Readings: Matthew 2: 1-16, Selected paraphrased readings from Isaiah entitled 'Isaiah's Dream' (see below)

We listen now to a paraphrase of some of Isaiah’s statements. Isaiah was one of the great orators of his day, as was Martin Luther King in our day. Isaiah was instrumental in keeping the expectation of a Saviour in front of his people. Any resemblance to Martin Luther King’s 'I have a dream' speech is purely intentional.

One day, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light and the scourge of war will be broken. The boots and blood-stained uniforms of armies shall be burned as food for the fire. Nations will beat their swords into mattocks, and their spears into pruning knives. Nation will not lift sword against nation, nor ever again prepare for war.

One day, the powerful and the powerless will live together in harmony. The word of the Lord will be heard and the poor, the imprisoned, the ill and the lonely will know of the Spirit of the Lord resting on them, and hear the good news of a new beginning. The eyes of the blind will be opened, captives will be released from prison, pools of water will appear in the desert, rivers will run in arid lands and the desert will blossom. You will go out with joy and be led forth in peace and the mountains and the hills will break forth with cries of joy. God will move against those who draft oppressive laws that deprive the poor of justice, rob the weak of their rights, and plunder the needy.

One day a young woman will give birth to a child and call him Immanuel, God with us. He will be called wonderful, counsellor, Prince of Peace, King of Kings and the government of the nation shall be upon his shoulders.

And in the fullness of time, in a stable, in an act of audacious love God brought a tiny baby into a broken world, placed him in the arms of Mary and Joseph, and turned the world upside down The longed for leader made gentle entry into the life of the world in the form of a baby for whom the world had no room.







I will give $100 to anyone who can show me a Christmas card with King Herod upon it. I was going to make it a $1000 but someone might just find a card with Herod lurking in the background – for he was one of the most significant characters in the Christmas story. You wouldn’t know it, of course, because Christmas has been reduced to sentimentality. As Bill Loader says 'It is easy to celebrate the birth of a baby . . . Christianity is quite saleable at Christmas time . . . It lends itself well to serve the sales pitch of the business world.' But, contrary to common practice, I am not this morning going to attack the commercialisation of Christmas, for two reasons (1) To each his/her own approach to life. Everyone has the right to their own approach to Christmas (2) If you take away the glitter and glamour of Christmas millions of people would have nothing left.

What does concern me at Christmas is the way we glibly re-tell the stories of Christmas without recognising them for what they were and why they were told. What we desperately need to do is to hear the stories in their original setting and look at their meaning for us today. For example, how many of us know that before Jesus there was a man who was called 'Son of God', 'God from God' and whose titles were 'Lord', 'Redeemer', Prince of Peace' and 'Saviour of the world'. These are terms that were used of the Emperor Caesar Augustus. His coins bore the inscription 'Caesar Augustus, Son of God'. The Priene Calendar inscription said of Augustus: 'Whereas the Providence which has guided our whole existence, has brought our life to the peak of perfection in giving to us Augustus Caesar, whom it filled with virtue for the welfare of mankind, and who, being sent to us and to our descendants as a saviour, has put an end to war and has set all things in order'. It sounds like a quote from the bible! The emperor was repeatedly called 'The Saviour of the World' and 'The Son of God' and 'Prince of Peace' . The terminology used of Jesus in those days was common but the claim was exceedingly uncommon – the claim that Jesus of Nazareth was 'Son of God', 'Lord of all the earth' and 'Saviour of the world'. Jesus not Caesar! This is what rocked the world of his day and should rock the world of our day.

This is why Jesus asked for a coin when they asked him whether they should pay taxes to Caesar – a no win question because if he said 'Yes' he would be seen as compliant to the Empire. If he said 'No' he would be arrested for treason. Jesus shows them the coin, with the imprint of Caesar upon it and the words 'Caesar Augustus Son of God''. And he says, 'Pay the one to whom you are indebted'. If you see Caesar as the Son of God, then pay the tax. It’s up to you. A brilliant answer! It is one of the most misunderstood passages in the bible. To suggest as Margaret Thatcher once did that Jesus was acknowledging the place of the empire, is to completely misunderstand the passage. Margaret Thatcher may or may not have been a good politician. She was certainly a lousy theologian!

