The Immediate Word
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
When we hear of atrocities and other deplorable acts in our world, it is easy to imagine that we are immune to whatever would drive another human being to perform them. Is that true? How far are we from becoming that monster that invades our televisions, shooting people at random, bombing innocent civilians, showing no regard for the worth of fellow people? Are we born this way, or do we slip into depravity, perhaps without even realizing it? As we read this week about Herod's Massacre of the Innocents, we must ask ourselves: How far are we from becoming another Herod? Carlos Wilton will write the main article with Steve McCutchan providing the response. Illustrations, a liturgy, and a children's sermon are also included.
One Sin at a Time
Carlos Wilton
THE WORLD
Matthew 2:13-23, the Massacre of the Innocents, is a shocking story, to be sure. What sort of monster could do such a thing? The answer is, of course, King Herod -- but, how did he get that way?
The answer is: one step at a time. Herod did plenty of cruel and unethical things during his reign, but it's not likely he set out, at the beginning, to murder babies. He got that way progressively, by allowing his greed, his love of power, and his fear of rivals to rule his life. Before long, yesterday's atrocity had become today's business-as-usual. The king's heart was hardened.
It's possible to build up a tolerance for sin. When we allow this to happen, it's not long before we can end up doing things we can scarcely imagine.
There's a dreadful drug scandal going on these days in the world of baseball. Steroid abuse is evidently more widespread than anyone outside the major league locker rooms imagined. Not so many years ago, these athletes were fresh-faced young rookies, just up from the minors, brashly confident in their natural strength, speed, and agility. How did they get to the point that they were willing to jeopardize their personal integrity, the integrity of their sport, and even their health, in order to win at any cost?
The answer is, again, one step at a time. Like Herod, they allowed their greed, their love of fame, and their fear of rivals to so rule their lives that yesterday's cunning competitiveness had become today's self-destructive behavior.
What else do we expect when our society has blatantly elevated wealth, power, and fame to the status of gilded idols, high and lifted up, urging all people to bow down before them? As one commentator has said, on the steroids scandal: "The heart of the issue is a society that values tacklers far above teachers, pop singers far above social workers."[1] Complain about the errant behavior of individual ballplayers all you want -- the truth is, they got to that place because we urged them on. They were trying to please us, fulfilling our adolescent fantasies.
A wise teacher once asked, "How do sheep get lost?" The answer is, "They nibble themselves lost -- one mouthful of grass at a time."
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/opinion/lweb19baseball.html
THE WORD
Matthew typically writes with one eye on the history of Israel and the other eye on the present, and this passage is no exception. Of all the gospel writers, he is most concerned with the fulfillment of prophecies from the Hebrew scriptures. Matthew cites two principal passages here: Hosea 11:1 ("Out of Egypt have I called my son") and Jeremiah 31:15 (Rachel weeping for her children). Yet, he also indirectly alludes to another passage he does not explicitly cite, but which is such a strong parallel that it has come into Christian art as the archetypal image of the holy family fleeing into Egypt: "The Lord said to Moses in Midian, 'Go back to Egypt; for all those who were seeking your life are dead.' So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt; and Moses carried the staff of God in his hand" (Exodus 4:19-20). Joseph steps easily into the role of a new Moses, a role he will eventually hand on to his young son, who will lead his people on a different kind of exodus, an exodus from sin and death.
We know little of the time Jesus spent in Egypt. We do know there was a vibrant Jewish community in Alexandria that was allowed remarkable freedom and self-government. After the Romans' destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E., this community would become the leading center of Jewish culture and learning. In her recent novel, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, novelist Anne Rice speculates that the boy Jesus may have studied in Egypt with the great Philo of Alexandria. There is no way of knowing this, of course, but it does seem likely that, if Jesus' parents lingered in that Jewish diaspora community for more than a few years, their son could well have sat at the feet of some leading scholars. If that is the case, then Herod's ham-fisted attempt to rid the world of this special child backfired in a rather spectacular way.
There is another prophecy cited at the end of this passage, but it is problematic: "There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, 'He will be called a Nazorean' " (2:23). The problem is that this verse occurs nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures. Matthew's use of it is a mystery. Scholars have attempted some rather convoluted explanations, but none is very satisfying.
