Exile and Return

Matthew 2:13-23

This Christmas I have been contemplating the world in which we live, a world in which most of us live somewhere other than where we were born. It is a world my parents found hard to understand. They never lived more than 50 miles from where they were born. With few exceptions, neither had any of their family. When their youngest son moved to England and then their granddaughter moved to Japan, they were at a loss to make sense of it. Bravely they visited both places, England several times, but only as visitors and always returning to familiar surroundings.

  

How different it is today. We live in a world of constant movement. Not only is the world around us changing at an incredible pace, people we know and love are on the move. Some move permanently and make a home in another land far, far away. Others seem to be always on the move, never putting their roots down and always in search of a new adventure and experience.

 

We are surrounded by people who have fled wars, violence and persecutions, some at the end of the Second World War, others after the Vietnam War and still others after conflicts in the Middle East going back to the end of the Second World War. Today we have people taking great risks to save their families, getting on unsafe boats at great cost and travelling in search of a welcoming land, often in vain.

 

Yet this movement of people is not new. The Bible tells the myths of the Patriarchs who were called out of their land in search of a promised place, of people being forcibly moved into exile and then finding their way out to continue the journey of hope and freedom. For the people of Israel sitting between great powers it was something most generations had, at some time, experienced; people coming and going in search of a better life.

 

It is no surprise that Jesus’ family also became refugees. Matthew tells this story to connect the coming of Jesus to the exile and exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. In the type of Moses Jesus comes both as the prophet and Saviour of the people to bring them out of the exile they find themselves in at the hand of Herod and those who supported his regime. It is of importance in his story that the one who comes as the Messiah, the Anointed, is recognised as such through the familiar motif of exile and return.

 

Once again we have discernment coming in the moment of deep stillness via a dream. Joseph, not Mary, takes responsibility and recognises in his dreams the warnings and escapes to Egypt, a journey full of danger and threat. He discerns when it is time to return but also recognises it is not safe in his hometown and goes to Galilee. Joseph, the man on the move, saves and protects his family, and for Matthew, fulfils the prophecies about the Anointed One.

 

Once upon a time, it seemed we lived in a static world. We understood that the world and all in it had been created once and that was the way it would be. We understood we grew up in a particular place and would settle down and raise our family very near that place. We understood we would die and be buried in the same graveyard as our parents and siblings. We understood that creation as an event was finished and this world was  a finite entity with an end somewhere in the future. We understood we were Australians because that is where we lived and died, along with everyone else who looked like us.

 

Thanks to science and the theory of evolution, how this has changed. We now know we live in an ever expanding universe where creatures are becoming extinct and new ones being discovered; where our universe is just one among many and our planet, earth is no longer the centre of all that is. Change is not something we fear, but something organically central to our very existence. Most people here have a smart phone, an i-pad, a smart tv, a smart car, swipe on and off a smart transport system and talk to the families on the other side of the world for free using Skype. I can use my watch just the way Dick Tracy used to in the  ‘60’s comic strip. None of this existed 12 years ago.

 

In such a world we are being asked to make the journey with Jesus into exile and to discover the power it and the subsequent return brings to us. Instead of seeing those fleeing unsafe homelands as intruders into our world, we are being challenged to see them as the beacons of hope and freedom. Instead of seeing those who are living in exile in our countries as foreigners to be feared, we are being asked to welcome them, their faiths and cultures as they bring about renewal, diversity and vitality to our country and our religion. Instead of labelling others and consigning them to the margins we are being asked to open our heats and homes so that we all may continue to expand our vision of the world.

 

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released a study in 2015 showing that, far from being a burden on the country, humanitarian migrants (refugees) are amongst our most successful:

 

...While almost two-thirds of migrant taxpayers were migrants with a Skilled visa - reporting $26 billion in Employee income - Humanitarian migrants displayed greater entrepreneurial qualities and reported a higher proportion of income from their own unincorporated businesses and this income increased sharply after five years of residency. (Emphasis added.)

 

This is not what we hear and see and it is not what we want to hear and see. Yet those who come into our country as refugees bring great benefits to those of us already here. In a world of movement of people seeking safety and hope we all benefit.

 

Joseph takes is family into exile to wait out the despotic regime of Herod. While there he cared for his family and undoubtedly provided value to the community in which he lived. On return to his home country he goes to another region and sets up home and business and becomes involved in the community life of that place. He raises a family, all of whom we can assume played a role similar to his.

