In Between: A King Day Reflection

The Super Blood Wolf Moon was on everyone’s minds last night, at least here on the east coast. I will admit to having slept through it, but I woke this morning to find photos of the spectacle littering my social media feed. As I drove in to work this morning (yes, I have to work today...) I saw that huge moon, still in the sky, competing with the rising sun. The confluence seemed a good metaphor for the man that today’s holiday celebrates and for the unfinished work of racial reconciliation that continues to this day. We are still in between, between the proclamation of the Dream and it’s realization in a new day of peace, justice, and equity. Sometimes the light intrudes upon the night. And sometimes the night intrudes upon the light. And so today, a poem in honor of Dr. King, whose light intrudes upon the night of racism

King Day 2019 (January 21, 2019)

We find ourselves, as ever,

trapped between the coming and the going,

between the rise of day and the setting of night. 

Except in those odd moments, where the two meet,

where Super Moons are obscured, 

their brilliance bloodied by the intrusion of daybreak,

where day and night fight for dominance in the same sky,

out competing one another for the love of heaven and earth. 

And we, terrestrial bound, gaze upon the struggle 

and see in it the beauty 

of both the meeting

and the parting. 

The Gift of the Magi

Epiphany might be over, and with it Christmas, but I am still captivated by the Magi, by these mythic travelers who noticed a celestial event and followed it across deserts and rivers to the place where its light shone down. We tend to think of the coming of the Magi as a wondrous occurrence, and indeed it was. They heralded the birth of Jesus, the king to come, the messiah and savior of the world. They brought him gifts and worshiped him with immense joy.

Yet as I think about their arrival more I wonder if the common narrative of the Magi is flawed. Yes, they brought precious gifts. Yes, they announced the birth of light into a darkened world. But they also triggered a horrific series of events. Immediately following their departure “by another road” Herod slaughtered all of the newborn children in Bethlehem in a fit of rage over not having found Jesus. (Matthew 2:16-18)

Question: What if the most significant gift of the Magi was not the symbolic trinkets that every Sunday School age child can name - gold, frankincense, and myrrh? What if the truest and most valuable gift of the Magi was kicking off the disruption of an unjust and unsustainable order?

Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the forces that trigger large scale change in his book The Tipping Point. Among other insights he notes that small changes can have out-sized effects when the circumstances are right. Rather than being triggered by big catastrophes as we might expect, systems most often “tip” or undergo revolution in response to seemingly insignificant events. Think about the British Tea Act which helped to trigger the American Revolution. More recently, the global financial crisis of 2008 was triggered by a relative handful of Americans defaulting on their ballooning mortgages. These are simplified explanations of very complex events, but the basic premise holds. Seemingly minor events can trigger massive disruption and systemic change.

Convergence: The arrival of the Magi was a minor event. They showed up on Herod’s steps and made an inquiry about the birth of a child. But this minor event triggered a series of disruptions and transformations of the contemporary order that resulted, ultimately, in the birth of Christianity and the spread of that faith around the world. The ultimate gift of the Magi was the tipping of a system of empire and religious culture that was made vulnerable by the excesses and fears of the ruling elite.     

Tipping points, unfortunately, cannot be readily predicted. (Perhaps this is fortunate for there are many who would use such knowledge for evil purposes.) No one can know when an economy, a political system, or a culture will suddenly flip. The task for people of faith then, is to remain present, to ask difficult and probing questions of the culture, and to be prepared when a simple action begets out-sized consequences. Any of us is capable of producing a tipping point, of giving the gift of the Magi if we faithfully engage in loving ways. Who knows how our love might tip our neighborhoods, our nation, or even our world.

Emergence

For most people the New Year is a time for reflection on the past twelve months and a time of anticipation of the twelve months to come. It is a time where we decide to discard old habits and beliefs and take up new ones. A common meme that runs around the internet around this time of year fondly (or disgustedly) bids farewell to the year past and welcomes a the year coming with gladness and joy. 

Question: 

In welcoming what’s coming, how do we decide what needs to be discarded and what needs to be kept? 

 

 

Exploration:

One of my favorite words is emergence. Emergence is the creation of something unexpected from an otherwise well-known system. Emergence is the systemic property behind the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in Boston can create a hurricane in the Pacific. Emergence is the revelation of complexity in what seems to be a simple system. 

This first Sunday of the year is known as Epiphany Sunday. It is the time when the church celebrates the arrival of the Magi at Christ’s birthplace. It is notable that they went to Jerusalem, to the seat of power, looking for a newborn king. And yet, the people there, those who were supposed to know about such things, had no clue what was happening. Their understanding of their world was simple - there was one king, Herod, and he held the reins of power. 

Convergence: 

Emergence and epiphany collide in the birth of Jesus. Where the official powers saw simplicity and secure control, Jesus emerged as a disruptive force. The epiphany of Jesus drew the Magi whose eyes were open and looking for newness to emerge. 

As we go forward into this new year let us hold on to those things that point us toward what is emerging, what is new, what leads us into epiphany. Discard everything else. We must be like the Magi, keeping our eyes open for signs of emergence. We must also be on the lookout for the Magi, those who come bearing news of vague possibility. Do not send them away to report back. Go with them and see the new thing for yourself so that you can be ready to participate in the emergence. God is always doing a new thing.