John 4:5-42

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.
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Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’

     “Water changes everything.” That’s how Church World Service begins their description of the work they do to help people get access to clean water. Water changes everything. Water is utterly necessary for life. Water builds our bodies and nourishes our crops. With water, we clean ourselves, our food, our clothes, and our homes. There are so many things a living being, human, animal, or plant, can live without. Water is not one of them. This is the reason why Church World Service focuses on access to water, sanitation, and hygiene. Water changes everything.

     Water is not magic. And, its power is sometimes terrifying. We need only look at this week’s footage of flooding in Monterey County, California or remember the toll of last summer’s flooding in Eastern Kentucky and Pakistan, to remember that water is powerful and often beyond our control. Remember when we had leaks in our church roof, and they did so much damage to our ceiling? Water changes everything.  That is also true in the Bible.

     Last week, we spent some time with the story of Nicodemus, a well-respected leader in the community who felt like he had to go see Jesus in the dark in order to ask him questions in secret. In her book about the Gospel of John, Karoline Lewis says that “There can be no character more opposite Nicodemus than the Samaritan woman at the well.” It is too bad we don’t know her name. Because her story shows us something powerful about Jesus, who was willing to cross lines of difference for important things, and about what it means to ask for and receive help.

     In this story, Jesus is traveling through Samaria. He left where he was because his disciples had been baptizing people, garnering the attention of leaders who were suspicious of Jesus. See, water was already changing things. We should remember that Judeans of this era and Samaritans, though they both traced their lineage back through to Abraham and upheld Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy as their holy texts, were in deep conflict, especially over where they understood the proper center of religious worship to be: Mount Gerizim or the Temple in Jerusalem.

     Judeans, descendants of the Southern Kingdom, like Jesus, and Samaritans, descendants of the Northern Kingdom, did not hang out. And, they didn’t spend a lot of time in each other’s cities, even if there were religiously significant sites, like Jacob’s Well, in those cities. And, yet, Karoline Lewis notes, here in John, where Jesus is said to be the expression of God’s love in the world, it seems appropriate that he would go right through a place and spend time with a people whom his community mistrusted. Lewis puts it this way, “There is nothing in God’s creation that God does not love, not even the least anticipated persons.”

     Wells are places where a lot of important men and women of the Bible meet. Jacob and Rachel, Moses and Zipporah, and Isaac and Rachel all meet at wells and later marry. Carrying water for a whole family is a difficult chore, often left to the women and girls to complete. This is a job often done in a group, with multiple women and girls, sometimes from more than one household, going out together. It is interesting that this woman has gone to the well alone. I read somewhere (and I don’t remember where) that some scholars wonder if she’s there alone because she is an outsider in her own community, ostracized by other women who refuse to help her. Why else would she be out at the hottest part of the day to get water unless she didn’t want to run into some folks who didn’t like her.

     Those details aren’t in the story though. If she is intended to function as kind of counter-example to Nicodemus, a respected Jewish leader who came to see Jesus at night, over course she, a Samaritan stranger, would talk to Jesus during the day, in a casual encounter that grows into an intimate conversation about faith. Also, Jesus’ strikes up a conversation with her, not the other way around. Because he asks for her help first. He asks her for a drink.

     It can be challenging to read tone, but I’m inclined to hear her words with some humor or incredulity. “Me? You’re asking me for water?” Yes, this Judean man is asking this Samaritan woman for water. Yes, this rabbi is speaking to this woman about faith? Yes, this single man is speaking to a woman who is not in his family while they both are alone, even though they are in a public place. She is wise to ask for some clarification. Because people like them do not usually hang out, much less share drinking utensils and talk about God.

     In her commentary on this text, Jennifer Garcia Bashaw notes that this conversation at the well is the longest conversation that Jesus has with any one person in any of the Gospels. She gently ribs Jesus about not having a bucket and also reminds him of both of their ancestral connections to Jacob, who had built the well to take care of his family. See, water was necessary, even for Jacob. It is also necessary for Jesus the traveler. But, something else is also necessary. His mission, which is spoken of here as “give Living Water of eternal life,” is also necessary.

     Because seeing is believing in John, we see Jesus do something that is a little miraculous... he knows something about this woman’s marital history that one wouldn’t necessarily know about a stranger. Remember, wells in the Bible are places where people get betrothed. According to Bashaw, it makes sense that something about marriage would pop up in this story. But, yet again, Jesus turns that expectation on its head. Rather than make a hasty proposal, he asks about her husband, to which she replies that she doesn’t have one. He goes on to say, “you’re right. You’ve had five and you aren’t even married to man you’re seeing now.” There’s no way a stranger would have known that. While their conversation about water and living water laid the groundwork for her belief, it is this miraculous bit of knowledge about her history that convinces the woman that Jesus is special and holy... that he is the Messiah.

     Water changes things. Had Jesus not been thirsty, he and this woman may not have met. Had he not been brave enough to reach out to someone he had been raised to avoid, and ask for help, he would have struggled on his journey. Had the woman chosen not to share a drink with this stranger, she would have missed out on a life-changing interaction. John goes on to tell us that she becomes one of the earliest preachers, going about Samaria, telling the people about Jesus who “told her everything she had ever done.” Many Samaritans grew hopeful because of what she had said and sought him out. Then, once they saw him, they heard for themselves and began to believe he was the Messiah. Water changed the Samaritan’s life and the course of Jesus’ ministry. May we, too, be so fortunate to give water to one in need, and in so doing, meet the Christ whom we have been looking for.
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Resources consulted while writing this sermon:  
More information about Church World Services work to help people access clean water:  https://cwsglobal.org/learn/hunger-and-poverty/water-sanitation-and-hygiene/ 
Karoline Lewis' John: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014) 
Jennifer Garcia Bashaw: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-in-lent/commentary-on-john-45-42-6 

​     Today’s reading, about a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is only in the book of John. Sometimes the Gospel stories reference old Bible stories to help us understand who Jesus is. I think today’s reading has one of the strangest references to a Hebrew Bible story in any of Gospels. It’s that part about the snake in the wilderness. John 3:16 usually gets all the attention. But, I think 3:14 is pretty important, too. And, that verse has a serpent we need to learn about.

