We’re coming up on the celebration of the Epiphany (January 6) in which we mark the spread of the message of Jesus’ birth to the Gentile “wise men” from the East. But the story of the wise men (traditionally referred to as “kings”) is all wrapped up with that nasty Herod.
The story is in Matthew 2 and there is a very, very dark side to it. Herod uses these “kings” as pawns in his attempt to destroy Jesus. When these wise men refuse to play Herod’s game, he puts the entire village of Bethlehem through the worst horror imaginable by slaying all their boy babies.
I had the occasion to preach on this “slaughter of innocents” story last Sunday. My central question was, whose side is God on when a power-hungry ruler gets out of control? I titled the sermon, Bethlehem and the Least of These and it is online now (click the title to read it).
I have been submitting a number of my recent sermons to my friend & publisher, David Housholder, for inclusion at his online magazine called Life & Liberty. These sermons and my other contributions to Hous’s site are some of my best work of the past year. I do hope you will visit Life & Liberty–my online home away from the blog–to see (and hear) my work over there.
Here’s the link to all of my work at Life & Liberty:
Jennifer Clark Tinker 