On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me…eleven pipers piping…
That is today, the eleventh day, eleven pipers piping.
Jeff Foxworthy did his own 12 days of Christmas song years ago with 11 wraslin tickets, a fun song.
Tomorrow is the Epiphany, the 12th and last day of Christmas, 12 drummers drumming.
Tonight is 12th night, the traditional beginning of the Epiphany Feast, a festive evening, where the wise men figurines arrive at the manger, the yule log is finished being burned, a bright night full of many customs.
That song, the 12 days of Christmas was originally a teaching tool used by English Catholics when Catholicism was suppressed in England in the 17th and early 18th centuries.
The 11 pipers piping referred to the original eleven Apostles, after the departure of Judas.
A secret code, for a secret mission, a covert operation, in the midst of all the Christmas festivities.
The wisemen, were playing a dangerous game with King Herod. A secret mission.
God is made manifest in the infant Jesus, the Christ child, like in the old hymn, God in man made manifest, the manifestation of God to the world, like a secret infestation, undermining the foundations of the proud and the powerful.
The magi are witnesses and they take the news with them secretly into the night, escaping Herod.
Chapter 2 of Matthew’s Gospel reads like an episode of Mission Impossible, like a cosmic game of chess where we are all pawns and players.
It is an interesting counterpoint to Luke’s chapter 2 with the birth of Jesus, and all the angels singing, the glory and the wonder. That is the story we hear Christmas Eve, when the church is crowded.
But the rest of the Christmas season is something more dangerous, less well attended.
Matthew, chapter 2, is full of dreams and warnings and narrow escapes, mass murder, fleeing across the border for asylum, then eventually secretly returning, resettling nearby in what we would now call a witness protection plan.
It is a secret invasion, a secret society with plans of world domination.
Not by amassing influence and wealth, not by hoarding anger, resentment and fear, not by stockpiling weapons and fortifying borders, not by piling up lies and counteraccusations.
The world is rather taken over by amassing forgiveness, hoarding mercy, stockpiling generosity, admitting the truth, by piling up confession, and reconciliation.
The kingdom of God and God’s little holy family are playing the most dangerous game with King Herod and the powers of darkness that play Herod like a puppet.
All the might and weapons of the world, versus the infant child who will carry it all on the cross, exposing the lie, shaking the foundations.
The wonders of Christmas Eve and Luke chapter 2 are a glorious feast, but after that it is Matthew chapter 2, and the secret life of God taking the world back from the violent, the loud, and the angry.
The manifestation is the infestation of God and King Herod will not go down without a fight.
Do we play Herod’s game with Herod’s tools?
Or like the wisemen do we go home by a different way?
It is the leap of faith, that the violent and powerful are trapped in a lie, and that the way of Jesus has already taken over the world. There it is. The leap. Do I live in Herod’s Kingdom or Jesus’ kingdom?
Is it folly? Or is it faith?
Is God real, or not?
How will I live my life, and fill my days?
Can the world change?
Can I change?
The next move in the dangerous game is ours to make.