     Does anyone remember what time of day Nicodemus came to talk to Jesus? That’s right. He came to see him at night. According to Karoline Smith, who wrote a book about the Gospel of John, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night because he’s afraid that his fellow Pharisees will not approve of him having friendly conversations with Jesus. So, he went out when it was dark and maybe when other people were asleep, so he could hide from people who might not like what he is doing.

     Something we should remember when reading all the Gospels is that they each were written by a person. And, each writer makes choices about how to introduce people to Jesus. Now, all the Gospels show Jesus performing miracles. John is the only one where the writer says that Jesus performs miracles specifically to prove himself to be the Messiah. In the chapter about John in his introduction to the New Testament, Bart Ehrman points out that over in chapter 20: 30-31, it says: “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you many come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and through believing you may have life in his name.” So, in John, you have to see Jesus to believe in him.

     One of the first things Nicodemus says to Jesus is that he saw performing miracles, and seeing those miracles makes him believe that the power Jesus has has come from God. Because of what he has seen, Nicodemus also wants to talk to Jesus and wants to ask him some important questions about faith. It is in their conversation about faith that the snake part of the story shows up. The serpent is a reference to a story in the book of Numbers where Moses lifts up a serpent in the wilderness. When you go read that story in Numbers, it turns out that that story is also about people seeing something that shows them God’s power.

     The book of Numbers is a book that is mostly set during the wilderness travels of the Exodus. It is the book where most of Jewish religious law is collected, too. That means it’s a book where people learn what it means to follow God and not the Pharaoh, whom they had ran away from. Part of following God is living with a new kind of freedom as well as responsibility to love God and love neighbor. That is different from what Pharaoh wanted.

     The part of the story with the snakes happens in chapter 21. The people 40 years into their journey in the wilderness. Even though God has been taking care of them... providing mana and quails in the desert for decades now, the stress of the journey has been wearing on them. They have started to be afraid that God will not continue to provide for them. They also, not for the first time, have grown impatient. They do what a lot of impatient people do: Complain.

     God is kind of cranky in that story, too. After 40 years, God is tired of hearing people complain about the food, and probably a little tired of hearing questions about whether or not God will keep taking care of them. So, God decides to teach the people a lesson. Now, I don’t think God makes people sick on purpose or hurts people on purpose. I do think that sometimes, when people are trying to make sense of something hard they are going through, they will decide that God is doing the hard thing. In this case, somebody decided that God has sent them a plague of poisonous snakes.

     If you know anything about snakes, you know that unless you are mouse, they are not going to chase you down. For a snake to bite a person, usually the person has to be making it mad or scaring it. So, this plague of snakes is kind of an accident waiting to happen. The snakes aren’t chasing people down, but there are so many that it’s hard to avoid them. The last time I preached on this text was the Sunday before we closed our building up at the beginning of covid. I think the last three years have shown us how difficult is to have a danger all around, that is technically possible to avoid, but often only with the most cautious, vigilant behavior, and with lots of people being willing to be just as cautious as you are.
     
     In the Bible story, as in real life, when a threat is abundant, people will end up succumbing to it. Enough people were bitten that the people grew afraid, and blamed themselves for what happened. They begged Moses to intervene with God and get rid of the snakes. Moses prayed on their behalf. God decided to help, but not in the way the people expected. God didn’t take away the snakes, but God does give them a way to be healed when they do get bit by a snake. God had them build a bronze snake. When they looked at it, they were healed.

     Who here would like a statue that would heal you when you look at it? I think that would be pretty neat. That being said, what does a random statue in the book of Numbers have to do with Jesus? Remember, the book of numbers is about people learning to live a life that showed that they loved God and loved their neighbors. Sometimes they forget to do that and have to learn how to do it all over again. Numbers names some things people did when they forgot how God said they should behave: they would become jealous, start hoarding food, start being mean to each other and to their leaders... start to believe God wouldn’t help them anymore. These behaviors are avoidable, like a snake, but sometimes you need to see a sign to remind you of the danger. The snake statue was that sign. I think the author of John knew that story about that snake statue as a sign in the wilderness and decided that Jesus himself could be a similar kind of sign.

     There are ways that Jesus and the snake statue are similar. Jesus heals people who come to see him. People are healed with they look at the snake statue. And, the presence of a healing statue and a healing teacher both show people that God, who created both them, was at work in the world, offering people a way to be healed when something bad has happened. I think the author of John believed that people could practice living in a way that would help them to remember that God would take care of them and that they should take care of each other. Nicodemus is scared, like the people in the desert in Numbers. He needs a sign that God is at work in the world. He sees Jesus, who is that sign, like the snake was a sign to remind the people in Numbers. And, this sign brings healing.

     I wish I knew how Nicodemus is changed by his conversation with Jesus. It’s too bad that we don’t hear from him again in John. But, what I hope happened is that what he saw in Jesus that night in the dark healed him of his fear. I hope it helped him begin anew his walk of faith. And, I hope what he does in the daylight reflects the love and eternal life he learned about from Christ in the dark. May we, too, be willing to be open to new beginnings and healing from Christ.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Karoline Lewis: http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5075
Karoline Lewis:  John: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014)
Melissa Bane Sevier: https://melissabanesevier.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/snakes-on-a-plain/
Bart Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction of The Early Christian Writings, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

​     Today is the first Sunday in Lent. While reading our devotional Seeking: Honest Questions for a Deeper Faith, I found myself appreciating the way the authors approach Lent. The Rev. Danielle Shroyer wrote the introduction to the devotional and invites us to understand Lent as a time for seeking: “seeking clarity, seeking wisdom, seeking a love that makes us whole.” That seems pretty good to me. As a pastor, part of the reason I appreciate both Lent and Advent is the ways that these church seasons can pull us out of the demands of economic systems that demand productivity, isolation, and efficiency and into seasons of connection, meaning-making, and curiosity. The act of seeking is rarely efficient and often done best in community.

