Let’s End Our Trips in Iceland!

Thursday, December 24, 2015 

            Our last trip for this Advent season is go to Iceland.  I hope that you have enjoyed our travels, learning about how other girls and boys celebrate Christmas with their families.  Christmas is known as “Yule” in Iceland.  In its early history, it was a celebration around the shortest day of the year, but when the Romans came, they began to honor the birth of Jesus.  There are many holiday traditions in Iceland, and I would like to share some of them with you.

            The preparations for Christmas are very important in Iceland.  Some people don’t eat certain meals or food, especially, meat during the thirteen days before Christmas.  Some also do as you have done by reading Advent devotionals and preparing their hearts to receive God’s gift of his son.  Part of the preparation for the holidays is to clean one’s home very well – including the children’s rooms.

            Since 1890 when Christmas cards first arrived in Iceland, the people there have loved to send them.  Of course, now they also send emails or texts to their friends and relatives.  However, traditional holiday cards are still very popular.  Giving gifts is also very important.  However, this did not begin until about 1850.  They give food to poor, needy families, and their bosses at work give everyone a new pair of sheepskin shoes and a piece of clothing, often a sweater, for all the hard work they have done all year.  Because Jesus is considered to be the Light of the World, it is also traditional for everyone in the family, including the children, to receive a candle.  The little ones in this country consider this to be a great present.

            Starting on December 12^th and lasting up until December 24^th, the children put their shoes in the window.  The traditional Yule Lads put a gift in their shoes every night until Christmas.  If they have been good, they receive candy or a small toy; however, if they have not been particularly well-behaved, they may receive a note encouraging them to do better or, worse yet, a rotten potato!  There a thirteen Yule Lads, or Yule Trolls, as they are sometimes called.  In English, some of them are called Bowl Licker, Sausage Snatcher, and Candle Beggar.  (Remember how important candles are to everyone, especially children, in Iceland.)  The favorite gifts are a book and a piece of chocolate!  Occasionally, sometimes today Santa Claus is given credit for leaving the gifts. 

Let’s wish all the children in Iceland a Merry Christmas!!!  They love to send greetings, so I am sure they will send you one in return. 

What is Christmas All About?

Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy

            At its basic essence, Christmas is all about the Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy that Jesus brings us.  Tradition has it that the Israelites had Hope that a Messiah would come to set them free.  Frequently, that Hope was to be freed from foreign rule.  However, we are on the other side of the Messiah’s arrival.  Yes, it is nice, nice indeed, to be freed from foreign oppression.  But, there is a deeper Hope; a Hope within our hearts that transcends earthly concerns and reaches for the eternal.  A baby began the process of sending that Hope to us.

            With Hope comes Peace for we believe that life will be better now that Jesus is a part of our lives.  When peace focuses on the eternal, it is much easier to face life and death.  The twelve-year-old Jesus brought this to us when he was at ease being where he was supposed to be with the teachers in the Temple.

            We can’t help but Love the one brings us Hope and Peace.  In arguably the greatest love chapter in the Bible, I Corinthians 13, we learn that we can have or be anything or everything else on the earth, but without Love we are not a gift to the world or to others.  Jesus taught and brought Hope, Peace, and Love to us during his three year teaching, preaching, and healing sojourn.  And he still brings these things through his example in the gospels as well as in the witness of our hearts.  May we be grateful for not only his example, but also for the empowerment he gives us to live in Hope, Peace, and Love.

            Hope – Peace – Love – and Joy: That is what the risen savior gives to us.  First, though, he came as a baby bringing us Hope, grew into a young boy of knowledge and understanding, became a man who gave us our example and guidance on how to live through him and with one another.  Finally, he rose again so that we might live in Hope, Peace, Love, and JOY!  These are our gifts from God and to one another during Christmas and throughout all eternity. 

MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Lynn

“Angels We Have Heard on High”

Wednesday, December 23, 2013

Angels we have heard on high,

Sweetly singing o’er the plains,

And the mountains in reply,

Echoing their joyous strains. 

Chorus:

Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Gloria in excelsis Deo 

Shepherds why this jubilee?

Why your joyous strains prolong?