But back to the Christmas stories – and I use the word stories deliberately. I call them stories for that is what they were. As I tried to say a couple of weeks ago, they are stories to live by and all too often people become locked into literalism as far as the stories are concerned and they miss the point. This is certainly the case with the story teller of our day – the TV set. Anyone who thinks that what they see on telly is the literal truth wants their head read. When I came back from the Shock and Awe bombing of Baghdad, I was appalled at the story the TV had told of the bombing. It portrayed the bombing as a fireworks display, and showed nothing of the dead and dismembered children that I had seen. Two different stories and both of them stories to live by.

For God’s sake, I hope we will not get locked into the literalism of the Christmas stories. They are too important for that. They are stories to live by.

There were no angels fluttering in the heavens. That was the way that in those days they emphasised God’s involvement in events. The word angels means messengers. And it was common in the ancient world to underline God’s involvement by introducing angels. To think of angels actually fluttering and singing is to miss the point of the story – that God was involved in this event.

Again it was common in those days to speak of a virgin birth. There were numerous instances of the Greek Gods Poseidon and Zeus impregnating women, also in Roman and Zoroasterian theology. Both Alexander the Great and Appollonius of Tyana were said to be born of virgins. The story of a virgin birth was very meaningful for those times. Its message was that God was involved in the process and that God meets us in the life and ministry of Jesus. To see it in biological terms is to miss the point of the story.

These stories were very important within the world view of those days, and that is how they must be considered. They must be considered in the context of when they were told. Unless we see the stories in their original setting their significance may be lost forever. They are an ongoing reflection of the importance of Jesus of Nazareth for the life of the world.

And no story is of more importance than the one we read this morning. It is the story of the Empire being threatened by the birth of a new King – one who proclaimed the 'Kingdom of God' – not the Kingdom of Herod but the kingdom of God. And Herod got it 100% right! Jesus was a threat to his kingdom as he is a threat to our society today. The central message of Jesus was that of a new world order which he called the Kingdom of God – a kingdom which exists alongside and in tension with the existing order. This is why he was crucified and it is why we will be crucified if we take up our cross and follow him. The Empire always strikes back. And by Empire I do not mean geographic expansion and territorial conquest. Empire is about the use of power – military, political and economic – to shape the world as the Empire thinks fit. The key concept of Empire is control

We have a very interesting parable at the present moment with Julian Assange and Wikileaks. All he has done is to expose the empire for what it is. He has shown how our politicians are lying to us about Afghanistan. He has exposed how the system works. And he will be crucified because of it – not in the old way but in the new way of accusing him of a sexual crime. That is the most effective way of getting rid of someone today. You don’t have to bother with the facts. Just accuse him and that’s the end of him. I hold no brief for Julian Assange but what he did was to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and, God help him, he will be crucified!!

But that’s a different story. Back to the one we read this morning of wily Herod trying to get the astrologers to report back to him 'So he too could worship the new born king'. Not on your nelly! Herod rightly saw Jesus as a threat to the way things are and he wanted to get rid of him. His plot is foiled and he resorts to a slaughter of recently born children. There is no record in history of this having happened. The story, of course, is loaded with the Old Testament imagery of the slaughter of the first born and the escape from Egypt. It’s a great story and a hugely important one. I am not greatly concerned whether there really were three astrologers who came from the east guided by the stars. What concerns me is that 'lives lived under the Lordship of Jesus of Nazareth will necessarily put us at odds with the cultural mainstream and the dominant institutions of political and economic power'. That is what the story is about – how desperately we need the new world order lived and died in Jesus of Nazareth!

The story we read this morning is a story to live by. Herod should be on every Christmas card, and my offer stands of $100 to anyone who can show me a Christmas card with Herod in the background.

We give the last word to the carol we now sing –' Joy to the World'