UCC Church of Charlotte

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Sermon for Sunday, January 4, 2009
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Sunday, January 4, 2009 9:34:50 AM
From:
Phil Hobson   
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To:
Phil Hobson 


Another Road
Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12 

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.

Anybody here read Frazz, the comic strip?  Frazz is a singer/songwriter who makes up his income as a middle school janitor.  He is a likable guy, and often relates better to the kids than the teachers do, occasionally interpreting each side to the other.
    
In a recent strip, one of the kids comes up to Frazz and says he saw someone on TV saying that in today's economic times, we need to tighten our belts just like back in the great depression.  But the kid had seen pictures from back then, and nobody had belts, they all wore suspenders.  He was a little worried that grown ups may not be too bright.  Frazz points out that these are the same grown ups that got us into this mess.
    
At the church in Dallas, there was a school that rented space from us.  Over one of the teacher's desks were a number of motivational posters for the kids.  One of them said, "You cannot talk your way out of trouble you acted your way into."
    
Albert Einstein said much the same.  "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
    
Ed Friedman, great student and researcher of how families work, remarked, "We do not think our way into a new way of walking.  We walk our way into a new way of thinking."
    
All this is to say that if we are to see Isaiah's light, if we are to arise to our faith, we are going to need to do as the wise men did and go home by another way.
    
The wise men, magi, magicians, astrologers, call them what you will, have used their calculations of stars to see that a king is rising in Israel.  This is no ordinary king.  One does not voluntarily travel hundreds of miles to bring tribute to ordinary kings.  One only brings tribute to a king who rules over you already, or whom you fear will rule over you soon and you want to gain favor.
    
So it is a problem for Herod and the people of Jerusalem that foreign viziers are bringing tribute to a new king, born to reign where Herod reigns.  Herod, known as Herod the Great, had rebuilt the temple, gotten control of the rich families in Jerusalem by putting them at odds with each other over who would serve as high priest each year, placated Rome with control of the peasantry and building great public works named after Caesar.  Herod was a client king.  He was king as long as Rome found him useful.
    
And Herod was a cruel man.  He had no compunction against getting rid of rivals for his throne swiftly and violently.  We have no corroborating historical evidence for the murder of the children of Bethlehem that we find later in Matthew, but it certainly fits the pattern of his reign.
    
And so Herod the man becomes Herod the symbol, symbol of what empire does, what empire is.  It places people in untenable positions.  He owes his status and his power to the rulers over him.  He maintains that status and that power by swift violence and widespread tyranny.  He does some great works, he upholds civil tranquility, he reinforces the power of the Temple, but all for the sake of manipulation, by means of terror and fear, at the cost of the people, and for the sake of his own greatness.
    
And in the midst of this story that is both fantastic and typical, we have foreigners come bearing gifts of tribute for royalty.  Only not for Herod, not for Rome, not for the powers that be, not for the status quo.  They come seeking a child, born to poor parents, not in the halls of power in Jerusalem, but in the back country town of Bethlehem.  
    
Sure, Bethlehem is closer to Jerusalem than Charlotte is to Potterville, but as far as those in power are concerned, it might as well be in the UP (Upper Peninsula, for those not familiar with Michigan).
    
So Herod, already paranoid, finds out that foreign dignitaries are treating this unknown baby as a king like those he serves.  And he flips out.
    
Okay that's the human background.  Now let's try and see how God is at work in this mess.  
    
Foreign dignitaries.  Not what we would expect for messengers of God.  We are more used to angels singing to shepherds.  God speaks through strange means and strangers.
    
A child king.  Scholars of the Bible and history see this as much more likely in pagan circles than in Jewish stories.  But then again, Matthew's gospel keeps moving us from the small circle of the faithful to the wide world in need of Good News.  Maybe this is a foretaste of making the story available to people who don't all resonate with stories of Moses and Abraham and David.
    
Precious gifts.  Gold, frankincense, myrrh.  Offerings costly and sweet.  Opening their treasures, they offer gifts to this one whom they barely know.  Again, why is it so often outsiders who can show us what we miss in our quest to survive and thrive in the status quo.  
    
A few weeks ago I mentioned the two $10 bills I got, with instructions to use this to make a difference in someone else's life at Christmas.  When I called Marilyn Johnson to tell her what I had done with the money, she said, "Wow, I don't know if people down here are more generous or just have more money."  I allowed as how perhaps the generosity leads to having more to be generous with.  We know it is not the other way around.  In our nation, statistically, the wealthiest give at the same rate as everyone else, averaging about 1½ to 2 percent of annual income.   So wealth does not lead to generosity.  However, there is a much better chance that generosity leads to wealth.  It certainly leads to better living.
    
And then there are these pesky dreams.  Joseph is told in a dream not to dismiss Mary, but to husband her.  The strangers from the East are warned in a dream not to return to Herod (it doesn't say whether it is because of danger to the child or to themselves, probably both), and they listen and it spares both them and the child and his family.
    
Dreams.  Where God works while we are asleep, while the ego isn't at the helm, when we are not in charge, when we are open to what is new and different, whether we want to be or not.
    
And it brings us back to the human response to God's calling, visions, dreams, inspiration.  They listen to the dream.  And they go home by another way.
    
If we are to live into our mission and live out our calling, we are going to need to listen, too.  The UCC proclaims that God is still speaking.  I believe it is true.  And if we are going to get out of the messes we are in (personal, family, church, community, nationally, internationally), we are going to need to listen.  And we are going to have to take another road, different from the one that got us here.  Because that road leads back to Herod, to a violent and paranoid status quo.  We need another road, a Gospel road.  Then we can see with and shine with the light Isaiah proclaims.
    
What better time than a New Year to start down a new road.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.