Going home by another way (Advent, wk 3)
Vince asks questions about poverty, exploitation, and perceiving God's Spirit as we turn again to Matthew's Christmas story about the confrontation between Herod and the Magi. (Art: "Herod greeting the three magi" by Rolf Nesch, 1922)
SPEAKER NOTES
Going home by another way (Advent, wk 3)
Intro
Some charming background legend on St Nikolaos (aka Saint Klaus or Santa Claus) I learned from the newsletter of a teacher on Contemplative Prayer, Mike Morrell.
Reading from Morrell…
Nikolaos is said to have encouraged a culture of generosity among the people he served as Bishop, saying "The Giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic God's giving, by grace, through faith and not of ourselves."
Many tales surround Nikolaos' own legendary generosity, none more poignant than that of three young sisters and their impoverished father. In the sisters' time and culture, they were likely destined to a life of forced prostitution, with their father unable to pay proper dowries to potential suitors.
When Nikolaos learned of this, he intervened by providing an abundance of gold to each of the girls as they came of age, coming under the cover of night so as not to bring shame upon the family.
Their benefactor was a mystery to them, though the second girl, hoping similar gifts would be coming her way, allegedly set her stockings out the night before her birthday, which were in turn filled with gold.
When the final girl came of age, their father stayed up all night to see who this elusive gift-giver was. Nikolaos, crafty in his generosity, tossed his final bountiful gift through the chimney so as to avoid detection.
To honor him and his legacy, people around Europe in the Middle Ages exchanged gifts on the day of his death, December 6 (The Feast of St Nicholas in Liturgical Church Traditions).
Fun background, right?
- Charming!
- But also inspiring!
- The origins of Santa Claus are someone who worked to abolish poverty.
- Let’s come back to that in a bit.
Context
Today is the third Sunday of Advent -
- The four weeks that lead up to Christmas
- Throughout the year here at BLC, or at any church, we visit many different texts across the Bible
- BUT EVERY YEAR in Advent, we visit a few familiar texts again
- the birth narratives of Jesus in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels,
- and the scriptures from the Hebrew Bible they creatively attached to Jesus
- There is something particularly formative and important about these texts and rhythms
- A time to be more intentional about building rituals and traditions
- If you’ve been following along with our home liturgies,
- Our third Advent Mealtime Prayer (for families, friends, or roommates to share together)
- Will go out later today over Email, Discord, and Instagram
Matthew
The Biblical text that, these last several years, we’ve returned to this third week of Advent is Matthew, chapter 2 --
- That is: the story of the Magi (or Wise Men) and Herod
- Remember that the stories about Jesus’ special, virgin birth with angelic announcements are such ingrained parts of the Modern Western world’s observance of Christmas,
- that it is easy to misunderstand why they are significant in their historical context
- The significance is NOT that no one else had such noble birth stories told of them -- only Jesus -- so he's the winner -- no!
- The significance is that there VERY MUCH WERE others who had noble birth stories told of them --
- the Roman Caesar in particular -- the most powerful person in the known world
- That was a thing in ancient biographies: Here are the miraculous circumstances of this powerful person or hero’s birth to demonstrate that they were destined to be powerful or a hero
- The Christmas stories of Jesus' “noble birth” are subversions of the “noble birth" stories that were told of the Roman Caesar
- The message was:
- Jesus is an alternative King to the Roman Caesar,
- with an alternative Kingdom to the Roman Empire --
- not a power hungry tyrant born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but a humble teacher of love, born in a manger
- not a violent empire that claims peace, but a non-violent commonwealth that practices what it preaches
- As we go a step down the power hierarchy in the 1st century Roman Empire
- Below the Caesar is the Local Governor of 1st Century Palestine who does the Caesar's will (in exchange for getting to be King of his own castle, as it were)
- This Local Governor was called the Herod
- So, as we read Matthew's Christmas story, keep in mind
- Herod and Caesar representing imperial power on one side
- Jesus, the alternative, humble King, on the other side
This year, I want to read the story of the Magi from the First Nations Version -- a translation of the NT of the Bible into English by Native North Americans, following the tradition of Native storyteller’s oral cultures**.**
One of the brilliant contributions of the First Nations Version is the way it handles names. ::scripture::
Mary: “Bitter Tears”
Magi: “Seekers of Wisdom”
Herod: “Chief Looks Brave” (such a clever, subtle dig - my kids love it)
It was during the days of the bad-hearted “Chief Looks Brave” that the Chosen One was born in the Village “House of Bread” in the “Land of Promise.”
After his birth, “Seekers of Wisdom” traveling on a long journey from the East came to the capital city of the Israelites.
They began to ask around, “Where is the one who has been born to be chief of the tribes of Israel? We saw his star where the sun rises and have come to humble ourselves before him and honor him.”
When “Chief Looks Brave” heard this, he and all who lived in the capital city of the Israelites were troubled. He called a council of all the head holy men and scroll keepers and asked them where the Chosen One was to be born…
Then “Chief Looks Brave” called a secret council with the “Seekers of Wisdom” to find out when the star first appeared…
He told them, “Look everywhere for the child. Find him and tell me where he is, so that I may also come honor him.”