Say what may the tidings be,

Which inspire your heav’nly song 

Chorus 

            Singing the words to “Angels We Have Heard on High” last Sunday all together at the front of the church after the congregational photograph was taken brought tears to my eyes.  What a glorious expression of the Christmas spirit this carol is!  Its words are powerful; its tune captivating.  As Laurie opened the windows of the sanctuary so that our singing could be heard outside, I was overcome with the feeling that, yes, this is a song and a message that the world needs to hear.  Not just a story of peace and justice, which we tend to focus on, but also a remembrance of that day when the host of heaven’s angels as well as the shepherds (embracing both heavenly as well as earthly beings) sang of the glorious thing that God had done in sending the Savior to us.  It was such a tender moment, and my heart and soul were deeply touched.

            Portions of this song were first sung at least 1700 years ago by monks in early church services even before the Roman emperor Constantine the Great had made Christianity the state religion.  The chorus goes back even earlier in time to when Pope Telesphorus in 130 CE decreed that it be should always be used in certain parts of the worship services.  Perhaps it could even have been written by someone who walked and talked with Jesus himself.  (Now, here I expound upon a “fanciful myth!”)  However, “Angels We Have Heard on High” wasn’t published until 1855.  Because when it first appeared it was written in French, people assumed that it was written in that country.  It was then that today’s tune was first attached to this song.

            This carol expresses the joy that the angels and shepherds felt at the birth of Jesus, and last Sunday we, too, experienced that glorious joy of the Christmas season.  Perhaps the angels and the shepherds sang along with us, too.

Come to Bethlehem and see

Him whose birth the angels sing;

Come, adore on bended knee

Christ the Lord, the newborn King.

Chorus 

See within a manger laid,

Jesus, Lord of heav’n and earth!

Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,

With us sing our Savior’s birth. 

Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Gloria in excelsis Deo.

“Silent Night”

Tuesday, December 22, 2015 

Silent night, holy night!

All is calm, all is bright.

Round yon virgin, mother and child.

Holy infant so tender and mild,

Sleep in heavenly peace,

Sleep in heavenly peace. 

            “Silent Night” was written by Joseph Mohr, a twenty-five year old assistant priest in a small village in Austria in the early 1800s.  He loved music and poetry, and he oftentimes wrote the words to songs for special events in his church.  However, on Christmas Eve in 1818 his special service was being prepared and the organ malfunctioned; he tried everything to fix it and then, of course, last of all he decided to pray about it!  He remembered an unassuming Christmas poem that he had written two years earlier, and he decided that was the answer to his dilemma!

            Mohr walked through heavy snow to the home of the organist at his church, Franz Gruber.  Frantic with anticipation, the priest told Gruber the situation, and he asked if the organist could write an easy melody for the words to the poem that he had written.  Mohr explained that it would have to be sung to a guitar, and that it would need to be something that the choir could learn quickly.  At first Gruber was dubious, but after re-reading the words that were to become the most recorded song in history, he felt that he could do it.  Mohr returned to the church to finish his preparations for the Christmas Eve service that was quickly approaching.  The song was soon presented to the choir, and the service was an astounding success!

“Silent Night” became a carol that is known throughout the world, thanks to the organ repairperson who came to fix the instrument a few weeks later.  Karl Mauracher was impressed with the story and with the song.  He introduced it all throughout his work route.  The folk singers of the Stasser family were very impressed with this little song, and they presented it in 1832 and a few months later at a large fair.  “Silent Night” struck the heart and soul of King William IV of Prussia; from there the song spread to both the east and the west and ultimately to the United States.  In 1839 it was sung in New York’s Trinity Church before a huge crowd.  It even brought a temporary peace to the battle waging between the Confederacy and the Union.

Joseph Mohr died penniless even though he was the one who wrote this poem and started its movement toward a grand success.  People were more interested in fanciful tales of its origins than in the truth.  People are like that – the truth may be “staring them right in the face,” but they want “fanciful tales” instead!  How often do we, how often do I overlook the truth in my quest to find what it is that I want the answer to be.  Jesus’ message is like the truth of Joseph Mohr’s creation of the words to “Silent Night” – profoundly simple!

“Away in a Manger”

Monday, December 21, 2015 

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,

The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head;

The stars in the sky look down where he lay,

The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay. 

