1-5-2020 ~ Epiphany “The Subtext”

Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 2:1-12

Even though the lights have been taken down and the trees have been thrown to the curb, it’s still Christmas. Christmas music no longer plays on the radio 24/7 and there are no TV ads for THE BEST CHRISTMAS DEALS IMAGINABLE, but it’s still Christmas.

There is some theological basis to that song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It has nothing to do with drummers drumming or maids a milking. It does, however have to do with Epiphany: Twelfth Night, as Shakespeare called it. This is the day — actually, Epiphany is tomorrow, but we celebrate it today — this is the day that we commemorate the Magi (often called the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men) who came to the manger bearing symbolic and costly gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

We assume that there were three of them, because of the aforementioned triad of gifts. The text simply says Magi: plural. There was a least two. There could’ve been twenty of them. That is incidental, however. What is important is that these Magi from the east travel for what appears to be two years to come to the manger. The Christian tradition portrays them as kings who are paying homage to the true King — the King of kings. But the text does not claim that they are royalty. They are astrologers, which makes sense if they are following a star, and the meaning behind its appearance.

There is another story going on here — a subtext — that doesn’t appear in any of our manger scenes. It isn’t one we sing about in any of our Epiphany hymns such as “The First Noel” or “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” This story has to do with Herod.

At first, he appears welcoming and gracious to the Magi. He even tells them, “’Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.’” But we know that is a lie. Herod wants to find the child so that he can kill him. He knew the Jewish tradition. He knew that a king was to be born who would liberate his people from Roman rule, and, as far as he was concerned, there was only room for one king in Jerusalem: Herod the Great! If you read the rest of Matthew 2, you’ll see for yourself what happens.

So, what is the lesson here as we enter the roaring twenties of the twenty-first century? Our lesson is that subtext. I’m not talking about Herod. He’s dead and buried. Like the rest of us, he is dust and he has returned to dust. But there are many Herods out there: those who are not content enough to let people believe what they want to believe. These are the people who not only disagree with what you and I believe; they feel that we shouldn’t believe it either. They feel that religion is a dangerous thing.

“Ah, the atheist,” you say. No, not the atheist. Most atheists — those who do not believe in God — do not care whether or not you and I believe. Most atheists hold a live and let live attitude. “I don’t believe in God,” they say “but if faith works for you, great.” That is not what the American theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner Steven Weinberg believes.

In an interview with the BBC for their series The Atheism Tapes, Weinberg claims that he is an antitheist. This is different from being an atheist. An atheist is someone, as you know, who doesn’t believe in God. An antitheist is someone who is against God — someone who does not believe in God and feels as if no one should. Among his reasons for being antitheist is that horrible things have been done by believers in the name of God. One only need to look at the Christian crusades or what Muslim terrorists did on 9/11 to see that. Another is that he dislikes what calls the “smarmy religiosity” that pervades society. By this, he means any public profession of faith or the way the name of God is invoked in the public square. Lastly, he says, “He doesn’t like God.” He acknowledges that this sounds strange: how can you not like something you don’t believe in? He qualifies this by saying that he doesn’t like God as a character, the same way that he doesn’t like Iago from William Shakespeare’s Othello, the Rev. Slope from Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Towers, or, to use his words, “any of the other villains of literature.” Weinberg claims the God of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (the three Abrahamic religions) is obsessed with “the degree to which people worship him” and he is “anxious to punish with the most awful torments those who don’t worship him in the right way.”

The world is filled with Steven Weinbergs. They want to do away with God. They think that religion is dangerous and that you are an unenlightened rube for believing in God. Now don’t get me wrong: I think that Weinberg makes some valid points. People have committed horrific atrocities in the name of God, but the operative term here is people: we’ve done these things; God hasn’t.

And I could go on. The point isn’t to offer a point-by-point defense of the faith against antitheists. It is to say, however, that there is no shortage to enemies of the faith: those who would much rather live in a Godless world. Our role is to simple stand firm, both feet affixed to the rock of our salvation. That salvation is found in a timeless story: about a God who loved those he created so much that he chose to become one of them, to become incarnate as a human being. He taught us about his kingdom — the realm of the now and the not yet that is ruled by peace, love, and grace. He shouldered the worst of the human condition carrying it all the way to the cross to pay the price for our sins. And, so death would not have the final word, he rose from the grave to open up to us all the gates of everlasting life. If that’s not something worth believing in, then I don’t know what is!

Beloved Massachusetts son James Taylor once sang, “Herod’s always out there. He’s got our cards on file.” The best way to avoid Herod is not to go home by another way as the Magi did, and as Taylor sang, but to make sure that your home is focused on Jesus. Read the Scriptures. “Pray without ceasing,” as Paul wrote. Love and serve in his name. If you do that, Herod won’t be able to get his hands on you. Remember the words that God said to Joshua at the start of his story. He offers them to you as well during every part of your story: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Amen.