Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church
Epiphany Sunday
4/1/15
Isaiah 60.1-6 Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the
glory of the LORD has risen upon you. 2
For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the
LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. 3 Nations shall come to your
light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 Lift up your eyes and look
around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from
far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms. 5 Then you shall see and be
radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea
shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. 6 A multitude of camels shall cover
you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the
LORD.
Matthew
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; 4 and calling together all the
chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah
was to be born. 5 They 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.'" 7 Then Herod
secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the
star had appeared. 8 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." 9 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. 10 When they saw that
the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 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. 12 And having been
warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by
another road.
Today
we stand facing the golden dawn of the new year.
‘Arise,
shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen
upon you.’
A
new year…
A new hope…
A new dawn…
A
new government?
Maybe.
But
who will lead us,
who and what forces will shape our
national life together?
The
European attraction to far right politics is not a new thing.
The desire to define oneself by a
fusion of national and ethnic identity
is not a recent trend.
Neither is it merely a twentieth
century phenomenon.
In
part, it is an outworking of the innate, and readily understandable,
human tendency to feel comfortable
with those
who look and sound like
those with whom we grew up,
coupled with a fear of those who
look and sound different
to that which we are
used to.
But
in addition to this, the way in which the European mind-set
has been shaped over the centuries
lends
itself to a particular kind of nationalist politics
which recurs in various forms
throughout European history.
The
flip-side to all this, of course,
is the attempted enlightenment of
the European project;
the
desire to find some expression of unity
which transcends national boundaries
and finds common ground, and unity,
and stability
between nations and
peoples who have a history of conflict.
The
first European ‘project’, as such, was that enacted by the Romans,
who by virtue of their imperial
strength
imposed a political, and
to some extent cultural, unity
on the nations of
Europe.
However,
the decline of the Roman empire
led to the fragmentation of its
constituent parts,
and the rise of the nation-state as
we have come to know it.
Many
centuries later, the treaty of Westphalia
marked the end of a series of wars
that
had swept the Holy Roman Empire
during
the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,
and
whilst it failed to abolish inter-European warfare,
it succeeded in laying the basis for
the system
of national
self-determinism
that we still live with in our own
time.
The
notion of co-existing sovereign states,
held in check by a balance of power,
laid the foundations for the Europe
we recognise today.
The
three key tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were;
firstly, the right of the ruler of
each state
to determine their own
religion;
secondly, the freedom of religion
for those who wanted to
worship
in ways other than that
determined by the state;
and thirdly, the recognition of the
exclusive sovereignty
of each state over their
own lands.
All
the inter-European wars fought since the treaty of Westphalia
have been enacted on the basis of
these key tenets,
and
it was in this context that the far right politics of fascism and neo-fascism
emerged as an ideology
committed to the maintenance of
ethnic and cultural purity
within the confines and borders of
the nation state.
Whilst
the more moderate end of far-right politics
focusses on opposing policies of
immigration and integration,
the
more extreme end is amenable to methods
designed cleanse and purify the
population
of those who challenge the
homogeneity of the nation;
and
so groups deemed inferior, undesirable, or traitorous in some way,
find themselves ostracised or
removed from mainstream society.
Many
of these far right groups,
from the National Socialists of
Germany
to the National Fascists
of Italy,
have sought to equate their stance
with some notion of a
dawning golden age,
and
it is here that we start to encounter the forces of religious belief,
and it’s here that we start to hear
the impact
of
passages from the scriptures
including our readings from this
morning
So,
for example, the Nazi party
defined themselves as the ‘Third
Reich’,
or ‘third rule’ to put
it in English.
They believed the First Reich to be
the thousand year rule over Europe
of the Holy Roman Emperors
(800-1806),
with the second Reich equating to
the German Empire (1871-1918).
The
third Reich, by this understanding, was the golden age,
a dawning new period in European
history,
beginning
in Germany,
but destined to spread its good news
across all the states of Europe
This
identification of a coming, dawning, new age, was nothing new.
In many ways it finds its origins in
the writings
of the twelfth century monk
Joachim of Fiore,
who understood the history of the
world from beginning to end
as being divided into
three stages
modelled after the three
persons of the Trinity.
Each of Joachim’s three stages
represented an age,
ruled over by the
relevant person of the Trinity.
So the first age was the age of the
Father,
and ran from the time of
Adam to the birth of Jesus.
The second age was the age of the
Son,
and ran from the birth
of Jesus to Joachim’s own time.
And the third age, the age of the
Spirit,
was the dawning new age
of enlightenment
that he believed was
coming into being in his own time.
In this way, Joachim located himself
on the cusp of a transition,
with the world moving
from the age of the Son
to the age of the Spirit.
This
idea of dividing history into ages, or dispensations,
entered deep into European
psychology,
and comes out again and
again, in both politics and theology,
as people continually believe
themselves
to be living on the cusp
of the dawning new age
that is coming into
being in their midst.
