December 30, 2007
| Christmas 1, 2007 | Matthew 2:13-23 |
Merry Christmas. We are still in the season of Christmas, the twelve days of Christmas. We want our twelve days to be more like feasting and less like work. We'd all like to be characters in a Charles Dickens story
It's the time of year for light reading in the glow of the Christmas tree. It's the time of year for some sledding with the kids. It's the time of year for a party with those friends you haven't seen since, what was it, New Year's Eve of 1977?
I hope you have had some enjoyment. It IS still Christmas! Have a celebration! Don't worry! Mr. Fezziwig's servants will take care of the dirty dishes.
But for those of you who remember the DETAILS of Charles Dicken's masterpiece, you know that even the jolly ghost of Christmas Present is hiding those wretched children, Want and Ignorance under his robes.
It's Christmas, but All is not well.
The news of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has shaken up the nations. This news comes just when we would rather have the vicious world leave us alone- at least until January 6th.
But an assassination during the twelve days of Christmas matches closely with Matthew's account of the first Christmas. Friends, when the Bible tells the truth, it tells the whole truth. This is how it is. Matthew's account has good news and bad news.
A baby born in Bethlehem is Good News. Stargazers from the pagan world came to see this child. This is more good news. God's grace is reaching beyond the confines of little Bethlehem. And if a star guided the wise men, then the words of Psalm 19 also came to pass; "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork."
Good News. The gospel of Luke tells the good news to the poor, and Matthew shows us that the powerful and wealthy also have heard.
It's Good News.
But bad news too. A paranoid tyrant, Herod, goes on a rampage. Innocent children die, and the grief is daunting even to imagine. Rachel is weeping. Of course I don't equate Benazir Bhutto with the toddlers of Bethlehem. Innocence has its limits. Still the reach for violence to meet political goals is both biblical and modern. These headlines are where we touch this text.
To our modern minds, this account raises some serious questions. Did the birth of Jesus place all those other children into danger? If God can succeed in warning one family, why not warn the other families?
Is God simply that unfair, or that ineffective? And what do we do, when the blood has already been spilled?
The text tells us that through all the grief, and menace, God's Messiah was protected, sheltered, and allowed to move safely toward his calling.
But what does that mean in our context? If the message is... 'God will fix everything,' ...then the danger is that we will decide there's nothing we can do, or even should do. We become callous. Our attitude might be as follows: "Pity about Pakistan, Please Pass the Potatoes."
If the message is that we humans have the sole responsibility to make a better world, then it seems God doesn't make much difference. "Please Pass the ammunition."
Matthew's gospel is a message to a church in turbulent times. This gospel hammers out a message like a steeple bell tolling and pealing strong and loud and here is what those bells mean:
This world wants to rule by its own authority, and you can be sure it will be ugly. God will not be thwarted or deterred by any human decisions whether they arise from fanatic duty or faltering despair.
This Word from God calls us to live in confidence that defies even the Grim Reaper himself. Not denial, but defiance.
God will prevail. God will prevail. Jesus was spared as a baby, but only so he could later face the full force of the gallows. The cross of Christ is where human will to power is broken. The resurrection is the moment that the future begins.
Matthew is saying God's will was done, and will be done, and is done whenever and wherever the gospel is proclaimed, whenever and wherever people pray "Thy Kingdom Come" and everywhere there are deeds of mercy in Jesus' name, and everywhere people see that the cross is God's guarantee to be present in the worst of times.
Merry Christmas. To say that today is not to ignore the ugliness. It is to celebrate the reality that God's kingdom has begun, has broken out into the world, has infected the planet with the grace of God and the call to discipleship.
Some people will see it in the stars. Some may see it in you. Being a cheerful Christian is a bit like dancing on the return trip from the grave. Christians know how to do that. Scrooge woke up rejoicing. Now you know why. Merry Christmas.