Jan. 2, 2011 "Home by Another Way" Matthew 2
EastEnders' writer Tony Jordan made a 4-part TV series Nativity for the BBC this Christmas. The average tellie-watcher in the UK probably knew more about Balaam's Star than I did up until three days ago! According to Jordan, "I've been singing 'We Three Kings' for years but I never knew much about them. I learnt they were called the Magi and they'd been waiting for something they call Balaam's Star for generations….To understand why they travelled 1,000 miles on a camel fascinated me."
It turns out the reference to Balaam's Star is found in Numbers:
"The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is clear…
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
who falls down, but with his eyes uncovered:
I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near--
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.
it shall crush the borderlands of Moab,
and the territory of all the Shethites." [Numbers 24:15-17]
Choir members can quote that last verse for you in German: "Es wird ein Stern aus Jacob aufgehen, und ein Zepter aus Israel aufkommen." We sang it in the Lessons and Carols. I heard it as an obscure reference to a Messianic king, what with star and scepter being metaphors for a king, but I had no idea it may have been central to the journey of the Magi!
If there's any historicity to the tales of the wise men, there's a possibility that Matthew's explanation only gets at part of the truth. Balaam's star is an obvious prophecy to connect with the star of Bethlehem. But Matthew doesn't mention it, instead quoting Micah 5, describing a leader of peace not war. Balaam's Star is referenced in Josephus, four times in the Dead Sea scrolls, and … so there seems to have been a popular expectation… But WHAT would make you travel 1000 miles on a camel? Or WHAT would prompt us to travel home as transformed people, following a completely different road?
Most of you know the joke about the Magi. If they had been 3 wise women and not 3 wise men, they would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, brought practical gifts and there would be Peace on Earth. On behalf of all the men out there, please notice that the Magi go to Jerusalem specifically to ask for directions!
Kate Compston has a poem suggesting they might have done better NOT to ask.
We call them wise
And I had always thought of them that way
respecting the pilgrimage of anyone
Who sees a star and follows it
To his discomforting –
Being prepared to change.
And yet –
In following their star, the star
That was to lead them to
Enlargement of the soul ( their own)
They blundered mightily, and set in train
The massacre of many innocents.
Naïve and foolish men they were, not wise,
To go and ask of Herod, “Where’s
your rival, where
Is he who might unseat you?”
I wonder if, back in their own countries,
For all that they themselves were born again,
They heard the voice of Rachel
Weeping for her children
Refusing to be comforted
Because they were no more?
Janet Morley, in a book of prayers called Bread of Tomorrow says that if our spiritual insight does help us confront abusive power and our own complicity in that abuse, then our prayer our insight is meaningless: “Prayer that is deaf to the 'voice of Rachel' has missed the epiphany. Prayer is only truly ‘contemplation’when it enables us to see all that is to be seen, including the violent realities we normally are not prepared to contemplate.”
I imagine that the Magi were too focused as they went on their quest for the child born King of the Jews. They kept their eyes fixed on the star, and allowed nothing to deter them in their seeking. Without that monomania, they might never have found Jesus. When they reached their goal, something changed for the Magi. They became more open to mystery, more receptive to introspection and comprehension. We are not able to follow them after their Epiphany, because Matthew only wants to get them off the stage. But we can read a great deal into the final sentence: "having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road." They appear to be moving into a "right-brain" way of being. They listen to dreams. They travel down paths they've never walked before. Metaphorically, that phrase "Another Road" suggests they were transformed by their experience.
Andrew Schelling (1995): "Only the walker who sets out toward ultimate things is a pilgrim. In this lies the terrible difference between tourist and pilgrim. The tourist travels just as far, sometimes with great zeal and courage, gathering up acquisitions (a string of adventures, a wondrous tale or two) and returns the same person as the one who departed… The pilgrim resolves that the one who returns will not be the same person as the one who set out. Pilgrimage is a passage for the reckless and subtle…For the pilgrim the road is home; reaching your destination seems nearly inconsequential." Schelling is talking about the transformation of those who see life as a pilgrimage.
The start of a new year is a good time to entertain new ways of making the spiritual journey. When we hit a dead-end in life, we can "Try Another Way." Or as my GPS adviser says when I've gotten off course, "Make a legal U-turn."
As we move into a new year in our life, as people and as Presbyterians, may we explore all the roads as they open to us. The "road less traveled" may lead us into adventures or challenges we can only dimly imagine, but the rewards will also be unexpected and surpassing. Amen!
--Jack Lohr, Interim Pastor
No comments:
Post a Comment