Matthew 2:1-12
Epiphany - Years A, B, C
Matthew knows how poorly astrologers are viewed in the Hebrew scriptures. There is a sense that they are worshipping the created stars rather than the creator of the stars. At best they bring a second-rate theology just a little better than necromancers.
Star study does give some cover for the Magi in Herod’s court, but it also draws attention to Jesus and is precursor to the slaughter we heard about last week that is the sequel to this story (what tangled webs are woven when story lines are broken).
Sticking with a theme of lowliness, instead of fulfillment, this may be Matthew’s incarnating G*D into the realities of human life. Through pagans who remain pagans, Jesus is revealed to the larger world. Similarly, in Luke, it is through the lowly shepherds, not the angels, that word is passed about Emmanuel.
By the time we come to the end of Matthew’s tale we find another pagan, a centurion affirming what the Magi searched for and only tasted the beginning of—Emmanuel. In the end we also find Jesus’ disciples sent on a search for the Magi at the ends of the earth, that they might be baptized. [Note: If you are interested in an entertaining excursion of Jesus seeking the Magi, you may appreciate The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.]
Try looking at this passage through the eyes of surprised Jews who hear it is those second-class Magi who search for and visit Jesus (don’t get confused by conflating Luke into Matthew), who honor him with precious gifts. Jewish sensibilities won’t get distracted by 2,000 plus years of numbering and naming the Magi or the exoticness of the gifts. They will know there is trouble coming when they hear the Magi are connected with G*D.
The felt, but not articulated, anxiety engendered by the incorporation of strange women into Jesus’ genealogy becomes clearer with the arrival of the Magi. G*D is up to something very strange. Now that we are adequately unsettled by holy foreign women and holy pagan astrologers and murder most foul, we are ready to hear about John, a baptizer, and then to proceed with an adult Jesus from whom we can accept the presence of G*D.
To look at this one story is to look at the whole story. Honor it well and don’t get hung up on the consumer aspect of global trade items.
Star study does give some cover for the Magi in Herod’s court, but it also draws attention to Jesus and is precursor to the slaughter we heard about last week that is the sequel to this story (what tangled webs are woven when story lines are broken).
Sticking with a theme of lowliness, instead of fulfillment, this may be Matthew’s incarnating G*D into the realities of human life. Through pagans who remain pagans, Jesus is revealed to the larger world. Similarly, in Luke, it is through the lowly shepherds, not the angels, that word is passed about Emmanuel.
By the time we come to the end of Matthew’s tale we find another pagan, a centurion affirming what the Magi searched for and only tasted the beginning of—Emmanuel. In the end we also find Jesus’ disciples sent on a search for the Magi at the ends of the earth, that they might be baptized. [Note: If you are interested in an entertaining excursion of Jesus seeking the Magi, you may appreciate The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.]
Try looking at this passage through the eyes of surprised Jews who hear it is those second-class Magi who search for and visit Jesus (don’t get confused by conflating Luke into Matthew), who honor him with precious gifts. Jewish sensibilities won’t get distracted by 2,000 plus years of numbering and naming the Magi or the exoticness of the gifts. They will know there is trouble coming when they hear the Magi are connected with G*D.
The felt, but not articulated, anxiety engendered by the incorporation of strange women into Jesus’ genealogy becomes clearer with the arrival of the Magi. G*D is up to something very strange. Now that we are adequately unsettled by holy foreign women and holy pagan astrologers and murder most foul, we are ready to hear about John, a baptizer, and then to proceed with an adult Jesus from whom we can accept the presence of G*D.
To look at this one story is to look at the whole story. Honor it well and don’t get hung up on the consumer aspect of global trade items.
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
Who dares star-gaze? They will be called malingerers, day-dreamers. Yet to gaze afar is to also look critically for a fulcrum spot in the present. From afar folks may better see beyond their own culture and a new opportunity for an unfated future. Through spotting unknown stars they may better appreciate the mystery of a manger being about more than feed and water.
Still there is a cultural residue as the scholarly magi and our own blind spots seek in a castle for what can only be found in a manger. When stripped of our habits, our dreams see the underbelly of assumed privilege and power and we leave there by a different route. At last we remember again — revolution happens from the bottom up: period.
So dream a little dream — this one from Carly Simon: Let the River Run with its refrain:
Let all the dreamers
wake the nation.
How far will your dream, your gazing afar take you? Into halls of power and out again? Into mangers near and far? Deep within your culture and comfort or quite beyond?
Your response will be told in the gifts you bring and give away.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/12/matthew-21-12.html
A great question, "Where is the child?"
Where is the child that will lead the next generation of mathematicians?
Where is the child that's got his/her/herm own?
Where is the child that has been born a leader of one oppressed group or another or many?
Where is the child that is the cutest ever born?
Wherever a child is born, hope arises.
Just like responses to a natural disaster we are all about the possibilities of things being set right. But, then, we get distracted by the next child and the next and the next disaster and the next. We get child and compassion fatigued. We lose focus after the, quote, defining, end quote, event and set in with rules that box in all that potential to the culturally acceptable and set it about with rules about when grief should be over and folks should be able to fend for themselves.