Noteworthy in this passage is Matthew's conviction that all these events are taking place according to God's plan. The most fearsome foe imaginable -- the soldiers of the ruthless King Herod -- are no match for God, who has a purpose that will prevail, no matter what.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It's the Sunday after Christmas: the ecclesiastical equivalent of "the morning after" the big party. Reach for the Rolaids, and be thankful: as they say, "Christmas comes but once a year!"
That's the way some people look on this Sunday. Like the Sunday after Easter, it's sometimes tagged with the disparaging label, "Low Sunday." Most of those who look upon this Sunday that way will probably skip worship today -- for if this truly is such a low, gray, miserable occasion, why bother?
In truth, the Sunday after Christmas isn't that way at all. Those who do faithfully make the trek to church know it's still the season of Christmas. The lights are still hung on the tree, the garland's still festooning the walls, and the hymns are still called "carols." This day marks not the end of Christmas, but rather its continuation.
Admittedly, the gospel lesson appointed for today may seem a bit of a letdown. Murder and mayhem are not high up on most people's Christmas lists, but murder and mayhem are what Herod's soldiers deliver.
Many of our people may be surprised to learn there's even a Christmas carol about this woeful business. It's called the Coventry Carol. Ironically, it has one of the most achingly beautiful melodies of all Christmas music -- and, because it's more often rendered as an instrumental number, most people who recognize the tune have no idea about its grim subject matter. The words are a melancholy lullaby, sung by grieving mothers to their dead children:
Herod the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day,
His men of might, in his own sight,
All young children to slay.
That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
And ever morn and day,
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.
What part, our listeners may wonder, does this dark episode have to play in the bright and joyous tale of Christmas? It's a discordant note, struck in the closing bars of a beautiful melody. Until now, everything has been sweetness and light. True, there's a certain menacing aspect to Herod's dealings with the wise men: but God seems able to quickly brush aside his threat, sending the Magi home "by another way." But then, Herod returns with a vengeance; and the mothers of Bethlehem weep their bitter tears, and cradle their lifeless babes in their arms:
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Some have called this the shadow side of the Nativity story. Where great light breaks into our world, there is very often terrible darkness as well. This is not to say that the darkness is part of the light, nor somehow belongs to it, but merely to observe that wherever the power of God enters into the world, evil very often rises up to challenge it.
G.K. Chesterton wonders whether, if a person of supernatural vision had gazed intently at the baby Jesus and his parents, that seer:
...might perhaps have seen something like a great grey ghost that looked over his shoulder; have seen behind him filling the dome of night and hovering for the last time over history, that vast and fearful fact that was Moloch of the Carthaginians; awaiting his last tribute from a ruler of the races of Shem. The demons, in that first festival of Christmas, feasted also in their own fashion. Unless we understand the presence of that Enemy, we shall not only miss the point of Christianity, but even miss the point of Christmas. (G.K. Chesterton, "The God in the Cave," from The Everlasting Man, 1925, pp. 311ff.)
Open a newspaper these days, read any one of a number of stories, and you'll see how active the Enemy continues to be in our world. This is especially true of the baseball steroids scandal, which has plunged our time-honored "national pastime" into what is perhaps its darkest episode since the gambling scandals of the Shoeless Joe Jackson era. How disillusioning an experience this has been for many fans -- particularly the kids in their Little League uniforms, who have a tendency to make Major League ballplayers into heroes.
Yet, we shouldn't be surprised: because sin is everywhere. Always, in the face of our fierce desire to succeed at whatever it is we're doing, there is the temptation to cut corners, to fudge the rules, to make those little compromises that seem so minor at the time, but which swiftly snowball into huge and tangled ethical problems.
No sooner was Jesus born into this world than he and his parents had to flee for their lives to a far country. Such is the power that evil wields. Yet, greater still is God's power -- for, if it is God's will to accomplish something, then God will find a way to do so, even if it means a lengthy sojourn in Egypt.
The message of our Christian faith is not that life is to have no pain, but rather that, in Christ, the ultimate victory has already been won. That same Jesus who was gently laid by his mother on the smooth-worn wood of a manger would one day be nailed to the rough wood of a cross. There he would die, taking onto himself the sin and suffering of all the world. Then, from a dark place not far from the place of his dying, he would be raised: an eternal symbol of the truth that evil is vanquished, once and for all. Herod may win some battles, but he can't win the war.
