What did Christmas plays look like for you as a child? Were you an angel? A shepherd? A cow? Maybe you were chosen to be Mary or Joseph? Were these performances elaborate and planned months in advance with rehearsals, or were they more of a pick-up format where you were assigned a part when you showed up? Whatever way you experienced these plays growing up, they are a big part of our childhood and form how we view and experience the Christmas story.
A backdrop to this Christmas story that is normally left out of the Christmas plays is the role of King Herod and the way in which he used his power to try and stop the coming of Jesus. When we recognize this as a big part of the backdrop to the Christmas story as a whole, we realize that the story is a lot more complicated than maybe we learned as a child. In this context, we recognize that there are powers and systems in place trying to silence something that is supposed to be pure Goodness to our world. Not only that, but we also learn that the Magi, whose intentions were pure in pursuing a conversation with King Herod, are ultimately manipulated and used as a tool for King Herod to carry out a cruel and awful plan. While this is definitely not a part of the story that we would want the children in our churches to act out, we have to recognize that as we grow in our faith in adolescence and adulthood that we have to confront hard realities and contexts of these well-known stories so that we see how God is present and separate from any manipulation or cruel intentions that we experience from other humans in this world.
As we celebrate Epiphany this Sunday, I invite you to enter into this morning with an open heart and an open mind as we explore this journey of the Magi together.
Peace,
Meredith Menius
Director of Connecting and Discipleship Ministries