::Really?!?!?!?!::
After listening to “Chief Looks Brave”, the “Seekers of Wisdom” went their way. When they say the star rising in the East, they jumped with joy, and with glad hearts they followed until the star stopped and rested over the place where the child was. They went into the house and saw the child and his mother, “Bitter Tears” (Mary). As soon as they saw the child, they bowed down to honor him. They opened their bundles and gifted him with gold, sweet-smelling incense, and bitter ointment of myrrh.
The “Seekers of Wisdom” were warned in a dream NOT to go back to “Chief Looks Brave”, so they returned to their homeland by a different road.
As the story famously continues, Herod, in his fury that his flattery of the magi didn’t work, orders the murder of every child under two in and around Bethlehem.
Truly a presentation of two very different kingdoms to begin Matthew’s Gospel.
The Herods & Caesars of today
Last year during Advent, we asked the question: what are the Herod and Caesar-like powers of today?
- That sit on top, and look brave, and claim peace,
- but really are dishonest and looking to profit by any means necessary, including resorting to violence.
And we worked the idea that many progressive Biblical Scholars and Theologians suggest: that it is those protecting the freedom of the unchecked, global market that exploits people and the planet
- those protecting the global religion of economism, as I’ve heard it called.
- If religion is about what you put your trust in, is there a more broadly and deeply adhered-to religion in the world than economism?
- It’s not belief in God, but it is very much religious belief — in “the invisible hand of the market” that will save us all, as riches trickle down from those on top.
But those riches never do trickle down, do they?
- How much conflict this stokes or exacerbates down stream among smaller powers vying for the limited leftovers, while those at the top stay well fed
- That is one piece of the story of the atrocities in Gaza right now that particularly grieves me.
Since the 1980s,
- when, particularly in America but also elsewhere in the West, a renewed commitment was made to extreme freedom for the Market, removing regulations meant to protect workers, so the market can grow without restriction
- The ratio between the salary of the average CEO and the salary of the average employee of a company has gotten completely out of hand
- 398:1 in 2020, according to Statista Research.
- The growth is not trickling down.
- That’s NOT a social contract between employers and employees, for mutual benefit. That’s exploitation.
In the recent book Poverty by America
- Sociologist Matthew Desmond points out that 38 million ppl live below poverty line,
- But, also, the poverty line is way too low! — For a family of four the poverty line is drawn at $28,000/yr (!)
- If you ask people what will it take to get by (especially in a place like Chicago) are they going to say 28,000?! No! They’re going to say 40 or 50 thousand, of course.
- 1 in 3 Americans live in homes making 50,000/yr or less, so there are millions more people who are not "officially poor" but who live in poverty.
- Desmond talks about how there are good experiments out there trying to identify better ways to calculate poverty so we can address it more systemically, BUT there is push back
- Why? What on earth could justify pushing back on changing something that so obviously needs to be changed?
- Because more accurate re-calculations of “who is officially poor?” would mean rises in poverty numbers by the millions
- And politicians don’t want that to happen on their watches for PR reasons —
- because they fear they won’t get re-elected if they have such stains on their record —
- as the argument goes that: common, busy people won’t be able to discern the nuance of a change in the way poverty was calculated when their opponents say “look at how much poverty grew under this person”
- That’s either
- willfully deceptive of us,
- or at the very least condescending to us with that assumption that we can’t see the nuance
- In my opinion that’s not “being realistic”; that’s a cynical lack of imagination
- This sort of behavior to me is the Herod and Caesar like behavior of our day.
The choice of the Magi today
So, in the Christmas story, the Magi refuse to cooperate with Herod and Caesar.
- They sense the dishonesty
- They heed the call that comes to them in their spirits, in a dream, in nature around them as they follow the star,
- And so they choose go home by another way,
- Despite the alternative, flattering, no-doubt tempting call to them from the powerful Herod to be in his counsel.
If, today, those protecting the unchecked, exploitative Market are the Herods and Caesars of our world, where can we find those who are the Magi of our world? Those responding to a deeper call and making courageous choices to refuse cooperation with such exploitation?
In answering that, I want to refer back to our series this fall on societal burnout —
There is an oppression in our current economic context that ALL of the 99% of people who have to work for a living experience (including even a middle class white person with privilege, like me).
ALL of us are dehumanized by the endless acceleration Late Modern Capitalism demands, when it tells us that a full life is about staying busy, or else you’ll fall behind!
It is different for the middle class than for the working class, and that’s important to note, because we don’t want to equate those experiences and minimize the acute plight of the poor.
- For the working class and poor, this dehumanization is imposed on them externally by time clocks and cruel bosses and systemic injustice.
- For the middle class, the dehumanization is internalized as guilt for not keeping up, not performing our selves as authentically as the next person.
Those are not the same, but the commonality is a threat of dehumanization — to be alive, but not human.
The middle class, like me, must see, in light of this commonality, that we have more in common with the rest of the 99% of people who have to work for a living (the poor and the working class) than we do with the rich, who so have our attention because it’s so easy to be drawn into the orbit of wanting the status and stuff they have!