     Rev. Shroyer is inviting us to treat Lent not like a search organized on a grid to cover every square inch, but, instead, as an opportunity to listen with fresh ears and see with fresh eyes. For those of you who went birding with our intern Sarah Mills last year, you might remember how Sarah and Rev. Ian Lynch suggested we understand seeking the Holy Spirit to be a little like attending to birds and birdsong. You will experience so much if you can listen and discern what is calling to you. But, it is hard to follow that call if you aren’t listening for it.

     It is likely not an accident that this reading about Jesus being tempted is a suggested text for the first Sunday of the season. This is likely not the beginning of Jesus’ attentive listening to the Holy Spirit. In Matthew, he has already been baptized, which can be recognized as a sign of his following the Spirit, especially when the Spirit affirms his belovedness by God. That same Spirit, it is said, is what led him to the wilderness. He would not be there were he not listening. But, there, in the wilderness, as he is listening, he realizes that he must decide who he’s going to be listening to.

     In her commentary on this text, Aubrey West notes that Jesus is not be punished and is not lost out in the wilderness. That is an important distinction to make as many of us have come to think “being in the spiritual wilderness,” as being in a time of confusion or a time when one feels adrift or far away from God. That’s not what is happening in this story or actually any time Jesus goes into the wilderness in Matthew. The wilderness, those marginal, in-between spaces that many thought to be dangerous, was a place of connection to the Spirit for Jesus. He would listen to the Spirit there and that would empower him to continue with his mission. This first time we see him in the wilderness, we are told that it is a test. I am inclined to agree with the scholar Melinda Quivik that this story has been passed down to us not so that we will assume that The Tempter will show up in our wilderness, but so we can learn something about Jesus, and about the God we know through Jesus, in paying attention to Jesus’ response to temptation. And, one thing we learn is Jesus’ relationship to power.

     These tests, like many tests from antagonistic conversation partners, are from the start obviously not in good faith. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Imagine saying something so callous to someone who is hungry. Have any of you ever had to go without food or drink before surgery? I have... very recently. It was a real bummer. And, I only had to do it for about 12 hours. Jesus has been intentionally fasting for days and days. This question was a real provocation. And, yet, Jesus has the resources within himself to see the provocation for what it was: an invitation to use his power to make himself more comfortable. And, that’s not what his power was for.

     The next two temptations are increasingly goading. The tempter takes him to the high point of the temple and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’, and ‘On their hands they will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” Isn’t it interesting to have a literal interpretation of Scripture as a temptation for Jesus? Melinda Quivick calls this the temptation to “abandon deep-reading of God’s word by taking it literally.” I think there is also the temptation to use literal reading to shore up an excuse to use power for personal gain. Rev. Shroyer calls this the temptation to use his gifts as a “parlor trick.” Jesus does not fall for this temptation.

     The final temptation is to have a kind of power that comes as the cost of allegiance to one who does not share the same values as God. Jesus is offered all the kingdoms of the world and all they have to offer if he will shift his allegiance away from God to the Tempter. Imagine what good he could do with the power? It is in his response to this temptation that we might see Jesus most clearly. When given the opportunity to have tremendous power over people at the low, low price of all of his devotion and loyalty, Jesus declines. His mission is not about his ego or his ability to dominate creation. That’s what Quivik and Shroyer, in their commentaries, argue this question is about. Will he choose ego and domination or connection and justice? The Jesus we come to know in this passage chooses connection and healing, as Rev. Shroyer says, every time.

     In his commentary for the Isaiah text I read on Ash Wednesday, Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow speaks of this era of the pandemic as a time that is revelatory in the fullest sense of the word. Our personal response and larger communal responses to events of the last three years reveal some things about us and about our communities, some positive. Many negative. But, with revelations come the opportunity for us to consider, as Reyes-Chow puts it, “who we can be and become.” Perhaps this season can be a time when we all can work to cultivate the ability to listen for this Jesus who wielded power with love towards healing and justice. Our reading for the day shows us who Jesus is and how he works in this world. How might we make sure that this Jesus is what Rev. Shroyer calls “right at the center of [our] heart” where we can hear his invitation to take up our cross and follow him?
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Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Melinda Quivik: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/first-sunday-in-lent/commentary-on-matthew-41-11-5
Audrey West: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/first-sunday-in-lent/commentary-on-matthew-41-11-2
Danille Shroyer's introduction to Seeking: Honest Questions for a Deeper Faith, a devotional developed by Sanctified Art, as well as her devotional entry for the First Week of Lent 

We began this church season with one revelation, Epiphany, and are finishing with another, the Transfiguration. First, some astrology scholars protect and pay homage to a child from a poor family whom they say will one day lead his people. And, at this moment, we see the child, now grown, in God’s full glory. That first revelation led to this current one, like the trail up the mountainside where Jesus led his friends. As one might hope, the view from this mountaintop is clear and bright and astounding. We can hope that it will be enough to guide the way through the harrowing weeks to come. As noted in The Salt Project’s commentary on this passage, we will need Jesus, who shines bright like the sun, as we walk into the valley of the shadow of death, even if we can’t yet fully explain what we saw up on the mountain top.