So
whether it is the Third Reich of the German Nazis,
or the Age of Aquarius of the New
Age Movement
and the Rosicrucian
mystery sect,
or the imminent millennium
of Christian
fundamentalist interpretations
of the book of
Revelation;
people continually convince
themselves
that the new age is
dawning,
and that it
is dawning in their time,
and,
specifically, amongst their people.
Interestingly,
the Rosicrucian movement
gave birth to an occult organisation
known as The Hermetic
Order of the Golden Dawn,
co-founded by my
namesake William Woodman
along with
two others,
and it attracted many celebrity
members
including, allegedly,
Arthur Conan Doyle,
Aleister Crowley, and E.
Nesbit.
The
name they chose, with its language of ‘Golden Dawn’,
picks up on the hope of a dawning
new age,
and
it is a phrase which echoes down to the present day,
as does the association of far-right
politics
with the idea of a golden dawning new
age.
The
Golden Dawn political party in Greece
is simply its latest expression,
combining
extreme nationalistic ideology
with a commitment to establishing a
new world
through violence and exclusivism.
This
is the same language that we find in the book of Isaiah,
who prophesied to the people of
Israel,
to offer them a vision
of a future
where their nation was
purified, remade, and reborn.
Isaiah
says to Israel that,
‘Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your
dawn.’ (Isa 60.3).
The
hope that Isaiah holds before the broken and dispirited people of Israel,
languishing in exile in Babylon,
is
that a new age is coming,
with the golden dawn of a nation
reborn rising ahead of them.
It
is easy for us to be blind to it,
because we hear this passage through
the lens of Handel’s Messiah,
but
in its original context this is as revolutionary a piece
of nationalistic propaganda
as any contemporary political tract
or rallying speech.
The
nation that has been overrun by the foreign power of Babylon,
the nation that has been compromised
by the experience of exile,
is
called by Isaiah… no, is called by God,
no less…
to set its eyes on a hope that ahead
of them
because
there lies a future
where they rise above those who have
trampled them.
Arise,
shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD has risen
upon you.
2 For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but
the LORD will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over
you.
3 Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your
dawn.
It
is often said that the nationalistic theological perspective,
that was dominant in the nation of
Israel at the time of Jesus,
was
forged in the crucible of exile,
some six hundred years earlier.
And,
if Isaiah 60 is anything to go by,
it is a theology of nationalism,
it is a theology focussed around the
rise of a so-called people of God;
a chosen nation, called
to be a blessing to the world.
And
this theology of patriotism,
this fusion of religion with the
politics of nationalism,
is
alive and well in our world today.
From
Blake’s Jerusalem,
stirringly and radically reinterpreting
the chosen-nation ideology
for a world dominated by the British
empire;
to
the American Dream of a new world born in our midst,
welcoming the tired, the poor, and
the huddled masses of the world
into the arms of America, one nation
under God;
the
use of religion to justify nationalism
is as vibrant today
as it was in the sixth century
before Christ.
And
it is to a world where nationalism and religion are synonymous
that the Christ-child comes.
It
is to a world where monarchy is hereditary,
that the Christ-child comes;
it
is to a world where the most important thing about a person
is who their father and mother are,
that the Christ-child
comes;
it
is to a world where privilege is entrenched,
and rights are national not
universal,
that the Christ-child
comes.
And
so the Messiah comes,
not to the blue-blooded family of
the Herodians,
but
to a penniless, homeless family,
soon to be refugees on the run from
a reign of terror…
As
the Canadian singer Bruce Cockburn puts it
in his wonderful Christmas song,
‘Cry of a tiny babe’
The child is
born in the fullness of time
Three wise
astrologers take note of the signs
Come to pay
their respects to the fragile little king
Get pretty
close to wrecking everything
Cause the
governing body of the Holy land,
Is that of
Herod a paranoid man
Who when he
hears there's a baby born, King of the Jews
Sends death
squads to kill all male children under two
But that same
bright angel warns the parents in a dream
And they head
out for the border and getaway clean
And there are
others who know about this miracle birth
The humblest
of people catch a glimpse of their worth
For it isn't
to the palace that the Christ child comes
But to
shepherds and street people, hookers and bums.
Like a stone
on the surface of a still river
Driving the
ripples on forever,
Redemption
rips through the surface of time in the cry of a tiny babe
These
astrologers, the ‘wise men from the east’, as Matthew calls them,
cross the Jordan into the chosen
land,
and come to worship a king.
They,
too, at least at first,
are seduced by the ideology of
nationalistic theology.
They
head straight for the palace of Herod,
because where else would one find a
king?
They,
like the rest of us, find it easy to think
that a powerful ruler must come from
a family of powerful rulers.
From
Kennedy to Bush to Clinton,
from Tudor to Stuart to Windsor,
from Cavendish to Astor to Churchill,
We
like our political leaders to come from political stock,
to be ‘born to the task’.
