The End and the Beginning

Today (January 5) is the end of the Christmas season and today and tomorrow mark the end of a long and contentious election season in the U.S. Tomorrow is Epiphany, the beginning of the post-Christmas era, and tomorrow also should be the beginning of the return to normalcy in the U.S.

The End of the Christmas Season

For many people, the celebration of Christmas ends on December 25 and attention is then focused on other things. In some traditions, though, Christmas Day is the beginning of a lengthy celebration and today is the twelfth and last day of Christmas.

In this tradition, Epiphany is celebrated on January 6. The Gospel writer Matthew tells the story of the first gentiles to receive the revelation (epiphany) of Christ. That is the account of the Wise Men of the East who came to revere Jesus, the newborn king. 

In the fifth chapter of his 2019 book Postcards from Babylon (which is being made into a documentary  available for viewing, for a price, on Jan. 21), author Brian Zahnd writes about “the dark side of Christmas,” King Herod’s massacre of the baby boys in Bethlehem.*

Because the Persian magi (magicians) were looking for the new king, “it made sense,” as Zahnd writes, “for them to inquire in the capital city of Jerusalem, but by doing so they unwittingly set in motion terrible events” (p. 68). Herod, the tyrant King of Judea, tried to destroy the new king-to-be.

So, as the celebration of Jesus’ birth ends today on the twelfth day of Christmas, we recognize the epiphany of the Wise Men tomorrow. Epiphany, sometimes called “Three Kings Day,” marks the beginning of the universal appeal of Christianity.

Even though their desire to see the new king triggered cruel action by King Herod, “the baby king escaped the gruesome infanticide ordered by the paranoid king” (Zahnd, p. 72). So, we celebrate Jesus’ escape but grieve over all the “collateral damage” caused by tyrannical King Herod.

Today, people around the world are still compelled to choose whether to follow those known for their love of power, such as Herod and others who aspire to be autocrats, or to follow Jesus, the one whose life and teachings were characterized by the power of love.

The End of the Election Season

The important presidential and congressional elections in the U.S. took place on November 3, but they are not ending until today and tomorrow is the designated day for the final certification of the winner of the presidential election.

The election season ends with voting today for both of Georgia’s U.S. Senators, and seldom have senatorial elections been of greater significance.

Then tomorrow should (finally!) be the end of the presidential election, but never has that formal congressional certification of the electoral college votes been under so much attack.

What should be a routine day tomorrow in Congress is now fraught with uncertainty because as esteemed opinion writer Colbert King of the Washington Post writes, “President Trump, a buffoonish one-term wannabe autocrat, will not accept his election loss.”

King further predicts that tomorrow (Jan. 6) “will be a day of acrimony, probably to Trump’s delight.” As early as Dec. 19, DJT tweeted: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6^th. Be there, will be wild!”

Embarrassingly for many of us Missourians, last Wednesday Sen. Josh Hawley announced his intention to object to the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral college victory, which will lead to hours of debate tomorrow on what should be merely a routine matter.

Then on January 2, Sen. Ted Cruz and 10 other GOP senators announced that they would join Hawley in opposing certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

That same day, DJT made a ludicrous, and most likely illegal, telephone call to Georgia election officials asking (demanding?) them to change the voting results in that state.

But tomorrow should, thankfully, end the contentious election season and begin a new day in which the Biden administration will vigorously seek to Build Back Better.

May it be so!

+++++

* That was one of the massacres I wrote about in my 12/26 blog post.

The Beginning of “Spiritual Warfare”

Tomorrow (Jan. 6) is “Epiphany” on the liturgical Christian church calendar. Among other things, it is a celebration of the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. That “Visit of the Wise Men” is told in Matthew 2:1~12. Matthew continues with “The Escape to Egypt” (2:13~15) and then with “The Massacre of the Infants” (2:16~18).

The “War” against Christ

In recent years there has been much talk, especially by the Christian Right, about the “war on Christmas.” But Matthew’s Gospel tells about the war on the Christ-child.

Properly understood, the attempt of Herod to destroy Jesus was the beginning of “spiritual warfare” seeking to destroy the one born to be the Savior of the world. Or to use different words, this was the beginning of the attempt by the “principalities and powers” to destroy the Christ.     

"The Flight to Egypt" (c. 1650) by B. Murillo

“Principalities and powers” are often interpreted as being “invisible” forces of evil that war against people of faith. But those words most likely refer to concrete, visible forces—such as King Herod.

The spiritual warfare that began soon after the Magi returned to their homes “by another road” was not just nebulous activities by unseen powers. No, it was the slaughter or massacre of the baby boys that was intended to include Jesus.

Stringfellow’s Explanation

In my Nov. 15 blog article, I briefly introduced William Stringfellow and his book An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land (1973). A major theme of that impressive book is the author’s elucidation of the meaning of “principalities and powers.”

According to Stringfellow’s deep understanding of the Bible, the “principalities and powers” are not some esoteric spiritual forces of evil in a nonvisible realm. Rather, they are “all authorities, corporations, institutions, traditions, processes, structures, bureaucracies, ideologies, systems” and the like (p. 27).

Such principalities and powers inevitably reside in those, such as Herod, who have abundant possessions, power, and prestige – and, according to Stringfellow, they “are legion in species, number, variety, and name” (p. 77).

“Thus,” he avers, “the Pentagon or the Ford Motor Company or Harvard University or the Olympics or the Methodist Church or the Teamsters Union are all principalities” – as are capitalism, humanism, science and scientism, white supremacy, patriotism etc., etc. (p. 78)

Stringfellow even suggests that we should “perceive the President as a victim and captive of the principalities and powers (p. 142). (This was written when Nixon was in the White House but is certainly applicable to the current occupant as well.)

The Victory of Christ

The New Testament later testifies to the victory of Christ over the principalities and powers by his resurrection. That important emphasis is found in 1 Corinthians 15, which prognosticates “the end, when Christ hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he brings every form of rule, every authority [principality] and power to an end” (v. 24, CEB).

The eventual victory of Christ, however, began on the cross. As Brian Zahnd elucidates in Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God (2017), “Jesus was killed by the principalities and powers” (p. 100)—embodied in the religious and political leaders who colluded to put Jesus to death: Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate.

BZ goes on to state, “Paul says the cross heaps shame on the rulers and authorities that preside over structural sin. ‘In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities [principalities]. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross’” (pp. 106-7, citing Colossians 2:15, NLT).

The struggle against principalities and powers continues. In this new year let’s deliberately and definitely choose to be on the side of Christ, who will finally win through sacrificial love and unconquerable truth.