'LOVE IN A TIME OF FEAR"

“LOVE IN A TIME OF FEAR”

            The days after Christmas can be depressing, especially in the USA where we emphasize the consuming of presents so much.  After all the presents are unwrapped, what is there to do next?  The world seems too much with us, and in these days, many of us are afraid.  We tremble for what 2018 will bring us.

            As we have seen, “Don’t be afraid” has been a clarion call throughout these Advent and Christmas stories.  Mary was told:  “Don’t be afraid.”  Joseph is told “Don’t be afraid.”  The shepherds are told:  “Don’t be afraid.”  These stories are well acquainted with the power of fear in our hearts.  And, the Christmas story in Matthew 2 ends with a gruesome tale that reminds us that these stories are told in the real world – the world where we live our lives. 

            The second chapter of Matthew begins with the arrival of the magi, the leaders from the east, who come to worship the new king of Israel.  The first twelve verses of Matthew 2 are the sweet and sentimental part of the Christmas story:  the wise leaders come to the baby Jesus, to bring him gifts.   It is part of the manger scenes for thousands of crèches around the globe. 

            Yet, even in this “sweet” half of the story, there are warning signs that this might not be such a sweet and sentimental story.  First, these magi are Gentiles, outsiders considered “dirty” by the insiders.  The story of the insiders vs. the outsiders remains a constant in human history, no matter what the names of the group are or the century in which we live.  Second, these magi, these outsiders, come to Jerusalem, the seat of present and future Israeli hopes.  They ask the ruler of Jerusalem, King Herod, “Where is the child who has been born to be king of the Jews?”  And, of course, Herod “and all Jerusalem with him,” are afraid.  Who is this that is a threat to Herod?  Will there be another civil war?

            Despite these warning signs, the first half of the story in Matthew’s gospel ends well enough.  The magi are directed to the baby in Bethlehem, and Herod has asked them to send him a tweet with the baby’s address so that he can worship him.  The magi do find the baby, and they honor him, but they are wise enough not to contact Herod to give him the GPS coordinates for the location of the baby.

            That leads to the terrible, horrible, awful second half of this story:  Herod is enraged and sends his soldiers to kill all the baby boys of Bethlehem.  The baby Jesus is saved only by the visions of his adopted father Joseph – he takes his family and flees to Egypt, a country where there is no wall, where the borders are not closed.  They welcome the refugee family.  Herod’s soldiers do slaughter the boys of Bethlehem, and the killing is horrific.  Matthew quotes from the Hebrew scriptures to describe this toxic masculinity:  “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children.”

            So, as we close out this Christmas season and this year of 2017, let us note that these Christmas stories do not take us to “sweet and sentimental land,” but rather to the world in which we live, the world of violence and domination and death.  It is here that these Christmas stories root us.  No escape into consumerism here, no sweet pause before the world floods over us again.  Rather, these stories take us into our own lives, where violence and domination seem to have the upper hand.   These stories remind us that God knows where we live.  These stories ask us to know the power of love in a time of fear.

             Herod does act out of his insecurities – that is one model of the male response to these events.  Joseph, however, shows us a different male reaction to the power of fear.   He goes to the margins, and he allows love to dominate him rather than fear.   We’ll all be having that choice in 2018, so let us continue to keep our ears attuned to the power of love.  The blood of the boys of Bethlehem did not conquer the power of love.  The blood of Jesus on the cross did not chase God away from us.

Empty womb and empty tomb!   That is the promise and hope of these Christmas stories.  May we keep them close to our hearts in the year to come, so that we may know the power of love in a time of fear, so that we may keep Christmas with us all through the year.