What Others See

There’s a Christmas song that begins like this:

Said the night wind to the little lamb,

“Do you see what I see?

Way up in the sky, little lamb,

Do you see what I see?

A star, a star dancing in the night, with a tail as big as a kite.”

Of course, the star is the star that came and settled over Bethlehem when Jesus was born. But the mystery in the song is not really about the star. It’s about what you can see. Beyond the star. If you can believe that the night wind speaks to little lambs…if you can hear a song being sung with a voice as big as the sea, the song says…if you can see what the wind sees, then you will know that something astounding is happening in this world.

It’s a new year. 2011. And now that the first decade of the new century is over can we please go back to naming the years without having to throw a “thousand” in? It wasn’t that long ago that we were saying ‘nineteen-ninety-nine.” It wasn’t ‘one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine.’ It was just ‘nineteen-ninety-nine.’ So much simpler. So let’s agree – twenty-eleven.

So, yes, I’ve been thinking about that for while. But our minds are on much bigger things in this time of the year. A new year means new resolutions. We say to ourselves, “I will lose that weight. I will stop smoking. I will drive the speed limit. I will be kinder to my neighbor. I will learn to play the banjo. I will floss.” All these resolutions. But also an awareness that time is passing. Things are changing. We are not who we were when two thousand ten…er…twenty ten came calling. And are we able to see something new?

Sometimes people get visions. They can see things with new eyes. They can see things perhaps the way God sees them. About thirty years ago a couple of Virginia United Methodist clergy and their spouses got such a vision. Ken and Jean Horne and Ray and Marian Buchanan felt called to live a lifestyle that would be a witness to the world. They asked the bishop at the time, Bishop Kenneth Goodson, to appoint them to a special appointment beyond the local church so that they could start something called the Society of Saint Andrew in Big Island, Virginia. They felt a special calling to address the problem of hunger in the United States, particularly as they saw all the food being produced that never made it people who were in need of it.

Here’s what it says on the Society of Saint Andrew website about what happened next:

From 1979 to 1982, the Horne and Buchanan families shared all things in common as they modeled a simple lifestyle that rejected consumerism. They grew their own vegetables and raised sheep, chickens, and rabbits. At the same time, Ray and Ken led workshops on responsible lifestyles and hunger issues.

By October 1982, the two families had learned that the “simple lifestyle” was not so simple. Growing children made for very cramped quarters, so the Hornes moved from the farm to a home in Bedford, Virginia. While Ken and Ray continued to lead workshops, they began to consider taking regular church appointments again. However, at a hunger awareness workshop they led at Franktown United Methodist Church on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, a farmer named Butch Nottingham questioned Ken and Ray about the facts they presented regarding food waste. From the discussion that followed, the Potato and Produce Project was born.[i]

Now, every year, potatoes that would have rotted in the field, are gleaned by church people like you and me in states all across the country and are donated to local food banks. And it’s not just potatoes. I helped to glean grapefruits for the Society of Saint Andrew in Texas. Apples, oranges, sweet potatoes – farmers have gotten on board to allow gleaning for all of these. And in two thousand…er…twenty-oh-nine they salvaged and distributed 26.4 million pounds of produce nationwide. All it took was running into Butch Nottingham and a vision from God for them to see something they might never have seen.

So why am I talking about visions and potatoes on a day that’s supposed to be about the three kings? Well, let’s look at that story. First of all, let’s get a few things straight. We call them kings, but they weren’t. They were astrologers, men who studied the stars for their wisdom, living in far off lands. We say there were three of them, but we don’t know how many there were. They bring three gifts to the baby Jesus, so we assume three. They almost surely didn’t arrive on the night of Jesus’ birth because they go to visit Jesus and his family in a house in Bethlehem, so they have moved on from the stable. And I’m not sure they were even men because they stop to ask directions.

At any rate, their story is the focus of our gospel lesson today and of the liturgical holiday of Epiphany, which falls on January 6. We are observing it today. But here’s the thing about these multiple wise persons – they have this vision thing, too. Even though they are not Jewish, they know something important is happening when Jesus is born. They know this child is going to change the world.

Which, of course, is what scared the dickens out of King Herod. Herod was a king. At least that’s what it said on his business cards. But Herod was not a king like the old King David. In many ways he was just a vassal of the Roman Empire. He was called King of the Jews, but he didn’t have any real authority of his own. It was given to him by Rome and Rome could just as easily make somebody else King of the Jews. It wasn’t given to him by the people, who were always ambivalent about their so-called rulers. Herod was perched on a pretty precarious throne.