Important things happen on mountain tops. I learned a long time ago in my New Testament class that the author of Matthew works very hard to draw connections from Moses to Jesus.  In his commentary on this passage, Eric Barreto reminds us that Jesus’ transfiguration is awfully similar to Moses’ encounter with God on Sinai. The Salt Project’s commentary also notes that Moses was described as radiant as he descended the mountain. Judith Jones, in her commentary on this text, reminds us that Elijah met God up on a mountain, too.  Important things happen on mountain tops... things that help us see God more clearly. But, we may not always be able to understand what we are seeing in that moment. Peter, James, and John sure didn’t.

We can hardly blame for being bewildered. In the verses just before this, 6 days prior to the mountain top, Jesus had told them that following his calling would likely end in death. It is likely that even the promise of renewed life after death would have been more disconcerting than comforting for his followers. They would have been in the thick of the conflict with him. He made it clear that following him would require sacrifice. It is likely that they had been feeling the tenson rise around them. It was also clear that they didn’t fully understand what was happening. And, likely wouldn’t until the Resurrection. Maybe that’s why Jesus asked them not to speak of what they saw yet. Their understanding would only be complete in hindsight.

I do appreciate that, in this moment of bright confusion and tremendous awe, Peter falls back onto one of his most important religious values- hospitality- to respond to something he clearly doesn’t fully understand. Not only does Jesus seem to be aglow, but two figures have shown up. Now, I don’t know how the disciples knew that they were Moses and Elijah, but they did.  Moses and Elijah, two prophets of particular import, were with Jesus on the mountain. Peter may not know exactly what is going on, but he knows that it is our calling to make welcome, for in so doing, we may be welcoming emissaries of God. I can think of worse impulses in the face of awe and confusion than the impulse to build a dwelling place for someone because they might have been sent there by God.

Eric Barreto, in his commentary, says that the presence of Elijah and Moses “marks Jesus as their heir, their collaborator in [God’s] holy work.” And, just to make very clear, the disciples hear God’s voice, too. In a beautiful reminder that God exists in both the thick cloud as well as the brightest light, something that is described as a bright cloud overshadows them. When Moses was on Sinai, it was said that a cloud filled with God overshadowed him, too. From this cloud, a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” You might recognize part of that. At Jesus’ baptism, a voice from above also said, “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Sometimes, especially in times of tension and fear, it is good and necessary to be reminded of love and connection. And, in this moment, as Jesus is taking up the mantles of Elijah and Moses, and heading down the mountain, into the valley of death’s shadow, he might have needed this. And, so might his friends. And, the reminder to listen to him. He knew what was coming.

This voice, however, proved to be more terrifying than comforting, and the disciples collapsed in terror. Frankly, they’ve never seemed more reasonable to me than at this moment. Notice that Jesus does not scold them. He offered them the same affirmation that scripture tell us holy messengers once offered both Mary and Joseph: “Do not be afraid.” Get up and do not be afraid. When they bring their eyes up to him, all that was wild and holy and aglow has tempered down, leaving their friend and teacher, Jesus, standing resolutely before them.

The writers at the Salt Project speak of the transfiguration as “a clearing from the mountain top, from here we can survey both how far we’ve come and the Lenten journey ahead.”   As they head down the mountain, Jesus instructs them not to tell anyone about what they saw “until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” Maybe those instructions were a relief. Who would have even believed them anyway. How could they have possibly described all that they had just seen. Or, maybe they were like a kid who knows about a surprise party and can hardly keep delicious secret to themselves. Scripture does not describe their feelings at this moment, just their actions. They keep walking with Jesus.

In the verses just after the reading, they ask him about Elijah and he reiterates that the Son of Man is about to suffer. They had some insight that John the Baptist was a lot like Elijah, too, and to few people heeded his instruction. And, then they followed Jesus as he waded into a crowd of people where he healed a boy who had been suffering. May we follow Christ, too, into the crowds, to tend to those who hurt. And, when the time is right, may we remember that in renewed life, God has shown us Christ once again, even if we don’t understand it at first. Our calling will become clear, once again.
 
Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
The Commentary from the Salt Project: https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/2/18/transfiguration-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-transfiguration-sunday
Eric Barreto: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-171-9-5
Judith Jones: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-171-9-4
 

​Sometimes things from popular culture just stick in my brain. One of them is the character Raymond Holt yelling “Vindication!!” at the end of an episode of the tv show Brooklyn 99. Played by Andre Braugher, Holt, who has been helping decorate for a colleague's wedding, had spent most of the episode being told that the balloon arch that he had been meticulously building was tacky. They removed it from the wedding, which didn’t end up even happening. At the very end of the episode, his colleague, Rosa, who was nearly the bride, knocked on his office door to thank him for his help. She catches sight of the balloon arch by accident and pushes her way into the room, where she sees it in its full glory. Rosa’s face lit up and she said “Oh my God. She is magnificent,” becoming the only person who loves the arch as much as Holt does. Holt, at last assured that he was correct in his choice to create one for the wedding, excitedly yells “Vindicatiooooon!!”

You may not be surprised to note that this storyline had little to do with our reading today, aside from a little shared vocabulary. But, it is a story about someone who made a choice, out of a sense of generosity, that was eventually affirmed as the right one by the intended audience. That’s not exactly the Gospel, but it’s close enough to remind us sometimes a choice that doesn’t seem obviously correct at first ends up being the right one in the long run. Neither John nor Jesus would have been the obvious choice for an emissary from God. And, yet, through their actions, their calling is proven to be true. And, God’s own commitment to following through with covenantal promises is made clear.

Today’s reading comes from the part of Matthew after John has been imprisoned but before he was killed. Jesus has gathered the 12 disciples and begun teaching. Hearing word of this, John sent his own disciples to confirm that Jesus is Messiah whom he’d be preparing the way for. Jesus says to them, in the verses just before our reading, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.” In short, he said, my actions will prove who I am. Or, as Elisabeth Johnson says in her commentary on this text, these healings and relationships are signs of God’s kindom drawing near. And, that is exactly what John was preaching about: God’s reign drawing near.

