Light and Wonder
Matthew 2:1-12
One of my favorite song-writers is Kate Wolf. Kate died in 1968 but her songs still resonate with me today.
In one of my favorite songs, Across the Great Divide, Kate wrote my all-time favorite verse. It goes like this:
The finest hour I have seen
Is the one that comes between
The edge of night
And the break of day
When the darkness rolls away.
I was reminded of that Kate Wolf verse when I read Matthew’s accounting of the Wise Men in today’s gospel reading. I think the wise men were like that verse—they came between the darkness of King Herod and the light of the world through the birth of Jesus.
And King Herod was the epitome of darkness:
He sent his troops into villages to raid and steal food from the people.
He would kill anyone who questioned his authority, even killing 2 of his sons. He had his brother-in-law drowned and even killed his wife.
Herod was a ruthless and dark-souled king.
I couldn’t help but wonder how wise the wise men really were when they came into Jerusalem asking out loud, “where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?’ And then secretly meeting with Herod and telling him the exact time when the star appeared.
Considering how cruel and ruthless King Herod was, it’s a wonder he didn’t have the wise men killed for bringing him such threatening news. But he spares them with a cunning plan by sending the Wise Men on to Bethlehem to search for the child, ordering them to return to Jerusalem and bring him word of where he might find him, lying to them and telling them that he needs to know where the baby is so that he could go and pay homage to the child.
So, at first glance, it wasn’t very wise of the wise men to so publicly have brought Herod news about some other king. A king who is not Herod. A King of the Jews. Matthew tells us Herod was frightened and, knowing how ruthless and dark he was, all of Jerusalem becomes frightened, too.
The wise men, though, spoke truth to power. In doing so, they made room for a moment of wonder to grab hold of Herod – an opportunity for him to embrace the love and wonder that surely shone through the wise men and the wonder and light that the birth of Jesus is bringing to the world.
The wise men and Herod are both responding to the same thing—the birth of Jesus.
The wise men follow their deep longing into the wonder of the unknown while Herod remains fixed on his seat of power paralyzed by fear. Both were at the extreme ends of responding to an epiphany of fear on the one hand and wonder on the other.
The wise men followed the star into unknown territory and went home by another road, away from Herod. But Herod stayed right where he was. The response to the epiphany in Matthew is what distinguishes the wise men from Herod: Light from Darkness; longing and wonder from fear; love from hate.
As we prepare for Epiphany this coming Thursday it is good to consider the epiphany moments in our lives - our own moments of fear and wonder. The moments when we choose how to respond to what we long for, wonder about, and what we are afraid of in our own lives.
There was a lot of fear to overcome in this past year—the pandemic, the variants of Covid-19, the stark differences of opinions regarding vaccines and masks; the restructuring of our daily lives as a result of the pandemic; the uncertainty of what 2022 will look like.
While there are some things we should fear, more often than not it’s the fear of the unknown that we fear the most.
Author Marianne Williamson writes, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
What is it that you long for? What is God calling you to in this New Year? What impossible thing do you hope for? What do you fear, or wonder about?
The waiting is over. The light of Christ is with us and we are meant to shine in that light.
We are born to reflect the wonder and glory of God that is within all of us. Like Marianne Williamson says, when we do that, we give our neighbor the grace to do the same. Reflecting the light of Christ is not only how we live into our best lives, it’s how we change the world around us.
Matthew reminds us that both the wise men and Herod live within us.
Whenever there is wonder or fear there is an epiphany that waits for our response.
Will we take the road back to Herod or will we take another road?
We have repeated the sounding joy that God is with us and God is for us.
Will we take the road that God is calling us to take?
Amen.
© 2022 The Rev. Kathy McGregor
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Fayetteville, Arkansas