            This beloved song is one of the first Christmas carols that many of us learn as children.  Tradition has it that Martin Luther wrote the words to this song and sang its simple tune to his children every night before they went to bed.  As its popularity spread, German mothers and fathers rocked their infants to sleep, singing or humming its three short, easy to learn verses.  However, traditions are sweet, but not always accurate!

Actually, this song had its origin in the United States, but it was to a different tune.  A man named James R. Murray published the first two verses of this carol.  He was also the one who circulated the story about Luther.  It was Murray who promoted this Christmas carol across America, but the tune that we now associate it with was provided by J. E. Clark.  It is not known who wrote the first two verses to “Away in a Manger,” and they remain anonymous to this day.  The third verse was written by a prolific hymn writer, Charles Hutchinson Gabriel.  (He wrote “Higher Ground,” among more than 700 other sacred songs!)  Over the next twenty years, “Away in a Manger,” in its three-verse version as well as the story about Luther being the author, grew tremendously in popularity.  The true writer of the words never came forward to claim her or his accomplishment.

            Because the United States did not like the Germans during the two world wars, they altered the words.  The bitterness soon eased, and the original words were used once again as the popularity of this Christmas carol spread across the world.  While the song’s lyrical origins are shrouded in mystery, the original event that it conveys is known by virtually every Christian and many non-Christians as well. 

The cattle are lowing, the Baby awakes,

But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes;

I love you, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky,

And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask you to stay

Close by me forever, and love me, I pray;

Bless all the dear children in your tender care,

And fit us for heaven, to live with you there.

Advent: A Time of Both Giving and Receiving

Friday, December 18, 2015 

            One week from today is Christmas!  Advent is a time of both giving and receiving: Giving and receiving from one another.  Giving and receiving from God.  We know how good it makes us feel to do both.  We put much thought into finding just the right gift to give those we love, and we feel so very special to receive a gift from someone who knows us well enough that when we open it, our hearts are warmed and maybe even tears come to our eyes.

            God is just like that, too.  From before the beginning of time, God knew that we needed the ultimate gift: The Gift of a Savior.  God knew, too, what form that Gift would be in:  Not in a President who could end the work of ISIS.  Not in a steadily growing economy.  Not in some mythic yellow brick road that would lead to an Emerald City, grand for sure, but with its false sense of security.  No, God knew we needed a Baby, a Baby whom we would know as Jesus – the ultimate gift of Love, Joy, and Peace to our hearts and to the world.  That Baby would grow up and teach us who God really is, and also who we really are: Beloved Children of the Almighty!

            There is no better gift that God could give us during this Christmas season.  And there is no better gift that we can give to one another but to rest in the arms of the Almighty and to reach out to one another in God’s Love, Joy, and Peace.

Being Enfolded in the Arms of God

Thursday, December 17, 2015 

            How does it feel to hold a new-born child in your arms?  Whether or not that baby is your own or someone else’s, one gets a sense of newness and hope, the feeling that the world will continue.  Think of the hopes and dreams that you have for this new life, of how you want this baby to fulfill its destiny, to know her / himself as a child of God, and the world as a place to which s/he could make a contribution.

            Now imagine holding the baby Jesus – on Christmas morning.  Yes, the hopes of the whole world wrapped in those swaddling clothes.  It is so much better that he began in a manger than in a cradle made of gold.  I know for myself that I don’t want the future of the world to be in wealth or in the rulership of the elite or of powerful military leaders. 

            Give me a savior who began life as a baby just like I began, but one whose heart is full of Love and Joy and Peace.  The Love, and Joy, and Peace that he passes onto this broken world in order to redeem, not just the world, but us as individuals, too.

            As I have expressed in my poetry, I believe our world was once like that and that we, too, began in innocence.  Some place along the way, we chose to rest in the arms of something or someone other than God.  However, theology is not the point here during these days prior to Christmas.  We can make a choice to be born as like the Christ Child.  Becoming a New Creation is available to each of us every day, every moment.

            On this upcoming Christmas morning, imagine that you are cradling Jesus in your arms and, all the while you, yes, you and me, are being enfolded in the arms of God.