John’s disciples left and Jesus began to teach the rest of the people gathered. That’s where our reading begins. Jesus affirmed the prophecies of John the Baptist. There are some scholars who argue that Jesus’ public ministry is intended to be a direct extension of John’s. Once John was arrested, Jesus was called to continue and expand upon his mission. Others would say that John’s mission was to come first... to make way for Jesus. Either way, it matters for Jesus to affirm that what John was saying was true, despite the fact that he had found himself at odds with the powerful... despite the fact that he had been imprisoned. Then, as now, respectable people don’t always respect you if you’ve been imprisoned. Jesus is clear that John’s imprisonment is not proof that he erred in his teaching. Instead, it is confirmation that people will often misunderstand God’s words, especially when they come from someone deemed strange or marginal or dangerous to the status quo.

John led a rigorous, ascetic lifestyle of fasting and self-denial, and people found that to be a good reason to disregard his words. Jesus would be accused of drinking too much and indulging with sinners, and people would use this as an excuse to disregard his actions of grace and teachings of justice. It’s like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. One was too stern, and one was too permissive. Jesus wondered into today’s reading if the people listening would ever find a find a prophet who’s teaching was just right. Or, when asked to really change their ways, realign their behavior according to God’s priorities, would people continue to find reasons why the prophet delivering the message wasn’t holy-seeming enough for them to believe?

Humans have a habit of assuming that the Holy Spirit will always move in ways that they expect and through people that match whatever their current time’s assumption of what makes a person trustworthy. In her commentary on this text, Jennifer T. Kaalund talks about how we often rely on stereotypes as a kind of short cut to discerning what and who is good and dependable. Kaalund reminds us that if any of us were asked we liked being stereotyped, especially those of us with identities that are regularly demonized by the broader community, we’d say we don’t... that stereotypes don’t capture who we are adequately and often do us harm.

If we know that the fullness of our own lives can’t be captured by the stereotypes of people who dislike us, why would we think that God would rely on stereotypes as signs to point us to the “correct” prophets who are bringing us a word from God? In fact, so many people in positions of authority, like pastors and teachers and police officers and coaches and politicians and business owners, misuse the positive stereotypes of them as cover for perpetuating great harm. We must take great care not to mistake our ideas about who does good for actual good actions taken in the world. If God could work through a wild homeless man who lived on bugs and honey and picked fights with kings... if God could come alive in an itinerant preacher who’d opted out of all his responsibilities to his family and spent his free time with drunks and women of ill repute, we better pay attention to actions of the people we run into instead of the ideas that pop into our heads about who they are when we see them. Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. May we see God’s work in this world for what it is. And, may we never assume that only one kind of person can do it.
​
Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
If you want to watch a video compilation of the entire balloon arch storyline:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxiV_mA5NM4
Elisabeth Johnson: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14/commentary-on-matthew-1116-19-25-30-2
Jennifer T. Kaalund: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14/commentary-on-matthew-1116-19-25-30

Our story today is not very long but has eight characters, two kingdoms, and one river.  First, of course, the kings:  There is the king of Syria. Whenever I mention the King of Syria,  I need someone to knock these two sticks together.
Let’s practice: King of Syria *knock sticks*

​And there is the King of Israel – a much smaller country, so other kings might think their king is less powerful, but he’s still a king. I need a person to beat a drum when you hear The King of Israel.
Let’s practice: King of Israel- bang a drum

And there is Naaman the general of the army of the King of Syria – another very important man. I need someone to jingle a bell when you hear the name Naaman.
Let’s practice: Naaman- jingle a bell

Naaman has a wife. The Bible doesn’t tell us her name. When I mention her, I need someone to knock on this block.  And Naaman and his wife have enslaved a girl who Naaman captured during battle. She is one of the most important characters in this story. But we don’t know her name either. Let’s have someone shake maracas when I mention her. I need 2 people to shake maracas.

Naaman also has another slave, sort of his right-hand man. Let’s clang a triangle when you hear me mention him.

That is the cast in Syria.  Over in Israel, there is also a prophet named Elisha.  The prophet also has a servant.  When I mention them, I want someone to knock on this hollow piece of wood.

There are several large, beautiful rivers in Syria, but for our story the important river is the muddy little Jordan River in Israel. When I mention the river, I want you to make river movements with your hand, like this: (wavey movement with hand)

Oh, our story involves a disease called leprosy. In her commentary on this passage, Dr. Wil Gafney says that the disease that is called leprosy here might not be exactly the same one that we call leprosy today. That one, which we can treat with modern medicine, was very scary when there was no medicine for it. It could give you sores and make it so you couldn’t feel parts of your body, which made it easier to get hurt.

Even if this disease wasn’t the same one that we call leprosy, people were still afraid of getting it and Naaman (jingle bell) would have been worried about having it. He would be afraid to be around his family and his soldiers. We have to remember that one feeling that is driving Naaman’s actions is fear. But that won’t be the only feeling.

Now that we have assigned sounds and explained who the people are and where they live, we are ready for our story.  The begins with Naaman at home in Syria.

Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, was highly respected and esteemed by the king of Syria, because the king felt that God had helped Naaman win important battles.
He was a respected soldier and he also suffered from a skin disease people were afraid of.

In one of their raids against Israel, the Syrians had carried off a little Israelite girl, who became a slave of Naaman’s wife. It was not right for them to take people and enslave them. But, this girl would end up helping Naaman, even though it would have been fair for her to not want to.

One day, the girl who had been enslaved said to her Naaman’s wife, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would take his skin disease away.” At that time, Samaria and Judah were the two parts of Israel. Samaria was the part in the North.

When Naaman heard of this, he went to his boss, the king of Syria and told him what the girl had said.  The king said, “Go to the king of Israel and take this letter to him.”