There's a story from the Jewish tradition that comes out of Russia in the 1930s, a time of terrible persecution by the Communist authorities. It one particular village, there was a Jewish grave digger who saved many lives by hiding fleeing refugees in his freshly dug graves.
One night, as a young woman and her husband were hiding in this grim place, the young woman gave birth to a healthy baby. "This," the grave digger declared (when he saw the child nestled in his mother's arms), "is surely the Messiah -- for who else would be born in a grave?"
Who else, indeed?
ANOTHER VIEW
Good News with a Price
Stephen McCutchan
It has been a rather disturbing year for the religious community. In addition to the various scandals that we have endured in our faith communities, there have been several incidents of violence invading the church. The most recent of which took place in Colorado where five people were killed and five others wounded in two incidents. The shooter was part of a deeply religious family who apparently was angered when he was rejected from being part of a missionary group associated with the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs.
This, of course, follows several incidents in the larger society when people were shot at a shopping center and at a school bus stop as well as more than one foiled plots to replicate the violence of places like Columbine. Most of the perpetrators of these violent incidents were members of relatively prosperous families and more than one were part of religiously active families. At first, the association of religion and violence might seem contradictory. Yet as our lectionary lesson (Matthew 2:13-23) for this first Sunday after Christmas reminds us, violence and faith are not strangers. Has the practice of the Christian faith in our society become so accommodated to our culture's search for comfort and security, that we have forgotten that the history of our faith has been intimately associated with the experience of violence in our society?
It is striking to recall that the three major monotheistic faiths in our world have their origin in a geographic spot on our planet that seems to have been perpetually plagued by violence. It is as if God looked down on this planet Earth and chose to be present where humans had the most difficulty living together.
There are several interesting parallels between this incident at the beginning of Jesus' life and the life of Israel that would suggest that this reflects the pattern of God's compassionate response to the dark side of our humanity. Given the recent debate about how Christians relate to the pluralism of our world, it is also instructive that the sovereign God is at work in the very places that we might be most inclined to avoid. It's as if God is revealing to us through scripture that it is not in a cotton-candy religion but rather the real struggles of humanity where we are most likely to discover God at work.
We begin our reflections right after we are told that the wise men, after having visited the baby Jesus, were "warned in a dream not to return to Herod..." The birth of the Prince of Peace did not change the violent nature of the world. God came to us in the form of a fragile child who was vulnerable to the violence of the world. "... an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt.' "
This is not the first time that we are told how God communicated through the dreams of a human to counteract the dangers present in the world. God communicated to an earlier Joseph through dreams (Genesis 37:5-11), and that Joseph was led into Egypt so that when starvation threatened the very existence of Israel, Egypt would be the place of their salvation (Genesis 37 and 39-45). Now again, when Jesus' life was threatened, it was by means of Joseph in Egypt that his life was preserved.
Christians often forget that both Israel (Exodus 4:22) and Jesus are identified in scripture as God's first-born son. Both are preserved by God in Egypt, a land traditionally seen as an enemy nation. Herod immediately ordered the killing of all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding region who were two years old or under. This is paralleled in Exodus 1:15-2:10 where the pharaoh was threatened by the growth in number of Israelites and ordered all male children killed at birth.
The horrible events of the massacre, not God, fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15. Rachel was the favorite wife of Jacob but was barren, while her sister, Leah, and a couple of maids were very fertile (Genesis 29:31--30:21). Finally Rachel gave birth to Joseph and became pregnant a second time. The second birth was too strenuous for her, and as she was dying, she named her second son Ben-oni, or "son of my sorrows." Rachel was buried at Ramah, and the tradition grew that the spirit of Rachel, the ancestress of Israel, continued to mourn and protest the fate of chosen Israel whose sorrowful experience seemed to contradict the very promise of God.
For Matthew, Jeremiah's promise of a new creation (Jeremiah 31:22) found fulfillment in the birth of Jesus that took place in the midst of the fratricidal tendencies of humanity. The world's violence needs to be protested by the Rachel in us that refuses to be consoled in the face of evil.