 

Jesus is the exception. He becomes both spiritual and political, something I suspect he modelled on his father too. Dreams and deep prayer became significant to his self-development and discernment of the will of God in his life. He lived out his life in a world he made his own while maintaining his deep connection with the world he left behind as God’s self expression.  Many failed to see him in such a way and ultimately he was killed for being the outsider they perceived him to be.

 

Yet his exile is the means of our exodus, our return to the home, the heart of God, we have never left. In this time of great movement, this is the challenge for us, to open our hearts to all in exile so they can find their return in our heart. As William Ricketts, the sculptor wrote, “All of life is one”, even those we fear. 

Epiphany

Matthew 2:1-12

 

Over Christmas we have been reading Luke’s gentle rendition of the Jesus story. Today we step into the adult’s only version of the story as told by Matthew. We leave behind the all-inclusive family photograph of Luke and find ourselves immersed in the violence and noise of the real world.

 

David Lose, writes: "And that is what is at the heart of Matthew’s darker, more adult-oriented story of Jesus’ birth: the promise that it is precisely this world that God came to, this people so mastered by fear that we often do the unthinkable to each other and ourselves that God loves, this gaping need that we have and bear that God remedies."

 

Fear sits at the centre of this story. Herod rules and acts out of fear, the fear that someone somewhere is plotting to take away what he believes is his – the kingdom over which he ruled with fear. He had many good reasons to fear others, everybody from the Romans, his brothers and his political enemies. There were plots and subplots on the go all around him all the time. He was aware of the chatter about the Messiah, the long expected king of the Jews who would regain the autonomy of the Jews at his expense.

 

Herod was no dummy. He had done his homework. He knew the details about this King. In his discussion with the visiting dignitaries from the east, Davis notes, "Hearing that a 'child king of the Jews' is being born, Herod inquires among the religious scholars where 'the Christ' is being born. It is Herod, in this story, who makes the connection between a child king and the Christ." He is fully aware what the story is about and is proactive, wanting to nip it in the bud long before it gets out of hand.

 

It is interesting that Matthew uses the visiting philosophers as the means for Herod to find out about Jesus. It is always interesting how much tyrants, despots and governments do not know about what is going on under their watch despite the intricate intelligent networks they may put in place. Jesus had been born some months before the eastern travellers arrive. If the Gospel writers are to be believed there had been some out of the ordinary activity on or about the day of his birth which, one would have thought, would not have gone unnoticed by Herod’s underlings or Roman informants. The census was a major political undertaking. All security precautions would have been in place. People would have been watching for the unusual. Yet they missed the birth of the Christ child, the single greatest threat to Herod’s reign.

 

It reminds me of the stunt pulled by ‘The Chasers’ tv team in 2007 at APEC in Sydney. ‘The Chasers gang made a mockery of security at the APEC conference held in September in Sydney Australia, and left Aussie police red faced. One hundred and sixty million dollars was spent on security for the conference attended by many world leaders, including the US President, but the Chasers gang in a fake motorcade with joke 'insecurity' badges and a Bin Laden look alike drove to within metres of George W Bush's hotel, but could have driven right to the hotel, as they were not stopped at any security checkpoints.’

We live in a world ruled by fear and the desire for safety and security. We allow governments to plunder our privacy and our rights with draconian laws and security measures out of fear. Fear is not life giving. It simply takes away the possibility of life for all. The measures we give away our freedom to do not ensure safety or security. They simply short circuit life.

 

The three wise men follow a star, across many borders into a foreign land. Theirs is a journey of hope and possibility tinged by some anxious moments at border crossings, on the road and more. They had divined, imagined, the future in the star or the comet and set out to find the child born to be king. They had studied the meaning of the star and the hope of Israel and were able to join the dots as to the coinciding importance of the event. They stepped out in faith and took the risks necessary to know for themselves the truth of the story.

 

When they arrived at the home where Mary, Joseph and Jesus were, they were filled with joy. What they had imagined as possible was indeed true. What they had studied as the hope of Israel was present in the world and the world would not be the same again. Joy, not happiness was theirs, that quiet, deep sense of all is right with the world overcame them and left them assured, not only in terms of their foreseen truth but of the truth of prophecy and hope. At that moment they saw the future more clearly than everbefore and went home, like the shepherds on Christmas day, rejoicing at what they had experienced.