So Naaman set out, taking 30,000 pieces of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold, and ten changes of fine clothes. His king had given him all of that stuff for the King of Israel, hoping that the gift would make it more likely that the King of Israel would help Naaman. The letter is supposed to help, too. It said something like: “This letter will introduce my officer Naaman. I want you to cure him of his disease.”

When the king of Israel read the letter, he got scared. He worried that he wouldn’t be able to help Naaman and then the King of Syria would come attack his country. He said, “How can the king of Syria expect me to cure this man? Does he think that I am God, with the power of life and death? It’s plain that he is trying to start a quarrel with me!”

But, someone else was paying attention, a prophet named Elisha. God would inspire prophets who would then tell people, especially kings, how they were messing up and how they could stop messing up and do the right thing again. Elisha heard what had happened and sent word to the king of Israel: “Why are you so upset? Send the man to me, and I’ll show him that there is a prophet in Israel!” Remember how the girl who was capture talked about a prophet who could help Naaman... Well, who do you think that prophet is? Elisha. That’s right.

So Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and stopped at the entrance to Elisha’s house.
Elisha sent a servant out to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the River Jordan, and he would be completely cured of his disease. Elisha didn’t even go talk to the general himself.

Instead of being happy to hear that there was a cure, Naaman got really mad! Naaman said, “I thought that he would at least come out to me, pray to the Lord his God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and cure me!  Besides, aren’t the rivers Abana and Pharpar, back in Damascus, better than any river in Israel? I could have washed in them and been cured!”

Naaman’s slaves went up to him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can’t you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?” See, these slaves are smart, too. Like the girl at the beginning of the story.

So Naaman went down to the Jordan (do you think he grumbled while he did it? I do). He dipped himself in it seven times, as Elisha had instructed, and he was completely cured. His fkin became healthy again He returned to Elisha with all his men and said, “Now I know that there is no god but the God of Israel…”.
​
Now that all of the instruments helped us to listen closely to the story, I have some questions.

• Why do you think the girl was kind enough to tell Naaman about the prophet?
• Why do you think Naaman got mad when Elisha gave him a cure that seemed simple?
• At the end of the story, Naaman realizes that Elisha’s God worked through the cure of washing in the river. How do you hope Naaman will be changed by what he’s learned about God?
• Do you think Naaman will listen to God more closely from now on?

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:

• Carolyn Brown: http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2016/05/year-c-proper-9-14th-sunday-in-ordinary.html
• Wil Gafney, "Epiphany V, "Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2022)

I spent part of my on-going recovery this week reading about climate change. You know, something light and relaxing. What caught my attention about this article was one line: “Collapse isn’t inevitable.” Collapse is not inevitable. That line comes from an article titled “What 5,000-year-old Skeletons tell us about living with climate change” by Kate Yoder. Yoder was discussing an academic article, “Climate Change, Human Health, and Resilience in the Holocene,” co-authored by Gwen Robbins Schug, Jane E. Buikstra, Sharon N. DeWitte, and Sonia Zakrzewski. These scholars looked at a whole bunch of human skeletons and mummies to see if they could see any patterns in the remains that would help them understand better how our ancestors responded to changing circumstances in the environment around them. What they found is that, as Yoder states, collapse is not inevitable. But, some communities are better able to respond to the changing climate around them.

I won’t try to summarize a summary of an academic text for you. This is a sermon, not a literature review. The shortest version of the information presented is that human-caused climate change is already affecting and will continue to affect the weather. Weather changes and the pollution that is a result of human choices about how to live in this world will affect food supplies, the availability of drinking water, and likely change the kinds of diseases that humans, plants, and animals are affected by. And, people are going to end up having to move around, change how and what we eat and how we clean water.  The institutions that we humans have organized to help us live together are going to have to adjust to these changes or, they, and we will fail.

While the human-caused climate change we are facing is more severe than the climate event these scholars studied, there are some clear patterns in communities that were resilient in the face of significant changes in climate. People who live in mobile societies with flexible social structures that also got their food from diverse sources fared much better than societies with rigid social hierarchies, crowded living situations, and food that only came from the kind of agriculture that requires living on and working the same land the same way for a long time. And, communities that retain and pass along traditional knowledge about communal care, the ecosystem, and food traditions also were able to adapt more quickly and successfully in the face of environmental change. Also, societies that maintained significant social inequality in order to benefit a few wealthy people had a harder time coping with environmental changes, especially disease and malnutrition. If we want to have resilient communities that can withstand major upheavals, we will build societies that don’t require some people to be very poor for the benefit of the very rich.

Yoder cites one of the authors of the academic paper, Robin Schug, saying “We would not be where we are today without cooperation.” After looking at study after study, in regions across the world, it is heartening to hear these scholars offer confirmation that working together for the good is something that has helped humanity survive catastrophe again and again and again. While they are quick to point out that cooperation doesn’t always happen, they also note that the presence of a crisis doesn’t have to mean that humans will respond in violent and hoarding ways. We can choose to care for each other and work with each other and creation. Our scripture for today spoke of every good gift being from above. This research seems like a good gift to us, especially as we consider our ministry as a church in the midst of changing times and changing environments.

What would it mean for us to adapt some of these descriptions of resilient, flexible, and equitable societies to shape our calling as a church? How can we learn from our ancestors to adapt and cooperate and make changes based on the realities of the world around us. I am carrying this word with me: Collapse isn’t inevitable. It is possible to thrive and care for each other in the midst of great shifts in the world around us. May we be quick to listen, slow to exclude, and use any anger we have with the status quo to move towards a life lived according to God’s priorities of love and justice.
​
Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Kate Yoder's article: https://grist.org/health/how-ancient-societies-adapted-to-climate-change-anthropology-study/
The original academic article: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2209472120
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     Sometime between his baptism and the arrest of his cousin who baptized him, Jesus realized that he couldn’t or shouldn’t or didn’t need to do his work alone. According to the scholar Jillian Engelhardt, Jesus seemed to feel called to continue and enlarge the work John began.  What we see in the Gospel, then, is Jesus doing this work, inviting people to repent, that is, set themselves right with God’s priorities. However, unlike John, Jesus would not preach that message alone. Jesus will have to leave the riverside and wilderness to find his coworkers.