“Life Begins as a Love Story”

Wednesday, December 16, 2015 

            Ann Voscamp writes that “life begins as a love story….This Christmas story – it begins in the beginning, this love story that’s been coming for you since the beginning.  It begins with the always coming of Christ.  Christ, who is there in the beginning, the voice calling out of darkness, an echo in cosmic emptiness, speaks it by the commanding word of His mouth: Let there be…Let there be light and land and living beasts….But you?  You alone were formed by a huddle of hearts: Let us making human beings.  The authority of God made all of creation.  But it was the affection of God that made all His [sic] children….God in three persons, uncontainable affection, knelt down and kissed warm life into you with the breath of [Her] love. 

            “No matter what your story before, this is your beginning now: you were formed

by Love…for love” ([10], 11).

            For as many times as I have read the creation stories of humanity and the nativity stories of Jesus, I never thought of the imagery of the “warm breath” of God as God breathed both into humanity and into the infant body of God’s son.  In the same way that God breathed into the first man and the first woman, She also breathed into you and into me…giving us not just life, but also love.  No matter who our earthly parents were, we have heavenly parents who made us out of love, for love.

            God’s warm breath created us that way; God’s warm breath breathed into God’s son as a way to show us that we are – always have been and always will be – made by and for Love.

            “The greatest gift we can give our great God is to let [Her] love make us glad (14).” If our eyes and our hearts have experienced life as other than love, all we need to do is remember the sweet breath of God, breathing into our nostrils and into the nostrils of the world’s most treasured baby. 

            What does it mean to you that the same warm breath that breathed life into the baby Jesus also breathed – and continues to breath – it into you?  The name of that breath is Love.

The Tree of Jesse, The Tree of Jesus, The Tree of You and Me

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 

            Even though as Baptists we don’t make them, Jesse Trees have been a part of the Christian tradition since the Middle Ages.  Their purpose is to convey the story of the Bible, beginning with the creation of the world until the nativity of Jesus.  This story reflects the genealogy that is in Matthew, which goes back until the time of Abraham through David and ending with Jesus.  Jesse is King David’s father; Isaiah 11.1-4 tells the background of the tradition of the Jesse Tree: “A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.  The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.  His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.  He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth…” (NRSV).  “A branch is a sign of new life and new beginnings” (whychristmas?.com).  While many, if not most of us at CBC, do not focus on prophetic fulfillment as the source of our faith, that does not negate the  reality that we see Jesus as the one who brings new life and new beginnings.

            Although Jesse Trees today are seen as like an advent calendar, in the past they took many forms: stained glass windows, carvings, and tapestries.  They were created in these forms so that the many people in the Middle Ages and even beyond who could not read would be able to learn the story of the Bible from the creation of the world through the birth of Jesus.  With a free-standing Tree of Jesse, ornaments are put on it every day that tells its story.  There is a Bible story that is associated with each ornament.  For example, the Creation of the World has the symbol of the earth with Genesis 1 as the Bible story.  Another example is Jesus with the symbol of a baby in a manger and the Bible verse is Luke 2.1-8 (whychristmas?.com).

            Since the culture of the Old Testament is often seen as patriarchal, it is a surprise to many that Matthew’s genealogy has four women: Tamar, Ruth, the wife of Uriah, and Mary.  I do not think that this makes Matthew 1.1-17 a feminist text, as I have heard some women say.  I think that it universalizes it.  I think that all people are included in the Tree of Jesse: men and women, Jews and Gentiles, even you and me.  Jesus does not deny anyone who is loving and just access to him, and I think he believes that anyone can become a new creation.  It is truly The Tree of Jesse, The Tree of Jesus, and The Tree of You and Me.

For Jesus, the Oppressed Have “Names and Stories and Lives that Mattered”

Monday, December 14, 2015 

            Today’s advent devotional will begin with a quote from Ann Voskamp’s book The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas.  (All the quotes in today’s devotional are from this book, including the one in the title above the date in this entry.)  A word of explanation / warning: The author of that book may focus only on women as the oppressed, but I do not.  To the gentlemen and young people who are reading this: I believe you have been oppressed, too, and throughout this entry and beyond, I will share my thoughts that explain why I feel this way.  So, men as well as young women and young men, please give me a chance this week.  Jesus believes in you, and I do, too!

