Epiphany 2025 - Herod’s Advisors - An Adventure in Missing the Point

"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 of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 

'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" 

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." 

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another path."

Matthew 2:1-12

Today we turn to the final parties in the Epiphany narrative - King Herod’s advisors.  

If Herod's response to this baby king is one of fear and anger, his advisors response seems to be one of apathy.

When the wise men ask Herod where the child was prophesied to be born, he then turns to the chief priests and scribes. Their response, or lack thereof, is the most interesting part of this account. Of course they of all people would know the scriptures, and would know the prophecies. They knew everything about the coming Messiah. They could have answered any question about the Messiah that had been posed to them.

They simply had no desire to seek him out.

Think about it. They saw the same star in the heavens as the wise men. They saw it centered over Bethlehem. They had to know something significant was occurring in the stars. The Magi's story would have filled in important pieces of their own observations.

But for whatever reason, they didn't care enough to find out exactly what was happening.

We don't know if it was fear of Herod that kept them from acting. That would have been a perfectly rational response. They knew everything Herod did to keep power, and would have been rightly afraid of his reaction.

Perhaps they were so wrapped up in their own power and position that they never even paid attention to the star. Perhaps even after hearing the story of the Magi, they no longer had any inclination to seek the Messiah. After all, God had been silent for 400 years, why would he show up to outsiders and not them?

For whatever reason, their response to the Magi's tale was silence and inaction. They did nothing. They heard of the possibility of the arrival of the Messiah and they flat out ignored it.

It's a stark reminder for us to not ignore the signs around us. To not ignore where the Lord is working around us.

To expect Him. And to seek Him out.

It’s also a question for us all.  For those of us not aligned with the rise of Christian Nationalism.  For those not continuing to seek political and religious power.  For those of us not following Herod’s path.

What will we allow to stand in our way? 

Will it be our fear of reprisal?  The comfort of our position?  The fear of the louder voices around us?  Will it be our exclusivity? Our insider status?

Will any of those be the reason we refuse to follow through and do what we know is right, based on history, our education, our conscience, and the Spirit’s leading?

Will we be Magi or the advisors?

When Change is Forced Upon You

The fear of change seems to be a universal part of the human experience.  I think it's largely because of the lack of control that it represents.  Even in situations where we arguably choose the change that is coming, we still often face it with some level of fear.  Fear of making the wrong choice, fear of failure, fear of the future.  Fear of the unknown.

All these fears are exacerbated when the change is forced upon you.  When the agent of change is out of your control.  By the actions of other people.  By the government.  By nature.  By God.   These are often the biggest changes.  Illness, death, crisis.

Please note, in all the above, I've made no distinction between whether the change is negative or positive.  It often makes no difference.  A positive change can often be as scary as a negative one, simply because we cannot see the outcome at the outset.  Likewise, often the most necessary changes, the most beneficial changes to our lives can be often those feared the most, because they have the most on the line.  They require us to take a step of faith.  To take a step into the unknown, to roll the dice, and take a chance.  And that often requires leaving a place of comfort and stability, to move on to something greater.

I was fired Wednesday evening from a job that I have held for over ten years now.  In truth, it's probably a company and a position I should have left some time ago, but I kept at it because of comfort, stability, grit, and a sense of loyalty.  I believed in what the company could and should be, and I still do.  And there are people there that I would still fight to the end for and beside.

I don't really want to take up any space here with writing about the firing or the events/reasons given surrounding it.  There's nothing good that would come of it.  There's no change that would be affected.  I would rather focus on the point that I've come to.

After dealing with the initial shock, I've come to realize that this is a change that has been forced on me because I didn't leave earlier and probably when I should have.  It's a clearing of the deck and a preparation for a new adventure.  A new opportunity.  And hopefully, potentially, something big.

Jamie and I had already been preparing to move.  We were looking to move closer to the office in Richardson to cut down on the 110 miles that I put on the car every day and the 2-3 hour commute roundtrip that I made.  Jamie was looking for a transition after 11 years at Wills Point High School and we wanted to be closer together with the kids at such a great developmental time.

Jamie was also looking for a break.  Something different than teaching for a little bit for a refreshing. A sabbatical.  She initially thought of taking it a year or two after we moved, but about March, we had come to realize that it would make the most sense for her to take it now.  For us to have a transition year or so, where she took the sabbatical, we moved closer and then had a lot of time to find the right place in the DFW area for us to put down roots and then for her to look for her next theater position.   Accordingly, she had put in her resignation back in early April and has been prepping for her sabbatical year with the kids.

With my change now, we're both free and untethered.  We don't own property.  We've been renting a great loft apartment in town.  We're nearly completely out of debt.  We're open to new adventure.

In fact, if we could make it work financially, we'd love nothing more than just to start off now and start traveling.  Teaching the kids history and geography as we make our way across the country/world.  Writing and videoing our travels.  Investing in our family and exploring this great creation.

And we're still planning for that to happen, perhaps a little later when Jude's a little older, but we're going to figure out how to make it work for a season.

Right now, I'm applying and looking for new opportunities.  And in the process, while I started with DFW and Austin, I've come to realize that there's no reason not to cast a broader net.  With where we've been brought to, I have to believe we may be being prepared for a bigger change.  And I'm okay with that.

I think of David and his path to the throne.  He's told he will be king of Israel when he is a child, but there is someone else seated on that throne.  David would spend fifteen years between his anointing and finally being crowned king of Judah, and another seven to become king of all Israel.  He would spend that time being persecuted and hunted by Saul, often living in caves and on the run.

