2 Christmas C

Matthew's description of the birth of Christ includes two very different responses. The Wise Ones who see a star and follow it and Herod who reacts in fear with violence. What does this have to tell us about our own responses to the coming of Christ into our lives?

2 Christmas C

Sermon given on January 3, 1998

By the Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Brentwood CA

Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

         Usually when the Christmas story is presented, the various traditions are so combined that we may be surprised to realize that the story in Luke and in Matthew are quite different, or at least describe different aspects of the story. And Gospels of Mark and John don’t mention anything about the birth of Jesus. Let’s just quickly review to give a context to today’s Gospel reading.

         In Luke we have the most extensive description of the birth story. It is in Luke that we hear of Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist. It is in Luke that the angel comes to Mary and tells her that she will conceive. It is also in Luke where Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and says that beautiful piece of poetry we call the Magnificat.  It is only in Luke that there is reference to the decree that all should be enrolled and the journey to Bethlehem of Joseph with Mary who was with child. It is in Luke that we hear of the lack of room in the inn and the child being laid in a manger. In Luke the birth is announced to the shepherds, and no one else. Eight days later they have the child circumcised and then they go up to Jerusalem for the purification rites after which they return to Galilee, to the city of Nazareth.

         In the Gospel according to Matthew we get a different picture. It begins with the genealogy of Joseph. It then just says that Mary was betrothed to Joseph and became pregnant (no angels announcing it to Mary). Joseph plans to divorce her, but an angel appeared to him in a dream and explained that it was a child of the Holy Spirit, so he marries her but doesn’t have relations with her. It then says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod. There is no mention of traveling from Nazareth, in fact from Matthew’s description it would sound as if Joseph and Mary lived in Bethlehem before the birth. The birth is announced not to shepherds, but to wise men from the east via a star. (Luke doesn’t mention a star, yet the shepherds are usually shown with a star.) The wise men contact Herod about the prophesied location of the birth of the savior, and Herod decides to do away with the child. That’s where we get to the current reading where Joseph once again gets a message in a dream and goes to Egypt to protect the child and returns not to Bethlehem but to Nazareth, once again in response to a dream. It turns out that the only overlap in the two stories is that Jesus’ parents were Mary and Joseph, that Mary was a virgin, and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

         Why should such different stories be told? Well certainly at the time of the writing of the gospels, 30 to 60 years after Jesus died, there were many stories passed on about him. Which of many stories the writers of the Gospels decided to include depended upon the emphasis that the writer wanted to make. They would also include those stories that were meaningful to them personally.

         So, today we have the story of Joseph, Mary and Jesus fleeing to Egypt and (although we skipped the description of it) the killing of all the male children under two years old in Bethlehem. Matthew presents two very different reactions to the birth of Christ. The wise men, who see a star, a glimmer of hope, and travel great distances to bring their gifts to the Christ child, and Herod, who reacts with fear and tries to destroy the savior of his people. Why would Matthew choose these two stories?

         One thing to remember about scripture is that it is written on multiple levels. On the one level it tells the direct story of events, on another level it is a parable, a representation of something deeper. It speaks on the concrete level and on the spiritual level. Let’s take a look at this stories form a spiritual level.

         We see here two responses to the coming of Christ. The coming of Christ, the birth of Christ, is not something that only happened 2000 years ago, it is also something that spiritually happens to us. The Christ, the savior, is born for us today, is potentially born in our hearts, in our beings. If we are like the wise men, we see a glimmer of light, a star in the east, a glimmer of hope, a spark of belief, that something wonderful is taking place. Inside us a spark of light is born, and if we are like the wise men, we follow that star and we respond with gratitude and gifts.

         But, often there is something within us more like Herod. Something within us that is afraid of the birth of the savior.