            Now for the quote from Voskamp’s Christmas book.  “The family tree of Christ [in Matthew prior to the birth narrative of Jesus] startlingly notes not one woman but four.  Four broken women – women who felt like outsiders, like has-beens, like never-beens.  Women who were weary of being taken advantage of, of being unnoticed, and uncherished and unappreciated; women who didn’t fit in, who didn’t know how to keep going, what to believe, where to go – women who had thought about giving up.  And Jesus claims these who are wandering and wondering and worn out as His.  He grafts you into His line and His story and His heart, and gives you His name, His lineage, His righteousness.  He graces you with plain grace.  Is there a greater Gift you could want or need or have” than the one who comes in this Christmas season (ix).

            I know that men and boys are among the oppressed that are referred in the above quote.  They, too, have been raped and abused and ignored…sometimes in the name of love by their spouses (whether they are female or male), sometimes the young men by the police, sometimes by other people who murder them.  In patriarchal cultures, they are given responsibilities that seem to me to be overwhelming – they are expected to carry their families and the whole world.  Sometimes women blame all of them or most of them for the way one or two men who have harmed them in the past; I know this to be true for I am among those who have been so unfair in this regard.

            The Christ child offers solace and affirmation and the comfort to heal your wounds, too, during this advent season.  Let’s all join hands this week as we try to discover in new ways how this Jesus, even as an infant, has reached out to us even when, perhaps especially when, we have felt embattled, worthless, or ignored.  We are not alone: We have God and we have one another.

CBC’s Advent Devotional 2015

Sunday, December 13, 2015 – Friday, December 18, 2015

Lynn Wolcott 

            This is Week Three of CBC’s Advent Devotional; as of Sunday, December 13, there are only twelve days until Christmas!  Twelve days until one of the most joyous celebrations of the Christian calendar.  Except for its excesses, I don’t see anything wrong with the secular practices in our culture.  However, for us as well as for the many other churches across the Unites States and the world, this holiday means ever so much more: The Love, Hope, and Joy of our existence was brought forth into this world in the form of a tiny little baby who grew into a man who showed us the way to our God.  What joyous news!

            This week’s devotional covers some things that are so very important to many of us here at Central Baptist Church.  For our families: An extension of the Black Lives Matters program by the practice of Kwanzaa that Africans and African Americans celebrate.  For the rest of the week, we will focus on another group that has been important to the women and men of many across the world: the oppressed and wounded: women and men, girls and boys.  We will touch upon the Tree of Jesse (known to most Baptists as the genealogy of Jesus in the book of Matthew).  From this starting point, we will think about how Jesus came to set the oppressed free along with the wonderful Love, Joy, and Peace that resting in the arms of the Almighty can bring.

Kwanzaa:

Treasuring Black Lives at Christmas and All Year Long

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Family Day 

            Have you seen the yellow and black banner on the front lawn of the church?  Do you remember what it says? If you have not seen it, please ask your parent(s) to show it to you.  It reads “Black Lives Matter.”  Some people are very happy that it is there, but there are others who are very upset.  Many of them are upset because they think that Black people do not matter as much or in the same way that white people do; this is known as racism.  Moreover, some people are concerned because they say that “All Lives Matter.”  That is true.  That is not the point of the Black Lives Matter movement.  Rather, many, if not most, Blacks are not being treated with the same respect that is given to white people.  To some objectors of the sign, perhaps it might be better written as Black Lives Matter, Too.  I think that that waters down the painful impact that our society has, in particular, on Black People.

            The celebration of Kwanzaa began in 1966, and their official website explains that “as an African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated by millions throughout the world African community, Kwanzaa brings a cultural message which speaks to the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense.”  It is celebrated for one week right after Christmas, December 26 to January 1.

            Like our advent wreath, those who celebrate Kwanzaa also have a candle holder, but it has seven candles.  (Do you remember how many candles are in the advent wreath either in your home or on the communion table at church?  If you don’t, please go up and count them either at home or before or after the service at church.)  In the Kwanzaa candle holder, three of the candles are red, another three are green, and the center one is black.  A candle is lit every day from December 26 until January 1, and they each represent something that is important to the culture of Africans and African Americans. (Unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, remembering and restoring their customs, cultures, and history, creativity, and “believing in people, families, leaders, teachers and the righteousness of the African American struggle” (Kwanzaa -- Christmas customs and Traditions -- why Christmas?.com).  Your mom and / or dad can explain some of these to you or you can ask me.)

