There is a humanity that lives within us and among us that is always responsive to the showing forth of God whenever and wherever it happens. It is in the response of our humanity to the showing forth of God that fullness of life emerges.

But there is also an inhumanity that lives among us -- and sometimes within us -- that pays no attention to God and that works to stifle real humanity wherever it lives. It also stifles life.

We live our lives, and the world lives out its history, in the conflict between humanity and inhumanity. You know that, don't you? That conflict is dramatized in an awesome and awful way in the scripture lessons that we have today.

The coming of the wise men represented humanity responding to the showing forth of God. Can you visualize the commotion the Magi must have caused, richly dressed travelers with a whole caravan of attendants riding into the dusty working folk's neighborhood of Bethlehem, looking for someone whom they said would be a king? Even if the people had forgotten the special things that happened on the night of the baby's birth, that must have filled them all with wonder.

Who are these strange travelers looking for Jesus? They must have seemed to Mary and Joseph and to the people of Bethlehem to be visitors from another world, and in fact they were. Some of our Christmas cards and other traditions picture them as three people who represent the three major racial groups that make up the world's population as we know it. That is probably not historically accurate, but it is a meaningful interpretation of the message of the story. They were probably from Persia, seers trained in astrology, adherents to the Zoroastrian religion, maybe advisors to the rulers of Persia. These wise men represent the rest of the world. They represent humanity in us and in our world that is always reaching out to humanity, wherever it is across all of the boundaries that would divide us, in an effort to pull the world together and make it good.

It is that humanity that reverences life, beauty, and hope. It is the implanted image of the loving God that is in us and in our world. It is through humanity that God reaches out to work in our lives and in our world to save us to the life for which we were created.

This story helps us put the Christmas message in its larger context. The story of God's saving work as we have it takes place mostly within a Jewish world and within the Christian community that developed within that world. It needed to happen in some particular time and place so that we can understand it. But we who live in a bigger world need to be reminded that the things happening within that story have to do with the whole creation. The love of God and the saving work of God are for everyone. The writer of the letter to the Ephesians recognized that when he wrote:

With all wisdom and insight, he (God) has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:8-10)

God is always working to pull us together and to make life good for everyone.

When we think thoughts like that, our hearts are often lifted up by a vision of reality that is full of hope. But too often, right after the elation a somber voice speaks in the back of our minds, saying, "But life really isn't like that. There is a lot of tragedy and meanness and suffering in this world." And that is true. The next part of the story shows it. Only a short time after the wise men left the people of Bethlehem with their hearts full of wonder, the soldiers came and used their swords to carry out the orders of a jealous tyrant. The slaughter of the innocent children dramatizes that which happens in our world. There are still tyrants who will imprison or kill any who get in the way of their plans. There are still innocent people slaughtered in the wars that sweep our world. There are many others who are forced into starvation by the simple negligence of our world's way of putting things together. There are still innocent people killed in the name of religion. And there are also the little inhumanities we commit against each other without thinking, which kill something that could be beautiful in another.

The slaughter of the innocent children dramatizes something that is an all-too real aspect of life in our world. When the soldiers left, a community of people was left crying out in grief and in anger and probably thinking that they would never dare to cherish hope again. If we are sensitive to what goes on around us, we must sometimes feel that way too. It is the result of the inhumanity that always seems to be at work to destroy everything truly human and everything genuinely divine among us.

The Bible writers were well aware of the conflict between good and evil that is always going on in human life and history. The earliest writers thought in terms of a conflict between order and chaos, with God constantly working to keep chaos at bay and bring order to the creation. Some who lived during the life of Jesus thought of the world's population as being divided between the sons of darkness and the sons of light. They thought human history was moving toward a time when there would be a great and violent battle between the two forces. That is one of the great dangers in our human existence. Once we begin to know who we are as people, we are tempted to think that all who are different from us are not really human, and sometimes we feel righteous about trying to destroy them. When that happens, inhumanity wins by subversion. It destroys us as we tear down the humanity of others.

That has happened all too often in human history. As the Christian community grew within the Jewish community, conflicts developed between them as they worked to try to understand what a Christian is and what a Jew is. Some of those conflicts are reflected in our Bible. Paul reflected his deep anguish over the conflicts in chapters 9, 10, and 11 of his letter to the Romans. He knew God loved both the Jews and the Gentiles.

In the history of religions, many of the great religions started as pacifist but turned violent in their interactions with people who were different. It happened in the history of the Christian faith, especially during the crusades. Anyone who knows the history of the crusades knows that it was a time when Christianity almost lost its true nature. It is happening now in some parts of the Muslim community. There are Christians who think they should respond by returning hate for hate and violence for violence. But in that, inhumanity would win its victory.

