Clergy from left, Pastor Mary Ann Hill, Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired; Assistant Rector Lynn Finnegan and Pastor Deb Church. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com
By Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb
ELCA
What might this new year bring? Resolution makers/breakers see great potential and myriad possibilities. Others are already fearing what November will mean for our national life together. For church folks, a new year begins with the season of Epiphany, when we celebrate the arrival of Christ, the Light of the World.
Looking back about 2,028 years ago, the Epiphany story is told about three scientific types from faraway lands, with hopes for a better future. They took a huge chance and followed an unusual light in the heavens, a bright star or supernova. Something of huge cosmic portent was happening and they wanted to find it. Crossing into a foreign country, they stopped to pay respects to its king. They told him about the predictions they had formulated about that star.
The story goes that King Herod asked his scribes if there were any cosmic portents predicted in their scriptures. Once the otherwise insignificant town of Bethlehem was quoted as the place, thanks to the prophetic writings of Micah (chapter 5), Herod asked these foreigners to come back to him and let him know what they had found. But, we learn, an angel came urgently to the magi after they had visited the baby Jesus. The angel warned them to go home a different way and avoid King Herod and his schemes. And that’s what they did, wise folk that they were.
When we are up against powers over which we have no control, what is our plan? Avoidance may seem the coward’s way out, but, really, what good does it do to argue with some people? If civil discourse were still possible in society, then that would seem the best way to go: talk it out, find common ground, and hope that together we can find new, untried solutions. Maybe this will be the year when trust can be renewed, and we can engage in peaceful, well-reasoned debate.
After all, what was Herod’s worry? Apparently, he not only ruled by fear, he himself lived in fear. Micah said of the messiah, “he shall be the one of peace”: “he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord”—certainly not what Herod was about, so why should he have worried? But he did, so much so that hundreds of newborns lost their lives at his hand in that little town of Bethlehem, shortly after Jesus’ parents took off, warned by an angel to take the baby to safety in Egypt.
James Taylor’s 1988 song “Home by Another Way” is about this story. It’s about us, too, if you listen carefully to the words. He sings:
… warned in a dream of King Herod’s scheme
They went home by another way
Yes, they went home by another way
Home by another way
Maybe me and you can be wise guys too
And go home by another way…
…Steer clear of royal welcomes
Avoid a big to-do
A king who would slaughter the innocents
Will not cut a deal for you…
In another verse he sings:
They tell me that life is a miracle
And I figured that they’re right
But Herod’s always out there…
…If we give an inch
Old Herod likes to take a mile
“Time wounds all heels”, they say, and old Herod got his; he croaked after he struck Bethlehem’s babies.
It’s up to us, people of faith, to help make this a blessed and prosperous new year. Let us allow our better angels to lead us “home by another way”. Amen?
Editor’s note: ‘All Shall Be Well’ is a column written by local women clergy including ELCA Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, M.Div., retired (czoebidd@gmail.com); Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (pastornicole@bethluth.com); Assistant Rector Lynn Finnegan, The Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith, Santa Fe (rev.lynn@holyfaithchurchsf.org); Pastor Deb Church, White Rock Presbyterian Church (pastor@wrpchurch.com) and Pastor Mary Ann Hill, Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church (momaryannhill@gmail.com).
