Stardom
Matthew 2:1-12
Sermon preached on Sunday, January 11, 2009
by Rev. Patricia Pearce
"In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born, in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men – Magi – from the East came to Jerusalem asking ‘Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews? For we observed his start at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.' When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him. And calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘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.' The Herod secretly called for the wise men, and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then 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.' When 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. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On 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 and frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road."
{prayer}
As I worked and sat with the text this week, this very familiar story, I decided to do this in a way that is different from anything they ever would teach one in seminary. They never taught this way of entering into a scriptural text, and I think that's to our disadvantage. I entered into this text as though it were a dream. And I worked with it they way I work with dreams. And here is my little bubble chart – this is what I do when I work with a dream. I put out all of the elements of the dream and then I free-associate what comes to me when I think about these characters and these places, and then I look at the relationships between them. And I had a few insights that I thought that I would share with you.
Of course, I have the Magi here, and I have King Herod, and I have the Chief Priests, and I have the star, and I have Jerusalem, and I have Bethlehem, and I have the Messiah and I have Mary. Those are the characters, the dream elements, shall we say.
Now the Magi... First of all, how many were there? (laughter) It's a trick question! The Bible doesn't say how many there were. It's tradition that says there were three. It just says Magi. Isn't that interesting how we just sort-of assume things that we've heard, that may not even be in the text. But these Magi came from Persia. They were practitioners of a completely different religion: Zoroastrianism. They spent their lives studying the stars, the alignment of the stars, the configuration of the stars and the planets. They were very in tuned to signals and signs of the natural world. It was these Magi who were willing to be seekers, who were willing to be attentive to how the historical drama might be playing out at this very moment. They are the ones who first noticed: something is up.
Now what's interesting about that is they were foreigners. These people, these practitioners of another religion, were more in tune with the drama that was unfolding than the people who practiced the religion of Judaism.
So these Magi, these seekers, these ones who are willing to attune themselves to signals from the Divine are the ones who arrive, of course, in Jerusalem, which, ok, Jerusalem is the center of the political power structure in this story. Now, think of it as a holographic image, because Jerusalem in this region is the center of political power, but really it's Rome that's the center of political power. Jerusalem is sort-of a regional ‘Rome'. And there they find King Herod.
Now King Herod is someone who is quite obsessed with power. He's quite obsessed with control. Which is of course why he is terrified when he gets word that there might be a king of the Jews out there who isn't him. Scary stuff. And he does this little manipulative move. Well, he calls in the Chief Priests, first of all, because he doesn't have a clue about his religion, actually. That's the truth. Herod was not raised as a Jew. He's pretty clueless. So he calls in the Chief Priests and asks them, "Hey, guys, now where is this Messiah supposed to be born?" and they tell him, "Bethlehem." So he tells the Magi, "Bethlehem."
Now what's interesting, one of the aha's that I had, was that these Wise Men are very naïve when it comes to this political power structure. But by the end of the story... they get it. Why? Because they're tuned into their dreams. They know they'd better not go back to Herod. But initially, these spiritual seekers are fairly naïve when it comes to the political dynamics that they are entering into.
So we have Herod. We have Jerusalem. And we have the Chief Priests who really look to the Scripture and the tradition for their religious practice, and seem to be not really deeply in tuned with what might be unfolding in the present moment.
Now, let me pause here and say that when you're working with a dream you want to ask yourself: "How does this play out in my life? How might this be part of my own self? Who is the Herod in me? Who is very obsessed with control? Who wants to be at the center of activity? Who wants to be the one and only guy? Who is that Herod in me? Who are those Chief Priests in me, who practice religion that perhaps is fairly stale, that relies overly-much on Scripture and tradition and is not in-sync with a Living Presence? Who are those Chief Priests in me?"
We have Herod, Jerusalem and the Chief Priests forming a sort-of triad, the power center. The symbiotic relationships of power and religion. The Chief Priests and scribes are in a symbiotic relationship with the power structure. We have these Magi coming from the outside. We have the star.
Now, are we in sync with the stars, in our lives? The stars are anything that is coming into our life that might be bringing a message. It could be a dream. It could be some sort of synchronicity, some sort of odd alignment of circumstances, that are wanting to tell you something, that are wanting to guide you out of the place where you are into some sort of foreign territory where you might encounter something quite astounding. Bethlehem. Bethlehem was on the margins of the power structure. Bethlehem lies outside of Jerusalem. It's not in the hub, in the center of power.
Now, here's one of my big aha's. When I was doing this dream work on this text, I thought, OK, so you've got the Chief Priests; their counterpart are the Magi. Two different sorts of spirituality. Chief Priests and the Magi are counterparts. Bethlehem and Jerusalem are counterparts, Jerusalem being the place where power is rooted, Bethlehem being on the margins of the political power structure. And I always sort-of thought, well, Herod's counterpart is, of course, Jesus. But this week I though: O, my gosh. Herod's counterpart is Mary. I had never seen that before. Herod was the one who was intent on destroying the child. Mary was the one who brought the child into the world. Herod is the one who wants to have control over his circumstances and his life, the one who wants to squelch Divine in-breaking. Mary is the one who releases control of her life, who opens herself up to the Divine in-breaking.
And the Messiah, of course, is the union of Divine and human. It is the ultimate expression of humanity, when we become one with the Divine. And that experience of union with the Divine comes through Mary, who is also on the margins. You see, the star leads us out of this power structure, out of this place of control, out to the margins, to Bethlehem, to Mary, who, of course as a woman, was on the margins. And that is where the Messiah is found.
Now, I entitled this reflection "Stardom," because I think it depicts these two realms. Our culture is very much into stardom as the ego-version, hmm? The Herod version. The ego that wants to be in control, that wants to be the star. But if you think about stardom as in kingdom or Christendom – the rule, the domain, the realm of... If we live in God's Stardom, we allow ourselves to be ruled, to be governed by the signs and the signals, by the guidance that come from the eternal.
Today we are going to be ordaining our new elders. And as I held this text in relationship with that, I thought: What does this text teach us about mature leadership? Or maturity, period? And what does it teach us about mature spiritual leadership? I think first of all it teaches us – here again, looking at it as dream – to be mature leaders in any capacity, or even to be mature individuals, we have to understand that inside of us dwell all of these characters and all of these elements. Inside of us, there is a King Herod. And there is a Jerusalem. And there are Chief Priests. But inside of us is also: Mary. And the Magi. And the Messiah. When we can understand that, we will make choices in full knowledge, not in some naiveté about our own goodness. If we think that there is no Herod in us, we're gonna make some big mistakes. If we think that there is no Mary and no Messiah in us, our lives will be devoid of deeper meaning. So we have to understand that all of these entities dwell within us. And then, I believe that mature leadership means that we are paying attention. We are paying attention to where God is leading us. And we are not afraid to go to those margins. And we are willing to open up our treasure chests, to open up whatever riches we have in this process of discovery.
In our time of silent reflection, I would like us to sit with that, and to ask ourselves who are these entities within me? And also to ponder how are these characters playing out in the world? And how can we participate in that bigger dream in a way that facilitates the in-breaking of God's peace and God's realm. Let us be in a time of silent reflection.
© 2009 by Patricia Pearce. All rights reserved. Please consult the author at tabernacle@tabunited.org if you wish to use the text of this sermon, in whole or in part.
