Journeying with the Magi

This is the Sunday when we remember when the Magi, with a sense of urgency, journeyed from the East. They followed the star, traveling first to Jerusalem and then on to Bethlehem, seeking to encounter the Christ Child.

While they were in Jerusalem, they came to Herod and stated their intentions to find this one called the king of the Jews. Herod feared this news but feigned a reverent interest in the baby, stating that he wanted the Magi to return to him after they had located the baby.

But the Magi listened to a message that came to them in a dream: don’t go back to Herod. They went home by a new road as they sought to distance themselves from a second encounter with Herod. By avoiding Herod, they kept Jesus alive. Herod was so threatened by the baby Jesus that he on to murder all the baby boys in Bethlehem

Our dreams can startle us in their clarity, pointing us to a direction we hadn’t intended to take.

Where do your dreams lead you?

Are you willing to step out on a journey that has no clear map, trusting that you will be guided by the Spirit to a place that is both transformative and life-giving?

By taking the unfamiliar road, what will be saved? Perhaps this is a question we most overlook when we are challenged to change direction. We keep looking back at what we will lose. But our actions—like the Magi—have the capacity to bring life to others in ways we can’t even imagine.

Journey with the Magi to encounter the Christ Child. Bring what gifts you can offer. Then, rise from your knees and take the path that will offer you—and others—life!

Hope of The World

Epiphany is the day we celebrate the Magi, bringing gifts to the baby Jesus, recognizing that God’s gift in Christ was meant for everyone.

It is a day of celebration and joy. I like that it always occurs in the very beginning of a new year. It helps me ground myself in hope as I face the unknown possibilities and challenges offered in the days, weeks and months to come.

Are you hopeful as we face the new year?

In his book Agents of Hope: A Pastoral Psychology, Donald Capps says that the primary task of the pastor is to offer hope. For Capps, the threats to hope are despair, apathy and shame. These burdens we carry dash hope and cause the lights within us to dim.

How will you help those around you face into their despair to see glimmers of possibilities? How will you help people shake off apathy and move to engagement? How can you help others heal from whatever shame they carry so they can claim their self-worth?

Hope is an essential element of a human being fully human. Through hope, we see that the past doesn’t have to dictate our future. Through hope, we know that another’s damaging judgement about our worthiness cannot dim the light of God that shines within us. Through hope, we can face whatever challenges us.

This is one reason why I love Epiphany. As John’s Gospel reminds us, the true light, which enlightens everyone, has come into the world. The Hope of the World is with us! May we, like the Magi, find this One who brings us Hope.

Thoughts on Epiphany

Thoughts on Epiphany

I loved seeing the pictures my Hispanic and Latin American friends posted on Facebook today, for it is el Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos—Day of the Three Magi. Today on Epiphany, not Christmas, is the day that gifts are exchanged, as a way to celebrate the three wise men finally finding Jesus in Bethlehem and offering him their gifts.

The wise men had come from the East, looking for Jesus. They had seen the star and knew that the King of the Jews had been born. This frightened Herod terribly, for he knew this King could threaten his own power. So he asked the wise men to let him know when they found Jesus, for he wanted to pay homage as well. At least that’s what he told them. We who stand on the other side of history know that Herod wanted to destroy the One he perceived was his enemy.

The wise men followed the star and kept looking for this King. It is their commitment to this task that moves me so. They didn’t stray and they weren’t distracted from their search, even when it led them to an unlikely place and a baby.

This defenseless baby was the one who Herod feared yet the wise men worshiped. For in this baby, all heaven broke loose as God became one of us. Who could have imagined this?

God continues to come, showing up in our world, infusing it with holiness and offering us a love that will never let us go. Are you willing to have the dedication of the wise men, to keep on the lookout, pursuing God in the most unlikely people and overlooked places? For as the Gospels show us, this is where God is most likely to be found.

May we be extravagant each time we gather for worship, showering one another with joy and love, for Christ continues to dwell among us.

Stay on the lookout, for God will show up!

Songs of the Season: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

It is still 11 days from Christmas, yet I am drawn to this song on a day filled with unspeakable horror as a man entered a school in Newtown, CT and gunned down more than 2 dozen children, teachers, and administrators. Suddenly, the joy of the season is filled with the weight of grief as the entire nation mourns with the families of Newtown.

While at first glance it would seem as if Christmas is reserved for joy and laughter (after all, we always precede a Christmas greeting with "Merry" and LOL becomes Ho Ho Ho) and have little to offer us as we sit at our desks and TVs weeping this day, it is time for us to tell the whole story of Christmas, the one that is often skipped over. We all love the stories of wise men and shepherds, of the baby Jesus away in a manger on a silent night, holy night. We keep singing louder and louder as if to convince ourselves, of "tidings of comfort and joy." But there is a part of the story that is neither comfortable nor joyous.

It is the slaughter of the innocents.

When Herod hears the murmurs of the people, talking about the birth of the "King of the Jews", he dispatches 3 wise men to find out where this newborn king is, and then get back to him with the news.  We all know about the 3 kings, bearing gifts, having traveled afar...how they are in awe of this babe, lying in a manger.

They aren't called wise men for nothing. They know that Herod fears an early coup in the making and wants to know the baby's whereabouts so he can kill him and reserve his status and power.  The wise men decide to take a route home that will allow them to avoid Herod.

Joseph has a dream that warns him of the danger facing his child. Under the cloak of night, Joseph and his family run from Bethlehem into Egypt. So not only was Jesus born homeless, but he also becomes a refugee. The family remain in Egypt for several years until Herod's death.

Herod isn't aware of the Holy Family's escape and, upon learning that the wise men have not kept their promise to return to him with information as to Jesus' whereabouts, orders every male child under the age of 2 to be killed. The Gospel of Matthew uses a passage from the prophet Jeremiah to describe the pain of those whose young sons were murdered:

"A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

Tonight, there is weeping and great mourning in Newtown, mothers and fathers weeping for children who are no more.

Tonight, we all are grief-stricken at the loss of innocents, those who, as President Obama said today,
"had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own." We mourn the deaths of those who taught and nurtured these children. We join our tears with those in Newtown.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the song, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Written in 1864, it reflects both societal and personal grief that Longfellow was facing. With a nation gripped by the Civil War, Longfellow knew intimately the grief we are experiencing today, as parents wept for lost sons in the war. He lost his wife in 1861 as the result of a fire in which he was badly scarred himself, having failed at extinguishing the flames that had engulfed her. He was so despondent that a year later he wrote: "I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace." As Christmas 1862 approached he wrote: “A ‘merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.” 

Against Longfellow's wishes, his son Charles enlisted to fight in the war, and was severely wounded and returned home to recover. As 1864 drew to a close, Lincoln was re-elected and it looked like the war might soon be over, Longfellow wrote a poem "Christmas Bells", which became the words to the song.

Unlike many Christmas songs, this one does not shy away from acknowledging that humans do awful things to each other, that we experience much pain and suffering. There is death, weeping and tears. Yet, God does not leave us desolate. The God who came in the form of a baby continues to come into our world to set things right. 

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!