     In Matthew, Jesus moves from the riverside and wilderness outside of Nazareth, the place where John had centered his ministry, out to Capernaum in Galilee. This happens just a few verses before our reading for today. In a commentary on this text, the scholar Melinda A. Quivik invites us to pay attention to how this move is described. Remember, the gospel writers understood Jesus to be the Messiah described in Isaiah.  The author of Matthew talks about Jesus’ move using a quote from Isaiah:
He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.’

     In her commentary, Quivik reminds us that the people of Galilee, that is the people of Zebulun and Naphtali, have been living in war for generations. During the era in which this story was recorded, Galilee was the land that Pontius Pilate ruled with an iron fist for Rome. Isaiah said that God would help the oppressed and raise up a leader in their midst. It matters that Jesus would begin his public ministry in the midst of people who had suffered at the hands of warmongering rulers. It shows us that God is always right in the middle of the shadow of death, with the people who need God the most. 

     As Jesus walked by the sea, he saw the fishermen, Simon and Andrew, hard at work. He invited them to join him, saying he would make them fish for people instead of haddock or smelt or whatever you fish for in the Sea of Galilee. What is perhaps most surprising is that they immediately follow him, without asking a word of explanation or clarification. I think I would have asked a few questions.  Then, Jesus saw the brothers, James and John, who were also out working. He called out to them, inviting them to preach the word of the nearness of God. They also left everything and followed him. They were fishing with extended family and they left their family just sitting there, mending the broken nets. And, nobody, not even Jesus, takes time to explain to the new disciples, or us, what this “fishing for people” means.

     Some might wonder why the brothers are willing to drop everything to follow Jesus in that moment. I read once that some scholars argue that these sets of brothers knew Jesus before he offered this invitation. They say that it is possible that they grew up with Jesus, or at least knew him by reputation. Some scholars argue that there was also a good chance that the brothers had heard John preaching before he was arrested. If the brothers already believed John's word that God was preparing to do something new, maybe they were just waiting for the sign to start working with God for that new thing. When Jesus showed up, saying, "All that stuff John was talking about... that's happening now. Come and be a part of it," maybe that was the sign they were waiting for.

     I have to say, I kind of like the idea that they were already prepared and just needed a sign to start working towards the kindom of heaven. But, if I’m being honest, it’s mostly because I am more comfortable with the idea of them having a plan, instead of them just dropping everything with a moment’s notice and leaving.  This whole story makes better sense to me if they are just waiting for someone, in this case Jesus, to show up and lead them. That being said, I don’t think the Gospel makes clear why they followed Jesus. All of those explanations are scholarly conjectures by people who, like me, have modern, fairly comfortable lives. What the story actually gives us is just four young men and the teacher who invited them to follow him. There is no explanation as to why they go.

     I did read once a commentary Dr. Raj Nadella who noticed that, while we don’t know anything about these young men’s plans, it’s pretty clear that somebody in this story has a plan. You see, Rome has a plan. That plan is the unspoken undercurrent that shapes so much of Jesus’ life, and, ultimately, his death. Rome, like the other empires before them that made life hard in Capernaum, lived by a plan rooted in death and destruction, in conquest and forced assimilation. While being part of Rome meant that you might have good roads and aqueducts, it also meant having foreign soldiers breathing down your neck, conscription and slavery, theft under the guise of taxation. Violence was the primary tool in Rome’s plan. And, they wanted people to get so used to the horrors of occupation that they would feel powerless to stop it. 
​
     Jesus’ surprising invitation to these four brothers is a disruption of that plan. As many of us know, it only takes one moment, one event that is incredible or awful or confusing or full of potential to show you that you don’t have to keep doing what you’re doing according to someone else’s plan. So, maybe Jesus’ invitation was completely out of the blue and completely unprepared for and exactly what those young men needed at that moment. When they heard him, they knew the Empire didn’t have to control them. They knew that the kindom of God was offering them something more. So, they left the lakeshore and walked towards it. With no real plan about what came next.

     The Holy Spirit moves in lots of ways. As you look through your annual meeting booklet over the coming week, I hope you’ll see the Spirit in the carefully crafted budget of our church, planned over several months to reflect our church’s call to participate in the kindom of heaven. But, I hope you’ll also remember that the Spirit moves outside of well-thought out plans, too. Jesus is still telling us that the kindom of heaven is close at hand. Let’s make sure we are walking towards it, even if our plan is still to be determined.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Melinda Quivick, "Third Sunday after Epiphany," Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year C, featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice, eds. Dale P. Andrews, Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm, and Ronald J. Allen, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012)
Raj Nadella: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-matthew-412-23-5
Jillian Engelhardt: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-matthew-412-23-6
​

Matthew 2:1-12: The Visit of the Wise Men 
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men 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 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.” ’ 
Then 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, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. ​

