people coming to see the baby Jesus.  We will get the angels and the shepherds in Luke 2, but here in the first book of the New Testament, we find that it is foreigners who first pay tribute to Jesus.  In this time of nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment in the USA, let that sink in for a while – “foreigners” are the first people outside the family who pay tribute to the baby Jesus and to what he means to the world.  

    The magi, or astrologers, have watched a star rising in the West, and they decide to follow that star to find who they hope to be the “King of the Jews.”  The magi arrive in Jerusalem, announcing (undiplomatically) to King Herod that they are searching for the baby born to be king of the Jewish people.  Herod is greatly troubled, which is no surprise because he is a Trump-like figure. We should also note, however, that it is not just Herod who is troubled and frightened, but as Matthew tells us “all Jerusalem with him.”  People are already noticing that the birth of this baby will mean a revolutionary moment and movement for all of us.  Jesus of Nazareth will reverberate throughout human history, and no matter whether we are believers or not, this baby and the life that flows from his birth will engage and confront us all, no matter the place or the century in which we live. 

  Herod gets advice from his palace prophets that the baby is to be born in Bethlehem.  He tells the magi that he wants to worship the baby too, and he asks that they inform him where the baby is, so that he can come and pay homage. He has, of course, no intention of acknowledging this baby – his purpose is to kill him, to destroy any chances of Jesus’ being a rival for his kingdom.  We will visit that part of the story next week. 

    The magi arrive at the place where Jesus and his parents are staying, and they kneel down and worship him as a special messenger from God.  They bring him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  As many scholars have noted, the gifts are symbolic:  gold for his majesty, frankincense for his priestly role in bringing God to us (and us to God), and myrrh for the suffering and price that he will pay for showing us the way to God.  We can only imagine what Mary and Joseph think as they watch these respected royals arrive with their entourage, proclaiming that this baby is the One.  

    On December 30, we had the privilege of watching eleven Buddhist monks pass by our house on their way to downtown Decatur.  They are on a walking march for peace, having started in Texas and heading for DC to proclaim the way of peace.  As we watched from our driveway, waving and conversing with them, I thought to myself that this must have been some of the way that Mary and Joseph felt when the magi arrived.

    On this level, we are called to remember that the first witnesses to Jesus and his meaning are “foreigners” whom we are now hearing are enemies in American culture.  We are being trained to fear the stranger and to join the people of Jerusalem in being troubled and frightened at the appearance of these “foreigners.”  Let us take heart from this story and resist that impulse which runs so long and so deep in our national history.  Epiphany reminds us – the stranger is not our enemy.  Indeed, as this story tells us, the stranger is often the vehicle of God’s grace and mercy and revelation.

     After they have seen the baby Jesus, the magi decide to return home. Herod has asked them to report back to him so that he can come and worship Jesus also.  As we shall see, however, Herod does not have adoration in his heart – he has murder in his heart, similar to our current president.  The magi have eyes to see and hearts to discern, however, so they return home by another way after they have found Jesus.  They do not report back to Herod, and as we shall see next week, Herod decides to take matters into his own hands.  There will always be Herods and Trumps, but let us have ears to hear and hearts to believe – God is calling us to join Her in movements for justice and mercy and peace.

"THIS IS THE SEASON OF PROMISE"

 “THIS IS THE SEASON OF PROMISE”

We face a huge and tough and scary year ahead.  During these twelve days of Christmas, may you and your loved ones know the power and promise of this time.  Here is Howard Thurman’s poem “The Season of Promise,’ from his book “The Mood of Christmas,” published in 1973.  This poem is over 50 years old, but it could have been written today.  

“This Is the Season of Promise”

Let the bells be silenced

Let the gifts be stillborn

Let the cheer be muted

Let music be soundless

     Violence stalks the land

     Soaring above the cry of the dying

     Rising above the whimper of the starving

     Floating above the flying machines of death

          Listen to the stillness:

          New life is stirring

          New dreams are on the wing

          New hopes are being readied:

     {Humankind} is fashioning a new heart

     {Humankind} is forging a new mind

     God is at work.

This is the Season of Promise.

"ANOTHER CHANCE ALLOWED"

 “ANOTHER CHANCE ALLOWED”

My friend and colleague the Reverend Rachel Anderson posted these damning words on Saturday about the release of the Epstein files:  “The fact that people need a dead man’s files to believe a thousand living women tells us everything about whose voices they value and whose they don’t.”  It is a reminder of the fight that is always with us about who is valued and who is not.  I am grateful to Rachel and to many others who are fighting for all voices to be heard and valued.