 

On this Epiphany Sunday may we see through the fear drummed up for us by governments and the media,the ‘awful-isers’ as Michael Leunig calls them. May we begin to see as the foreigners were able to see, God shining above the world and the child king, the Anointed, loose in our world in the lives of the innocent, those who do not look like us, those from foreign lands, those who are immigrants and refugees, those without homes or jobs and those who simply are amongst us as neighbours and fellow travellers.

 

May we see God shining out through the world in every creature abounding in nature, the resources we have to care for and share.

 

May we overcome our fear of losing what we have, and unlike Herod, take steps to share what we have with others in the innocence of childlikeness. May we walk in the footsteps of a God who gave up all to become a small vulnerable child in a violent world, without fear of losing the divine identity, full of the joy of being human. Amen

 

Avoiding Rhinoceritis

Mark 6:14-29

 

 

In the play Rhinoceros, Eugene Ionesco, reflects a view that holds the universe to be meaningless, irrational, and absurd. The play has a series of interesting events. A rhinoceros suddenly appears in a small French town, trampling through the peaceful streets. Soon a giant wave of rhinoceroses suddenly appear; a transformation of human beings into animals. The play centers on one person who at first refuses to succumb to the crowd, but then begins to reason his way to falling into line. Berenger, the last man, remains. Ionesco leaves Berenger untransformed at the end of the play. This play is about the human condition of self delusion and absorption into the dominant culture.

 

The hero survives the capitulation of all to what Merton called 'rhinoceritis' – the tendency to run with the mob. He retained his humanity, a very flawed and less than perfect condition while the thinkers, the trendsetters and the unthinking all became rhinoceroses.

 

The point of the play is what makes a person a person, is it fitting in our standing out, being relevant or irrelevant, being perfect or imperfect or simply being yourself at the edges of society?

 

In the Gospel today we have three men who are known by the choices they made:

 

1 despot, 2 prophets and 2 deaths, one completed on which Mark reflects, one not yet but imminent, to which Mark points to, one that is always just off stage waiting to make it’s entrance.

 

Here Mark points to the fate of those who wish to live an authentic Christ life in the midst of the prevailing culture. And it’s not one of success and fulfilment, of living at the high end of town. It is one of rejection, persecution and abandonment. It is no wonder very few people are willing to embrace the life of the complete human as exemplified by Christ.

 

In a conversation over an end of year celebration, the government minister present why he became a politician. He answered that he did so because of the good he could do for the local community. He stopped, looked up and asked, “Do you want to know the real reason?’ We all said yes. He answered, “For the power, it’s why all politicians are in this game. Any one who say otherwise are lying.” Now, I am sure there will be someone who will argue with this, but it does pose some interesting questions for those of us who have to vote for them!

 

The three men in our reading are a comment on this observation. Herod lives by the art of expediency and power. Both are intertwined and interconnected. His grip on power is served by his ability to read the lie of the land and to make decisions that will reinforce his position. His first marriage, his second marriage, his feasts and pronouncements are built on expediency and power. He is a political animal and is pragmatic about having to chop off John’s head. To do otherwise would have meant he lost the respect of those who were at his table, other men driven by power and expediency. He has become a rhinoceros.

 

Unlike Herod, John is prophetic –he tells it as it is. Even when he is standing in the most confrontational space – in front of Herod – he tells it as God sees it. Why could he have not been so direct, perhaps being more tactful and less inflammatory with his criticism of Herod? Couldn’t he have made the same point and kept his head? It never entered his head. It is what is and John was not going to sidestep the truth just to win favour with the despot.

 

Jesus sides with John, and becomes a prophetic spiritual leader who avoids the expedient, despite seeing what happened to John. John was Jesus’ mentor and he set the pattern for prophetic living for the younger man to follow. Jesus would have also been aware of Elijah, Elias and others who suffered for speaking the truth into a society at odds with God. Yet there is no softening of the message, no avoiding the conflict, no attempt to barter and negotiate a win-win for all. His mission was God’s mission and God’s mission was the truth. It is what it is, and Jesus was not going to deviate to negotiate with a culture that had abandoned God.

 

We have in this story the juxtaposition of the prophet and the person who has succumbed to rhinoceritis.

