CHRISTMAS 2

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: CHRISTMAS 2
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: January 5,2003


TEXT: Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 – The Flight into Egypt, and Joseph’s Dreams because the life of the child is threatened.

ISSUE: Matthew tells some of the awful truth of the birth of Jesus. He is born into a cruel and evil world, while at the same time he is the fulfillment of man’s hopes and dreams; he is the messianic hope for the world. Faithful Christian people must not take our hope in Christ for granted, but embrace it with all the love of Mary and Joseph.
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And now, some of the rest of the story of Jesus’ Birth, according to Matthew’s take on the birth of Jesus Christ. In Luke’s account of the story, we have the artistry and poetry of the masterfully written story: the little town of Bethlehem, with angels singing, and shepherds worshipping at the manger. Matthew’s account of the birth tells more of the story that is often the less enjoyed part of the story. Matthew tells of the King Herod’s involvement in the story and the pursuit of Jesus and the slaughter of innocent children. Matthew, is also intent on aligning the story with Old Testament events and stories, as his gospel account addresses a largely Jewish Community.
Matthew’s community would have been relatively well versed in their Old Testament, or Hebrew Scriptures. Their great feast of the Passover was based upon their deliverance from evil Egyptian oppression through the work of God’s prophet and leader Moses. Early on in the History of the Jewish people, there was a man who could interpret dreams. His name was Joseph. The name of Jesus’ father is also Joseph, who is an interpreter of dreams. Repeatedly an angel comes to Joseph to direct him: to stay betrothed to Mary, to flee from Herod to Egypt, and then to take the child, Jesus, to Nazareth. Matthew, of course says, that all of these moves are fulfillment of prophecies, or at least one liners from Hebrew Scriptures: Hosea 1:11 – “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” And Isaiah 11:1 in which Isaiah says a new branch shall spring forth from out of the lineage of Jesse. The word for branch is “nezer” which sounds close to Nazareth. Matthew is intent on helping his people to see that Jesus comes forth from out of their history and prophetic anticipation.
The people of the time would also have appreciated that Moses was a great leader who led his people out of oppression and bondage from Egypt. In Matthew’s story, Jesus’ life as an infant is greatly at risk, like in the Moses Story. Moses was hidden from the evil Pharaoh in a tar-covered basket set afloat in the bulrushes of the Red Sea. Yet by the grace of God, he was protected, and led his people to freedom and the Promised Land. The crossing of the wilderness and seas were symbolic of the crossing through a possessed threatening environment. Matthew tells how King Herod threatened Jesus, like Pharaoh threatened Moses. Children are slaughtered, and he and his family eventually take flight from Egypt to Nazareth in Galilee, where he begins a ministry that will eventually lead Jesus’ followers into the Kingdom of God.
What essentially seems to be going on here is the presentation of the birth of Jesus into an extraordinarily hostile world. Matthew wants his readers to know and to believe that this Jesus is truly the anticipated messianic hope for the world. His coming and presence are deeply anticipated and rooted in the longings, dreams, visions, and hopes of the people and the prophets. The other most important part of this story is that the birth of Jesus into the world was not just the singing of angels and the adoration of the poverty stricken; it was a threatened fragile life from the very beginning. However, Joseph has grasped the meaning of the dreams and the visions, and sees the hope of the world in the child and becomes the great protector of so precious a gift, as the gift of the Christ child.
This very startling part of the Christmas story emphasizes the reality of the cruelty and hate that existed in the world. We are really confronted by that in this more neglected part of the story. Some Biblical scholars today, do not believe that there was an actual murdering of innocent children by King Herod. They are inclined to believe that this part of the story was simply a creation of Matthew, to make Jesus look more like Moses. Maybe so. Others believe that such a horrendous act by Herod would be picked up by other ancient historians and the story told in historical writings other than the Bible. Keep in mind that if such a slaughter did take place in Bethlehem, a tiny town of 100 people, there would not have been that many children anyway, and children were sickly and largely expendable anyway. The death of so few would not have made the headlines. But what we do know historically about Herod is that he was a paranoid king who murdered several of his own sons who threatened his power and throne. He was an evil man, and the story of Jesus birth and the threat to his life simply and clearly sets forth the idea that the world into which Jesus was born was a deadly world.
Surely none of us are so naïve to know exactly what the scripture alludes to in the history of our own time. We too have witnessed the bewildered faces of little children looking through the barbed wire fences of the Nazi prison camps in World War II, and who hid from the enemy in out house pits. They are clear images impressed upon our brains out of shear human tragedy. We remember well the photo of the little naked girl running in terror through the terrors of war in a village in Vietnam. We are almost numbed by the nightly news’ presentations of starving African children, and now the starving children in North Korea.
The part of the story of the birth of Jesus that really packs the punch is this part of the story about the terrible evil and threatening aspects of the human condition, and is the part that is often mostly ignored or minimized. Matthew told it for a profound reason. In a cruel world, Matthew was desperate for his community to take hold of the Christ Child, and hold onto him dearly, because he knew he would grow to be the hope of the world. The message is the same for us today, as it was for dear old Joseph and Mary: Protect the precious gift that has been given to you, and guard it with your life. Embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and allow him to grow up with us, so that with him, we may be the hope of the world.
Evil and sin are all around us. Extremes of terrorism and the crass cruelty of leaders like Saddam Hussein are prevalent. Every age of the human condition seems to have its “Beasts.” So much of the world is unconvinced and unconverted to hope, renewal, to the love and forgiveness that comes from God. Yet we must remember that Jesus Christ himself was born into the human condition. He was the incarnation of God into the world in spite of its cursedness. Some very simple expendable people embraced him. Mary was a child of no account status or honor. Joseph the artistan carpenter and stonemason had no account or status so far as we know. Mary accepts the terrible risks for bearing the child, and Joseph accepts Mary and the child as his own. And yet out of that union and acceptance the child grows to his full stature, and some of the world slowly comes to the renewal and acceptance that truly this is the suffering servant, the son of God, who has come into the world.
In the weeks ahead we will enter into the Epiphany Season of the Church Year. It is the missionary season of the Church’s year in which traditionally, Jesus was made to shine forth in the world, like the star above the manger. In the midst of all the pain and the suffering of the world, and all the evil that prevails, and harms and threatens us and our children the Christ is to be made manifest. It is a time for reconsidering what it really means to be in love with Christ to embrace him as our hope and deliverance from pain, suffering, cruelty, and hatred. It becomes the time when we all join in with the work of Christmas: to care for the sick and the lonely, to listen with understanding and consolation, to be sensitive to human needs in the world and in our lives. It is our time to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, to grow with him, and in him, that he may govern and rule our human hearts so that we can with him bring healing, hope, and peace to God’s world.