The Epiphany of Our Lord
Texts: Matthew 12:1-12;
Eph 3:1-12; Isa 60:1-6
See the accompanying Sermon Notes
LIVING IN TIMES OF TYRANT KINGS AS
THE OPPORTUNITY TO REFUSE BEING ENEMIES
I have already introduced Pastor Brian Zahnd’s work to you over this past year. This morning I want to feature it as an example of what I’ve been talking about, that need to revitalize our Gospel message. Pastor Zahnd was shaped by the Jesus Movement of the 1970’s. Then, along with his wife Peri, he founded Word of Life Church near St. Louis in 1981. By the mid 90’s, Word of Life grew into a so-called mega-church in the style of the conservative American evangelicalism, the primary supporters of what is now the movement of Christian Nationalism. But Pastor Zahnd has not gone on that journey to Christian Nationalism, because in the early 2000’s he began to have serious doubts about major elements of the American evangelical movement. In most of his books since that time, he recounts how he has basically undergone a conversion experience.
At the heart of this conversion experience is moving completely away from all elements of a violent God, as typically found in evangelicalism, and moving towards the God of Jesus as 100% a nonviolent God of love. Pastor Zahnd is a model and mentor for me, as I’ve shared this past year with you that the biggest thing lost in centuries of Christianity has been the crystal clear revelation from Jesus Christ that God is completely nonviolent. For centuries, Christians have come to accept violent elements within the Godhead such that we’ve also come to have our gods endorse our own violent behavior, accepting, too, the violent behavior of our tyrant leaders. Hitler and Mussolini formed nationalistic movements in the so-called Christian nations of Germany and Italy, with the full support of millions who called themselves Christians. As we live in the growing shadow of American “Christian Nationalism,” it is imperative that we revitalize our Gospel message by once again centering the revelation of Jesus Christ as that of a completely nonviolent, loving God.
I chose to talk about Brian Zahnd and his journey this morning because a chapter in one of his books is basically an extended reflection on this morning’s Gospel, Matthew’s account of the visit of the Magi to the child Jesus. (I give the detailed reference in today’s Sermon Notes.1) Matthew begins his account, “In the time of King Herod.” Matthew tells the story of the Magi to show how the child Jesus will grow up to begin to heal the human sin of division between Jew and Gentile.
Healing the chasm between Jew and Gentile being a theme of Epiphany that we also see in the Second reading from Ephesians 3. In fact, Paul has been building this theme throughout the letter. In Ephesians 1, he talks about a mystery being revealed through Christ, that God from the very beginning has had a plan to gather all things together in Christ. Then, in Ephesians 2, a passage we highlight often here in preaching, Paul writes that the cross of Christ ‘creates one new humanity in place of all our divisions, thus making peace.’ So, when we get to today’s reading, Paul puts the two together to state clearly that Gentiles are now included in God’s promises of salvation.
Back to Matthew. He frames his story of Gentile inclusion within a story about King Herod to also make it clear that this child Jesus will grow to be the one who helps us to heal from the violence resulting from the sins of division. He will bring the nonviolent reign of God as an alternative to the violent reigns of human tyrants like King Herod.
Pastor Zahnd presents historical data on King Herod (circa 74-4 BCE) — such as the fact that he was installed as king of Judea in a ceremony in Rome (37 BCE) by the two powerful successors of Julius Caesar: Mark Antony and Augustus Caesar. He also establishes that Herod was such a paranoid tyrant that, along the way, he murdered his brother-in-law, his wife’s grandfather, his wife, her mother, and two of his own sons. So when Matthew opens his story, “In the time of King Herod,” he is establishing the familiar context of living in the time of tyrant kings. Zahnd writes,
As the Gospel of Matthew tells us, Jesus was born in the time of King Herod, and the history books tell us that most of civilization has been lived in the time of kings like Herod — that is, in the time of tyrant kings. I’m talking about the time of Herod, the time of Pharaoh, the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the time of Augustus, the time of Nero, all the way into modern times — the time of Hitler and Mussolini, the time of Franco and Salazar, the time of Pinochet and Putin. It’s tragically true that most people have lived their lives in the time of tyrant kings. But the gospel also announces the glad tidings that with the birth of Jesus heaven has invaded the time of tyrant kings!2
Matthew’s framing of the Magi story within the story of Herod brings us to the horrific ending of the story that we leave off from reading this morning. Herod’s solution to the problem of a new Judean king being born in Bethlehem is to send soldiers to murder all the male children in Bethlehem — known as the “slaughter of the Innocents.” Our human tendency is to not let the horror of such acts to sink in. It is too painful. But there’s another reason. It is also too familiar since we also live in the times of tyrant kings. We have a euphemism for it to blunt the horror. We call the child victims of our modern warfare “collateral damage.” Right now there are such child victims around the world in places like Ukraine, Gaza, and South Sudan. Are there more coming soon along the southern border of the United States?
So let us be moved by both elements of Matthew’s story of the child Jesus. The Good News of the Reign of God is that Jesus comes to begin to heal all our divisions. What does it mean for us to act according the politics of God’s reign when it comes to the many things that still divide us? And, second, the Reign of God in Jesus Christ also means that God the Holy Spirit is working to cure our violence by helping us to live increasingly in God’s love, which is a love that even reaches out to enemies. All of this is grounded in the revelation of God as completely nonviolent. Let me share one more quote from Zahnd’s chapter on the Epiphany Gospel:
Jesus’ invasion by birth into the dark time of tyrant kings gives us a choice: we can trust in the armed brutality of violent power or we can trust in the naked vulnerability of love. It seems like an absurd choice, but only one of these ways is the Jesus way. We have to choose between the old way of Caesar and the new way of Christ. It’s the choice between the sword and the cross. We have to decide if we’ll pledge our allegiance to the Empire of Power or the Empire of Love, but we can’t do both. Following the Jesus way of loving enemies and doing good to those who hate us isn’t necessarily safe and it doesn’t mean we won’t ever get hurt, but it does mean the darkness won’t prevail.3
Before we leave behind the stories involving the child Jesus in Bethlehem, I’d like to share a brief model for revitalizing our Gospel mission involving modern Bethlehem. There is a farm near Bethlehem known as the “Tent of Nations.” It’s both a working farm and one that now has educational, environmental, and peacemaking objectives. Established by the Nassar family in 1916 — a Lutheran Christian Palestinian family — they have survived many regime changes over the past 100 years. They have endured much animosity from the diverse peoples around them. It is currently the only Palestinian-owned land, surrounded by an Israeli settlement. Their motto, painted in several languages on a rock at the entrance to the farm, is, “We refuse to be enemies.” We refuse to be enemies.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we enter into the New Year under the shadow of “Christian Nationalism,” may our living of a revitalized Gospel message boil down to that. Even as the politics of Christian Nationalism require the making and keeping of enemies, we must stand firm in the love of God, refusing to be enemies. Even if the making and keeping of enemies all around us means that we might suffer the violence of such politics, we do so with the aim of revealing the violence as violence in the hopes of turning those who consider themselves as our enemies, turning them into friends. Living in this current time of tyrant kings, based on dividing the world into friends and enemies, we must refuse to be enemies. Amen
Paul J. Nuechterlein
Bethania Lutheran Church,
Racine, WI, January 5, 2025
Notes
1. Brian Zahnd, Postcards from Babylon: The Church in American Exile (Spello Press, 2019).
2. Ibid., 66-67.
3. Ibid., 73.