On this first day after Christmas, it is good to recognize that the Christian faith is not naive about the harsh conditions of the world in which we live. While we are shocked by the violence of our society and our churches, we should not be surprised. The good news from Matthew is not that our faith can shield us from such violence, but that God is not defeated by it. For Matthew, such violence did not end in protest. God was seen in Jesus reaching into that world of violence and giving birth to a new hope. As was made very clear in the recent response of the Amish community to the violence in their society, the call to Christians in such incidents is to give strong testimony in such times to that redeeming power of God that is not defeated by such violence.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Did you notice that on this first Sunday of Christmas-well, in reality the only Sunday of Christmas this year, because next Sunday, January 6, is the actual day of Epiphany, the day we celebrate the wise men's coming to see the baby Jesus -- did you notice that all of our four scripture readings today talk about angels?
Isaiah says, "It was no messenger or angel but [the Lord's] presence that saved them" (63:9).
The Psalmist urges, "Praise the Lord! Praise him, all his angels" (148:1-2).
Matthew tells us that, after the birth of Jesus, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt" (2:13). And later, "When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel' " (2:19-20).
And the writer of the book of Hebrews reminds us, "For it is clear that [Jesus] did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham" (2:16) and, by extension, to help all of us.
We don't talk much about angels today, but they were certainly part of the biblical story. The word "angel" means "messenger," the Lord's messenger. The Lord sent them whenever there was a message that needed to be conveyed to the people. And we know that the Lord continues to speak to us today in whatever ways work the best.
How do you believe the Lord gets messages to us today? You could talk about this with family and friends after the service.
* * *
Did you notice the story in the news a few weeks ago about a seven-year-old girl in Detroit, Alexis Goggins, who threw herself between a crazed gunman and her mother and took six shots? The little girl yelled at the man not to hurt her mother and lunged forward.
It isn't just adults who can be heroes.
The girl and her mother are recovering, and people are calling Alexis an angel.
* * *
And did you notice the story about the bank in Fargo, North Dakota, that gave its 500 or so workers money this Christmas -- money that they had to donate to their favorite needy cause? Full-time employees received $1,000 and part-timers $500, and they had to give it all away (and not to relatives, neighbors, friends, coworkers, or themselves).
They were, in effect, to be angels to some needy person or group, and had to provide photos confirming the transaction.
Some of the bank's workers may have really needed the money themselves. Should the bank have rather just given the money outright to their employees and let them decide what to do with it?
You could also discuss this question with family and friends later today.
* * *
"We may be a global village, but instant communication often isolates us from each other rather than uniting us. When I am bombarded on the evening news with earthquake, flood, fire, it is too much for me. There is a mechanism, a safety valve, which cuts off our response to overexposure to suffering.
"But when a high-school student comes to me and cries because the two- and three-year-olds on her block are becoming addicted to hard drugs; when the gentle man who cleans the building in which the Cathedral library is located talks to me about his family in Guatemala, rejoicing because they are alive although their house has been destroyed by earthquake; when a goddaughter of mine in Luxembourg writes me about the hungry children of the immigrant Portuguese family with whom she is living, then in this particularity my heart burns within me, and I am more able to learn what it is that I can and ought to do, even if this seems, and is, inadequate.
"But neither was Jesus adequate to the situation. He did not feed all the poor, only a few. He did not heal all the lepers, or give sight to all the blind, or drive out all the unclean spirits. Satan wanted him to do all this, but he didn't.
"That helps me. If I felt that I had to conquer all the ills of the world I'd likely sit back and do nothing at all. But if my job is to feed one stranger, than the money I give to world relief will be dug down deeper from my pocket than it would if I felt I had to succeed in feeding the entire world."
-- Madeleine L'Engle, "The Irrational Season"
* * *
"The love of our neighbor is the love which comes down from God to man. It precedes that which rises from men to God. God is longing to come down to those in affliction. As soon as a soul is disposed to consent, though it were the last, the most miserable, the most deformed of souls, God will precipitate himself into it in order, through it, to look at and listen to the afflicted. Only as time passes does the soul become aware that he is there. But, though it finds no name for him, wherever the afflicted are loved for themselves alone, it is God who is present.