Choosing solidarity with the rest of the 99% rather than the rich is what it means today for people to, like the magi, refuse to cooperate with Herod and Caesar, and respond to the call to go home by another road.
James Taylor’s “Home by another way” (1988) ::James Taylor::
Steer clear of royal welcomes
Avoid a big to-do
A king who would slaughter the innocents
Will not cut a deal for you…
Time to go home by another way…
But Herod's always out there
He's got our cards on file
It's a lead pipe cinch, if we give an inch
Old Herod likes to take a mile
We got this far to a lucky star
But tomorrow is another day
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way
Coleman: Making a way out of no way
This line “go home by another way” bears a resemblance to the phrase we’ve leaned into this Advent from womanist theologian Monica Coleman: “Making a way out of no way”
Coleman unpacks the social and religious experience of black women to develop a picture of God
- Who is God? Where in life might we recognize God? If we start with the experience of black women (rather than the usual: European or American white men)
- God is the call and the force of love that makes ways out of no way.
- Making a way out of no way is a pillar phrase in Black American history.
Anytime you feel trapped or stuck or beyond hope
- or also tempted, which is I think part of the story of the Magi -- the temptation to cooperate with Herod and Caesar
- but then, in spite of the temptation or feeling stuck, you carry on —
- THAT is God
- The pull lovingly calling you forward is God
- The push giving you the courage to resist the temptation and listen to the loving call instead is God
Coleman’s view of God captures what the Advent season is all about
- Not just a remembrance of the way Jesus came 2000 years ago to show us God’s call
- But the way the Spirit of God (or the Holy Spirit) continues to come to us, in every moment, showing us God’s call
Coleman describes the spiritual life so captivatingly… Forgive me for the long quotation, but I hope you’ll find it worth it for me to read this whole selection from her: ::Coleman quote::
The possibilities we consider when we make decisions come from God. God orders these possibilities, urging us, luring or persuading us, to choose those options that lead to a vision of the common good. Some theologians have called this urging the voice of God, the whisper of God, intuition, God’s love for the world, or “that voice inside.” God calls us—indeed, the entire world—toward God’s vision for the common good. In this calling, God begs to be recognized, and yet God can also be ignored.
I intentionally use the language of “God’s calling” to describe God’s activity in the world. The language of “call” resonates with the language of religious communities that understand the ideal spiritual life as one lived in response to a “call” from God. The word calling goes beyond the singularity implied in the word call. The “call” may not be experienced as a clear sentence or directional order.
[As Marjorie Suchocki puts it,] “God will indeed offer guidance, but the guidance will not be in the form of a clear voice in the night, but in the form of options to weigh, factors to consider, friends to consult.”
In addition, God may “call” us more than once, and to more than one thing…
God’s calling is individual and general. It comes to us as individuals, but also as communities. Sometimes, as we become, we operate and make decisions and act in ways that conform to God’s calling. Sometimes we do not. We are genuinely free to become in the ways that God is calling us. Or not. This is not a singular or one-time calling. In every moment, in every context, God is calling us. Over and over again, we have the opportunity to align ourselves with God’s calling. Or not. The world is harmonious when it responds affirmatively or conforms to God’s calling.
This, to me, describes life so well. Just as we see in the story of the Magi, God is calling to the world, in every moment, in many different ways, individually and communally, to align ourselves with God’s vision for the common good. Sometimes we respond with courage and alignment, and sometimes we don’t. And, thus, the struggle against exploitation and violence and vengeance and poverty continues.
But God is faithful, and continues to call.
Often in the form of “options to weigh, factors to consider, friends to consult” — I love that. That is absolutely how I hear God’s call.
When you experience the same, do you name that as God’s call?
If not, what could happen if you did?
The feeling of relationship, of close companionship and intimacy I experience because I’ve learned to name these perceptions in me as “God’s call” is such a source of fuel and love in my life!
I feel comfortable in my shoes, settled in spite of the overwhelm of it all, courageous to accept that I’m accepted even when I have regrets and mistakes and imperfections.
So I encourage you: name that “weighing of options” in your mind, that “consideration of factors or friends to consult” going on inside you as the Spirit of God coming to you. Address God within you. Find God calling back to you; it is a wonderful feeling!
Prayer
I want to pray for us now, to get us in a space to hear God’s calls to us in this moment…
Action
If you are compelled by this suggestion we’ve been working that what it means to refuse to cooperate with Herod and Caesar today and go home by another way is to work toward an economy based in solidarity, and not in unchecked free markets that trample and exploit people…
Here is one action item I want to give you: educate yourself on the “Bring Chicago Home” referendum that will be on Chicago’s March 2024 ballot
- We’ll talk about this again as that date gets closer
- But, basically this will increase the one-time tax leveled on real estate transfers for property sales over $1 million, to generate over $100 million for addressing homelessness (for property sales under $1 million, the transfer tax will actually go down, so it’s good for the middle class too)
- It will be up to Chicago voters in March 2024 to decide whether or not this goes through.
- I believe this referendum is very much in line with a solidarity economy, and the application of Biblical wisdom we’ve talked about today.