And yet, through that experience, he could still pen:

"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you annoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Not to tempt fate, but for a dose of perspective, if last week is the worst thing that happens to me, I'm truly blessed.  And should something worse occur, the Lord is still my Shepherd.

He is leading me into pastures that I know not.  New pastures, new paths, new opportunities.  There may even be new valleys.  But he is with me.  And he restores my soul.

I still have that pinch of fear about me.  Will anyone respond to the resume?  I haven't had to interview in over eleven years, will I present a good application?  Is there an opportunity out there for me that is full-time and stable?  Or am I going back to temporary contract/project based work?

Those kind of fears are always there if we give into them.  The questions just change.

Instead, I'm choosing to focus on the wide open possibility.

I'm ready for the new adventure.

When change is forced upon you, trust the Shepherd.

Fear and Statistics

Ted Talks are very interesting.  I've listened to several and have always been enlightened by the topic and often fascinated, regardless of the topic.

One of the TED Talks that I continue to go back to is What Fear Can Teach Us by writer Karen Thompson.  She spoke on the connection between fear and imagination.  And what she reveals continues to resonate with me.  Particularly her discussion of the whaleship Essex.

The whaler Essex was part of the inspiration for Moby Dick.  On November 20, 1820, after an already plagued journey, the Essex was struck by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean, nearly 2,000 nautical miles off the coast of Chile.  The whale crushed the bow, driving the vessel backward, and leaving the Essex to quickly go down by the bow.

After spending two days salvaging what they could, the 20 American sailors on the vessel set out in their three small whaleboats, with rudimentary navigational equipment and very limited supplies of food and fresh water.

The crew had few options ahead of them.  Closest land was the Marquesas Islands, nearly 1,200 miles to the west, which might have been reachable on the supplies that they had.  They had heard frightening rumors of cannibals on the islands, however.

Another option was to sail Northwest to Hawaii, but there was a fear of the storms that would be encountered given the time of year.

The last ditch option, the most difficult, and longest option, was to sail south for 1,000 miles to get around the trade winds and then use the Westerlies to turn to South America, which would be another 3,000 miles to the East.

Whatever option they chose was plagued by specific fears:

• The Marquesas brought the potential of cannibals,
• Hawaii brought certain battering with the storms, and 
• South America brought an almost certain eventuality that supplies would run out.

Whichever fear they listened to governed whether they lived or died.  They could give into a gruesome possibility or a certain doom.

Upon a vote, they chose the longer and more difficult journey to South America.  Herman Melville, who would use the Essex as inspiration, would write "all these sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex might in all human probability have been avoided had they immediately after leaving the wreck steered straight for Tahiti.  But they dreaded cannibals."  After more than two additional months at sea, the crew had run out of food and were still quite far from land.  When the survivors were finally rescued, less than half the men were left alive and some had resorted to their own form of cannibalism.

Why did they dread the possibility of cannibals so much more than the likely probability of starvation?  Why did they respond only to the most lurid, most vivid, and easiest to imagine fear?

We have a similar problem in society today.  We are governed by the most lurid, the most vivid, and the easiest to imagine fears, instead of those that are more statistically likely to happen.  This is used to great effect by politicians, to rally people around a cause and draw support.  

We can see this in the people who refuse to travel because of a fear of planes.  Or those that refuse to travel abroad because of a fear of terrorist attack.  Despite the fact that you are more likely to be injured or die in a car than the plane and are more likely to be crushed by furniture than the terrorist attack.

We can see this as well in our obsession with guns in this country.

Gun safety at home generally requires the gun be stored unloaded in a locked cabinet, with ammunition stored in a separate locked location.  I've linked to safety tips from the National Shooting Sports Foundation that contains this specific advice.  There are even laws in certain locations that require this type of storage.  And this is done to prevent accidental discharge in the home, whether by the gun owner or others, particularly children.  

The problem is that such storage makes a gun very impractical for home defense.  If the gun must be unloaded and locked in a separate location from the ammo, then that requires precious time to obtain the gun, the ammo, to load it, etc. in the event of a home invasion.  So the narrative goes.  To be useful for home protection, the gun should be loaded and ready for a moment's notice, right?  Because that is the fear.  The fear the gun is supposed to assuage.  The fear of being attacked in one's own home and needing to defend oneself and their family.

But the statistics do not bear out this fear.

There have been at least 70 unintentional shootings by children in 2018, so far; at least 897 since 2015.  There are nearly two million children that live in homes with guns that are not stored responsibly.    This accounts for nearly 65% of unintentional child gun deaths.  And that is just accidental gun discharges; not even touching intentional gun use in domestic violence or suicide.  And those are the statistically most likely scenarios in which a gun will be fired in the home - unintentional discharge, intentional shooting in domestic violence, or suicide.  NOT for home protection.  Guns in the home are 22 times more likely to be involved in accidental shootings, homicides, or suicide attempts.  For every one time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there were 4 unintentional shootings, 7 criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides.

If you looked at Chicago for example, in 2011 precisely one homicide listed "burglary" as the motive.  Nationwide, there are 100 burglary-homicides every year.  100 out of 323.13 million people, or a rate of 0.00003%.   The numbers do not bear out the primal fear of home invasion.  And yet it is what rules our consciousness.

A rational look at the likelihood of events would move everyone to safe storage, to prevent the more likely occurrence.  But we are governed by the irrational.  The statistically less likely.  The primal fear.  

Perhaps it's time to own up to that fear.  To admit it, to recognize that it isn't always the most rational one, and to move on from it.  That way, maybe we can actually start productively talking about it.