Epiphany 2014 * Matthew 2:1-12
The Reverend Kirk Alan Kubicek, St.
Timothy’s School for Girls
THE MAGI
by:
W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)
NOW as at all times I can see in the mind's eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes,
the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue
depth of the sky
With all their ancient faces like
rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver
hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed,
hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary's
turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the
bestial floor.
-Reprinted
from Responsibilities, W. B. Yeats, NY: Macmillan, 1916
Epiphany – manifestation – suggests, even requires, that we
are looking for something. Like the magi, wise men from afar, we are looking
for something – anything to help us better understand why we are here and where
we are going.
William Butler Yeats helps us to imagine this all too
familiar story in a new light depicting our magi as “unsatisfied ones.” This un-satisfaction
is repeated twice in the space of only eight lines. Recalling their first
seeing the Christ of God in that manger in Bethlehem, then disappearing again
so as not to give Herod the satisfaction of knowing where to find the child.
Those of us who know the rest of the story know what a
fateful decision this was to be – for Herod took it upon himself to have all
male Jewish children two or younger killed in hopes of eliminating any one of
them displacing him as Rome’s King of the Jews. Herod commits that first
holocaust, recalling the ancient Pharaoh’s attempt to eliminate all male Jewish
children with only Moses, Jesus’ distant ancestor, surviving. Moses and Jesus
both know what it means to be a survivor – and how that calls one to lead a
people.
Poor Herod shares the deep misunderstanding of those in
power in any time and any place – a belief that a show of violence and force is
enough to maintain power. And the
misunderstanding that the one who was born on “the bestial floor” would lead
some kind of military or guerilla revolt against the occupational forces of
Rome. Herod’s is a miscalculation that continues to be repeated over and over
again – just read the day’s headlines and it is there – ongoing attempts to use
“helms of silver,” weapons of all descriptions, to bring law and order and
peace to a troubled world.
It is the violence of Calvary
– history’s most distinctly unsatisfying demonstration of the ineffectiveness
of capital punishment – contrasted with the incarnation of God as Jesus in the
most humble of settings, a feeding trough for beasts of the field.
Only certain magi, poets, and visionaries have ever managed
to fully appreciate that singular moment when God came down to be with us as a
naked, vulnerable, newborn child. Ask a Ghandi or a Martin King what they have
seen.
At the heart of this Epiphany tale is the necessary moment
of decision – a choice needed to be made in the face of power, violence and a
show of force: will we give the Herod’s of this world our support, tacit or
otherwise? Or, not?
The Magi, we are told, “departed to their own country by
another way.” We might overlook what might be the two most important words in
this all too familiar story: “another way.”
I believe Matthew in his singular telling of this tale – for
it appears only in Matthew’s gospel and no other – is calling those of us who
like the Magi are searching for a better understanding of why we are here and
where we are meant to be going, that there is the way of the world, and there
is “another way.”
Yeats imagines the Magi as having seen “another way.” They
do not do the King’s bidding. They do not support an administration of power
sustained by fear, violence and killing. They find the “turbulence” of Calvary and its display of capital punishment as
unsatisfying for a world that calls us to respect the dignity of every human
being. As an act of civil disobedience, they return to their country “by
another way.”
There is something about the revealed and “uncontrollable
mystery on the bestial floor” of Bethlehem
that calls, urges, demands we find another way. Is it just a coincidence that
the very first generation of people who followed Jesus became known as “the
people of the Way”? And that the “way” was His way, a new way, “another way” as
the text before us would have it?
I imagine that Matthew’s telling of this tale still calls us
to become a people who are looking for, advocating and bringing into human
consciousness “another way” in a world in which all the old ways continue to be
utterly unsatisfying.
Our satisfaction lies with the Magi – they demonstrate the
importance of making a choice against supporting the old ways and physically
striking out on “another way.”
This is who this Feast of the Epiphany calls us to be –
people of the way, those who choose another way. We have now only a moment for
this – like the Magi our time and our place calls us to such a moment of
decision with no time to ponder, dither or “make up our minds.”
But as the Gospel of Jesus Christ shows us time and time
again, although we have now only a moment to choose to follow Him in another
way, it is enough - even if this moment is seemingly overwhelmed by other
forces of history. For when we join our moments of decision with His and that
of the Magi, new forces are set in motion that cannot be overcome by the
inadequacies of power, violence and death.
I find this to be a very helpful and encouraging perspective Rev. Kubicek. You've have found a creative way to draw all who read and listen into this text in ways that require us to also make a choice. Thank you for helping to gently shake us out of our complacency. Peace be unto you now and always.
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