Matthew 2:13-23
The Earth has completed another
rotation on its axis and it is time again that we declare “Happy New
Year!” 2016 is a year that many of us
have longed to see the back of. From the
absolute non-stop presidential campaign, to the increasingly divided state of
the “united” states, to the seemingly unending list of beloved celebrities and
friends who have died, 2016 was a big bummer.
It was definitely a year for the record books, and not in a good way.
The arrival of the New Year is a time
that often trumpets hope in our midst.
We can be hopeful that this year will be better than the last. But realistically, it seems that hope for a
fresh new year is pretty bleak this time around. With the arrival of the new administration,
things will be changing in these United States.
Those of us who stand on the side of social justice; who preach peace,
equality, human rights, help for the poor, and environmental conservation will
need to remain vigilant. This will be a
year to lift our voices and preach the truth to power, especially as the
question “what is truth?” continues to be raised in new and troubling ways.
No matter what happens to us
politically, the specter of death will continue to march across our lives. I am certain we will lose another round of
beloved celebrities in 2017. Not to
mention our own personal losses that aren’t even a shadow on our days yet. From car accidents to cancer, this coming
year will be as bad as any that have gone before.
Of course, we aren’t the first people
to live through a nightmare of death, violence, corrupt dictatorships, and the
threat of lost hope. In fact, that is
exactly the place where we find the young holy family this morning. In the story that Matthew tells, the wise men
have come and gone. While they have
brought gifts for the child, they also bring a cloud of danger around them, as
the one who sent them, Herod, has no intention of worshipping this threat to
the empire.
The very night the wise men leave,
Joseph has a nightmare. Herod longs to
kill his son and so he is ordered to take Mary and the child and to flee into
Egypt. We need to remind ourselves that
in Matthew’s story, the Holy Family is originally from Bethlehem. They are now called to run from their
homeland by night, and to hide out in a foreign country under assumed
names. Mary, Joseph, and the baby are
illegal immigrants. They are refugees
fleeing violence in their homeland.
And of course the violence comes and
it is brutally merciless. Joseph may
have woken from his dream but the reality of his nightmare is enacted on the
families of Bethlehem. Herod has all the
children searched out, and all of those two years old or younger are killed. The mothers are inconsolable as they mourn
the loss of their hearts very joy, their children are no more.
It’s no wonder that we forget this
part of the story every year. The wise
men come to our nativity scenes but we rarely honor the flight to Egypt. And while if we look hard enough we may find
artistic representations of the holy family fleeing in the night, we don’t
often see or imagine the graves of Bethlehem’s other children. We conveniently forget that the prince of
peace was born into a world of violence, and that violence will mark his life
on this earth, even from such a tender age.
When Herod finally dies, Joseph again
dreams and is called to return home to Bethlehem. But it is not long into their travels when
they realize they will not be returning home after all for it is not a safe
place. Instead, they must shift again,
heading into the region of Galilee.
Unable to return to the safety and familiarity of home, the refugee
family seeks to make a new life in Nazareth.
While we imagine him as a baby,
scholars think that Jesus was probably two when the wise men visited. Logically then, he would be old enough to
remember his flight in the night, crossing dangerous borders and watching for
soldiers and guards. So too would he
remember the aborted return home, and how the powers that rule the land dictate
the life of him and his small family.
Life as a refugee would have been a formative experience for our Lord,
and yet it is a story that we conveniently ignore and overlook. It’s much harder for us to celebrate Jesus the
middle-eastern refugee kid, than Jesus the tiny baby in swaddling.
While it is New Year’s Day outside
these doors, in the church we don’t celebrate the New Year. Instead we mark this time as Epiphany. Epiphany is the “season of light” and we need
that light in our world now more than ever.
An Epiphany of course, is a realization, and perhaps our realization for
2017 is that the Christ child of the scriptures looks a lot more like a Syrian
refugee, than like the blonde-haired blue-eyed babe of our mangers.
As with Joseph, the world around us is
starting to look like a nightmare. These
are dark days indeed, and yet the writer of the gospel of John reminds us that “What
has come into being in Christ was life, and the life was the light of all
people. The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
Although his days were dark and full
of fear and real danger, Joseph did not abandon hope. He did not let go of the light that was
burning in his heart. When I read the
paper every morning I can admit I could be tempted to lose hope in this world,
and yet even a small candle of light burns in my heart these days for the New
Year.
Those of us, who were present
Christmas Eve, remember how one candle of light can spread to fill the whole
room with its glow as we share the light together. It is my dream that in this coming year, the
small glimmer of hope in my heart will unite with the glimmer of hope in yours. Together we can make it through these trying
times and perhaps we can even make the world a better place.
As Matthew tells the story of our
Savior, the days from this point on pass quickly and are unrecorded. The next event is the arrival of John the
Baptist at the river Jordan, preaching repentance and advocating baptism. The candle of hope must have burned in the
holy family for decades, and now hope comes to fruition as Jesus comes to the
waters prepared to answer the call to begin a ministry that will forever change
the world.
The holy family lived through a
violent nightmare, brought about by the birth of their son, Jesus. And yet, in the midst of threats and fear,
they held on to a candle of hope. It
seems that we, as a people of privilege living upon this planet ought to be
able to do the same. We too, need to
hold on to that candle of hope and to look for the light in the darkness. Maybe this coming year will be unrecorded in
the great book of history but maybe not.
Maybe 2017 will be our best year ever.
Perhaps the state of the world will call us to action in ways we never
imagined. Perhaps we will share the
gospel in ways we have never considered before.
Perhaps we will lead the lives of faith we have only dreamed of. Perhaps this is the year when we rise up and
declare “We are the people of God, and we have come to bring about the kingdom
of God, on earth as it is in heaven.” I
certainly hope so.
We can do all of these things, but
only if we gather together as the body of Christ. This coming year, 2017, God is calling us to
live out our faith in bold and exciting new ways. May God bless this New Year, and may we bless
the world around us by sharing the light of love that burns within our
hearts. Amen.
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