(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)
Anyone remember New Years Eve, 1999? All the hype and fear surrounding the world’s passage into the year 2000 – you’d think we’d never entered a new millennium before. Well, of course, none of us had – and never before had the world run on computer systems that no one was quite sure would adapt to dates beginning with “2.” How many of us stocked extra water and flashlight batteries that week? And then went out and partied like it was 1999 – because, really, what else are you going to do? Things will work out, or they’ll be challenging. Pop the corks and strike up the band.
We sure do like to know what’s going to happen next year, next day, next hour. And every once in awhile something comes along to remind us how little control we really have over our circumstances. Maybe King Herod had such a moment in our story, hearing from foreign dignitaries of celestial indications that a king had been born for the Jews.
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired where the Messiah was to be born.
“But wait,” he might have thought, “I am the king of the Jews. Sure, I’m corrupt and despotic and completely at the mercy of my Roman overlords – but I AM the king… aren’t I?”
Whatever he thought, Herod’s unease was profound enough to infect his entire community – anxiety has a way of spreading into the systems in which we operate. And most of us, when we fear our well-being is threatened, will go into control mode: we will seek information and amass expertise and plan strategies, all to gain a sense of mastery over a situation we really can’t control. Herod gathered all the religious leaders and prophetic types and asked them to speak the unknowable, that which God had not yet revealed.
Today, as we move through the last day of the year, a year of gains and losses, of achievements and challenges, of death and life – what causes the most anxiety in you? What do you want to know that you cannot yet know, because the time for that has not yet come? A good year-end exercise might be to name those things and invite Jesus to sift them with you. Light a candle, and make a list.
And what are some changes you would embrace? How might you like to see your circumstances improved? It’s good to pray into those desires, inviting God to put flesh on your hopes and dreams as they align with God’s dreams for you. The best prayer of all is this: What dreams is God inviting you to put flesh on today? And in the year to come?
I pray that this New Year’s Eve will offer us some time for reflection before we go hurtling into the next year... On the other hand, it’s just one 24-hour period passing into another – that happens every day. So sit back, chill out – or go out and party like it’s 2019!
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