“Having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they left for their own country by another way.”
Matthew 2:12
One of the Christmas gifts Mary Ann and I received this year is that our guide dog puppy Latifah graduated from the program on December 2nd and has now moved to California with her new partner, Mike. Mike was born with a progressive retinal disease. He is 37 years old and Tifah is his third guide dog. The photo to the right is a picture of the two of them in action. Tifah is doing what she was trained to do. I can’t tell for sure, but it appears that she is either showing him an obstacle in his path or letting him know that they are at an intersection where he can push the crosswalk button. Tifah has been trained to step into his path, stop and look up at him in these circumstances. In certain circumstances guide dogs are taught to deploy something called “intelligent disobedience.” Tifah has learned to refuse to obey a command to go forward when following through with that command could expose her partner to harm.
The preacher in me is captivated by this metaphor of a guide dog’s intelligent disobedience. It is a metaphor in search of a scriptural text. Perhaps it is an illustration of Peter’s line in Acts about obeying God rather than the religious authorities. It’s also a picture of Martin Luther’s civil disobedience in defiance of the ecclesiastical powers as he declared “here I stand, I can do no other.” It’s an example of maintaining an unrelenting grasp on Truth instead of going along with widely accepted cultural lies. In short, it’s a choice to potentially make a lot of people mad because choosing to appease them is not something our conscience will allow us to do.
“Joseph took the child and his mother by night and went to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.” Matt 2:14-15
Intelligent disobedience plays a role in Matthew’s telling of the Christmas story. Matthew’s version of Jesus’ birth is not the stuff of warmly lit stable tableaus that feature a cast of characters who seem to have little to do other than pose for pictures. It’s a harsh story that features a paranoid narcissistic King who wants to make sure that the rumors of a Messiah born in Bethlehem do not become a spark that ignites people’s imaginations to dream of some ruler other than himself. It’s a story of the clash between Truth and Power and how certain people make an intelligent choice to disobey the powers and stand for truth.
Matthew points to how Joseph and a group of astrologers from Persia, choose to defy what is expected of them in order to obey a greater priority. Joseph stands against cultural expectations when upon learning of Mary’s pregnancy, he chooses to go through with the plan to take her as his wife rather than what people expect him to do and “quietly dismiss her”. Also after the baby’s birth, he takes the seemingly foolish risk of heading off to Egypt with his new family rather than staying in Bethlehem. The Maji take the risk of Herod’s displeasure when they choose to disobey him by sneaking out of town without fulfilling his request that they return to him and let him know where he can find the child.
On Christmas Eve we bask in the gentle light of the silent night. We join that cast of characters around the manger in quiet appreciation of the gift of birth. But on Christmas Day the sun comes up and we face into living into the “now what?” of Jesus’ birth. We’re going to have to decide what we are going to do with the information about the Word becoming flesh and how that makes a difference in our lives. We’re going to have see life through the lens of the commandment to love God and love neighbor. We’re going to have to start that process of learning and relearning the truth that we can’t look at life through this lens without running into conflict with the Herod’s of this world. We’re going to have to deploy that resource of intelligent disobedience when we inevitably encounter those things that ask us to erode life rather than nurture it. And when we do, we’ll be resting in the Truth that sets us free.
“As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it.
Leave it as a sign to mark a false trail, the way you didn't go.
Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.”
(Wendell Berry, from “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”)
David Rohrer
12/25/21