|
"Warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the three Magi left for
their own country by another road.
Sometimes it is necessary to take another way. Sometimes life faces us
and requires us to take a different path, a way out ... a way through
... a way around.
The time was the reign of King Herod, Herod the Great, the one who was
in power and who had influence.
We hear of these people from outside of the community, outside of the
political structure, from outside of the nation ... from the East, they
come. They come asking, "Where is the child born who is called King of
the Jews? We observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him
homage."
The question comes from outside the dynamic that's at work there. "Where
is the child who has been born king of the people?"
When Herod hears this, he is frightened. Notice also who else is
frightened. All of Jerusalem, with him. All of the people are frightened
with him. A word has come from outside of the system ... where is the
child? ... and fear rises up, in the leadership and from the body.
Looking back at the announcement of the legacy of the residential
schools in our country and how the growing consciousness in the media
and some of the communities and conversations began to take shape and
form ... how our initial response was one of fear.
How could this have happened? What are the legal ramifications if there
is an apology? What will it cost? What will it mean to the aboriginal
people and the non-aboriginals? We are afraid.
Fear is a natural response to a question that comes from outside of the
system and goes to the very heart of it. It challenges ... who am I? Who
are we in the light of this question that exposes us?
Where is the child?
Then Herod puts together a think tank and he consults them and learns
from them when exactly the star appeared and then the secrets come. He
gathers the astrologers together and asks, "When did you notice this
star, when did it appear for you"? But then he says, "Let's just keep it
between us, let's not let anyone else know ... let's keep it under
wraps."
It's not confidentiality ... it's secret keeping. You and I know what
happens when secrets are kept, from our own families and work life and
community life and from our life as a country ... what happens when
secrets are kept and buried.
Secrets have a way of draining life from a community. Not giving life
but draining it, sucking the life from a community, from family and from
relationships. (next column)
13/01/2009 04:12 PM
|
(continued)
Secrets are painful and hurtful and yet in some way, can
begin the process of healing. The reality is, when secrets are exposed,
they can cause suffering and for quite a long time.
I can appreciate why people say, some things are best left unsaid and
some secrets are best left not spoken. But when secrets influence
someone else, then they need to be shared and spoken and exposed. The
power of secrets wields its way into our lives often destroying life
instead of creating it ... secrets like alcoholism, abuse, like
addictions of one form or another, like pornography, mental illness,
like suicide and others. These secrets are powerful when they are
hidden, and are especially powerful when they harm someone else and
still remain hidden.
Then, there are lies. Herod sends these astrologers to Bethelem and
says go and search diligently for the child and when you find him send
me word so that I may also go and pay him homage. We all know what
happens in this story.
Joseph and Mary have to flee to Egypt like refugees and, when Herod
learns the three astrologers have taken another way home, he has all the
male children under two years of age slaughtered. Amidst all of this
mess, are these three visitors, these three visitors from the East who
come and speak a word to the system in one simple question, 'where is
the child'?
Sometimes that's all it takes for a family, a church, a community, a
country ... is to ask one very simple question that confronts and faces
the dynamics that are at work that seek to destroy things or maybe are
the patterns that may have been there all along and we don't know how to
break out of them. Then, in some way, these astrologers receive a
warning, maybe it's a dream ... or something else, another road that
they were called to.
It's what happens when exposure occurs ... light breaks into those
places and offers an opportunity - a word from
outside of the normal patterns and dynamics breaks into our lives and
says, "There's something else."
However these moments come about, they are of God... they are of God
because they say to us, something else is possible.
Light breaks forth ... that's really what epiphany means and is all
about, that something else is possible. That there is another way, a way
out and a way through it all ... and that way is with God.
With God, there is always another possibility and, when we hear this and
realise it, we better be ready to take another road." |
