Coach Lasso (Jason Sudeikis): "Holy smokes! Did you see that? That fella looked like a kitty cat when it gets spooked by a cucumber. Who the heck is that?
Coach Beard (Brandon Hunt): Jamie Tartt. Top scorer on the team.
Coach Lasso: Nate, what's he like?
Nate (Nick Mohammed): Who, Jamie? He's great. You know, at football.
Lasso: Yeah, I know fellas like that.
Beard: [That's] Sam Obisanya. He's a right back defender outta the Nigerian league.
Lasso: Nigeria? Like Africa? So these fellas are from all over the place?
(pointing at another player) I mean, he must be from England, yeah?
Beard: Wales.
Lasso: Is that another country?
Beard: Yes and no.
Lasso: How many countries are in this country?
Beard & Nate: Four.
Lasso: It's kinda like America these days.
Today, January 6, is Epiphany on the church calendar. (1) The Advent/Christmas season truly ends on with this celebration. Epiphany is the when the church remembers the arrival of the Magi. After seeing a new star rising at the time of Jesus' birth these foreigners travel to see the person whose birth triggered the star (Matthew 2). While the shepherds who visited the infant Christ were local, the wisemen travel a great distance to visit the toddler Jesus.
In a lecture back in 2011 Ray Bakke noted that the Wise Men, who traveled two years to bring their gifts to this new king, were likely from Babylon. In fact he referred to them as "the Babylonian worship team." He further noted that 600 years before Babylon carried off the Jewish royal family into exile, and now these men from that country where celebrating the arrival of a new King. In his book A Theology As Big As The City Bakke says of Babylon,
"Throughout the Bible, Babylon, is a symbol of the city which is anti-God. Literally the name means "gate to God." (p.184)
I believe that the arrival of the Magi at the end of the Christmas story is an answer to Lasso's question, "How many countries are in this country?" Throughout the Old Testament the primary vehicle of God's redemptive story was a single group of people - one particular country. Individuals from other nations were grafted in, but the main object of God's favor was Israel. Now as Jesus arrives something is shifting. The arrival of the Messiah was for Isreal, but it was also for this anti-God nation as well. No longer was the affection of God rather singular, but now the love extended to all - even those awful Babylonians.
The expansion of the good news from the one to the many is a theme in Jesus ministry, and is underscored in Pentecost. The Book of Acts records the good news extending further and further into the world. Paul writes that in this new reality, "[T]here is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all."
So, when it comes to Jesus, "How many countries are in this country?" The answer is all of them, and it all starts with the Magi.
Joel K
(1) Today also marks the two year anniversary of the insurrection at the United States Capitol. And this week is one in which the US House of Representatives has voted over a dozen times for a Speaker without seating anyone. Clearly the US has more than its own fair share of division (countries if you will). Lasso is right again.
