Epiphany Sermon by Rev. Debra McKnight - January 5, 2020
Matthew 2: 9-12
9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
We three kings…we know them, we sing about them, perhaps you have played them in a church Christmas Pageant. We love to decorate our mantels with stoic kings, kneeling before Jesus, arms outstretched with extravagant gifts or looking on with faces of adoration. We share this story every year in worship for Epiphany. We know them so well we might not know them at all.
We get excited about the star, so excited that folks have looked to science proposing it was a comet, a supernova, two planets aligning or the dawning of the age of Aquarius (okay, so no commentary says that, just me). But the point of the story isn’t about facts, but truth. Frankly, the nativity on your Grandma’s mantel is total hypocrisy if you are going to be literal about the Bible. All those folks are not together in the same place in the same time, it’s two different stories and proof once again that when it comes to faith the point isn’t about facts but truth.
The truth is three folks with a certain amount of privilege travel through uncertainty to connect with God’s presence and it leads them to an act of civil disobedience. The other truth is they ask us to do the same.
Magi isn’t a word we use often today, it’s not a title for any job and its not on anyone’s business cards. So it’s easy to see why we translate it as king and it’s not hard to imagine that ‘Christian’ Kings who usually underwrote the translating of Bibles wouldn’t hate seeing at least one positive, generous king in the first few chapters of Matthew. King, however, probably doesn’t get us quite to the right place in understanding these folks, they do have privilege; their jobs are looking into the sky on behalf of the community, interpreters of the creation, studying the past, thinking deeply about the present, knowing, wondering and guiding. I prefer the title Research Scientist for us as modern people. And this inevitably leads me to thinking of them a little bit more like Sheldon and Leonard (you know the Big Bang Theory) then bedazzled mantel decorations. We don’t know if their King’s sent them with the gifts, if they had to take PTO, if they really liked traveling to new places, what kind of documents they needed to pack or if their allergies were a mess in a different region. We can imagine what it feels like to be called out of your comfort zone and into the wider world, beyond the norms and boundaries and known; and I think part of the truth of the story comes alive when we do just that, when we put our hearts into the story.
So here we are with the research scientists on a journey to celebrate a royal birth and they do what every important person would do, they check in at the with folks in authority, they go to Jerusalem and meet the King. The only problem is, there hasn’t just been a baby shower at the palace…no balloons, no bows on new strollers, King Herod hasn’t been putting a crib together. So foreign dignitaries asking, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews we saw his star at it’s rising” gets a little awkward. Herod responds with fear and all of the people with him in Jerusalem join him. The King’s fear makes everyone afraid. This is reasonable if you know Herod. Try to imagine, if you will, a leader driven by his ego and appearance, insecure, knowing he is not really the true king and he serves at the pleasure of a larger power. Try to imagine, if you can, a leader who is volatile, comfortable with misinformation and lies, prone to violence and rushing to judgement.
In his fear and uncertainty, Herod calls together the folks who know about the history and transition of Israel, the chief priests and the scribes. Asking them where the messiah is to be born and they according to Matthew point to the prophets and name Bethlehem. And then they all go about their day...okay, that’s not what is says, but I wonder why the scribes and priests, the folks that know the tradition, the leaders of the community rooted in their history and concerned about their future, why they didn’t ask more questions and why they didn’t join the magi or at least investigate. They are completely compliant and complacent. They risk nothing, their eyes do not open to new possibilities on the horizon, if they see a star they look the other way. They will not experience an epiphany…or if they do, well, they keep a lid on it to keep the ‘peace’.
The Magi leave the seat of power, but not before Herod grinning like the Grinch to Cindy Lou Who, says, “When you find the child report back so I may go and pay him homage.” Lies. Those wise ones were wise enough to know it, to feel it. Most of the time we can feel it, it’s just a matter of acting. They follow their star GPS and the guidance of the scribes to Bethlehem where they find Mary and toddler Jesus at home and immediately they pause in awe, “overwhelmed by joy” the text proclaims, they lean into this awe, quite literally. The experience invites awe, then in gratitude they offer gifts and then…the experience leads to civil disobedience. They listened to the dream warning them, maybe Herod’s ask kept them up at night, maybe they know what it looks like when people abuse their power; regardless they make the risky choice and journey home by another way. This is the pattern of the gospel, Jesus invites people to sense God, they are overwhelmed with joy, they lean into their awe, they respond with gratitude and abundance. And they are not the same. They can not go back to life how it was before, they go home by another way. They choose the unknown, the risky and the unsteady. They risk the ire of a violent leader and they do not buy into the fear he is creating, they go home another way.
Merry Christmas, it may not be as simple and sweet as it sounds. Christmas asks a lot and Epiphany, I think asks even more, at least for a lot of us in this room. Matthew’s story has the potential to hit close to home. Most of us have more in common with the Magi/Research Scientists then we do with the Gospel of Luke’s Shepherds. We have various degrees of privilege and we can act like the scribes and priest who did nothing or we can act like the Magi who refuse to participate in the system. My friend Rev. Chris Jorgensen and I like to call this, “Patriarchy Chicken.” We have degrees of privilege and power and there is often a difference between perceived power and actual power. And there are ways to risk, edges to push, clarifications to make and moments when we simply don’t have to comply. Often we are prone to giving folks with power more power, often we look the the other way or let that little lie stand unchecked…just to keep the peace. But the truth is we can go home by another way. May we have the courage.
May it be so. Amen.
Rev. Debra McKnight
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