"God is not present, even if we invoke him, where the afflicted are merely regarded as an occasion for doing good. They may even be loved on this account, but then they are in their natural role, the role of matter and of things. We have to bring to them in their inert, anonymous condition a personal love."
-- Simone Weil, "Waiting for God"
* * *
"I believe that as Christians our focus at Christmas for our children needs to get off SC (Santa Claus), and what I can get for me, and back to the gift of the Christ Child and his gift of love for the world. SC continues to promote greed and consumerism which is destroying our planet and killing many children around the world (and who knows what will happen to our children if we don't act quickly concerning global warming). Our society, and even some that is done in the church, promotes JC only as a cute little baby to celebrate with a birthday cake, while someone else (who doesn't need them) usually gets all the presents. So for this Christmas, let me urge you to remember what believing in SC eventually leads to -- here it is:
Four Stages of Life (this is a joke, folks!)
1. You believe in Santa Claus.
2. You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3. You are Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.
"Could Stage 4 be one of the signs of the results of greed and consumerism in our culture and our lack of concern for the suffering children of the world?"
-- Dr. John Brownsberger (from an internet discussion group called E-talk)
* * *
There was once a little child who asked a priest why it was that God would allow Herod to kill all the little children. Why would God allow such cruelty to their moms and dads? It makes no sense and makes you wonder if there is a God at all when God allows such things. Why the six million Jews? Why Darfur? Why? Why? Why? The priest wanted to explain that it was people who did these horrors and people who allowed them. But the child's horror stood starkly in contrast to the story of God's love. The priest resisted the temptation to answer too quickly the child's lament. Instead, steadily, quietly, he told the story of a little child born in a manger, who did wonders, and signs, and stood by the poor and the outcast. He loved everyone with a love undying until at last he could go on no more. Cruelty struck again and took the day, and He died. But then He rose again and that's the only answer there is to "why?" And finally the little child understood. And he too became a priest!
* * *
It took Mandela a long time to listen to the pleading voice of Desmond Tutu. Too many people were dying of AIDS, but finally it was Mandela's child who died from this great scourge. It was then that he could say; "There are nearly 40 million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS... Nothing can shake me more than sight of these innocent young children suffering physically, socially, and emotionally."
-- Nelson Mandela, (South African Statesman First democratically elected State President of South Africa [1994], 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace, b.1918)
* * *
The Innocent Ones, holy and otherwise, love to hear stories. As our children grew, we always lit a candle, told a story, said a prayer, and then bid them good night. What makes the Innocents holy is a story that brings them into the arms of the Holy One. My favorite childhood story was of the call of Samuel because it claimed that God could call children to serve. Being a storyteller for God is perhaps the highest form of care, love, and protection for the Holy Innocents. Armed with God, children can endure all that the adult word puts them through. If they are armed with God, even then when they are caught in the crossfire of a dangerous adult world, they will always have God. Give them the gift they will remember forever. Be a storyteller for God for them.
WORSHIP RESOURCE
Thom Shuman
Call to WorshipLeader: All God's people -- boys and girls,
men and women,
People: come and worship!
Leader: Shepherds, Magi, saints, and angels:
People: come and worship!
Come and worship!Leader: All who need the Savior,
all who long for comfort:
People: come and worship!
Come and worship Christ,
the newborn King!
Prayer of the DayIn your love, which never ends,
Steadfast Grace,
you hear the cries
of all the two-year-olds
cast aside by the world,
and the weeping of their mothers
who cannot feed them
because there is no hope.
Wrapped in an old blanket
to keep you warm in a cold stable,
and smuggled into Egypt to keep you safe,
Marginalized Messiah,
you know the searching of refugees
for a place they can call home,
for a life they can call free.
Cradling the innocents killed in war,
remembering those driven from their homes
by fear, or greed, or power;
singing laments with all the parents
who cannot give their children the lives
that they should have,
you proclaim God's name for us,
Spirit of Sanctuary.
God in Community, Holy in One,
you fill our hearts with joy,
for you continue to come into this world.
Give us the peace, the joy, the hope to carry
to all who cry out to you this day,
even as we pray as Jesus has taught us, saying,
Our Father...
