Home, Another Way

Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” 

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

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. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 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. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

While we were all still working through our refrigerators full of Christmas leftovers, the lectionary squeezed in the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents. They snuck it in, completely out of order, since chronologically it happens after today’s story… but snuck it in they did… in-between Christmas Day and Epiphany… in-between leftover cheese and slices of Christmas ham piled high on crackers, eaten in sweat pants, feet up by the fire.

I don’t know why they stuck it there... right after the crackers and before the two and a half pieces of manicotti warmed up and eaten right out of the container it was crammed into on Christmas Day. But that’s when they wanted us to remember that all of the male children under the age of two were slaughtered by Herod in and around Bethlehem. Herod had hoped, that amongst that carnage, would lie the body of that infant would-be King of the Jews the Wise Men had told him about. Joseph had, however, listened to yet another dream. Joseph, the patron saint of men who listen… yes, there are TOO men who listen! Joseph had listened… twice now! And this time he took Mary and Jesus and fled for their lives to another country. There is no rational objection to seeing the Holy Family’s status here as refugees, but then fear has never fancied itself as rational… neither in ancient times nor in our own.

Indeed, it’s fear that’s at the very bottom of all of the horror that happens in this second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. The text doesn’t just hint at it either, it just spits it out! “When King Herod heard the news from the Wise Men about the birth of the King of the Jews, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.” Indeed it’s fear that is the seed of every horror inflicted on the innocent in every age. Fear of losing power, privilege, status or place is what leads weak and fear-filled men to justify all sorts of horror. Each horror acquires a different name in it’s infamy… the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents, The 100 Year’s War, The Inquisition, Manifest Destiny, The Holocaust, The Killing Fields, The Rwandan Genocide, The War on Terror, and all that is happening around us right now.  More mass shootings than there are days of the year and child refugees held in cages until they die. Those don’t yet have an infamous name of their own, but one day they will… they all do. But no matter the name of the horror, or the culture, country, or religion of origin... no matter what people point to as the reasons for the horror, either real or imagined... Down at the very deepest depths of every horror from every time there is always that dark, pervasive, all consuming and festering fear which drives them all.

Fear is what incubates in the muck infested bottom of systemic racism, lived in for so long it has made people nostalgic for infested muck. Fear is at the core of the need to build concentration camps and separate families for the crime of following in the Holy Family’s footsteps fleeing certain death. Fear is at the deepest essence of the once again growing number of anti-Semitic attacks. Fear is at the corrupt dark heart that rhythmically pumps out the stinking dregs of white nationalism.

Fear is not new. It has motivated humans since Adam and Eve hid from God, as the Divine walked through the garden looking for them hiding in the bushes. It existed long before Herod and it has endured long after his death. And ever since the garden, good and faithful people have stood up and spoken up, fought and marched and even gone to war to stop the horrors that inevitably grow out of the worst of our festering human fears. Yet, through the ages, fear continues to fester in the darkest parts of our human souls.  Fear continues to grow out of the shadows where it had been chased and out from the shadows it drives fear-filled men to once again repeat the horrors of the past.  The horrors are always exactly the same. They just sport a new slap-shod paint job, in the present age’s trending colors. Fear festers. Horrors grow. Good and faithful people rise to confront the horrors. The horror of the moment is beaten back into the bushes, but then as surely as the sun rises, the hatred, violence and horror grow out of the shadows of fear once again.

What I am wondering this Epiphany… and I’ll warn you right up front that I don’t have an answer to my wondering. My wondering for this Epiphany is:  Have we missed the lesson those Wise Men were trying to teach us when they listened to a dream and went home by another way? Our inclination as good and faithful people has been, for as long as humans have walked the earth, to rise against each horror. Protest every hatred. Stand with the oppressed and even place our own lives in between the fearful and the latest color of an age old horror. Each of those chapters eventually end the same way, with the faithful exalted as heroic winners and the fear-filled men, who launched the latest horror, retreating into the shadows as resentful losers, left to fester there until they come out once again in another time and place, bringing with them the same old horror in another new paint job. Have we missed the lesson of those Wise Men they were trying to teach us by going home another way?

Through the ages, as each horror rises, we’ve gone at them head on, right into the horror itself. We don’t, however, seem to ever confront the fear which lies at every horror’s core.  What would it look like to confront the echoing, repetitive, horrors of our world in another way?  How can we get ALL of creation HOME, another way? What does HOME look like? Are the fear-filled men welcome in this place called HOME? Can we call it HOME without them? It seems, after all, they are the ones who need HOME the very most.  What does the WAY to this place called HOME look like? How can we know the WAY? 

I don’t think the Wise Men are asking us to abandon the faithful, holy work of standing up and speaking out against the horrors of this world.  I think they are asking us to consider taking on an additional, harder part of the task at hand. I think they are asking us if we can stand up to the latest horrors that fear-filled men endlessly launch into the world AND ALSO find another way... a way to get at that festering fear-filled core… to heal the fear which drives horror after horror into the world.  Like I said, I don’t have the answer to this wondering, but I think perhaps the place to start is to pay closer attention to our dreams.  Maybe if we, like Joseph and these Wise Men, would listen to our dreams, they might show us a WAY to a TRUTH which just might lead to a LIFE... a life free of a perpetual parade of fear-fueled horrors... A way for all of creation to find its way home by another way. Amen.