We
like our leaders to be ‘ours’ and not ‘theirs’,
preferably children born on our soil…
And
this is an ideology that is directly challenged
by the birth of Jesus and the visit
of the Magi.
As
wise men from a far-off country,
wise men who followed another
religion,
came
and worshipped the child of God.
Too
often we domesticate the story of the birth of Jesus;
too often we use it to privatise our
faith…
Too
often the popular nativity scene
of mother, father, baby, and
visitors
creates a Christ for the
nuclear family,
a Christ who comes to us in the
trials and joys of our personal life.
Too
often the baby in the manger remains an infantile Christ,
divorced from the realities of the
public sphere,
an object of private devotion, and
personal comfort.
As
the theologian Stanley Hauerwas puts it:
Too often the political
significance of Jesus’s birth,
a significance that Herod understood all too well,
is lost because the church …
reads the birth
as a confirmation of the assumed position that religion
has
within the larger framework of politics.
That is, the birth of Jesus
is not seen as a threat to thrones and empires
because religion concerns the private.
The gospel of Matthew,
however, knows no distinction
between the public, the political, and the private.
Jesus is born into time,
threatening the time of Herod and Rome. [1]
So
Herod, upon hearing the news that ‘wise men from the East’
have come to Jerusalem asking about
a child
who has been born ‘king
of the Jews,’ was deeply concerned.
His
fear of this baby reveals the depth of his fragility.[2]
A
king born to the wrong family,
a new ruler emerging from the wrong
town,
is
an inherent threat to the ideology that sustained his power.
And
so it is to this day,
despite the attempts of so many down
the centuries
to domesticate or assimilate the
Christ-child.
The
birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph
continues to undermine any attempt
to confine his coming to the realm
of the private and the personal.
The
coming of Christ to the margins
continues to subvert any attempt
to fuse the kingdom of Christ with any
kingdom of this world.
Because
this is not a messiah for the private world of the family,
and this is not a messiah for the
parochial world of nationalist ideology.
This
is a messiah for all people, for all nations.
It was
in the birth of Christ
that Matthew saw Isaiah’s vision fulfilled;
not
through the resurgent nation of Israel,
but through the Messiah of Israel
drawing
kings and rulers and wise men
from nations far beyond the reach of
Israel’s national borders.
Matthew
tells us that the wise men from the east
brought their gifts of gold and
frankincense,
just as Isaiah said they would.
And
they worshipped the new-born babe as a King,
but not as king of Israel alone.
In
the coming of Christ, the borders and identities we construct for ourselves
are consistently challenged.
Those
who are ‘in Christ’ are part of his universal kingdom,
whatever earthly country we may
inhabit.
The
new dawn that comes with Christ,
is a new world where nationalistic
theology is rendered meaningless.
The
star of his coming, seen rising by wise men from the East,
is a new day, a new age, a new
kingdom.
Stanley
Hauerwas again:
The kingdom of Christ is not
some inner sanctuary,
but rather the kingdom is an alternative world,
an alternative people, an alternative politics.
Jesus is, in his person and
in his world, God’s embodied kingdom.
The temptation for
Christians is to equate the kingdom
with ideas that we assume represent the best of human
endeavour:
freedom, equality, justice, respect for the dignity of
each person.
These are all worthy goals
that Christians have every reason to support,
but they are goals that are not, in themselves, the kingdom.[3]
The
wise men from the east
grasp the truth, eventually, that
the kingdom of Christ
is more than one nation, one
ideology, one theology.
And
so they worship the child born in the manger,
bringing the gifts of the world to
the child who challenges all power.
And
what about us?
Where,
in our world, and our lives, will Christ be found?
In
our private devotions?
Yes, I hope so, but not only there.
In
our public life?
Yes, I hope so, or else the world
continues as before.
In
our political life?
Yes, again, I hope so, but never in
a way
that equates any
political ideology
with the in-breaking
kingdom of Christ.
I’ve
said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again,
we need faithful followers of Christ
to be active across the broad spread
of mainstream political life.
The
kingdom may be political,
but it is not party-political,
and
as election year dawns,
we will need to remember that our
allegiance is first and foremost
to
Christ, and to Christ alone.
We
will need the wisdom of the wise men from the east,
to see through the pernicious
propaganda
of thinking that I and mine are in
some way special.
I
am no more, nor less, a citizen of God’s kingdom
than any other human being on the
face of the earth.
It
is to each of us that Christ comes,
and it is in him, and him alone,
that we find our identity.
As
Paul reminded the Christians in the province of Galatia;
for those who are in Christ,
there is no place for
any division based on
ethnicity, culture,
social standing, or gender.
We
must live this in our common life together
as the people of God in this place,
where all are welcome, and none are
excluded.
And
we must work together at how we live this truth
in our public lives as we engage
with the politics of our society.
So,
as we stand at the dawn of a new year,
may the star of Christ rise before
us,
guiding us into all truth.
Amen.
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