Call to Reconciliation
Born of Mary, in a child called Jesus, God knew
life as we know it: our pains, our doubts, our
temptations, our hopes. Without sin, Jesus could
choose to judge us; instead, he redeems us and is
the midwife of our birth into new life. Let us confess
our sins, so we might be filled with God's grace
and joy in this season of holiness and hope.
Unison Prayer of Confession.
Dweller in Eternity, you became a little baby for
us. We chase down the corridors of power, while
you enter the hallways where weakness and suffering
reside. We grab for more and more, while you let
go of glory to become one of us. We reduce our
Savior's birth to tinsel. toys, and trash to be placed
on the curb, while you widen your embrace to
welcome all thrown out by the world.
Forgive us, Joyous Love. Come among us, filling
our hearts with your grace and truth. Open our lips,
so we might sing with the angels. Send us forth with
the shepherds, to tell everyone we meet of the good
news of the birth of the One who brings us life, Jesus
Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: The new we have hungered for fills our lives;
the news we have been searching for has found us;
the news that is for all people is proclaimed:
a Savior has been born -- for us!
People: The One who is our hoped has arrived;
the One who is our life has come to us;
the One who is our joy is in our midst:
Jesus Christ the Lord!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Follow God's directions
Object: a Bible and a Christmas package with candy inside (hidden somewhere)
Matthew 2:13-23
Good morning! In the gospel reading today, we heard about Joseph following God's directions. First, God sent an angel to tell Joseph to take his wife and the baby Jesus to Egypt. There was this mean old king named Herod who wanted to kill Jesus, so they had to get out of there. After Herod died, God sent another angel to tell Joseph that it was okay to come back, and again he followed God's directions. Of course, it would be easier to follow God's directions if He sent an angel to tell all of us what to do, but He doesn't do that. Where can we find God's directions today? (let them answer) Yes, of course, we can find God's directions right here. (show the Bible) The Bible tells us what is right and what is wrong, and as long as we are willing to follow it, we will be following God's directions. If we have a problem, we can look in the Bible and see what God has to say about that kind of problem. So, do you think it's a good idea to follow God's directions? (let them answer) Well, how about following my directions? Who thinks they could follow my directions today? (let someone volunteer) Okay, here's what I want you to do. I brought a Christmas present for you children today and I hid it here in the church. If ___________ can follow my directions, we will get to share in the present. (give directions to find the package and let him or her open it when it is found) Dear God in Heaven: We know that we don't always follow Your directions as well as Joseph did. Please help us find the answers to our problems in the Bible and continue to do what You tell us to do. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 30, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
One Sin at a Time
Carlos Wilton
THE WORLD
Matthew 2:13-23, the Massacre of the Innocents, is a shocking story, to be sure. What sort of monster could do such a thing? The answer is, of course, King Herod -- but, how did he get that way?
The answer is: one step at a time. Herod did plenty of cruel and unethical things during his reign, but it's not likely he set out, at the beginning, to murder babies. He got that way progressively, by allowing his greed, his love of power, and his fear of rivals to rule his life. Before long, yesterday's atrocity had become today's business-as-usual. The king's heart was hardened.
It's possible to build up a tolerance for sin. When we allow this to happen, it's not long before we can end up doing things we can scarcely imagine.
There's a dreadful drug scandal going on these days in the world of baseball. Steroid abuse is evidently more widespread than anyone outside the major league locker rooms imagined. Not so many years ago, these athletes were fresh-faced young rookies, just up from the minors, brashly confident in their natural strength, speed, and agility. How did they get to the point that they were willing to jeopardize their personal integrity, the integrity of their sport, and even their health, in order to win at any cost?
The answer is, again, one step at a time. Like Herod, they allowed their greed, their love of fame, and their fear of rivals to so rule their lives that yesterday's cunning competitiveness had become today's self-destructive behavior.
What else do we expect when our society has blatantly elevated wealth, power, and fame to the status of gilded idols, high and lifted up, urging all people to bow down before them? As one commentator has said, on the steroids scandal: "The heart of the issue is a society that values tacklers far above teachers, pop singers far above social workers."[1] Complain about the errant behavior of individual ballplayers all you want -- the truth is, they got to that place because we urged them on. They were trying to please us, fulfilling our adolescent fantasies.
A wise teacher once asked, "How do sheep get lost?" The answer is, "They nibble themselves lost -- one mouthful of grass at a time."
