So, here we are this morning on this 1st Day of 2023, the 1st day of this New Year. What are you thinking about 2023 this morning? Will 2023 be different from and better than 2022? I don’t know but I suspect that’s a question many of us are asking and wondering about, and with good reason. In 2022 we had winter storms, supply chain failures, the migration crisis and the awful war in Ukraine, and airline passengers physically attacking crew members, to mention just a few. And every one of us could tell stories about what 2022 was like for us, our family, and our friends personally. Despite the divisions in our country and the various chasms between individuals, groups, and parties, my guess is that we’re all hoping and praying for 2023 to be different from and better than 2022, in the same way we hoped and prayed that 2022 would be different from and better than 2021. Maybe those hopes and prayers, though sincere and well-intentioned, are misdirected. Maybe asking if 2023 will be different from and better than 2022 isn’t the question we ought to be asking. Here’s why I say that. It exteriorizes our focus and places it on other people and circumstances. It seeks information instead of transformation. It lets us off the hook and lets us avoid ourselves. Maybe the question we should be asking, the prayer we should be praying, and the thing for which we should be hoping, isn’t about 2023 but about ourselves. It’s not about whether 2023 will be different from and better than 2022, but whether we will. Will you and I in 2023 be different from and better than we were in 2022? I think the question is less about the events of 2023 and more about our fear. I think the answer to that question depends on whether and how we deal with our fear: Fear of the future; Fear that we don’t have as much control or power as we want; Fear of change and losing what we have; Fear of our mortality and the fragility of life, and, ultimately; Fear of each other. What are you fears about 2023? What leftover fears have you brought with you today from 2022? Where are you stuck? Identify the places your life is stuck and you’ll find not only fear, but a life that wants to enter the world through you. If we want to grow up and live the life that wants to enter the world through us, then we must deal with our fear. That’s the challenge facing Herod and Joseph in today’s gospel and it’s the challenge facing us in 2023. There’s a lot of fear in today’s gospel and today’s world. It’s not hard to imagine what Herod and Joseph might be afraid of, we need only look at our own lives, but today I am more interested in what they did with their fear. They handled themselves in two very different ways. They help us see the ways by which we handle our fear. You see, Herod and Joseph live in each of us. The thing that strikes me about Joseph is his dreams. In today’s gospel he has three dreams upon which he acts. Here’s what I think is significant about that. They show that Joseph was connected to his inner world and that he trusted it. He experienced himself as a part of something bigger than the tangible sensory world, something larger than he could imagine. Joseph had a link to the infinite. He experienced the numinous within himself. And that changes how we deal with our outer world. I don’t think our interior world, whether we experience it through prayer, dreams, or visions, necessarily gives us instructions or marching orders. Instead, it enlarges our life and world. It opens us to see, hear, and consider more. It raises new questions and offers additional information to be pondered. It’s interesting to me that Joseph never says a word in today’s gospel. Instead, he is receptive and listening. He seeks his guidance from within. In contrast to Joseph, however, Herod seeks his guidance from outside, from “wise men.” He believes they have his answers. He is not silent. He asks questions and gives orders. He tells the wise men, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him bring me word” . His world is only as big as that which he can control. He is disconnected from any power greater than himself, and that’s a scary place to be. Herod, unlike Joseph, refuses to do his own inner work. He sends the wise men to do it for him, but nobody else can do our work for us, and it leaves Herod feeling tricked and infuriated to the point of violence. He “killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under”. And it all began with fear. Herod rules by fear and is ruled by fear. As long as we are unwilling to face ourselves and the fears that live within each of us we will be possessed by that fear and we will continue Herod’s slaughter of the innocents. Fear not dealt with always diminishes life, our own or someone else’s. That’s not how I want to live and that’s not the legacy I want to either leave or perpetuate, and I don’t think you want to either. I want to be different from and better than that, don’t you? Let’s consider for a moment the ways in which fear intersects our lives: Imagine the life you want for yourself or others. How is that life being disrupted or hijacked by fear today? By what values are you living your life? And in what ways is fear present in those values? Where is your life stuck? What are the patterns in your life by which you do the same old stupid thing again and again? What are you avoiding, ignoring, or hiding from? In what ways do you overcompensate? And what’s the fear behind all those things? “There is nothing wrong with being fearful; that is human; but it’s wrong to live a life governed by fear”. That’s the difference between Herod and Joseph. Herod’s life is possessed by fear, Joseph’s life is motivated and energized by fear. How might you deal with your fear differently in 2023 What do you need to change or let go of? The issue isn’t whether we will at times be fearful. That’s a given, we will. The issue is what we do with that fear and what we allow it to do with us. And it seems there are two basic responses. Herod’s fear caused him to take life, Joseph’s fear caused him to protect life. Both happen in a thousand different ways. Look at any place where fear is present and you’ll see life takers and life protectors. Sometimes I’ve been Herod and sometimes I’ve been Joseph. I’ll bet that’s true for you as well. It’s the choice that stands before us every time we face our fear. Herod or Joseph? That choice just might determine whether 2023 is different from and better than 2022. To God be the Glory! AMEN
