Going Home By Another Way

Prepared message given as part of Three Rivers worship on Zoom, 9 January 2024.

Good morning, Friends. I'm going to stretch just a little bit. I'm coming to this with a hopeful and also heavy heart. I think that our lives in the spirit are about holding both of those things. Sometimes, holding paradoxical things simultaneously.

Several years ago, actually, it was in the times before the COVID pandemic, my family spent the winter holidays in Mexico. traveled there and stayed in a guest house belonging to a dear friend and learned Spanish and spent some time immersed in, culture there. We were there, uh, in early January. And every bakery was filled with a special kind of cake called the Roscón de Reyes, or King's Cake. This kind of cake isn't unique to Mexico. You've probably seen it, or you may have seen it, somewhere in this country, especially in New Orleans, covered with colored sugar. In Mexico, they're covered with candied fruit, like a fruit cake. And, Somewhere in this round cake, it's round like a giant donut, so, um, the circle of it is supposed to symbolize the love of God.

Somewhere in this round cake is implanted a feve, or a little bean. And this little bean symbolizes the baby Jesus. Some places it's a actual bean, some folks use almonds. We got actually had a little plastic infant embedded in it. And the person who gets that slice of cake with the plastic infant uh, is the winner. And the winner gets to throw a party for everyone else on Candlemas. So, I don't know, it's kind of a dubious sort of winning.

When we returned from Mexico, we tried to carry that tradition forward, but, um, no one in our family really likes fruitcake. So we leaned into my daughter's recipe for mug cakes, which is, you mix the ingredients for a small cake into a coffee mug and cook it to gooey perfection in the microwave. And one of the mugs had this little plastic baby somewhere hiding in it for the winner to uncover.

The Three Kings celebration marks the liturgical season of Epiphany. The term epiphany comes from the Greek word. I'm not gonna be able to say it 'cause I don't speak Greek. Epiphany meaning appearing manifestation or glorious display. In the New Testament, it appears in the story of what we sometimes call the Three Kings, which is really the wise people that comes from the Gospel of Matthew. I'm going to read that story to you. It's from Matthew chapter 2 and it's verses 1 through 12.

In the time of Herod the king, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, wise people from the east came to Jerusalem 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.

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all of Jerusalem with him, and called together his chief priests, scribe, and Um, wise folks and inquired of them where this Messiah was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem for so it has been written by the prophet. This is what the prophet wrote in Micah.

And you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people, Israel. Herod called for the wise men and learned from them exactly the time when the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem saying go and search diligently for the child and when you found him, bring me word so I may also go and pay him homage. When they heard the king they set out and there ahead of them went that star that they had seen and it's rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy on entering the house. They saw the child with Mary, his mother, and knelt down to pay him homage. Opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Conventionally, we tell the story that there are three of these kings. In this recounting, Matthew never states how many of them actually came bearing gifts, merely that there are three gifts. So I like to think of them as a joyful entourage, a whole community of astrologers, of Zoroastrians from Iran with light in their eyes on a pilgrimage of hope.

These wise people are thought to symbolize those outside of the Roman controlled land of the Jews. Scholars theorize that they were astrologers from as far east as Persia, which is now Iran. And they saw a tremendous star in the night sky, and they followed it west. From outside the land of the Jews, yet not apparently immune to Herod's power, they follow his orders and learn the location of this newborn king, who is a threat. By prophecy to Herod, these wise men continue to follow the star until they're overcome with joy. At the end of their journey, they come face to face with the face of God in flesh to show us what real life looks like.

I'm aware that this is our last regular gathering for worship before the inauguration. I certainly am having feelings in anticipation of this event. Feelings it's hard even in this moment to suppress. Maybe you are also having feelings. Fear, even dread of not knowing what pain or chaos this instrument of empire might unleash.

I think it's important to sit with these feelings.

The good news is, look, we're not alone in it. And communities of faith and goodwill have been and are preparing to come together to support each other and to advocate. Just last month, our own Lisa Graustein offered a workshop on preparing for what's to come, and she's ready to offer that workshop to groups, small groups of folks who want to have tools and encouragement.

In that workshop, the first rule of resistance is, do not comply in advance.

We can draw on the example of our merry band of wise people. This entourage did not comply in advance. They saw in their dreams the implications of their actions, and they made the choice not to serve Empire, but rather to serve God's purposes. They went home by another way.

This isn't the only Biblical story of non-compliance with authority. I'm reminded of the midwives, Shiphra and Pua, in the Book of Exodus. These midwives also were working for Empire, on behalf of Pharaoh, to deliver babies of the Jewish women in Egypt. These women, trained in medical arts and steeped in wisdom, refused to follow Pharaoh's orders to kill male children. They also went home by another way, deceiving Pharaoh and keeping the identity of Moses, like Jesus, another liberator, a secret from Pharaoh.

The band of wise folk in our story, like our ancestors got their wisdom from dreams. And they didn't pay any attention to Herod's orders of when you find him, bring me word so that I may go and pay him homage. They knew that in politics, such an order came from empire, but they opted for a different kind of obedience, to a higher authority, obeying God rather than human authority,

Bypassing Jerusalem not only saved them from collusion with Herod, but that choice of solidarity opened them up to new possibilities that a close encounter with the Divine created. They didn't choose to do something that was boldly heroic and defiant. Together, they made the choice to go around authority, to go home by another way, and it is significant in this text that Jesus has a home, he has a tradition and a culture, and he isn't the one that goes out, but he's the one who invites us to come and encounter God in humanity.

This season of Epiphany invites us to reflect on the ways that we might be called to leave our homes, our places of comfort, to go into spaces and to do things that are not comfortable, where we might feel anxious or displaced. And just like those wise people from the East, we might just see the face of God. And like that group of wise pilgrims, we don't do this work alone. And in fact, we probably shouldn't their strength, soulless and courage in community, the kind of community that we've been practicing the last almost five years of COVID, communities of mutual aid, communities of accompaniment and deep listening, and communities that protect the vulnerable, taking the right next step together.

As Friends, this is a journey that is not foreign to us. The experience of our star struck pilgrims is not a one off. We know from the experience and faith and wisdom of Quakers that we are called to answer that of God in everyone. And many Quakers, and not Quakers, throughout history have done so. The midwives present at birth, the wise pilgrims who followed a star, the secretary who stayed at the front of the bus, the college students who quietly sat at the lunch counter, the field workers who did not pick grapes, the young woman who lived in a tree for two years to protect the forest, the citizen journalist who livestreams, the librarian who makes sure that the teen room is stocked with queer young adult reads.

It's a decision to reject the way of destruction and death for the way of new life. To align with the humble over the powerful. It might feel like a risky choice, but it's one with integrity. And as we keep making that choice, as we journey that way, we may encounter risk or hardship or struggle, but I think that together we will experience gifts, gifts greater than those borne by any Magi. The gifts of companionship, of insight, and transformation, which of the many, many faces of God fills you with joy in this season of Epiphany.