In the time before Jesus came, many people thought they should be ready to fight in a battle between the sons of light and the sons of darkness. They were hoping that a messiah would come to lead them to victory in that battle. To be specific, they hoped the messiah would organize an army to drive out the Roman army of occupation.

But then God sent the little child who was the center of our story to be the messiah. He grew up to be one who would show us another way. He came teaching us to overcome evil with good and to defeat hatred and inhumanity with love, a love that will evoke humanity. Listen to some of the things Jesus said:

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:27-31)

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

Paul summarized these teachings by saying, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21).

You have heard that before. Have you yet taken it seriously? I suppose we have all known that one who becomes a follower of Jesus will be called to live a life that is different. These teachings show us just how radically different the Christian life can be. Some have dared to take these teachings seriously and translate them into a way of life. When some have, humanity has grown. One of those who took it most seriously was a man of the Hindu faith, Mohandas Gandhi. He translated the teachings of Jesus into a strategy for social and political change and redirected the history of India. But it is clear that anyone who follows this way is likely to pay some great cost for his or her humanity. In order to dare to really live out the teachings of Jesus, one would have to be able to believe that what he or she was doing was participating in the saving work of God that will ultimately win the victory.

One of the great biblical witnesses to the saving work God did through Jesus describes Jesus as one who came to do battle with the devil and all of the powers of darkness, much as a champion in ancient warfare would. In the customs of ancient warfare, two armies might sometimes send out one of their best warriors to do battle on behalf of his whole nation. Whichever champion prevailed won the victory for the whole nation.

I don't know what you think about the devil. The Bible talks about him quite a lot. I don't know if there is actually a person, with or without horns, who is the devil. But anything that the Bible talks that much about must represent something real. We hardly have to look far to see that the things the devil represents are realities we deal with today. The devil represents the militant greed, fear, hate, and indifference, which are the inhumanity that works to defeat humanity in our world and in our lives.

Jesus did battle with those powers of darkness by refusing to let them turn him aside from the humanity God had sent him to represent or from the loving purpose of God that he had been sent to serve. Read the story. It started in the time after his baptism when he went away to pray his way through to an understanding of his mission and had to deal with the tempter. It continued in every way imaginable until he knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died, coping with every mortal motive within him to keep from running away and saving his own life. Ultimately none of the forces of hate that militated against him and none of the fears that must have been there within him were able to turn him aside. When Jesus went to the cross, it must have looked like defeat to everyone who was watching. But it was a victory he won on our behalf. He broke the power of the threat of death by refusing to let it rule him. He won that victory on our behalf. And when God raised him up out of death, God affirmed the victory. God made it clear that humanity is the tide and inhumanity is the undertow. All that humanity represents is of God. If we commit ourselves to it, we will be on the winning side.

So what can all of that mean to us? If we will let it, it will show us a whole new way of looking at reality. Let's think about some of the differences it can make.

First, ask yourself this: Is there something in your life or something in your world that is oppressing you and keeping you from living up to the highest humanity that is possible? Think hard and try to identify it. Are there some social pressures pushing you to conform, some relationship that is either putting you down or pushing you around, or some power that is ruling your life through a threat or a promise? We have to look within too. No tyrant can rule us from without unless it has a collaborator within us. Is there some fear, ambition, resentment, or old hatred that is keeping you from being the person God has called you to be? God invites you to claim your freedom. Dare to believe that those things are parts of the inhumanity that God has defeated in Jesus Christ. Yes, claiming your freedom can be costly. It was for Jesus. But claiming your freedom can open the door to a new life.

Then ask yourself what conflicts are working in your life right now. Are there conflicts with other people? Are there conflicts with some of the structures of life within which you have to live: school, job, family, economic system? Are there unresolved conflicts within yourself? Take some time to identify those conflicts. Now ask yourself: "What would it mean for me to try to resolve those conflicts in the ways that Jesus taught us, applying the strategies of love, refusing to be overcome by evil but overcoming evil with good?" Think about that. You don't have to answer right now. This is something for you to take home and think about while you are trying to go to sleep tonight. But think seriously about it. This is your way of participating in the work of humanity to overcome inhumanity.

Here is a question that is even harder to think about. What are the most threatening conflicts that our nation is involved in right now? What would it mean for our nation to apply the teachings of Jesus as we try to resolve those conflicts? Would you be willing for our country to do that? If you have already answered, you didn't think very seriously about it. There is no easy answer to that question. Yet it is in the willingness of citizens to think through that possibility and act on it as best they can that the world's hope for peace resides.

When the wise men came following the star, they represented all that is truly human in our world responding to the showing forth of God so that fullness of life can emerge among us. What is your humanity calling you to do in response to the showing forth of God?