Matthew 2: 13-23
Good morning, and grace and peace.
The Eleventh Day of Christmas . . . and my true love gave to me eleven
pipers piping! Which sounds like an
appropriate gift indeed for us here, pipers for St. Andrew’s Day next November,
and to go along with the twelve drummers drumming as they arrive tomorrow! And a
partridge in a pear tree! We’re all set!
As most of you know, I like to keep counting all the way through the
rich 40 days of this season of Incarnation, subdivided as Christmastide and
Epiphany, up to February 2, Candlemas, Feast of the Purification of St. Mary
the Virgin, the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple--when we will be
shifting gears and on our way into the three weeks of “Pre-Lent.,”
Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima.
When our focus will turn from the great theological language of
Incarnation to begin to center on the Doctrine of Atonement. Incarnation, about “who Jesus is,” and
Atonement, about “what Jesus did.” The
Nature of Christ. The Work of Christ. Completely inseparable, of course: the
unified message of the Gospel, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners.
In any event, this Sunday it’s still very much Merry Christmas, though as we hear this morning St. Matthew carries
us along some of the shadowy pathways through the story of the Birth of our
Savior.
Years ago Ruth Cover of blessed memory told me a story—I’m not sure
this was something that happened to her when she was teaching in our Church
School back in the 1960’s or 70’s, or perhaps a story that she had been told by
someone else. But the story is an Advent
or Christmas season Sunday School art project-- the second or third graders are
given some drawing papers and crayons and asked to create a picture of their
favorite scene from the Christmas Story.
The results perhaps fairly predictable.
Lots of Shepherds and Angels, Holy Family in the stable, the animals,
the Baby in the Manger, the Three Kings, the Bethlehem Star. But then one boy at the end of the table has
spent his time working energetically, and when the teacher looks over his
shoulder she sees something that looks like a Fighter Jet shooting across a
blue sky, with giant flames exploding out of the engines. “Didn’t you hear the assignment,
Johnny?” The teacher asks. “Yes, he says.” “But this isn’t part of the Christmas story.” “Sure it is.
The flight into Egypt! – and
look, in the cockpit, that’s Pontius, the Pilot.”
In any event, part of the story that often doesn’t make it to the
Pageant. We remember how Matthew brings
us to this point. Matthew’s Christmas
doesn’t contradict anything we remember from Luke, but there are lots of things
he remembers that Luke didn’t tell us about.
At the beginning of Chapter 2 Matthew introduces us to these Wise Men
from the East, who have seen a new star in the sky, which they interpret as
meaning that a new king has been born to rule in Israel. They come to Jerusalem, and make official
inquiries that lead to old King Herod hearing of their arrival, and after some worried
consultation they are sent along to Bethlehem, King David’s city and the place
where the Prophet has said the long hoped-for Messiah would be born. Herod is clearly worried that this might be a
hint that there is some rebellion percolating, a challenge to his authority and
the legitimacy of his dynasty, and so he asks the Wise Men to return to
Jerusalem and to let him know what they have found.
Of course the Wise Men do come to Bethlehem, guided by the Star--which
is now moving along before them--rejoicing “exceedingly with great joy” when
they finally find Jesus and Mary and Joseph. And after the presenting their three
symbolic gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, they are, we are told, warned in a dream not
to return to Jerusalem, and so they head home a different way.