So how do you THINK he felt when these foreign astrologers appear out of nowhere from the eastern horizon and come to ask him where the King of the Jews was? If I were Herod, I would have said, “The King of the Jews? You’re looking at him! What do you mean you saw a star leading you to somebody else? What do you mean it’s a baby?” Does he see what the night wind sees? No, Herod was shaking in his sandals.

Matthew tells us that Herod the King (he makes a point of telling us that it was Herod THE KING) was stirred up by what he heard from the magi. And not only him but the whole city of Jerusalem because when the king ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. So Herod did what people in power do when there’s a scandal brewing – he appointed a blue ribbon panel as a study commission. He called in the chief priests and the scribes and let them answer these impertinent foreigners.

Now to their credit, the chief priests and scribes of the Law don’t cover over the fact that Herod was not the Messiah. Even though they will be Jesus’ biggest opponents at the end of the gospel story, they are able to read the scriptures and to understand that the promised one was to be born in Bethlehem of Judah, about six miles from Jerusalem.

Herod called the magi in secretly to tell them the news and to find out a little more about this star. He decides to do something else that people in power often do. He tries to co-opt them for his interests. Tries to make them his agents. He sends them on to Bethlehem to do the searching he personally wants to do. Then he tells them, “As soon as you find him, come back and tell me where he is so that I can go worship him.” Of course, as we read on in Matthew we know that’s not what he intends to do at all. Herod is scared to death of this child, this rival, and he wants to put him to death. But also, as we know, he doesn’t have a chance of succeeding.

You see, what the magi see that Herod can’t see, is that this child that scares him is the source of salvation, even for Herod. These crazy magi. They show up in our nativity sets with their strange, vaguely inappropriate gifts. Surely Mary would have appreciated a few more Pampers and a little less incense. What is that they see? What are they trying to tell us by showing up like they do? Why do they cross deserts following a star? Why are they so darn joyful? Why can’t they just be afraid and anxious like everybody else living in these troubled times? Why can’t they admit that things are not looking so great? The religious leaders are corrupt. Civil liberties are being curtailed. Terrorists are threatening. They’re crucifying people left and right. What’s with their giddiness? What’s with their gifts? What’s with their joy? They’re not even from around here! What have ‘come here’s’ got to tell us about our salvation?

Do you see what I see? These wise men see that God’s promises have not been forgotten. What Isaiah saw about kings, foreigners, dignitaries, coming to Israel to give witness to God’s glory is coming true. The magi know that in the light of God’s coming to earth in Jesus everything is changed. And they see it long before a crown is placed on Jesus’ head – a crown made, not of gold but of thorns. They see it long before he is proclaimed King of the Jews, not in a ceremony, but on a mocking placard placed over his head on a cross. Jesus is coming to turn the world upside down and they know it. These foreigners know it.

The night wind knows it and whispers it to the lamb, “Do you see what I see?” The little lamb hears the song singing throughout the whole creation and brays to the shepherd boy, “Do you hear what I hear?” The shepherd boy, who has no right to stand with royalty, is so entranced, so emboldened by this song that he goes to the mighty king and says, “Do you know what I know? A child shivers in the cold. Let us bring him silver and gold.”

You can probably chuck that list of New Year’s resolutions. Here’s the thing about resolutions – to keep them you have to change and we are not too good with change. We cling to the old, to the habitual, to the way things are because…well, we’ve always done it that way. But if we can see the world differently…if we can learn to listen to the night wind and see with new eyes…if we can trust the witness of the wise men that God is still doing a new thing in this world…then maybe we can see the change already beginning, even in us.

Where did the wise men come from? The east. Later in the book of Matthew Jesus sees the faith of a Roman centurion, a man from the west, and he says, “I have not seen faith like this anywhere in Israel. I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” Folks like the magi and the centurion were the first to break down the door. The door was opened to us to follow them into the promise given first to Abraham and Sarah. When we gather at the table we’re getting a glimpse of what God’s new day will look like. And when we open the door to others, to more, and invite them in – the kingdom of heaven is right here. Thanks be to God.

Matthew 2:1-12

Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King. Look, magi from the eastern horizon came to Jerusalem. They asked, “Where is the one born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star rising in the east and we have come to worship him.”

When Herod heard this he was stirred up and all Jerusalem as well. He called together all the chief priests and scribes of the law and inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judah, for this is written by the prophets: ‘And you, Bethlehem, of the land of Judea are by no means least among the leaders of Judah. For out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the magi secretly to determine from them exactly the time when the star had appeared. As he sent them on the Bethlehem he said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report back to me, so that I also can come to worship him.”

When they heard the king, they went, and look, the star, which they had seen in the east, led them until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. When they came into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They fell down to worship him and they opened their treasure boxes to offer him gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

After receiving instruction in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed by another way to their own land.

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[i] www.endhunger.org/history.htm.