It is also a reminder of the scandal of the Christmas story – one woman had a vision from God and decided to seek to live it out.  She risked her life in saying “Yes.” She was fortunate that she was not the only visionary in the family – her fiancé Joseph had visions from God also, and he decided to live out that vision also.  His decision gave Mary protective cover in a patriarchal society, where her getting pregnant by someone other than her fiancé was a crime punishable by death.  He understood that while the society did not value women, God did value women as well as men.

    I also listen to Christmas music in this season which I love to do – there are many old favorites, and I especially like newer ones like “Rebel Jesus” by Jackson Browne and “Nothing But a Child” by Steve Earle.  Earle’s song especially reminds us of the fragility of the story of the birth of Jesus – born to a woman who got pregnant before marriage, born on the streets, hunted by the government soldiers, a Palestinian refugee crossing borders in order to escape execution.  The “glory of a King born to rule the earth” is stunningly absent from the details of the birth story of Jesus.  

“Nothing But a Child” puts it this way:

“Once upon a time

In a far off land

Wise {men} saw a sign

And set out cross the sand

Songs of praise to sing

They travelled day and night

Precious gifts to bring

They were guided by the light

They chased a brand new star

Ever towards the West

Across the mountains far

But when it came to rest

They scarce believed their eyes

They’d come so many miles

The miracle they prized

Was nothing but a child

Nothing but a child

Could wash those tears away

Or guide a weary world

Into the light of day

Nothing but a child

Could help erase those miles

So once again we all can be children 

     For a while”

So, as we approach the new year with trembling, let us remember the fragility of this story and how radical it is.  It challenges our point of view of ourselves and the world itself.  And it asks us to remember how fragile life is, how precious life is, and how, like Mary and Joseph, we are asked to be bold and courageous and visionary in a time that looks dark and dreary.  And, indeed that’s why the church chose the holiday of the Sun to attach this Christmas story.  We are asked to be like those magi who set off on a journey, looking for a vision that will fill us and sustain us, and which will make a stunning claim about the power and force at the center of the universe.  It is powered by visionaries who are high on love.  And, most of all, we will find that vision in very surprising places.

"THE VISIONS OF ADVENT - MARY"

 “THE VISIONS OF ADVENT – MARY”

        In Luke’s Gospel, Mary is a young woman engaged to be married in Nazareth, when she has a vision from God.  She sees the angel Gabriel, who comes to her with a message from God.  “Ave, Maria,” as the Latin puts it.  Gabriel tells her that God wants her to allow herself to be the vessel for the conception and birth of the Messiah, whom she will name “Jesus,” meaning “God saves.”  This request places Mary in a precarious position – pregnant before marriage by someone other than her betrothed, she will be shamed, shunned, and perhaps even stoned to death.  It is the first of several steps where God chooses to come among us, not as a glorious king or president, but rather as one conceived in scandal, born on the streets, hunted down to be killed by government soldiers, a refugee whose family seeks political asylum in Egypt.  ICE is on the way to Nazareth.

Mary says “yes,” that she will be a “handmaiden of the Lord,” as the King James Version of the Bible puts it.  Yes, that same “handmaiden” of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” She is anxious and frightened, but she finds comfort in her cousin Elizabeth, who is also miraculously pregnant.  The community of women gives her courage and power, and she shares her song of vision and justice, called “Mary’s Magnificat” in Luke 1:46-55.  It is not a song of “sweet, little Jesus boy,” but rather a radical vision of what God intends in the birth of this baby: “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.”  In the birth and life and ministry of this baby, God intends to affirm a much different vision of what life on earth should look like.

We are in the midst of a time when the values of the Christmas story are being contested in modern culture.  God is indicating in these stories that our call is to move away from the center of capitalist culture towards the margins where so many people live.  What will guide us in these days?  On what narratives will we base our lives?  The Christmas stories point us in the direction of sharing, caring, and community rather than greed, hoarding, and individualism.  As we take some time in this season to consider who we are and whose we are, what visions will we be seeking?  These Christmas stories don’t speak of the sweet baby Jesus.  They speak of visions of God’s movement and of God’s demands on us to make tough decisions to re-orient our lives.  We all enjoy the warmth and lovely feelings surrounding the Christmas season, but we must also remember that at the center of the stories of the birth of Jesus are tough demands for tough decisions.  Joseph is asked to give up his masculine dignity and pride and take Mary her baby as his own, even though he is not the biological father – and likely is unsure who the biological father really is.  Mary is asked to totally disrupt her life – indeed, even risk her life – in order to allow the Christ to be conceived in her and to raise him.  As Simeon puts it later in the second chapter of Luke, because of her “yes” to God, Mary will know deep pain.  “A sword will pierce her heart” – that is the metaphor that Simeon uses to describe Mary’s situation after her decision.

