First Sunday in Christmastide (Year A) January 1, 2017
Matthew 2:13-23 Panzer Liturgical Service, Stuttgart
On the Move...
The jolly, happy, and carefree nature of Christmas celebrations are no more evident in the world than they are in many of our lives. Christmas is a time when we try take a few days off from work, and settle back to catch up on our sleep and our shopping. For many of us, it is a time for renewing and strengthening relationships with family and friends, and for enjoying ourselves as we close out the old year and begin a new page in our lives with a slate, clean and clear. It is my hope that each of you has one Christmas memory from this year which gives you great joy and happiness to help keep this Christmas season special in your heart and mind.
But today’s scripture lesson reminds us that just because we celebrate the Savior’s birth as one of the most important days in our year, bad things don’t stop happening. People we know and love are hurting. People die and their families grieve. Some have suffered with long-term illnesses. Others are not recovering from colds and flu as quickly as they would like. Still others are newly diagnosed with serious health problems which will present strong challenges to them, and perhaps even challenge their faith.
Joseph and Mary had many challenges as the parents of Jesus. Look at what we know. First, they were “blessed” with an unexpected bundle of joy, told to them by angel visitations. Then they were forced by circumstance to go to a town far from their home just at the time when Mary was expected to give birth. Shepherds and visitors from the East, both unusual guests, brought greetings and gifts of joy in honor of their very own son. And then when it was time to go home and live a “normal” life, another angel appeared with one more life-changing message.
“Don’t go home,” the angel said. “Go instead to another place where you know no one, and wait for the Lord to call you home.” And being obedient and faithful people, they did just as they were instructed. After some time, maybe months or years, the angel appeared with the message of their homecoming, and they returned to the land of their birth, settling in the city of Nazareth, where Jesus would prepare for his ministry with God’s people. It’s the rest of the Christmas story.
This passage of scripture is placed in the lectionary on this day for several reasons. First, it reminds us of the historic nature of the church’s ministry. Early in the life of the church, the holy family was honored on the Sunday after Christmas with this reading, to give us some small insight into the lives of Joseph, Mary and Jesus after the shepherds and Magi had departed. This passage reminds us that Jesus’ birth story isn’t about a savior who dropped miraculously from the sky. Jesus’ birth narrative, which includes the murder of innocent children in Jerusalem and the fleeing of the family to Egypt, reminds us that Jesus and his parents were just like us. They were people whose lives were in turmoil. They were a family trying to do the best they could to survive. And they were looking for guidance, even through an angel mediator, who had not yet steered them wrong.
Second, the passage has at least three references to Jesus’ birth and life-fulfilling Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Chosen One. According to Matthew, Jesus and his family were sent to Egypt to “fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son,’” words reminiscent of the prophet Hosea. And the children’s murders, though tragic, were foretold by Jeremiah, along with the resulting grief and pain, in this way: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” Even the place of the family’s relocation fulfilled the several prophecies of the Messiah coming from the town of Nazareth.
These commentaries, when placed together and at the beginning of Jesus’ story, help Matthew to authenticate Jesus’ position as the One whom God had called – the One whom God had chosen to save God’s people. Continuously in Matthew’s gospel we hear this theme: Jesus came to save God’s people, as was foretold to the Jews. Matthew’s point… with this kind of evidence, there can be no argument – Jesus is the One. And because they also believed it, Mary and Joseph modeled an obedience that their son also lived out, and allowed themselves and their son to become God’s instruments of peace and salvation.
But there are many questions which this text and others in scripture make no attempt to answer. Why would God let something so terrible happen to innocent children and families? Could God’s plan have not be achieved without the death of more people in the name of power and prestige? Today we ask, why do bad things happen to good people, especially at Christmas? Why me? Why now? When will it all be over?
These questions have been asked for generations. Old Testament writers often understood and explained the evil in the world as God’s punishment for those who had disobeyed God’s commands. The stories stood as examples of what happens to those who do not obey the word of God. But Jesus’ life and death put that whole notion into serious question, because we know that Jesus’ was obedient to God in all things, and still he was killed, and made an example of for the Jews and Gentiles who believed in his power as God’s son and Messiah by the established religious and governing authorities.
As a Christian caregiver, and as a pastor, I hear the questions that people ask, as have many of you. Part of my call as a Christian, and part of my job as a pastor, is to try to help people hear a word of God’s grace and peace, even in the midst of turmoil and pain and the numbness that goes alone with grief. Many times, those words are hard to say and hard to hear.
But they are eternally true and they are these words: God does not abandon us. Not Jesus… not the children of Bethlehem and Jerusalem or Allepo or Berlin… not any of our brave friends and family members in their battles with cancer and illness or dementia… nor has God abandoned any of us in our own periods of doubt and pain and unbelief. God stands by us. God sends us friends and family and even strangers to comfort us and remind us that someday we will be called home, just like Joseph and Mary and Jesus were called to a new home in Nazareth.
Often, we forget that when we were called to be Jesus’ disciples, we were called away from our fear of death and separation, but not from death and separation themselves. We were called away from our ultimate fear of disaster and sickness because we know that in Christ, we have everlasting life. And we were called to be beacons of hope in a dark and lonely world, givers of grace and comfort, champions of the everlasting presence of God and God’s people through thick and thin.
What a challenge to be followers of Christ! What an unbelievable legacy we live out as we follow Jesus’ path in the world. And we never know where we will be called to serve. Think about all the places you have lived… all the friends you have made, the churches and communities where you have served and been served. If you are like me, there were times when you felt alone and wondered where God was – and then there were other times, when God’s presence of no question. Angel visitation or not, God finds a way to have a word of promise, of salvation proclaimed and heard. Wherever we go, God will go with us. We are not alone.
Joseph’s journey with Mary and the baby reminds us that faith is not for the faint-hearted, but is for those who have the stamina to stand up to all that the world and circumstance throw into our paths. And when we don’t have that strength for ourselves, there will be someone, maybe the least expected person, who will be the hands and feet of Christ to us just when we need it. Being a Christian is hard work. It means we may have to veer off the paths that we have chosen for ourselves, and with the help of our Lord, manage the ones we have strayed onto or been pushed down unexpectedly on our way.
It is important for us to remember that our Christmas celebration cannot be complete if we forgot who Jesus is. He is not just the baby born on a special night in Bethlehem… there were other babies born that day. He is not just a member of a family with faithful parents who fled to Egypt… I imagine others also left in order to escape the domination of tyrannical rulers. He is not even the only man in Judea who went around performing miracles and preaching to the people of Galilee, Nazareth and Jerusalem. And he is certainly not the only one ever killed for speaking a word that frightened and challenged the powers that ruled the land.
But Jesus Christ is the one whom God raised from death. It is Jesus’ resurrection that makes him different. It is Jesus’ resurrection that makes us need to know how he was born and how he lived. We worship Jesus, not just for how he was born and died, but because he rose from death and lives today. And we serve him because we know that his love changes our lives, both in this world, and in the one to come. So, as we celebrate this Christmas season, we also look forward to Easter, and to the jumble of emotions and experiences that it’s celebration adds to our lives.
May the coming year bring peace and joy to each of you, to those you love, and to all who serve the risen Savior, Jesus Christ. And in those times of pain and doubt and question, let us remember always, as Matthew has reminded us this day: God has not abandoned us, so let us not abandon our faith in him! We are on the move! Let us go in peace!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Peace, Deb
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