            Black lives matter both as we celebrate Christmas and Kwanzaa, but also every day throughout the year.  God does not love any one person over another.  Black people have suffered racism for many, many centuries, and I am glad that they have the celebration at Kwanzaa to remind themselves and white people of just how precious they really are.  Let us think of them and their special celebration that occurs right after Christmas.

Out of Egypt, Through Judea, and Onto Galilee

Friday, December 11, 2015 

            Joseph had two more dreams in which an angel of the Lord spoke to him, advising him in what he should do to take care of his family, particularly his son.  In the first, Joseph was told that Herod had died and that he should, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who are seeking the child’s life are dead” (2.2).  I am so impressed that Joseph obeyed so readily; the angel had “suddenly” appeared to him.  He and his wife and their son were probably going about doing their daily routine, and then “suddenly” it all changed.  Sometimes God works in our lives gradually, and that is often more comfortable than a sudden changed in plans.  I give the family a lot of credit for taking this in stride and leaving to go to Israel.  They knew that “Out of Egypt God Called God’s Son.”

            But the quick changes did not end there.  They probably thought that they were “going home,” only to find out that Herod’s son was reigning in his stead.  Joseph has changed in all his years of being the father of God’s son: He was afraid; he knew that his family would not be safe there.  I think he knew what God’s will was for him next, and God confirmed it through another dream in which he was told to go to Galilee.  He settled in Nazareth.

            Scholars have spent pages and pages of research and speculation on this move to Nazareth and that Jesus would be called a Nazorean.  This “fulfilled prophecy” is not directly found in the Old Testament, but that does not stop them from looking for it, both there and in a broad range of other somewhat contemporary literature.  However, I think they are “missing the boat” on what is truly important here: I.e. Jesus grew up in Galilee and, as I mentioned last week, Galilee is the place where much of what Jesus taught and represented occurred.  While most Jews highly honored Jerusalem in the south (and I think Jesus did, too, to a certain extent), Galilee was “home” to Jesus.  I, too, have travelled in both Galilee as well as in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and I agree with Jesus: Galilee would be my home if I had to choose between the two.  Galilee is by far more lush and green and has more of that small town feel, whereas Jerusalem reminds me of a big city with, truthfully, all its pros and cons.  Galilee reminds me of Jesus’ life and his vitality, but I become sad as he travels toward Jerusalem because I know “the end of the story,” and I think Jesus did, too.

            This week we have traversed the whole story of Jesus’ life, from before his birth to his impending death.  We have travelled with his family as they tried to keep him safe as a child, like we do with our own children.  They took him to Galilee where he could grow in the knowledge of God’s ways, but in the lush and beautiful setting of Galilee.  However, as with all of us, life gets more complicated and our innocence becomes tattered.  We, too, march toward our Jerusalems, wherever that may be, to fulfill our destinies as well.  This season I welcome the innocence and purity of the Christ child.  I am enjoying this time with him for too soon Easter will be approaching and my feelings will become a mixture of pain and joy, sadness and exaltation.  Come, Lord Jesus, Come as the Baby of Bethlehem, as the Lord of Our Lives, as the Prince of Peace.  Amen.

The Flight to Egypt and the Slaughter of the Innocent Children

Thursday, December 10, 2015 

            Once the magi had paid homage to the Christ child, they did not go report to Herod, but went home another way.  After this, Joseph had another dream in which a messenger told him to “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt.”  Get up, take, and flee.  With these abrupt, short words as his directions, Joseph moved…and I get the impression that he did so immediately.  Oh, if only, if I am certain that something is God’s calling for my life, I would move into action…immediately.  Instead, I wait and ponder and plan, all along struggling with whether or not I am doing the right thing!  In this case, Joseph’s failure to act when and as directed could have cost the child his life and all the hopes and dreams that went along with it.  What have I lost when I have tarried the so very many times I have?  A book of poetry unpublished.  A missed meeting with Ladora.  How many, many other blessings and challenges that would have sharpened my faith have I denied myself?

            But, enough regrets!  I now have Joseph, as a person who responds to God’s directions immediately as my role model!

            The messenger told Joseph what the consequences would be if he did not obey: Herod would have Jesus killed.  The king was furious when he finally determined that the magi had deceived him, and he went on a rampage and had all the children two years old and under slaughtered.  What does this remind you of?  My first thought is of Moses.  His life, too, was saved by swift action.  These two men were giants whose lives changed the world.  They learned the importance of swift action from their families.