I am not intending to be a downer here at the great season of Christmas.  Yet, I want to emphasize that at the heart of this powerful season are stories that are scandalous, demanding, scary, and life-changing.  We may not choose to have the kinds of visions that are at the heart of these Christmas stories, but God is offering them to us.  May we find ways to say “yes,” as did Mary and Joseph.

"THE VISIONS OF ADVENT - JOSEPH"

 “THE VISIONS OF ADVENT – JOSEPH”

There are two versions of the Christmas story in the New Testament.  As we saw last week, the first one is in Matthew and centers on Joseph.  The second one is in Luke and centers on Mary.  Partnering with the Holy Spirit, Mary is the driving force in the Advent stories, and I’ll look at her story next week.  This week I want to focus on Joseph, since his story follows right on the heels of the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, which we reflected upon last week.

We hear from Matthew that the “birth of Jesus the Christ took place in this way.”  Then Matthew proceeds to tell us the birth story from Joseph’s point of view.  Joseph is engaged to be married to Mary, but she brings him disturbing news of a very difficult sort:  she is pregnant by someone other than him.  It was not unknown for couples who were engaged to have sex, but Matthew’s version does not address this issue.  We can only imagine Joseph’s anger and cynicism when Mary tells him that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit: “Wow, Mary, I’ve heard some twisted tales about people getting pregnant, but this one is about the worst – and, it really hurts.  How could you do this to me, to us?”

The Jewish law at this point allows for several punishments for Mary’s apparent transgressions.  Joseph can require her to be publicly humiliated in front of the elders of Nazareth, or he could ask that she be stoned to death by the elders and other males in the village.  Joseph’s heart is full of pain and anger, but he will not allow his male dominant position to express itself in a degrading way towards Mary.   Matthew tells us that Joseph is a righteous man, so he decides to divorce Mary quietly, dismissing her and sending her back to her family – let them deal with this mess.  At least he has not publicly shamed her or given her the death penalty.

But, Matthew also tells us that Joseph is a man of visions, and after he has decided how he will end the engagement to Mary, he has a vision from God telling him not to be “afraid” (the Greek word here is the root of “phobia,” meaning a deep anxiety.)  The messenger from God tells Joseph to take Mary as his wife and to take the unborn baby as his son.  The messenger also tells Joseph to name his son “Jesus,” whose root meaning is “God saves.”  Matthew does not reveal to us the wrestling that is in the heart of Joseph, but the righteousness of Joseph wins out.  He accepts the vision from God and marries Mary and fathers Jesus.  In this way, Joseph is protecting Mary and Jesus – single women with children in this time are in a very vulnerable position, as well as their children.  Joseph provides them cover in a male-dominated world – he gives them shelter, no matter the hurt in his heart or the ridicule that he will face from his male buddies.  “Oh, yeah, the Holy Spirit, huh, a likely story!”

Joseph is a man of visions.  He looks for God and finds a vision which tells him what to do in this difficult and humiliating situation.  He acts on that vision, and he gives Mary the shelter that she needs.  His visions do not stop there, however.  In the second chapter of Matthew after the birth of his son Jesus, Joseph receives another vision from God, which tells him to take the Holy Family away from Bethlehem into the land of Egypt, because ICE authorities from King Herod are coming for them, with murder in their hearts.  Joseph obeys this vision also, and they flee in the middle of the night, heading for the land where Moses was born.  The second chapter of Matthew closes with yet another vision for Joseph – he is told to take the family back to Israel, for those commanding ICE have passed on.

