Matthew 2:13-23
Christmas 1 - Year A
Rachel wept as though there were no tomorrow
wept and wept throughout Ramah
wept and wept beyond Ramah
wept and wept for all children
wept and wept for legal and illegal violence
wept and wept through all generations
wept and wept without consolation
finally there is no consolation
no healing, no saving
only weeping
only weeping comes sweeping o’er the plain
and then the seeds that were sown in weeping
watered by the tears that ne’er cease to flow
begin to sprout
still no consolation for past distress
still weeping and weeping
no consolation
only clear-eyed, weeping-eyed vision
children will not deal falsely
wept water will part to free
slaves from fear of death
come unconsoled Rachel
come unconsoled weepers of Ramah
come unconsoled friends today
be unconsoled and come
do not deal falsely with hope
weep and hope
do not deal falsely with faith
weep and believe
do not deal falsely with love
weep and love
do not deal falsely with false dealing
weep unconsoled and live
wept and wept throughout Ramah
wept and wept beyond Ramah
wept and wept for all children
wept and wept for legal and illegal violence
wept and wept through all generations
wept and wept without consolation
finally there is no consolation
no healing, no saving
only weeping
only weeping comes sweeping o’er the plain
and then the seeds that were sown in weeping
watered by the tears that ne’er cease to flow
begin to sprout
still no consolation for past distress
still weeping and weeping
no consolation
only clear-eyed, weeping-eyed vision
children will not deal falsely
wept water will part to free
slaves from fear of death
come unconsoled Rachel
come unconsoled weepers of Ramah
come unconsoled friends today
be unconsoled and come
do not deal falsely with hope
weep and hope
do not deal falsely with faith
weep and believe
do not deal falsely with love
weep and love
do not deal falsely with false dealing
weep unconsoled and live
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
"Get up!" Fearsome words for a dreamer. There is another quantum leap ahead.
First, it is put aside the legalism you have constructed your life upon. Choose mercy over justice. Now it is leave home, become a refugee in a land known to be captivating. And now it is head home, but not really home, home to a new home at the other end of the land, away from the center of things.
>Each of these are Christmas experiences filled with angels and joy. Joy, you say? Yes, joy!
For Matthew joy is intimately connected with his understanding of fulfillment. There is nothing better than being in tune with promises of new life, new heaven, new earth coming to pass in your time. Participating in the larger issues of life bring the joy of being part of the wholeness and holiness of this moment.
May you pay attention to your dreams and be ready to respond when those words come your way, "Get up!" The issues will be different than they were for Joseph, but no less meaningful. His work was his, yours is yours. Get on with it.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/december2004.html
The angels in Matthew's telling of Jesus' birth experiences do not sing in the heavens about some "Peace on earth." They are exposed in dream-time nudging us to pay attention and to wake and act.
The context here is that of conflict and survival in the midst of it the ebb and flow of life. If we simply took the Matthew version and began applying it to the world around us we would see its value. Despite affirmations that "peace is on the march" we can see the usual falling-to-pieces anywhere you look. There is no safe haven where we can cross the border and find "Peace on Earth."
It would be interesting to read two books (not the movies) together: The Lord of the Rings and The Neverending Story. How do you respond to the dangers of life that are spreading a dark nothingness over the land?
For this we need the angels whispering in our ear, helping us play back and forth between our hopes and the situations we face.
Christmas does not delete messes of pain and evil. Christmas does not resolve long-standing family feuds. Christmas does not bring "thy kingdom come on earth". Christmas does not let us avoid the responsibility of intentional engagement.
At best it brings us to a new place to stand within an old order. We move from the City of David with all its power to some mythic scripture reference to being a Nazorean (whatever that might be - A Buddhist Branch of Original Christianity, A Nazorean Gospel, etc.).
Is the angel, today, calling you into escape or reengagement in a new way?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/december2004.html
There is an image still being held - we will not deal falsely. In the meantime we cause distress and need healing.
Are you holding an image of the one who sanctifies being so yoked with the one who is sanctified that they have all things in common, that they are able to take turns sanctifiying until who knows where sanctification first began or will ever end?
Dealing falsely is shown in what we search for and how we respond to false dealing. Herod searched for destruction; Rachel for restitution. Neither found consolation, healing, safety, salvation, sanctifying. Herod's destruction finds him dead. Rachel's weeping finds her isolated.
Joseph's avoidance of death for Jesus as a babe doesn't avoid death on a cross by Herod's successors. False dealing lives on and on, generation and reign to generation and reign. Eventually the serpent's wisdom turns into an innocent dove and at that point vulnerability to false dealing cannot be avoided or further delayed. Ramah still weeps over how our spirits continue to be killed by one another.
