Divine Encounter
Matthew 2:1-12
Rev. Dr. Mary Alice Mulligan
A certain mix of kindness and joy permeates the Christmas Season. Advent gets us ready; then Christmas Eve sets the tone for the next 12 days. For many of us, Christmas Eve is the most precious worship service of the year. We imagine a glow through that holy night with an exhausted young mother, her fiancé, and the newborn Jesus; and we join in singing with the angel chorus rousing the shepherds to go see this thing which has come to pass. A week later, as the parents take their first-born son to the Temple, two prophets: Anna and Simeon, recognize he is the One. The story continues today with the arrival of the magi, who bring gifts for the child, now a toddler. From the 2nd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, listen for the word of God.
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.
An amazing story, isn’t it? These foreign, gentile (non-Jewish) astrologers. They paid attention to the signs, traveled for many months, and got to see the one born King of the Jews. But then, they left. They did not decide to move to Judah to wait for the toddler to grow up. They paid him homage, although we don’t know for how long. They probably stayed some days, perhaps seeing the child several times, then gathering supplies and making preparations for their return trip. If it took 2 years to make their way to Judah, we can guess it would take 2 years to get home. Or perhaps longer since they avoided passing through Jerusalem on the way back.
We know Herod was a megalomaniac, who thought nothing of killing all the children in and around a particular village. If he had caught the magi trying to evade him, he probably would have happily killed them too. But several commentators mentioned that “going home by another way” was not just to avoid Herod, but rather is the Gospel writer’s signal to us that the lives of the magi were forever changed by their visit to the child. They were different, and thus on a different path from then on.
Herod, on the other hand, never got to see Jesus. The truth is, many people miss Jesus. All over Judah, most people never noticed Joseph and Mary’s baby. Except for some outcaste shepherds, no one even saw the baby at first. Anna and Simeon were the only ones at the Temple who really saw who was being brought in. Think how busy the Temple was with people gathering for worship, paying their Temple fee, taking care of rituals. And no one but those two prophets realized something extraordinary was going on.
But we need to understand people are still not seeing where Jesus is today. Think of Christmas Eve. Services were being held in churches all over town; they streamed on the internet and played on television well into the night, yet many people who might claim to be Christian still skipped the opportunity to share on that most holy night in the community of faith, to celebrate and experience the joyous presence of the Incarnation. Instead, people went to parties or joined friends at a bar.
Unfortunately, people are not just skipping opportunities in a community of faith when they could connect with God. Some people want to connect but discover they just cannot seem to find God anywhere. They remember connecting with Jesus some years ago, but somehow they have lost their way. St. Teresa of Kolkata admits in her autobiography that she had long periods of feeling God’s absence. St. John of the Cross wrote a whole book about the “Dark Night of the Soul.” But it’s not just saints who feel disconnected from God. Normal people do, too. Pastor-scholar Barbara Brown Taylor talks about lots of people’s inability to hear God anymore. She quotes some else’s using the term of “mid-faith ennui.”[1] People who used to talk easily about their strong relationship with Jesus, find themselves in the embarrassing situation of not sensing God’s presence at all anymore. We might think of a listlessness, of experiencing a languor of spirit. In other words, there is an emptiness where God’s presence used to be. Lots of people are missing Jesus.
So, what can we do, if we are missing Jesus? We can claim Jesus. Let’s choose Christ again. But we need to be honest. Some of us can’t seem to articulate even what we hope to believe in. We support social justice issues happily but can’t say what God has to do with them.
Since the 4th century, a central focus of the Church has been to “win the world for Christ.” Convert everyone so Christianity covers the world. Theologians called it “Christendom,” all of society permeated with Christian values and beliefs. Lots of people still envision Christendom as a goal. They set a green flag outside their office door, committed to establishing Christianity (regardless of what the Constitution says). A crucial problem is that conception of Christendom bears little resemblance to what is taught in the New Testament.
We don’t have to delve into society very far to see that the whole world is not going to become any sort of Christian. Those who are seriously committed to Jesus Christ are a minority, even in the United States. Some scholars are using the term “diaspora” for our situation. Christians are a minority, dispersed throughout society.
So, how are we going to claim Christ again? It doesn’t happen overnight, our getting back into connection with God. But there are steps we can take. We need to hear what the New Testament reports about the teachings of Jesus. Christians are not called to establish Christendom; they are not promised successful lives of prosperity. After all, Jesus says the way is narrow, and contains a cross. Christians are called to lives of holy love, rooted in God, giving rise to sacrificial acts of compassion and generosity. We can mature into such lives by focusing on our communal faith; by being people whose identity comes from Jesus Christ. Reconnecting to God and deepening our faith happens by taking time to think, pray, read (especially scripture and commentaries), and discuss ideas together. Scripture helps us see we are people of a covenant. God initiates commitment to us and we respond, thus establishing a covenantal relationship between God and us, a God who guides us and promises us a future together. When our faith falters, as everyone’s does from time to time, we choose to recommit to Jesus Christ, who will not fail us.
[1] Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s term, quoted in Barbara Brown Taylor, Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others (Harper: 2019), HarperLuxe edition, Large Print, 213.