Hooray for Change!

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. (Matthew 2: 1-4)

Those that love the cuddly image of the baby Jesus do not get to celebrate it very long. The gospels do not elaborate on the first year of Jesus' life pouring over his first steps or words. In fact two gospels do not portray his birth in the slightest terms.

Instead the gospels move rather quickly to the threat that Jesus posed to all religious and political leaders. Leaders do not care to be threatened, and most of them squashed threats that arose along the path to power. King Herod reacted as any king would when he heard a new king was on the way. He wanted to squash the threat. Religious leaders of the time set a standard of piety that they did not often meet, leaving a large portion of the community feeling abandoned. They too would be questioned and threatened by Jesus. The anger/anxiety on the part of either group is normal

The interesting note in the scripture is the fact that all of Jerusalem was concerned with him. That statement suggests even those that were not in power felt anxious. They had been ignored and told that it was God's will that they be ignored. They had everything to gain, and did not want to experience the change.

A brief look back at Exodus provides insight to this interesting phenomenon. Though they were freed from brutal slavery in Egypt, the Israelites complained when they experienced the slightest pain or inconvienience. They preferred the easy, predicatble days of slavery over any sort of change or risk. What can we learn from this?

Changes are coming in 2010. Some will be great, some will be terrible, and most will be somewhere in between. Our abilty to navigate that change will depend on our depth of faith in God's love for us. We will continue to work on that depth in 2010>