Dear Friends,
The season of Epiphany is celebrated, marked and engaged with in a multitude of ways. Much of the scripture attached to the event surrounds Matthew chapter 2, and particularly in the popular Christian imagination, with the wise men. It’s easy to recall, imagine, reconstruct and frankly, make up, the Magi. They are a delight and the constant theme in every church nativity play – the three bit parts that go to quieter folk who have been compensated for their ability to look dignified. I digress but you know the drift. We often remember the discussion and encounter between Herod and the Magi, but quite often forget verse 13 of the chapter, when after the grand presents are opened, terror falls on the family of Jesus through a dream that Joseph experiences.
13 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” Matthew 2:13-15
The story does not end there. Chapter 2 of Matthew can be about the wise men or what we give Jesus or what each of those gifts that the Magi gave mean or even what it was like for Joseph to be warned in a dream. It can be about refugees, which is immensely appropriate and pertinent in our time. But chapter 2 is about something else as well. Verses 16-18 speak of the slaughter of the innocent. It is a truly horrendous three verses. After the murder of male children in the time of the Egyptian exile, this is the most significant image in scripture of male infanticide. All through history and particularly now, female infanticide has been all too common. It’s important to remember that.
A Regent summer professor, Malcolm Guite, has written a book call Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year. Guite is a poet, priest and singer-songwriter. He is Chaplain of Girton College and Associate Chaplain of St. Edward Kin and Martyr in Cambridge, and is the author of Faith, Hope and Poetry.
He has written a sonnet for this time of year, taking one part of this chapter of the fleeing of Christ’s family to Egypt. I would draw your attention however, to one other theme in the last four lines of the sonnet. While death and mayhem continue to be part of our world, there is a justice that awaits those who in the narcissism and squalid arrogance of their power, believe that the destruction they have caused is of no account. In the end, we face Jesus. Or as Guite puts it: “But every Herod dies, and comes alone to stand before the Lamb upon the throne.”
Refugee
We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,
Or cosy in a crib beside the font,
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want.
For even as we sing our final carol
His family is up and on that road,
Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load.
Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower,
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,
And death squads spread their curse across the world.
But every Herod dies, and comes alone
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.
Taken from Sounding the Seasons by Malcolm Guite. Published by Canterbury Press, 2012. Used by permission. Available now from www.canterburypress.co.uk
May the wisdom of God be with us through Epiphany, well through the New Year and deeply into our lives.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy