HEROD’S SOLDIER- Matthew 1:23- 2:16  12/24/09  11 PM

I am doing a soliloquy tonight.  I do soliloquies each year at the 11:00 service on Christmas Eve.  If you don’t get this, you will totally miss the sermon.  This year, I chose someone who is on the side of the most secular person of the day- Herod.  Herod was a murderer- he killed his wife, his son, John the Baptist and the babies under two years old in Bethlehem- and Jesus and his family barely escaped.  How would one of his soldiers have experienced that first Christmas?

I am Remus, and I am an optio- second in command to my centurion.   I am a Roman soldier assigned to help Herod keep the peace.   I am a professional soldier, and hope to one day own some of my own land in a Roman colony- maybe Philippi.  In the meantime I am here to protect the crown of Herod- that was put on his head by the Roman emperor himself about years ago.  I live in the praetorium in Jerusalem, which is a huge fortress not far from the temple and even closer to Herod’s palace.  Sometimes I travel to Herodium, the winter palace of Herod, out in the desert overlooking a little country town called, “Bethlehem.”   Something happened there that I will never forget- that made Herod look bad even in my eyes.  I was in Herodium, in December during the Census of Quirinius with Herod during his winter stay at the  palace many years ago.   Bethlehem below the hill a little ways and to the west, was jammed with people coming to be counted as one of the Old Jewish king’s line.  We soldiers wondered about all these so-called kings’ descendants gathered together in one place.  It looked like trouble to us.  I can remember about that time on a starry night in December, when I saw bright flashes out over the fields in the hills over Bethlehem where they kept the sheep for the sacrifices for the Temple.   The next day there were all kinds of rumors.  Shepherds said they saw angels and heard voices.  Herod heard the rumors too, and was especially perturbed about a Jewish pretender king being born.   He sent some of us to investigate. 

When we caught up with the shepherds, they didn’t want to tell us anything.   I thought they were a little crazy.  If there was such a thing as an angel, why would it appear to some poor, homeless shepherds?   If there was a king to be born, it would have been in a warm, wealthy palace, not in some hick place in the middle of nowhere- and that’s exactly where was that night.   Yet it wasn’t too long after this that astronomers from East of the Jordan came and said they had seen a star for a king of David to be born.  Herod had us go into Bethlehem and kill any baby under two- doing his dirty work.  It was under fifty babies.  I am sure we wiped out any pretender king-threat. 

Herod is my kind of man.  He is practical, and He knows how to negotiate to be on the winning side.  Herod is not much of a religious guy, yet he is rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem to placate the religious nuts in this land.  Herod likes to use religion to hold onto his power.  So, when the religious people fuss, he just drops some more money into their coffers, and they look the other way. 

Herod is the great secularizer.  Herod believed in partying and having a good time- and then being just enough religious to keep people from being angry at him.  He has found a way to water down the religious zeal of the land.  He has appointed a high priest who agrees with him, and killed the religious high priest.  The priesthood, afterall, is just an appointed office, not a place to give a pulpit to stir people up.   We don’t want any problems.  That’s why I if I were you, I wouldn’t say “Merry Christmas” but “Happy Holidays.” If I were you, I wouldn’t call it a “Christmas tree” but a “Holiday Tree.”  I wouldn’t pray in the name of Jesus, but just say, “In your name” and let people guess.  If you get people to shop and work on Sundays maybe they won’t be so religious.  You people are learning from us Romans to water down religion, and take its power away- and I just want to say I’m proud of that.  I’m really proud of Herod, He is my kind of guy.  Any talk of God, and of a baby being born as a King in Bethlehem is all hogwash.  I am absolutely certain nothing will come of it.  I am sure a baby born in this back country won’t affect anybody, and the world- the Roman world- will go on forever.   I am Remus- but I’m sure you’ve heard of me.  I’m an important person in Herod’s guard.  No one will ever hear of these crazy shepherds, or the astronomers from the east, or some little baby.   So y’all keep going down the Roman path, Herod’s path.  
             I have had some friends of mine who gave into this Christian belief.   Their lives changed.  Instead of being so tough to others, they tried to treat them with kindness.   They should have hardened their hearts like me, and been a good soldier of the government.   Why don’t people just go with the flow.  I tell you again, this talk of a king being born is a flash in the pan- it’s just a temporary thing that won’t matter at all in just a year or two.   People need to live for the here and now, and listen to those who can help them in this temporary life.  Herod could have helped them if they just listen to his every word.   All this talk of loving neighbor, and of a king coming to Judea is just mush.   People need to be hard, tough.  Talk of babies born as kings, of crazy shepherds seeing angels, of astronomers seeing some king star and coming here- that kind of thing just doesn’t happen.   My friends who believe seem to be happier.  I wish I had their happiness, but I would rather believe in a king I can see than some kind of spiritual king. 

So ends the words of Remus.
           

People have been trying to silence the birth of the baby Jesus since he was born.  But today in hundreds of thousands of churches it is still proclaimed.  No one remembers Herod’s generals and prominent soldiers but the baby born is still around today.  Tonight, I invite you to not push him out of your life, but to welcome him in and let him change you.