Epiphany, January 8, 2012

EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

The U.S. Army Intelligence Unit at Kandahar, Afghanistan, got a tip from the Central Intelligence Agency and was the first to report their movements. A small band of men, possibly only three or four, was moving stealthily across the desert toward the Iraqi border, through the small town of Herat in the central western region of Afghanistan. The decision was made not to fire upon them but to monitor their movement closely until their motives may be more clear.

They traversed Irag and got to Karbala, and still remained unnoticed.At the border crossing into Jordan, there was noone to question them. They traveled nearly fifty miles into Jordan, across desert country, to the first real town of Ar-Ruwayshid, where they were first encountered again. Reports were gathered through secret intelligence by American-trained Jordanian agents; there were three men, all carrying large packages of unknown contents and origin. No attempt was made to stop them. At a local inn where they stopped for less than an hour, they ordered water, but they ate from the stores they were carrying – odd foods, like dates, other dried fruits, and flat bread. The secret police in Amman were alerted to their movements, and they were ready in the city to arrest them. But somehow, the three Semitic men in their flowing desert robes avoided going through the capital city. Perhaps they had spies too, and knew that a trap was waiting for them in Amman.

It was not until they came down from Mount Nebo along the border of Jordan, and tried to cross into Jerusalem across the Allen Bridge, that they were finally caught by the Israeli border guards, on a tip received by Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence Agency, from the CIA operatives in Iraq.

The three men were taken without a serious skirmish or any loss of life. All three are being held in separate jails around Israel, without trial, without attorneys, without bail, without anything, pending investigations. It seems that the three men claim they did not know each other until they began their journey eastward toward Israel. They met accidentally, after discovering that their individual interests in astronomy led them all to identify a new star, possibly a shooting nova, in the sky which they felt compelled to follow in search of some newly arrived savior. Recognizing the absurdity of the story, yet fearing that they were coming to support a new insurgent leader, the men were assumed to be dangerous and possibly insane. Hence the separate incarcerations.

At the time of their arrests, the men were carrying concealed bundles. They refused to give up their packages, and fought to protect what they were transporting. The soldiers at the border quickly pinned them to the ground and called in the bomb squad to confiscate the three bundles they were carrying. The men were then stood up, ordered to strip, and a complete search of their clothing and persons revealed no weapons, no bombs or incendiary devices, and no written documents for delivery within Israel.

The military and crime labs have not reported on the contents of the three bundles the men carried. There were no bombs, and it is clear that the three were not, as yet, suicide bombers. However, their bundles led the military and the police to suspect that they intended to become suicide bombers, or at least help others to become so. For in two of the bundles the labs discovered potentially explosive flammable materials – frankincense and myrrh. In the third bundle was found pure gold, enough to purchase tons of explosives and incendiary devices, once into the country. The frankincense and myrrh have been destroyed in a air-tight furnace, to assure that no poisonous gases were implanted in the materials. The gold remains in a military vault until such time as its origin and maker can be traced and interrogated.

Meanwhile the three men remain in solitary confinement. It has been reported that both American and Israeli officials have attempted interrogation of the three strange travelers. But, other than the information about the shooting star and the desire to find a king, no further information has been gained from them to this point.

Had St. Matthew written his gospel this year, that would have been the story of the Magi, those absurd travelers who wanted to find the new King and Messiah. They would never have made it to Bethlehem. The Child Jesus would not have been recognized by those outside his local community.

We all have stereotypes which we use to help us sort out the many different people in the world. They are the devices we conger up in our heads that help us to know "who is who." Even if unfair, even if completely wrong, even if cruel, they are what we use to judge people initially. For instance, I name an ethnic group, a nationality, or a religion, and most of you will quickly conger up some images of people, based on a stereotype. Let’s try it: Russians, Jews, Indians, African-Americans, Mexicans, New Yorkers, Arabs, Muslims and on and on. You got some images, didn’t you. And I’ll bet there were untrue, maybe even cruel stereotypes. We judge people by their ethnicity, religion, nationality, and language. We are quite unfair.

If the magi who came to see Jesus were judged by today’s standards, they would never have gotten to Jesus. If the magi entered this church today, most of us would cower and run away, fearing terrorists, or worse. Indeed, if Jesus walked onto the earth again in the same body that he had two thousands, there is likely not a person in this church who would let Jesus enter into his or her home. For Jesus looked more like the stereotyped Arabic Muslims we have been trained to pre-judge and fear.

If people are to ever come to Jesus, and have the opportunity to know the good news of the Gospels, they have to first be welcomed by the Body of Christ in the world. No one can get to Jesus if people shut the doors on them, avoid them, fear them or run from them. Jesus desires all to come to him and be saved.

Maybe we can all look around us for the people we avoid, fear or run from, and ask ourselves if they are people looking to find Jesus. Maybe they need us to be their guiding star.