NRSMatthew 2: 1-12
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;
4and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" 7Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."
9When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.12And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
Grace to you and peace in this New Year of our Lord, for the sake of Jesus the Messiah. Amen.
Tribal is a word you hear with some regularity these days, especially on news reports. With the wars we’ve fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, we’ve heard frequent stories on how tribal politics in those countries has often complicated our struggles there. In our ongoing battle with the forces of Al Qaeda, we’ve also read accounts of drone attacks we’ve launched on suspected terrorist camps in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. Ethnic and tribal tensions are likewise primary causes to the current political violence in the Central African Republic, which has forced the evacuation of our ELCA missionaries into neighboring Cameroon. Since we don’t typically identify ourselves by tribe or clan, we may think of tribalism as something we’ve left behind in our more primitive pasts, but I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
When my father-in-law Jack Maher retired from Exxon way back in 1976, his co-workers threw him a little office retirement party, you know, with hats and horns and a cake, and of course, someone taking pictures of the proud retiree. At the time that World War II broke out, Jack had been working here in Baton Rouge for the Spiegel company, out of his native Chicago, but after the war, instead of heading back north, Jack and Betty decided to stay in Baton Rouge, and that’s when Jack signed on with Standard Oil. Three decades later Jack got a pin, a nice certificate, and a pension that would serve him and Betty well for the rest of their lives. Carolyn and I weren’t here for the farewell party, but as he showed us the pictures, Jack pointed out to me one of his fellow workers. “Thirty years I worked with that guy,” he said, “and he never, ever got tired of calling me ‘that damned yankee.’” While we may not identify ourselves with the same tribal designations used in other cultures, I’m pretty sure that tribalism is every bit alive and well among us as it was in the people of the Bible.
The Gospel of Matthew was clearly written with a specific tribe of early Christians in mind. Matthew begins his gospel with a distinctly Jewish genealogy of Jesus that starts with father Abraham, continues through King David, and concludes with Joseph, husband of Mary, mother of Jesus. Continuing this emphasis on the Jewish pedigree of Jesus, Matthew typically underscores most every word, act, or incident in Jesus’ life with an Old Testament proof text to bring home his picture of Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish hope and expectation. Clearly, Matthew was writing to and for an audience with a strong Jewish heritage who needed to see Jesus as one of their tribe, as a savior with whom they shared blood, language, and faith. Given this tribal flavor to Matthew, this morning’s gospel is doubly striking.
Matthew alone tells us the story of the Epiphany, a Greek word for revelation or unveiling. In many parts of the Christian world this is the day when families exchange Christmas gifts, remembering the Magi who brought to Jesus their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew doesn’t tell us much about these visitors from the East. He doesn’t number them three, and he doesn’t identify them as kings, or for that matter, call them wise. Those are details that come from much later Christian tradition. Who or what the Magi are is really anybody’s guess. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus described the Magi as a caste of Persian priests skilled in dream interpretation. Modern scholars mostly label them as astrologers, who looked to the starts to predict the future. When they arrive in Jerusalem, they obviously know enough Bible to inquire after the newborn King of the Jews. But what’s apparent, and what really matters for Matthew, is that the Magi are not Jews. They are not the chosen, the elect, the heirs of the promise of salvation, but rather, they are what we’d (somewhat tribally) call pagans, heathen, or in Hebrew, the goy’im. And yet, amazingly, contrary to all expectation, it is precisely to these outsiders, these strangers from the East that the Lordship of Jesus is first revealed. Not to the chief priests and scribes, not to the Pharisees and Sadducees, not even to King Herod the (so-called) Great or to anybody in the royal household in Jerusalem, but to a traveling band of foreign star-gazers the Son of God is first made manifest and worshipped.
Even as Matthew takes such pains to establish Jesus’ tribal credentials, in his account of the birth of Jesus Matthew tells us that God could care less about tribe. God doesn’t care about pedigree or heritages. God doesn’t worry over whether you’re a native this or a natural born that. For us, of course, things like race, gender, national origin, ethnic heritage, native language, and sexual orientation are huge deals, but not to God. God just loves people, however we label them or however we label ourselves – Christian, Muslim, or Jew; rich, poor, or middle-class. God loves people, and in Jesus God is intent on creating a human community that transcends tribe. God’s passion is for a people who share God’s commitment to mercy and justice and the righteousness born of that baby first worshipped so many centuries ago by pagan astrologers from the East.
Jesus is the seed from which God is to grow a people where all that matters is love of God and neighbor, which helps explain the political subplot to the birth of Jesus. When the Magi tell Herod that they have seen the star of the newborn Jewish king, Herod becomes, not surprisingly, deeply disturbed. Herod was, after all, a client king of the Roman Empire. He derived all his power and authority from Rome, whose express, explicit political agenda was to unite the world under the lordship of Caesar, like it or not.
But God has another plan. Rather than bringing the world together under the banners of clan and tribe, or forcing the world together by dint of arms and violence, God’s plan is to unite all the peoples of the world through a little baby, “who, though he was in the form of God,” writes Paul, “did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross” (Philippians 2: 5-7). No wonder Herod got so rattled.
The lure of the tribe is a strong one, and one we have to resist with all our might and main. For Jesus Christ did not come into this to form us into just one more interest group or voting bloc. However we may try to tribalize it, the church of Jesus Christ is still God’s sign to the world that the Almighty’s love knows no limits, sets no boundaries, and accepts no conditions.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