            Herod’s actions also had horrendous consequences, as have all the murderers of children, women, and men across the span of human history.  A teacher in a high school history class made me think seriously about this one day when she pondered, “Who knows how many scientists, doctors, and novelists the world was deprived of because of what Hitler and the Nazis did in killing so very many children and adults?  The whole world was robbed of a whole generation of gifted people.”

            I can barely tolerate thinking of how many Herod- and Hitler-like people our world has seen even in my lifetime, even in the first fifteen years of the twenty-first century.

            This crisis prompts me to have two responses, two sides of the same coin, as it were.  First of all, to work for peace as if life depends on it, for it does!  And, second, to be more like Joseph by responding to God’s directions immediately!

Will the Real Magi Please Stand Up!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015 

            In my attempt to look beneath the surface of the all-too-familiar nativity stories in Luke and then this week in Matthew, I am looking for what I hope may be a deeper truth in those ancient tales so that they may speak in a new and fresh way for all of us.  An academic truism is that we must know what biblical texts meant to the original audience in order to know what they mean for us.  I am struggling with this truism that I have held so deeply for so long.  Yes, I am interested in what the story meant over two thousand years ago; however, my heart is struggling to get beneath the layers of tradition – both mine as the collective tradition of all who have come before me.  I am asking myself what these passages have to say in our world that is in some ways so beautiful, and yet so broken.  There are Herods all over the globe who are trying to destroy what is good, even in our own country.  However, I still believe that the magi are present in this holy season in our world.  But…what I am truly asking is “Will the Real Magi for OUR World Please Stand Up!”

            The magi probably weren’t who we have been led to believe throughout our lives.  According to Albright and Mann, the text does not say that there were three magi.  This notion may have come from the fact that three gifts were brought to Jesus.  Furthermore, the idea that they were Gentile kings also cannot be substantiated.  Moreover, the magi did not necessarily come from the East; this comes from a copyist’s error.  “In the East” seems to be a “technical expression referring to the beginning of the phenomenon observed by the magi” (12).  The phrase is better translated as “in our own land” (12).  These men should not be known as astrologers or wise men; Albright and Mann hold that “magi” is the proper term for them.  However, that leaves me with more questions than answers: What are “magi?”  Also, I also wonder what “homage” really means; I have always assumed that it meant something like “to bow down and worship,” but I have learned that a lot of the assumptions I have had from this passage have been wrong.  I would have liked clarification on this, but I was not able to learn any more about it than the fact that the word “homage” is used more often in Matthew (thirteen times) than in the other synoptic gospels (12).

            Regarding the person of Herod, he ruled from 37-4 BCE.  In verse 3, when he learned about the birth of a child who to be the king of the Jews, he was “frightened” or “disturbed.”  The same word is used of the disciples when in Matthew 14.26 it is translated “terrified” to describe the Twelve when they saw Jesus walking on the water in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee.  This correlation helps me to better understand Herod’s feelings.  The one thing that the Romans did not want was insurrection – someone threatening or claiming to be the king.  Moreover, Albright and Mann further clarify how Herod and the disciples felt: “In both instances the fear results from a lack of faith” (12).

            Over the centuries much symbolism has been attached to the gold, frankincense, and myrrh that the magi brought to Jesus as a young child.  Some have based their suggestions on texts in the Old Testament (Psalm 72.10, 11, 15 and Isaiah 60.6).  Justin Martyr seems to be the first writer who has drawn a connection between these verses (13).  Although myrrh was used to anoint a king and its ink was used to write magical charms, these three gifts were also common to the work of magi.  However, they would not have been used as homage to a king.

            Albright and Mann reveal that the Jews were not the only people in the ancient world who had hopes for a “semidivine hero-ruler” (13).  (I suspect that it has been a longing for various groups of people as well as individuals across all time.  I know that it was a longing of mine long before I was cognizant of Jesus as being described as a Messiah.)

            More insights concerning the magi can be found throughout the literature.  One thing is certain, however: There is so much more to these characters in the nativity stories of Jesus than meets the eye.  I still want The Real Magi to Please Stand Up!