​Friends, I wonder if you, like I, often feel like you know a story so well that you can recite it backwards and forwards. You could summarize it in maybe ten words or less. So many of the stories we hear around this time of the year are stories that easily fall into that category. We hear them in songs and we tell them to children. They are tattooed on our collective Christian context.
Well, can I recommend a combination of two practices that work for me when I find myself drifting into this sort of overfamiliarity? The first is to open your Bible or your Bible app or your online search engine of choice, locate the story and read it.  And then read it again.  And again. And again. This practice of lectio divina or “divine reading” has been a tradition, particularly in the monastic world, for centuries. You meditate on the reading in a way that is different than just hearing it once, maybe twice a year read from the front of a church. And it is this act of really sitting with a text with intention and attention that leads on to the second practice.
Now, this practice is maybe more difficult or unnatural to us when we are faced with one of those ultra-familiar stories. When you read that story for the third or fourth time, step into a role. A role that is different than that of a Sunday churchgoer. Find a person in the story that you will choose to identify with as you read and re-read this story. Take on that role. Put yourself in their shoes during your lectio divina.
Now, I have found that there are a few keys to doing this second practice. The first key is total and utter commitment to the practice. It can be uncomfortable to sit with the point of view of a person or a group of people that our years of Sunday school and Christmas carols have chosen not to focus on. However, that is how our scriptural complacency can settle in. It’s how we think we know the whole story when we’ve whittled it down to ten words.  So who are our individuals or groups of individuals in today’s scripture. Who is present in the scenes described?  Well, there’s the obvious “stars”, if you’ll forgive the pun, of the show, the three kings. There’s Herod, of course. Then there’s the “chief priests and scribes of the people” who Herod calls to council him. And finally, there’s the holy family, sitting in their modest lodging in Bethlehem. Mary, the new mother, Joseph the (probably equal parts proud and nervous) father, and their vulnerable, tiny child. These are the four groups directly impacted by this story. So now, having identified these players, we turn to the second key to this practice: context.
Context is paramount when it comes to really getting into your role! As any theatre student will tell you, one of the keys to Stanislavskian method acting is to find points of connection with your character so as to more fully inhabit them. You cannot do this if you do not know where they are coming from, literally and metaphorically. So let us add some context to our four key players:

• The Three Kings:  Well, first off, there may not be just three of them. Nowhere in the text does it say there are three. There are three gifts mentioned, yes. But this could be an entire caravan of astrologers, magi, (they only become “kings” in the Middle Ages) who have joined together as they follow this star. And more context: stars were not seen as dense collections of fissioning gas in ever-expanding space. Stars were associated with beings, deities, angels. This retinue of learned individuals from far beyond Judea were following this messenger in the sky, excited to wish the King, Herod, joy on the birth of the new king that this sign was heralding.
• Herod: This is a Roman Jewish client king of Judea who has spent much of his rule trying to maintain his power and keep his Roman overseers happy. His family is Idumaean, not Judean. His ancestors converted to Judaism, Herod is raised Jewish, and yet, to please the Romans, he places a golden eagle, a symbol of Roman rule, over the entrance to the temple in Jerusalem. He has members of the elder council of Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin, murdered and replaced with supporters of his own. His constant concern for his reputation led him to make frequent, expensive gifts, increasingly emptying the kingdom's coffers. This is a man always worrying about what everyone else thinks of him, but also terrified to lose his position of power.
• The Chief Priests and Scribes: These are those very members of the Sanhedrin that Herod had already pruned and replenished with people (men) loyal to him. They know the scriptures of their faith. They join the magi in recognizing the star’s importance. They see it connecting to the birth of a new shepherd of the people of Israel. They know this is a big deal, but they also know Herod. They also know they have been given positions of power by this man. And power is comfortable.
• And finally, the holy family. The couple without a house of their own where they can welcome their newborn child. The young mother confused and afraid and yet trusting in God’s goodness and power to, as Mary says in her Magnificat, exalt the humble and meek. The new father, confused and afraid, but knowing it is now his job to protect his family and keep them safe. And their tiny child, utterly human is his vulnerability and defenselessness, relying on his parents in every way.

I challenge you now to pick one of these roles. Maybe one you’ve never thought about before in relation to this story. Maybe a member of the magi who joined the caravan, discussing the astrological phenomenon you were all witnessing as you trek to Jerusalem from Persia. Maybe Herod, the Idumaean king ruling Judea at the pleasure of the Roman Empire. Perhaps a chief priest understanding the signs, but afraid of the wrath of Herod. Or the Holy Family, unsure what the future holds for your small, vulnerable, blessed family unit.
Re-read the scripture now, holding on to your chosen role, trying to put yourself in their place.
Read it again.
Read it one more time.
What was the experience like? Have you ever thought about the story from that point of view? What new insights have you gained? Do you have conflicting feelings about how you would react in those situations? What stories might have happened in between the portions committed to scripture?
Maybe there were hushed discussions in dark hallways of Herod’s palace.  Secret conversations in native tongues as you walked the six miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. Shocked reactions and hurried attempts to clean up when you hear foreign dignitaries have arrived to pay homage to your newborn son.
For me, this is what brings familiar scriptures to life. This scripture that we have heard so many times before can have new life, excitement, and relevance breathed into it. Suddenly, we are given new perspectives to consider, new moral questions to ponder, new reasons to tell the stories again. I encourage you to try this practice with any biblical text you’ve examined before. Or maybe try this combination of lectio divina and individual identification with your favorite story from the Bible. Lay your preconceptions to one side and commit entirely. Enter with context and background information, ready to dive into the story anew. Perhaps you will find yourself surrounded by outsiders, following a star to a great promised king and being met instead by a teenage mother, a worried, watchful father, and a defenseless, tiny baby. Scripture can still surprise us with these epiphanies of imagination, just as God surprises the world by joining creation as the most vulnerable thing imaginable, a wriggling, crying, cooing newborn. May we never take these surprises for granted, seeking them out with open hearts, ready to be moved by the guiding light of God’s love.
Amen.
Sources consulted:
Haworth-Maden, C. (Ed.). (2004). The Glory of the Nativity. In The Life and Teachings of Christ. Saraband.
Muddiman, J. (2014). The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford University Press.
Newsom, C. A., & Ringe, S. H. (1998). Women's Bible Commentary. Westminster/John Knox Press.
Walton, J. H., & Keener, C. S. (2019). NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. Zondervan.