That’s how we get to this morning’s readings. The Wise Men have slipped away, but Joseph,
just like his Old Testament namesake at the end of the Book of Genesis, the one
with the Technicolor sportcoat, is a man who dreams meaningful dreams. God speaks to our Joseph in a dream, and just
as Joseph in Genesis brings Israel his father and all his brothers and their
families down to Egypt as a place of refuge and safety in the time of famine,
so now as the guardian and protector of Jesus and Mary his Mother this Joseph
is given an urgent warning, and is called as well to Egypt as a place of
refuge, narrowly escaping the murderous rage of Herod, who has realized that
the Wise Men have slipped away and who then decides to nip any potential
problem of a birth in the royal line of David by ordering the Slaughter of the
Innocents. Something we are told from
other historical sources was entirely in keeping with his ruthless exercise of
power. Another part of the story missing
from most Sunday School Pageants. That
horrifying cry of the Mothers of Bethlehem echoing through the centuries. And it’s not until some considerable time
later, perhaps even several years of living as refugees, when King Herod dies,
that Joseph finally believes it safe to take the child and his mother and to
return not to Bethlehem, where Herod’s son was now in charge, but back to
Nazareth, Mary’s hometown, where Joseph apparently had been working some time
ago as a carpenter or in the construction trade, to make their home there.
Matthew’s Christmas always feels a little uncomfortable leaning up
against the story as Luke tells it.
Luke’s Shepherds and Angels and the midnight birth, the babe wrapped in
swaddling clothes and settled in a manger bed—it all seems timeless, in a kind
of homey, domestic bubble, warm, romantic, sentimental, almost other-worldly, a
story we might read our children before they go to sleep. But Matthew’s Christmas not a bedtime
story. Not if you don’t want some
squirming, and some uncomfortable dreams.
No visions of sugarplums, but darkness and danger, a fearful escape to a
foreign land, the brutal clatter of swords, death and destruction and the
weeping of mothers bereft of their little ones.
Hear Matthew’s story, and you’re grateful Christmas comes but once a
year. That would be enough and more than
enough, and as painful as reading through the litany of terrors and atrocities
in the morning paper. ISIS and the
Ukraine. Story this week that estimates
nearly 4,000 children killed in the civil war in Syria. On display, the worst the world has to offer. The absolute worst. Our world unvarnished. Brokenness, betrayal, cruelty, sin and
death. Sin and death. I mean, it’s the holiday season, after all,
and time for a break from all that. But Matthew keeps the spotlight right
there.
In the 2006 movie Superman
Returns there is a scene at the beginning.
Superman has returned to Metropolis after many years on some kind of
unspecified task far away, I can’t remember the details. A sabbatical.
And he discovers that in his absence things seem to have changed. At one time he was cheered as a hero, but now
he seems to be regarded more as a problem, a disruption. He wants to be involved, but he is turned
away again and again by people who feel like they no longer need the kind of
help he can offer. Even his old flame
Lois Lane has moved on. A new job, a new
boyfriend. And she has this amazing
conversation with the Man of Steel. “You
seem to think it’s your job to save the world,” she tells him. “But the fact of the matter is, the world
doesn’t need a savior, and neither do I.”
The fact of the matter is, we don’t need a savior. Well—if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know
that Lois has spoken a bit too soon. Lex
Luthor and his evil gang are even as Lois is speaking at work to bring on chaos
and destruction, with a full dose of Kryptonite, and things are about to go
very bad indeed.
But I recall that scene this morning just to say that if there’s one
thing Matthew never will let us say at Christmas, is that we don’t need a
savior. This world of ours. You and I.
Matthew doesn’t forget and doesn’t let us forget that this is a world
that needs saving. That you and I are
people who need to be saved. From the
darkness around us, from the evil that has taken up residence in us.
Without Jesus, it’s all Herod, all the time. Deadly Kryptonite. In the wide world. In our hearts. Not some exotic beast, but as real as the
newspaper, and in fact a snapshot. A
“selfie.” The message to call us to the
Table this Second Christmas Sunday, and a reminder as we are sent out into the
world. As the angel. “You shall call his name Jesus,” which means
savior. Savior. And what that means as
we assess who we are, our life situation, here at the beginning of a new
year. What Christmas is, and to remember
just what is at stake here. Really and
seriously. Very high stakes for us, if we
are tempted to cover that over with a bit of holiday gift wrap. Call him Savior, the angel says. Because without him we are doomed.
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