OSLC Sermon New Year s Day January 1, 2017 Matthew 2:13-23 Grace to you and peace One Wednesday evening during Advent Pajama Vespers, Suzanne Burke told the story of Christmas Godly Play Style, surrounded by the children. She opened the golden box that held the story represented in beautiful, classic art work not at all the way we imagine a children s story might be told. She told the whole story, from the angel s appearance to Mary telling of the child she would bear for the sake of the world, through the angelic messengers to the shepherds, through the visit of the wise ones from far away, who learned of the new-born king from the placement of the stars in the sky. Including this terribly sad and horrific story about Herod s slaughter of innocent children to protect his power. Suzanne knows these children well, and they trust her. She told this portion with sensitivity and care; and the children listened with corresponding sensitivity and care. She warned them first that they would hear something very, very sad; and they listened with childish wisdom. At the end of that evening I asked Ziggy, one of our small theologians, what he thought of the story. With careful seriousness he answered, I didn t like the sad part. 1
It s true, isn t it? None of us like the sad part. In fact, in our culture of safety and protection, in our wise rejection of a wrathful God that controls the minute details of every event, who uses violence at every turn to accomplish the Divine will, we mostly want to rewrite the scriptural story as it comes to us longing to edit out the sad parts. Isn t that our longing on this first Sunday of Christmas? That we d rather not hear this tragic story of innocent children being viciously sacrificed to the god of political power? Yet, here it is in Matthew s account for all to see. The Christ Child is saved by angelic messengers, discerning Wise Ones from a different land, and the careful obedience of his human father; while an unknown number of toddlers and babies are killed by order of a ruthless king. Just like little Ziggy, we don t like the sad parts. We wonder: can t we just have our Loving and Gracious God without the sad parts? It s Christmas, after all. But if we read scripture carefully what we come to know is that We are the sad parts. If we turn our eyes away from that truth, salvation itself becomes meaningless and the power of the Incarnation is rendered useless. The miracle of Christmas is that it is into exactly this world, with all of its suffering and greed and distorted power that our God chose to come. Emmanuel took the form of a small and vulnerable child, containing within that birth the promise of God s saving and sustaining presence. Matthew s framework for his account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is ancient prophesy fulfilled. Working through Hebrew scripture Matthew makes the case that the events of Jesus life 2
establish him as the New Moses, expanding the story of Israel s liberation from slavery in Egypt to humankind s liberation from slavery to sin and death. The parallels between Jesus and Moses start at the very beginning. Remember that the people of Israel were held in bondage to Pharaoh, who feared that they would become too numerous and threaten rebellion. Pharaoh ordered first that midwives should kill the babies born to Hebrew women as a means of controlling their population. The courageous midwives refused to comply, claiming the Hebrew women were so vigorous they gave birth before the midwives even arrived. Since they had subverted Pharaoh s intent, he issued a new command that Hebrew babies should be thrown into the river and drowned. And there begins the story of Moses. Protected by the disobedience of the midwives, Moses future was further preserved by the crafty wisdom of other women. Moses mother crafted a water-tight basket for the child before throwing him into the river. His sister, Miriam, was set to watch what happened to the basket. Pharaoh s daughter, well-aware of her father s decree, drew the child out of the river and raised him as her own. The slaughter of those innocent Hebrew babies was not God s doing, but the power and wisdom of God s determination to save is always stronger than human capacity for evil and destruction. We, humans, are too often the sad parts of the story. 3
From our jealousy and resentment, our greed, our fear of losing power our fear of losing anything! our fear that we are inadequate or insufficient, our fear that we are not loveable or safe these are the deep sources of so much of the sadness, grief, and tragedy that exist in this world. And the children, the littlest ones, always seem to bear the burden of our individual and collective sinfulness. Our hearts are broken at the photo of a toddler refugee washed up on the beach. We want to turn away from another photo of a small boy covered with blood and debris, staring into the camera as he waits for someone to address his plight. We block from our thoughts the countless little ones suffering from abuse, or trafficking, from hunger or homelessness or a poor education. We cry out in deep lament, How can a loving God allow such things?! And God s most tender, loving, and heartbroken response is How can you? Apparently our hearts need to be broken by the sad parts in order to see our shared humanity and our God-given call to love. You see, it is exactly those fears and sins, the ones that cause so much of the suffering in the midst of God s good creation that Christ came to heal and forgive! Just as God heard the cries of God s people in bondage to slavery in Egypt and used Moses to bring liberation, so God hears the cries of all creation and entered human history to liberate us from our bondage to fear and sin! 4
But look carefully at our story. It was not God acting alone that saved Jesus from the tyrannical threat of Herod. Human agents, listening to the stirring of dreams and heavenly messengers, obedient to God s preference for life and hope, were the ones who acted to keep the Child safe from harm. In the face of terrible fear and threat Joseph, Mary, and the Magi all took risks against the power of Empire, for the sake of the child in their care. Given the experience of the Holy Child whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, God s promise of salvation must mean more than protection from suffering in life. And given God s determination to take human form and dwell with us in time and space, salvation must also mean more than just the promise of heaven some day. The Radical Joy of Christmas comes in the salvation proclaimed by the heavenly choir, Peace on earth, Good will toward humankind. In the birth of Jesus God invites us into the work of caring for all those who are vulnerable and threatened and fearful and in fact that means all of us! For who is without the fears that threaten and divide us? Who is beyond the self-doubts that cause us to turn in on ourselves and away from neighbors who need our love and protection? God s Word in Jesus is Love the only hope for the healing and salvation for which we long. To be saved from our sins by Christ is to be set free from our shame that we are not enough and our guilt that we have not done enough and our fear that we don t have enough. Salvation sets us free from the paralysis of sin and 5
doubt so that we can freely turn to our neighbor in love; to the vulnerable, fragile, dependent, precious and beloved children Of Flint Michigan Of Standing Rock Of Allepo Of North Minneapolis Of Refugee Families or Undocumented Immigrants Of Orlando and Nice and Brussels and Berlin Because there are no throw-away children. Those innocents put to death at Herod s command are held for eternity in God s everlasting embrace, washed in God s own heartbroken tears. They are part of the great cloud of witnesses that cheers us in our efforts to provide sanctuary for those whose families are threatened by unjust powers; in our affirmation and actions that demonstrate BlackLivesMatter; when we insist that all children deserve a solid education and a safe place to live. And the list goes on. It hurts too much to look at the sad parts. But the Radical Joy of Christmas is the witness to the Light that came into the World. Jesus took on human flesh in order that we might put on Christ in Baptism and take in Christ in the Eucharist. Radical Joy empowers us for Radical Action in the name of the One who comes again and again in Love. The Lord now sends us forth. Amen. 6