I’ve always wondered about these visions of Joseph – are they really true?  Or are they just stories created by the early church in response to the tremendous curiosity about the birth of Jesus.  To borrow a phrase from Marcus Borg, “these stories may not have happened in just this way, but they are true.”  I also remember that for all of her life the great freedom finder Harriet Tubman swore that she received the times and places for her freedom runs in visions from God.  So, that raises the question for us:  what visions is God sending to us in our time?  Visions for us personally like Joseph?  And visions for us communally, as with Harriet Tubman?  In this Advent season, may the Spirit give us eyes to see and ears to hear.

"ADVENT IS UPON US"

"ADVENT IS UPON US"         

        We have begun the Advent Season, with all its promise and peril and demanding qualities, and danger of being sentimentalized.  When we were preaching dialogue sermons, Caroline and I rarely ever used the lectionary passages for Advent, because the Biblical passages were so disconnected from the season itself.  We preferred to concentrate on the Biblical stories about Advent and Christmas, and there were two biblical books that used these stories - Matthew and Luke (though John has a spiritualized version.)  Not using the Biblical Christmas stories in Advent allows the culture to take them over, which we obviously have allowed.

         The first Christmas story in the Bible comes in Matthew's gospel, in which the author begins the New Testament with a genealogy of Jesus - dull reading until you notice that Matthew infuses the usual "male begetting" genealogy with 5 women - and what five women they are!  If you haven't encountered their stories, take time to do so in this Advent season:  Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah (also known as Bathsheba), and Mary.  Here's a brief synopsis of them.

        In the 38th chapter of Genesis - in the middle of the Joseph saga - comes the story of Judah (head of one of the 12 tribes of Israel) breaking a promise to his daughter-in-law Tamar.  Tamar has been widowed twice by Judah's sons, and he promises to let her marry a third son when he comes of age. But, wanting to keep his third son alive, Judah does not allow the son to marry Tamar.  At this time in the Bible, a woman's main value is in having children, especially sons, so Tamar takes matters into her own hands.  She disguises herself and dresses as a sex worker.  Judah takes a fancy to her and has sex with her.  She becomes pregnant, and when Judah hears about it, he wants to have her killed for being pregnant outside of marriage. Tamar shows Judah the signet ring that he exchanged for the sexual work, and Judah sees his error in not providing for her.  He gives her sanction and shelter, and she gives birth to twins named Perez and Zerah.

        Rahab's story is mentioned in Joshua, chapters 2 and 6.  After the death of Moses, Joshua leads the people into Canaan to begin the intermingling and finding a new home.  Like the Europeans who came to America, he feels that he must conquer and subdue the people who are already living in Canaan.  He sends spies into Jericho and tells them to check things out.  They stay at the home of Rahab - it has a reputation for welcoming strange men.  When the people of Jericho hear about the spies, they come to kill them, but Rahab hides and saves them.  When Joshua "fit the battle of Jericho," his fighters spare the home of Rahab, and then she joins them as they travel into Canaan.  She eventually marries Salmon, and her son Boaz will figure prominently in the story of Ruth.  Ruth is an immigrant to Israel (good thing that Trump's ICE police were not around when she entered the land).  After the death of her husband, Ruth pledges herself to her mother-in-law Naomi, and their powerful story is found in the book of Ruth.  Suffice it to say that Ruth will become the great-grandmother of King David - a foreign woman in whose line Jesus is born.

        The fourth woman mentioned in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus is not named.  She is called "the wife of Uriah," and you can find her story in Second Samuel chapters 11 and 12.  We know her as "Bathsheba," but Matthew wants us to know that King David stole her from her husband Uriah, raped her, then got her pregnant.  When these events take place, Uriah is off fighting for Israel, and David tries to cover his crimes by giving Uriah time off from war, in order to come home and have sex with his wife Bathsheba.  However, Uriah has taken a vow of celibacy during the war, so he does not have sex with Bathsheba.  Finally, David then commits an even worst crime - he arranges to have Uriah killed in battle so that he may "officially" have Bathsheba to be his wife.  The prophet Nathan comes to David to confront him on these events.

        The fifth woman mentioned in Matthew's genealogy is Mary, who will become the mother of Jesus.  We will look at her story later, but for now, we can note that as teenager pregnant before marriage, by someone other then her fiance, she joins with the litany of women in Matthew's genealogy who live their lives on the margins.  In mentioning women - and especially these five women - Matthew reminds us that the lineage of Jesus pushes him (and should push us) to the margins of life.  Most of us want to move towards the center of life, but this genealogy asks us to hear that God wants us to move towards the margins of life.  On what kind of journey will we embark in this Advent and Christmas season?