A prophet, according to Dan Horan, is ‘someone whose life is so open to God’s Spirit that she or he cannot help but begin to see the world in a new way’…’to see the world as God sees it, prophets sees the world as it really is.’

 

Prophets are not about telling the future seeing reality as it truly is. The Greek word propheteia connotes the idea to speak forth, to speak into, and it happens when we are one with God, when word and sacrament imbue our lives. Here we contemplate what we read and hear in the scriptures and what we experience in the sacraments. When we so inwardly digest and align ourselves with the way, the truth, the life, we are in a position to be a prophet.

 

Prophets are outsiders. They live in that marginal space from which a different perspective is gained because that marginal space does not align with nor is subsumed into the predominant power system or structure of a given society, institution or place. Prophets become a nuisance to those who have vested interest in the maintenance of power or control. (Horan)

 

Prophets are not expedient people. They don’t play politics. They are not interested in policy, quoted positions or white papers. It is not about legislation or a win-win. It is simply about the way it is. Peter Woods suggests that "Prophetic witness and personal or political expediency do not have a good history of co-existence."

 

Prophets are mirror bearers. They hold up a mirror to the world, situation, or person and ensure it is seen for what it is.  The emperor has no clothes. The mirror provides the way into seeing how God sees things, not as we imagine we see them.

 

Prophets pay the price for seeing as God does. Emerson Powery, suggests "However one understands the relationship between John and Jesus, one thing is certain: agents of God who challenge those in power usually suffer significant consequences."

 

Mark’s Story:

Mark suggests, by placing the story here the disciples via their relationship with Jesus:

·      Are prophetic. It is not a choice. That has already been made. It is now a vocation to be lived.

·      Are to avoid the political and the expedient. They are not to get caught up in the culture and to compromise or negotiate.

·      Are to tell it like it is and if people ignore them to simply shake the dust off their shoes and move on.

 

How does that impact upon us:

·      Like the disciples, we are called to be prophets because we are one with Jesus through his death and resurrection. It is an imperative, not an option.

·      To fulfil our calling we are to develop a unity with God through word and sacrament, contemplation and prayer. Here we will let go of ideas, positions, ideologies and begin to become one with God. It happens slowly and will begin to find ourselves stepping further into the margins as we let go of the expectations of our culture and society.

·      To fulfil our calling we are to simply live out of that unity. We are to live our lives and by doing so our lives will speak forth God’s seeing.

 

In conclusion:

This is not a safe and happiness inducing vocation – we will be outsiders, marginalised for our vocation. We will lose our jobs, be bullied and ostracised, be over looked and sidelined. This is not about ideology but about seeing the world as God does. We are to seek to live on the margins for change only ever comes from the edges, rarely from the centre.

 

As an individual and as a congregation we are to live prophetically, avoiding the raging rhinoceritis all around us and speak into the world through our thoughts, words and actions. A tough job, but we have to be it. 

Mary - Refugee & Prophet

My favourite restaurant is a Vietnamese restaurant that does the best rice paper spring rolls in the world; well, maybe just in Australia, but they rock. The restaurant was started in the late '70's by a Vietnamese refugee who came to Australia with his family as boat people after the end of the Vietnam war. In conversations he has related the horror and anguish of that trip as he sought to give his family a new start, something he is forever grateful to Australia for. And so am I. The food is great.

Yet our country remains preoccupied with refugees, especially with those who wish to come to this country for a new start and are brought here by the so called 'people smugglers', 'entrepreneurs' who make their living by exploiting peoples' aspirations and hope for something better, a fairly popular way of making a quick buck in the first world as well.

"Of the 11,491 people seeking asylum in Australia in the period of 2010-11, 6,316 arrived by air. This means less than half arrived by boat. In fact, asylum seekers arriving by boat make up just 2.7% of the total migrant intake into Australia yet their perceived threat to the community is greatly exaggerated, with 72% of Australians concerned about asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat."(2)  This year 220 boats and just over 13,500 people have arrived.(2) If these figures are to be trusted, then the increase in numbers this year still equates to less than 8% of the total migrant intake to our country.

Not only have these people been exploited by the smugglers, they have also been exploited by the political parties, lobbyists and mainstream media for a range of dubious reasons, appealing to the fear, misunderstanding and disinterest of the average Australian. The various programs used to house and process them are less than humane, tent villages on remote islands while waiting a lengthy period to be processed, are to be condemned by fair minded people. 