         Let’s take a deeper look at Herod. There is no historical evidence of the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem, but there is agreement that it is the sort of thing that Herod would have been quite capable of. He was not descendent from the kings of Israel, but became king because he had helped the Roman’s when they took over the country. His claim to legitimacy was through his wife who was a descendent of the royal family. He was constantly afraid of losing his power, probably because he knew he didn’t legitimately deserve it, so he would brutally eliminate anyone who he thought would challenge his authority, including several of his children. When he heard of the birth of the predicted Messiah he was afraid of losing his power to this newborn “king”. Therefore, he tried to have him eliminated. The wise men brought gifts, welcoming the birth because of their wisdom; Herod brought death because of his fear.

         So, is there a part of us that is like Herod, a part of us that thinks it is in charge? A part of us that exerts a power and authority that is really not legitimate? Is there a part of us that is in truth a petty administrator but acts like it is a King? Is there a part of us that has been given some authority on day-to-day matters that has forgotten the real purpose behind that authority? I would say yes, that part of ourselves that has come to be called the ego.

         Our egos are necessary and important; they manage our activities and interaction with the world. They make decisions about what we will do when and how. They are the administrators of our psyches. They help us to survive. But they are not the king. They are there to serve our spiritual selves, yet our egos have forgotten that. When the Christ child is born in our hearts, when God’s love is born in us, the ego gets scared. When we begin to want to live our lives, not as our ego has learned to do in order to survive, but as our deeper, spiritual, loving essence wants us to, the ego gets scared. The Herod in us gets scared, and wants to destroy the potential new king.

         How do our egos respond? In many different and sometimes subtle ways.

         One way to think about it is that through Christ God is giving us a wonderful gift. The most wonderful of gifts - full, complete, and unconditional love. God stands there, with arms outstretched, offering this gift. How do we respond? “Oh, you shouldn’t have.” “I don’t deserve this.” “I couldn’t accept this from you.” “I am so unworthy.” “I don’t have anything to give you in return.”  or “What’s the catch?” “What do I have to do in exchange?” “Nobody gives this kind of gift without a hook.” “This couldn’t be for real.” All God wants to do is give us Love, but we are afraid to accept it. We are afraid to accept it because if we truly accepted that we are unconditionally loved by God, our whole sense of self, our whole way of being in the world, the whole game of our ego, would have to change. We would have to let go of guilt, of fear, of shame, of our poor self concepts, of our sense of ourselves as not enough, of not being lovable. And if we did that, the power of our ego would be eliminated. We would be free beings. Free and joyous beings. And that is terrifying. Terrifying to our egos.

         And so we ignore the gift, deny the very existence of the giver. We have doubt, our rational minds struggle against our personal experience. The Herod in us wants to destroy the gift of love.

         The real Herod did not understand that the kind of king that Jesus was would not interfere with his administrative duties. Jesus was not a king that would try to overthrow Herod. Jesus’ kingdom was very different than that. And the birth of God’s love within us does not want to eliminate the ego, we need our egos, rather it wants to transform it, have the ego become the instrument of spirit. And if we open to this we discover that we are more powerful then ever.

         If Herod had not been so insecure, if Herod had faith in his own abilities, if he had not developed a grandiose image of himself, he would have also been able to welcome the birth of the Christ. If we can love our egos, acknowledge their place in our lives, they may be more willing to welcome the birth of our spiritual selves, rather than try to destroy it.

         And if not, we have to take the Christ child to Egypt, to that country from which the chosen people came after going there in time of famine. We keep that sense of the spiritual, the divine, that spark of hope, that star burning within us in a safe place while we work on our egos. That is what all the spiritual practices are about, quieting our egos, putting them into place. All the prayers, the fasting, the meditation, the study, is to lead to the place where our egos as we knew them are dead, so that the spirit can return from Egypt and take its rightful place as the king of our lives.

         What is there within you that refuses the gift, that tries to eliminate that birth of the knowledge of just how deeply we are loved by God. Is it fear, guilt, shame, self-doubt, the need to know, the need for control, or that all pervasive sense of not being enough. Nurture the child of light within you, honor the fears of Herod, and accept the gift of love, the warm wonderful gift of God’s unconditional love, which is incarnated in the Christ child.