sermon-jan-3-2010-mp3(Click onto this link to hear an audio version of the sermon.)

 

One of the most beautiful Christmas card scenes over the years has been of Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus fleeing Bethlehem for Egypt. Mary and Joseph ride on the back of a donkey while Joseph walks by their side. In most cards, it looks like a family holiday….a trip to the country. If there is trouble ahead it’s a long way ahead. It’s as if time is frozen and the whole family is untouched by the threat of evil that surrounds them.

 

Our gospel reading tells us what that evil is. King Herod has heard about the birth of a powerful king from the wise men and so he orders the execution of all the children in Bethlehem under the age of two. An angel appears in a dream and warns Joseph to flee the coming massacre, so Joseph and Mary pack in haste and hit the highway going south to Egypt.

 

The other night our family watched The Sound of Music on TV for the umpteenth time. My favorite scene comes at the end of the movie when the von Trapp family is hiding out from the Nazis in the convent and, as the family drives away into the mountains, one of the nuns pulls out from underneath her habit the starter motors of the Nazi officials’ cars. “Bless me Mother, for I have sinned,” the nun says with her tongue firmly in cheek. And we all chuckle as the film ends with the von Trapp family walking and singing happily as they flee over the mountains into Switzerland.

 

We love this picture and many of us would love to convey a sense of trust in the midst of darkness and adversity to our children and grandchildren. We want them to know that, beneath the superficial details of life…behind what often looks like a dark and despairing world, lies God’s love and care for them.

 

And this is what makes this scene of Mary and Joseph’s exile into Egypt so compelling. In the face of the mass slaughter of innocent children, Mary and Joseph are completely open to receive God’s message via an angel. They show total faith in God’s wisdom and providence. This kind of trust might look like stupidity or, even worse, some sort of caving in to forces they can’t control, rather than standing their ground. But it’s something quite different. Mary and Joseph seem to accept with complete faith that no two-bit tyrant like Herod could ever snuff out the light of God’s love that has been born into the world. In a way, this scene is a strange, mysterious preview of Good Friday. The world thought God’s light has been snuffed out on the Cross, but that was Friday, and Easter Day was still to come.

 

We’d like to put ourselves in this picture wouldn’t we? We’d like to be able to identify ourselves with Mary and Joseph as they flee into Egypt, completely trusting in God’s providence and care for them.  And that’s where it ends for most of us doesn’t it? Christmas is over. Time to take the cards off the mantle or the bookcase, and store or throw them away. A beautiful hope….a compelling image of peace and trust in God, stored away for another year.

 

But that’s not where it ends does it? The cards go away, but the headlines keep reminding us that the slaughter of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem is not just the setting for a beautiful story that happened two thousand years ago. It’s our world. Children and their families being forced into exile in Darfur.  Innocent Afghan families being caught in the cross-fire between the Taliban and US soldiers.  

We don’t like to think about genocide or about human suffering on such a scale, but, if we’re honest, then we have to admit that the slaughter of innocents in Africa or the Middle East is something that goes on all the time. No sooner is Christmas over then we are reminded that evil and unexplainable tragedy persists in the world and we realize that this not only the way King Herod lived….it’s the way we live.

 

As one preacher put it, “we realize, even before Christmas is over, that, in this world, we must give our children something more than a toy, and even something more than the birth of a boy.” But what is it that we must give them? We must give them more than trust in God’s providence and care. We must give them the gift of faith in God because of the gift that God has given us:

o   A faith in the victorious love of Jesus Christ

o   A faith that makes a difference in their lives

o   A faith that changes them and enables them to live in a world in which evil exists.

 

What Christmas has to say to us is that the world is different because God has come into this world to suffer its evil with us….to suffer with all of us and even to die at our hands because God loves us….all of us. Because of Christmas, the slaughter of the Innocents at Bethlehem is not just the way things are. Because of Christmas, we believe, not the evil has disappeared, but that we are different.  Because of Christmas, we believe that it is possible for us to deal with evil as our Lord, himself, dealt with it – by suffering with those who suffer, and, by living for them as he lives for us….because our love for them is just like his love for us.

 

Epiphany is a Greek word meaning “manifestation.” Because of our faith in Jesus, we become the manifestation…the people who “show forth” Christ’s life and light in the world. As we move from the season of Christmas into the season of Epiphany this week, we move from celebrating the birth of Jesus to finding ways to manifest Christ’s love in the world around us. In the season of Epiphany we ask God for strength in our commitment to live in the world as Christ lived….not to passively stare in the face of evil or overwhelming tragedy, but to become Christ’s body….Christ’s light in the world. We are God’s people and we believe that God calls us to share in the salvation of the world by living in the world the same life of love and hope that Jesus lived.

 

So, as you take down your Christmas tree this week…as you pack your ornaments and Christmas cards away….keep this picture of Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus alive. Keep it alive for yourselves, for your family, and especially for your children and grandchildren….a picture of faith that will sustain you long after the memories of Christmas have died….a faith that will draw you into the world where Jesus lives and suffers….a world where children still suffer, but where God’s love in Jesus Christ perseveres and overcomes the darkness.  Amen.