Epiphany A: Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-13 “Joseph Listens: Part II”
I have so enjoyed our journey to Bethlehem this year! My eyes and mind and heart have been opened to the symbolic meanings found through various people in the story. Mary confronted her fear in bearing a child out of wedlock for the sake of humanity, who said YES to God and did not count the cost. Joseph initially decided to follow cultural guidelines and dismiss Mary, listening to angels, paying attention to dreams! Not listening to the tyrannical voice of “usual solutions,” but opening himself to the Divine.
For just when he had resolved to dismiss Mary, “an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” What faith this man had, to believe in God so strongly that he could risk public outcry and humiliation.
In today’s scripture lesson, the Wise Men look and listen for clues about where to go and what to say and what to do. They weren’t Jews looking for a messiah; they were probably Zoroastrians following their own form of guidance. They were open. They trusted. They did as the Guidance told them. In this way, they were like Joseph. In this way, they were unlike Herod, who did not trust God or others. Herod’s life was fear based. If these Wise Men were searching for a Wisdom Child, a potential leader, Herod’s fear was activated. And the only solution he knew was force - murder. Murder little boy babies. It reminds us of Moses and the bulrushes. For Pharaoh was a lot like Herod. He had a lot of power and a lot of fear about losing it.
Yes, Herod, the tyrant, the protector of personal power and the old ways of thinking, will surge into action. And if we are to understand the Nativity from a symbolic perspective, we must see how Herod, a fear-based tyrant, lives in all of us. These tyrant parts must be encountered if we are to know the Kingdom of God. Those parts are afraid, they do not trust. They do not trust God, others, or even us. They seek to control. They seek to keep things the same even if things have gotten stale and lifeless. Indeed, they suck the Spirit from our very beings.
After worship this morning, everyone is invited to a meeting whereby we will have opportunities to ask for God’s guidance in making some decisions for the congregation. The members will be allowed to vote on several matters, but it occurs to me that anyone who attends the meeting with humility and an open mind should be able to share. We never know when angels, whom some have described as the bearers of the thoughts of God, might speak to a person. I believe that we are birthing a new, expanded identity here at Wild Rose Church, and it is very important to listen for angels as Joseph did in order to provide for the safety and protection of this new creation that we are becoming. Although our cherished bond to democracy here in the UCC will be honored with “who can vote,” let us believe that angels may be speaking to any of us.
To prepare ourselves for this meeting, let’s do some thinking about how to prepare ourselves to receive Divine Guidance. Believing that we all have a Herod part inside of us that gets activated by fear, may we remember that perfect love casts out fear. Let’s remember that we are of God and always will be. Let’s lose our fear of death, our attachment to our “reputation,” our need to know and be right. Our goal is to avoid fear and warfare. Our goal is to open ourselves to Wisdom. Our goal is to be respectful and understand that we are all God’s children. We will suspend our desire to judge and condemn. That is Herod’s method, not ours.
Some of the obstacles to peace described in A Course in Miracles include the fears just described. We are asked to return to an infant state of trust and connectedness. We are thus restored to full communication with God. We are asked to ponder this child, whom Herod feared, whom our ego fears, and return to trust in God and others. “What has been given you, even in its infancy, is in full communication with God and you. In its tiny hands it holds, in perfect safety, every miracle you will perform held out to you. The miracle of life is ageless, born in time but nourished in eternity. Behold this infant, to whom you gave a resting place by your forgiveness of your brother, and see in it the Will of God. Here is the babe of Bethlehem reborn. And everyone who gives him shelter will follow him, not to the cross, but to the resurrection and the life.”
While writing this message, I had an image of God as a waiter in a fine restaurant. Steve and I had a chance to eat in such a place in Iowa with his family. I must have been re-hydrating my body after getting back to the flat land, because I was drinking a lot of water. Our skilled waiter would pass by on a regular basis putting water in my glass often and water in other glasses occasionally. I think God is always circling our banquet table to re-hydrate parched souls. But the thirsty one has to ask for help. This is what humility is all about. It is being perfectly comfortable in saying, “I don’t know the solution to this apparent dilemma,” and believing that if one becomes still and receptive the water, or solution, will appear.
In the words of Christian writer Paul Ferrini, “All attempts to analyze or figure things out come from not knowing. Deliberation is not knowing or pretending to know. It leads us deeper and deeper into conflict. Only when we realize that we don’t know does not knowing become an asset. New awareness then becomes possible.
“Pretending to know when we don’t know is the primary architect of personal illusion. Genuine ignorance is never a problem. When you don’t know, you can learn. You are teachable. But when you don’t know, and think that you know, you are not teachable. You have established a block to learning.
“…When we admit that we do not know, and indicate our desire to learn, teachers spontaneously appear to help us… The prayers of the one who cries out in honesty and humility are responded to fully…Our job is not to discover love or find the truth, but merely to remove the barriers that keep both from us. When our hearts and minds are open, all the gifts of God can be entrusted to us.” (pp 180-183, Waking Up Together)
I don’t know where Wild Rose Church is headed, but I do know that it seems very right to trust God to speak to us if we can open our hearts and minds. I have found the Holy Spirit to be a communication link to God that often acts in surprising ways. We want to be a child-friendly congregation. We want to expand our music program. We want to hold onto three values that mean so much to us: Open and Affirming, Just Peace and Eco-Justice. What other amazing identities await us? Love came down on Christmas day, and we are listening, as Joseph did, for messages about preserving that innocent love. We are waiting to find out more about how to be the love that we are.
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