And yet, to see one another as those who "will not deal falsely" is background to every sanctifying event, to every experience beyond fear of death. Those who find themselves with this vision refuse to out-Herod Herod or to out-weep Rachel. As a brother or sisters with sisters and brothers we work to transform the false within ourselves and allow the result to echo, "Peace on Earth . . . ."
- - - - - - -
Rachel wept as thought there was no tomorrow
wept and wept throughout Ramah
wept and wept beyond Ramah
wept and wept for all children
wept and wept for legal and illegal violence
wept and wept through all generations
wept and wept without consolation
finally there is no consolation
no healing, no saving
only weeping
>only weeping come sweeping o'er the plain
and then the seeds that were sown in weeping
watered by the tears that ne'er cease to flow
begin to sprout
still no consolation for past distress
still weeping and weeping
no consolation
only clear-eyed, weeping-eyed vision
children will not deal falsely
wept water will part to free
slavery by fear of death
come unconsoled Rachel
come unconsoled weepers of Ramah
come unconsoled friends today
be unconsoled and come
do not deal falsely with hope
weep and hope
do not deal falsely with faith
weep and believe
do not deal falsely with love
weep and love
do not deal falsely with false dealing
weep unconsoled and live
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
It is not just Matthew's community that wants to have current events connected with their past. This is a very human condition. While asking what Matthew's story of Jesus would be like without the constant refrain about fulfillment of past pronouncements, it is important to ask about what similar constraints we are using in our own day. How constrained we are by political and religious and economic touchstones. Should G*D simply desire to do a new thing, it appears G*D past is stronger than G*D's present. As folks in G*D's image this seems true for us as well.
Meanwhile, back at the gospel, what would make the political death of Jesus as an infant any more or less meaningful than his death on a political cross? Isn't political death a killing that is going on everyday and aren't saintly, innocent, prophetic lives regularly extinguished? Voices of Ramah can be heard on the nightly news. They have become the background against which see, hear, and touch the barriers to their mobilizing power. We are exiled from ourselves and one another under the banner of, "this is just the way it is, who can do anything?"
Apparently Magi don't make a transformative community. They are precursors of Peter as they go back another way and do an act of denial. Apparently a solidarity of bereaved mothers don't make a transformative community. They raise their voices in grief, but glimpse no new life, only an old life repeated. Apparently Mary and Joseph and Angels don't make a transformative community. They are able to play defense and keep one of out a thousand safe, just as some were able to protect some while various genocides proceeded.
May your dreams be strong enough to be followed all the way to founding a transformative community where you are or finding one already going in which you might participate. Another way to put this is to find your home where G*D's desires for you and for all, through you, might be fulfilled.
This is a challenge most difficult, regardless of whether you are one who runs away, one who sits and mourns, or one who comes back from exile in a passive manner to survive underground. Whatever your current state-of-affairs, may you see your life filled and your life fulfilled. In so being, you will hear angels and speak angelically. Finally, having traveled away with the Magi, to Egypt, to Ramah, to Nazareth, you will see your burning bush, hear belovedness in baptismal waters, and rise to life in this life.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html
Gift-givers come and gift-givers go. Gift yourself with a remembrance of those who have gifted you. Some are still with you and some are not. In either case their gift remains even should you find yourself alienated at home or abroad.
The prophecy, the classic quest, contains places dangerous and foreign to our experience. We all are called out of one "Egypt" or another. Heroes and heroines all face their own alienation and are eventually strengthened through that process to offer compassion to not only themselves, but others.
Living as a refugee turns out to be a much better gift than gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It shapes one's identification with other "children of Ramah". This is bottom-line creation material. Out of disaster, chaos, lamentation, disunion, and disjuncture comes a new word, "Let there be a new light on our commonality - weeping for one another."
We weep for the generations of gay and lesbian patriots who were barred from service to their country. There is still weeping aplenty for gay and lesbian Christians barred from discipleship through their church. Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is helpful, but there are still miles to go before this becomes a non-issue.
We weep for the generations of immigrants barred from participation in their new country. A refused Dream Act has a certain irony in this season of being led by dreams. There are still miles to go before this becomes enacted, much less seemingly natural.
Gift-givers come and gift-givers go. Deliver the gift that is you and it will be enough.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/12/matthew-213-23.html
Profit and Power tempt us to extinguish those we deem to be expendable or questioning of such motivations. We have a difficult time separating these tools from their ends.
As Herod slaughters boy babies, Pharaoh is recapitulated. We are more sophisticated these days. Note the percentage of Black and Latino males who are entombed in prison for non-violent crimes and ask if the slaughter continues under our watch. Complicity, thou art us.
Obviously slaughter is not the only measure here. Consider the plight of refugees everywhere. This is precursor to the need for a new Exodus.
This is depictable in Syria, Sudan, and elsewhere. Try this picture in the context of India (you can also read more about the New Christian Community Bible that I am trying out this year).