We may at this time be marvelling at the inability of the American people to deal with the gun crisis in their country, but our phobia towards the ordinary people we call refugees is just as illogical and unnecessary.

Mary knew all about being a refugee.The moment she discovers she is pregnant she seeks refuge outside her village. She left her home and stayed away for 3 months in the home of Elizabeth in a hill town up and away from Nazareth.  It wasn't she was in mortal danger if she stayed in the village, but there would have been gossip, innuendo and a sense of fear if she did.  It was safer to be some where else until the smoke cleared and Joseph had had a chance to smooth things over with the families etc. She did go back, but not straight away.

If Mary knew about being a refugee, then so did Jesus. Even before he was born, Jesus was on the move to avoid controversy and bigotry. His was no romantic conception or birth.  Everything about Jesus conception and birth was clothed in the spectre of violence and rejection. Mary feared rejection and escaped to Elizabeth.  Later Mary and Joseph feared that Jesus would die in Bethlehem, (they hadn't gone home to Nazareth), under Herod's decree which saw a number of children, possibly related to them,die needlessly. Jesus was born with loss and grief, and grew up moving in its' shadow.

Yet when Mary meets with Elizabeth, Elizabeth (v. 41 - 45)  recognises the baby Mary is carrying is the promised Messiah. It can be suggested that Luke reports this meeting so as to connect John with Jesus by suggesting that John, in Elizabeth's womb, recognises the unborn Jesus as the Messiah. Regardless, this is the moment when both become aware of the mystical nature of the situation and develop an unbreakable bond as they give voice to the mystery within Mary.

Mary gives voice to her wonder in the words we call the Magnificat where Mary says,

‘My soul magnifies the Lord, 

   and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, 

for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.

   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

   and holy is his name. 

His mercy is for those who fear him

   from generation to generation. 

He has shown strength with his arm;

   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

   and lifted up the lowly; 

he has filled the hungry with good things,

   and sent the rich away empty. 

He has helped his servant Israel,

   in remembrance of his mercy, 

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

   to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’ 

In response to Elizabeth's acclamation of her faith, Mary announces the New covenant in her song of praise which makes clear the following:

v. 50 - the mercy of God

v.48  -  has become real to

v. 51 - reverse the hierarchy of power

v. 52 -  with a preference for the poor and the oppressed.

These words echo the intent of the Old Covenant found right throughout what we call the Old Testament (the texts which are a testament to the arrangement between God and his people before Jesus' birth).  Mary's song clearly marks the point in which the old has been fulfilled, and the new is here.  When, at the beginning of his ministry Jesus stands in the synagogue in Luke 4, he takes the words of Isaiah and uses words similar to those his mother had used at his conception:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

   because he has anointed me

     to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

   and recovery of sight to the blind,

     to let the oppressed go free, 

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ (Luke 4:18-19)

In the eyes and wisdom of Mary and Elizabeth, the covenant is alive and well!(v. 55)  God has not forgotten them, in fact, he has come to dwell among them in the form of Mary's boy child. It is true to say that the story of Israel owes much to the spirituality and mystical wisdom of women and this is another example. In the vision and subsequent example of Jesus, he lives up to his mother's insight and fulfils the promises made about him.

Mary speaks the truth in an incredibly difficult situation. And she returns to live out of that truth in the circumstances she found her self in. The challenge Mary gives to us is to take the words of her Song to be what they are, the full expression of the unbroken covenant between God and his people which we are to live out every day in memory of Christ, who instituted the new covenant with his body and his blood. Amen

Let us pray:

Lord;

As we come to this Christmas, 

let us celebrate the courage and fortitude,

Mary and women throughout the centuries have displayed.  

Let us not put barriers in their way.  

Let us embrace the mothers 

who today are mourning the loss of their children

in tragedies such as Sandy Hook 

and other forms of meaningless violence  - 

wars, bigotry, fear and misinformation.  

Let us recognise the difficulties of being a mother 

in a world where women are yet to be equal. 

Let us grasp the insight of Mary 

when she recognised the possibilities 

her unborn child brought to the world; 

and let us work to ensure that 

all have the chance to live to their full potential 

in our world, even here in Australia. Amen

1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/08/australia-fear-boat-people-asylum-seekers

2 http://www.safecom.org.au/pdfs/boat-arrivals-stats.pdf