A sermon by Rev. Chris Jorgensen
January 14, 2018
Scripture: Matthew 2: 1-16
So, you might be surprised that we are revisiting the story of the magi this week. I mean, we need to get moving here. Epiphany is over, right?!
But here’s the thing! That scripture we usually hear about the magi. Where it ended last week… well, the scripture ends of a cliffhanger. Imagine it with lots of drama. “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.”
What?! Why?! What is King Herod going to do?!
Well, if we keep reading, like we did this week, we find out that Herod has some seriously evil plans. Herod is plotting to kill Jesus, this newborn King of the Jews, to make sure he is not replaced. In fact, Herod is so evil that when he figures out he was tricked by the magi, he does not hesitate to send his armies to kill all the children under two years of age in the Bethlehem area, so he can get Jesus that way.
Now Herod was a bad, bad man. Historians tell us that Herod was a willing collaborator with the occupying Roman Empire. While he provided order and political stability to the region, he also imposed a crushing tax rate to re-create Jerusalem in the monumental style of Roman cities and to fund his own opulent lifestyle. He liked his position of power and money and would do anything to keep it.
He was known for his domestic disputes and willingness to kill off members of his own family if necessary. Religious historian Reza Aslan writes, “Herod’s was a … tyrannical rule marked by farcical excess and bestial acts of cruelty…Upon ascending the throne, he massacred nearly every member of the Sanhedrin [a council of judges] and replaced the Temple priests with a claque of fawning admirers” (Aslan, Reza. Zealot : The Life And Times of Jesus of Nazareth. New York :Random House, 2013. p. 20-21).
So the event called the Massacre of the Innocents, these children murdered around Bethlehem, while not able to be proved historically, was well within Herod’s usual character. And in the story we heard today, he used his new temple Priests, that “fawning claque of admirers” to help him justify and implement his evil plans. In the scripture we hear today, it is the “chief priests and scribes” who give both him and the magi the information that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Though perhaps unwitting, these religious leaders use the scripture to help Herod with his massacre.
The people around Herod seemed to have three options about how to respond to this despotic ruler: comply, collaborate, or resist. The scripture says that when Herod was frightened, all Jerusalem was frightened with him. Those frightened folks were likely to just keep their mouths shut and not get involved. They certainly wouldn’t have wanted Herod’s anger turned toward them. So they comply. The temple priests, of course, collaborate with Herod. They too lived a sumptuous lifestyle, and they know they only have their positions at Herod’s pleasure. So they help him figure out where Jesus is. The only people we see resisting are the magi. They sneak away before Herod can get Jesus’ exact location out of them.
I think the thing that bothers me most is the action of the temple priests: these collaborators who are supposed to be faithful and upright. They go ahead and use the scripture to help Herod decide which children he is going to massacre. This bothers me, I’m sure, because I am a pastor and can relate to the temple priests in some ways. But mostly, it bothers me because I know Christian history, and I know historically, Christian religious leaders have used scripture so many times to justify evil.
For example, Anti-Jewish and pro-authoritarian sentiment justified by scripture was used to support the Nazi Party and the Holocaust in World War II-era Germany. Before the American civil war, scripture was used to support slavery, and afterward racism and segregation. Most recently it was and still is trotted out to justify the oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. And in every one of these instances, Christians have chosen to either comply with the evil being done in Jesus’ name, collaborate with those who were doing it, or resist.
On this day before the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I’d like us to look specifically at how Christians responded to segregation. I will pull just one example from our own Methodist history. The year was 1963. The Methodist Church (not yet “United”) was an officially segregated institution. When the Methodist Church and the Methodist Church – South unified in 1939, they (we) created something called The Central Jurisdiction. Every other jurisdiction was a geographical one, but all of the African-American churches and clergy people were put into their own jurisdiction that spanned all of the United States. Of course, less resources were allocated by the General Conference to the all-black Central Jurisdiction. This was textbook institutional racism and segregation. The Central Jurisdiction was not dissolved until 1968.
So, as I was saying, the year was 1963. And 28 white Methodist pastors in Mississippi wrote a letter protesting racial discrimination and segregation, and condemning communism (you know, to prove the writers were not too radical). It would be considered pretty tame today. But in 1963 Mississippi, the reaction to the letter is described as being like a bomb exploding. The pastors were verbally harassed, their congregations demanded they be fired and withheld their pay. They and their families – including their children – were ostracized from their congregations and communities. Eventually 20 of the 28 left Mississippi, driven out mostly by statewide church politics. But eight did stay and continue to work for racial reconciliation. (http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/mississippi-pastors-paid-price-for-segregation-challenge)
In the face of evil, these Methodist Christians chose to resist. And it had real consequences. For many in the civil rights movement, the consequences were even greater. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself gave his life for the cause.
And so on the eve of his holiday, with the story of Herod and the massacre of the innocents echoing in the background, I invite us to ask ourselves a very hard question. In the face of an evil like segregation, and in the face of evil that oppresses and takes advantage of the most vulnerable people in our world today, would we comply, collaborate, or resist?
Frankly, I think that depends on one thing. In our scripture, we heard about Herod’s fear. This fear drives him to kill children in order to keep his position of power. And the people of Jerusalem, it says, were fearful with him. Their fear caused them to comply or collaborate with this evil man.
Fear. Fear leads down the road to destruction. Fear leads to complicity and collaboration with those who would crush the vulnerable in order to maintain power. And, yes, what I’m talking about is political. And it is also personal. How often being fearful causes us to want to impress the popular kids at the expense of the outcasts? How often do we adults court the approval of those in power and ignore the needs of those who are not?
It’s likely not even conscious. Maybe we get to know the “higher ups” in our work place because it’s good for our career, but we don’t pay much attention to those in positions lower than ours. Heck, I do this. I want to please the District Superintendent and the Bishop because they have power over me. But if I give into the temptation to worry first about pleasing my DS and the bishop and climbing the ladder of power, then I am not acting out of love and care for you (my people!) and the vulnerable people in our community that Jesus calls us to serve.
But it is so easy to be fearful and complicit. How do we ever resist?
How did the people in history who stood up against oppression at all costs do it? Well, many of them did it because of their faith. Martin Luther King, Jr. had real faith. Real faith that convinces us that we can be like Jesus – and resist the powers of evil no matter what the costs. Real faith that there is something and someone MUCH bigger than you – or the specifics of your current predicament – that will hold and support and catch you even if your choice to resist costs you everything.
We need that real faith. Faith so strong and deep and anchored that it casts out fear in the face of whatever evil we need to confront. It is the only kind of faith worth having. And with God’s help, that is the kind of faith we are cultivating here. Bold and courageous faith. Faith that calls us to something greater than comfort and respectability. Faith that makes us unafraid to resist because we cannot put up with the injustice and suffering happening all around us.
That is an MLK-kind-of-faith: a faith that caused King to knowingly risk and ultimately give his life, working for the liberation of black people and poor people of all colors.
May we have even a sliver of King’s faith, and may it set us free from fear – for the good of all people and all of creation.
May it be so.
Amen.
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Read the scripture for this week. How does reading the “rest of the story” about the Massacre of the Innocents change the way you think about the scene with Herod and the magi?
- Do you have any questions or observations, anything that jumps out at you or confuses or concerns you about the new verses for this week? (Verses 13-16)
- Describe a time when fear caused you to act in a way you wish you hadn’t.
- Describe a situation in which your faith gave you courage.