To again ask, "Where is the child?", can be a cry to revolution, a prophetic perspective.
For some direction about where you might bring your gift to see some child through check out Children's Defense Fund.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/january2005.html
Matthew, speaking to a Jewish community, should know how poorly astrologers are viewed in the Hebrew scriptures. There is a sense that they are worshipping the created stars rather than the creator of the stars. At best they bring a second-rate theology just a little better than necromancers.
Astronomy does give some cover for the Magi in Herod's court, but it also draws attention to Jesus and is precursor to the slaughter we heard of last week, that is the sequel to this story (what tangled webs are woven when story lines are broken).
Sticking to a theme of lowliness, instead of fulfillment, This may be Matthew's incarnating G*D into the realities of human life. Through pagans who remain pagans, Jesus is revealed to the larger world. Similarly, in Luke, it is through the lowly shepherds, not the angels, that word is passed about Emmanuel.
By the time we come to the end of Matthew's tale we find another pagan, a centurion affirming what the Magi searched for and only tasted the beginning of - Emmanuel. In the end we also find Jesus' disciples sent on a search for the Magi at the ends of the earth, that they might be baptized. [Note: if you are interested in an entertaining excursion of Jesus seeking the Magi, you may appreciate The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.]|
Try looking at this passage through the eyes of surprised Jews who hear it is those second-class Magi who first acknowledge and visit Jesus (don't get confused by conflating Luke into Matthew), who honor him with precious gifts. At the least, Jews won't get distracted by 2,000 plus years of numbering and naming the Magi or the exoticness of the gifts. They will know there is trouble coming when they hear the Magi are connected with G*D.
The felt but not articulated anxiety engendered by the incorporation of strange women into Jesus' genealogy becomes clearer with the arrival of the Magi. G*D is up to something very strange. Now that we are adequately unsettled by holy foreign women and holy pagan astrologers and murder most foul we are ready to hear about John, a baptizer, and then to proceed with an adult Jesus from whom we can accept the presence of G*D.
To look at this one story is to look at the whole story. Honor it well and don't get hung up on the consumer aspect of global trade items.
- - - - - - -
From Provoking the Gospel of Matthew: A Storyteller's Commentary by Richard W. Swanson:
"If the Magi had returned to Herod, perhaps he would have killed only Jesus and his family instead of needing to kill all of the toddlers in and around Bethlehem. Play this scene so that the audience sees and feels the cost of considering such a terrible calculation. Would it have been better if Jesus had been turned over? Can a faithful community save itself by betraying itself? Is there any way to defend against Herod without becoming as bad as Herod? Tell the story so that the community's risks and losses come clear. This is not just a story about one baby, but about all the babies."
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html
You are invited to read a blog: http://edges.canadahomepage.net/2011/01/05/953/
In addition to Jim Taylor's column, be sure to read the last of the "Your Turn" comments.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/01/matthew-21-12.html
Epiphany Church
This morning I posted comments about the Matthew lection for Epiphany.
This evening I was reminded of a sermon by Janet Wolf about being an Epiphany Church. Her sermon begins 3 minutes into the podcast. It is worth 50 minutes of your time.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/01/epiphany-church.html
As one who loves, what is your secret longing?
Consider yourself “fated” to go for it and go ahead.
The Magi will be glad for your company along “another road”.
- - - - - - -
When You Wish Upon a Star
by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington
When a star is born
They possess a gift or two
One of them is this
They have the power to make a wish come true
When you wish upon a star
Makes no diff'rence who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
When you wish upon a star
Makes no diff'rence who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/01/matthew-21-12.html
Context: Herod. Enough said. Too much expected.
Time: After Jesus was born.
Scene: Foreigners come asking after a new born king.
As might be expected, things are changing and staying the same. Herod will remain tricky and murderous. Wisdom isn’t all its cracked up to be when it comes to dealing with political power.
If your memory lingers from last week, you will know this story is not just about a baby Jesus, but about all the Herod-murdered babies after these magi don’t report back to him. If we don’t remember these innocents while sweetly camel-rocking as we sing “We Three Kings” we will have lost an important component of the story.
The first time around we might be surprised, but now, whether told in scriptural order or liturgical order, announcements of great joy carry with them the eventuality of a stone-cold tomb. Hopefully the joy will lead folks to live for the common good even if that means difficulty on the way or even if it is delayed to a future generation.
There are a lot of ways to talk about the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but we will do well to remember the fourth gift. This gift, too comes out of their treasure chest. A treasure chest of spiritual practice of attending to mystery—stars and dreams. Their fourth gift was listening to dreams.
No matter the amount of gold, frankincense, or myrrh that you have available to you to give away, you have an immense amount of attention that can be directed to the mysterious realm of “What’s next” and not just fated to do the expected.
On this Epiphany, dream strong dreams, believe them, and all will be well (whether you can tell it in the moment or not).
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/01/matthew-21-12.html