"THESE ARE DANGEROUS TIMES"

“THESE ARE DANGEROUS TIMES”

            The assassination of the Iranian general by order of President Trump deepens all of our peril in the world.  It is not surprising that these events happen at the end of the Christmas season, where Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus ends in violence and destruction.  Today is Epiphany, the day in Western Christianity when it is remembered that magi, likely from Persia (modern day Iran), arrived at the house of infant Jesus in Bethlehem to honor and worship him as a special gift from God.  Yes, the Holy Family is in a house by this time, though we do not know from whence it came.  Maybe Bethlehemians believed in housing the homeless.

            There are many ironies in this account, one being that in Matthew’s story the first people to acknowledge Jesus are foreigners in a land known for its distrust of outsiders.  No one knows their origin, but most scholars have guessed that they were Persians.  They are not great diplomats, because they go to Jerusalem to ask King Herod the Great where the next king will be born.  As Matthew tells us, all Jerusalem is afraid, because they know how Herod will react to such a question, just as we know how President Trump will react to people who question his judgment.

            Herod reacts by sending soldiers to Bethlehem to kill all the boys two years old and under, but Jesus is spared the execution this time because his adopted father Joseph has led the family out of Bethlehem across the border in Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath.  They are refugees seeking political asylum, and fortunately for us, Egypt had not adopted Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.  Matthew then tells us that all the boys of Bethlehem are slaughtered, so the Christmas story ends not in the glories of the angels singing over the manger but in slaughter and bloodshed.  This is an awful story, but it is probably the most realistic of the Christmas stories.  Herod’s reputation was that of a man of slaughter – indeed, Josephus, the early historian of the Jesus movement, tells us that Herod ordered the execution of his political enemies on the day of his death so that there would mourning on that day, even if it was not for him.

            Matthew wants us to understand that the Christmas story is not one of sweetness and light, coming to tame the world and make it a sane and loving place to live.  Rather, Matthew wants us to understand that while the Christmas story is one that describes to us the depth of love that God has for us, it also comes to us in a world that believes in violence and death and despair.  Jesus is born in dangerous times – Matthew wants to make sure that we know that and that we remember it. 

On this first full week in 2020, we surely know that we live in dangerous times.  No other Biblical character reminds me as much of Trump as does King Herod in Matthew’s account.  Anxious, loving violence, brooking no disagreement with his understanding of the world or of himself, he has brought us to the brink of war with the ill-advised assassination of the Iranian leader.  The Sunday paper in Atlanta even had a discussion of the reinstatement of the draft for the US army.  We know that the boots of the tramping soldiers are coming – where and when are the questions.  An ominous beginning for 2020, but in light of the coming impeachment trial, a beginning that surprises few of us.  It’s the kind of world that we have made.

            It’s the kind of world into which the Christmas stories come.  The Persian magi keep coming, across those deserts and plains, coming to ask us to consider a different vision, a vision of love and equity and compassion, born of struggle and suffering.   This Christmas vision is not easily put back into the boxes to go into the attics of our homes and hearts.  Oh yes, most of us do it that way, as heard from W.H. Auden last week.  But, Matthew’s account asks us to stick with it, to be like those Persian travelers who took the long haul, who took circuitous routes, who risked alienating the powers, but who showed us the vision.  May we be inspired and motivated by their journeys, as we go on our own in these dangerous times.