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/opinion/lweb19baseball.html
THE WORD
Matthew typically writes with one eye on the history of Israel and the other eye on the present, and this passage is no exception. Of all the gospel writers, he is most concerned with the fulfillment of prophecies from the Hebrew scriptures. Matthew cites two principal passages here: Hosea 11:1 ("Out of Egypt have I called my son") and Jeremiah 31:15 (Rachel weeping for her children). Yet, he also indirectly alludes to another passage he does not explicitly cite, but which is such a strong parallel that it has come into Christian art as the archetypal image of the holy family fleeing into Egypt: "The Lord said to Moses in Midian, 'Go back to Egypt; for all those who were seeking your life are dead.' So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt; and Moses carried the staff of God in his hand" (Exodus 4:19-20). Joseph steps easily into the role of a new Moses, a role he will eventually hand on to his young son, who will lead his people on a different kind of exodus, an exodus from sin and death.
We know little of the time Jesus spent in Egypt. We do know there was a vibrant Jewish community in Alexandria that was allowed remarkable freedom and self-government. After the Romans' destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E., this community would become the leading center of Jewish culture and learning. In her recent novel, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, novelist Anne Rice speculates that the boy Jesus may have studied in Egypt with the great Philo of Alexandria. There is no way of knowing this, of course, but it does seem likely that, if Jesus' parents lingered in that Jewish diaspora community for more than a few years, their son could well have sat at the feet of some leading scholars. If that is the case, then Herod's ham-fisted attempt to rid the world of this special child backfired in a rather spectacular way.
There is another prophecy cited at the end of this passage, but it is problematic: "There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, 'He will be called a Nazorean' " (2:23). The problem is that this verse occurs nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures. Matthew's use of it is a mystery. Scholars have attempted some rather convoluted explanations, but none is very satisfying.
Noteworthy in this passage is Matthew's conviction that all these events are taking place according to God's plan. The most fearsome foe imaginable -- the soldiers of the ruthless King Herod -- are no match for God, who has a purpose that will prevail, no matter what.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It's the Sunday after Christmas: the ecclesiastical equivalent of "the morning after" the big party. Reach for the Rolaids, and be thankful: as they say, "Christmas comes but once a year!"
That's the way some people look on this Sunday. Like the Sunday after Easter, it's sometimes tagged with the disparaging label, "Low Sunday." Most of those who look upon this Sunday that way will probably skip worship today -- for if this truly is such a low, gray, miserable occasion, why bother?
In truth, the Sunday after Christmas isn't that way at all. Those who do faithfully make the trek to church know it's still the season of Christmas. The lights are still hung on the tree, the garland's still festooning the walls, and the hymns are still called "carols." This day marks not the end of Christmas, but rather its continuation.
Admittedly, the gospel lesson appointed for today may seem a bit of a letdown. Murder and mayhem are not high up on most people's Christmas lists, but murder and mayhem are what Herod's soldiers deliver.
Many of our people may be surprised to learn there's even a Christmas carol about this woeful business. It's called the Coventry Carol. Ironically, it has one of the most achingly beautiful melodies of all Christmas music -- and, because it's more often rendered as an instrumental number, most people who recognize the tune have no idea about its grim subject matter. The words are a melancholy lullaby, sung by grieving mothers to their dead children:
Herod the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day,
His men of might, in his own sight,
All young children to slay.
That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
And ever morn and day,
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.
What part, our listeners may wonder, does this dark episode have to play in the bright and joyous tale of Christmas? It's a discordant note, struck in the closing bars of a beautiful melody. Until now, everything has been sweetness and light. True, there's a certain menacing aspect to Herod's dealings with the wise men: but God seems able to quickly brush aside his threat, sending the Magi home "by another way." But then, Herod returns with a vengeance; and the mothers of Bethlehem weep their bitter tears, and cradle their lifeless babes in their arms:
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Some have called this the shadow side of the Nativity story. Where great light breaks into our world, there is very often terrible darkness as well. This is not to say that the darkness is part of the light, nor somehow belongs to it, but merely to observe that wherever the power of God enters into the world, evil very often rises up to challenge it.
G.K. Chesterton wonders whether, if a person of supernatural vision had gazed intently at the baby Jesus and his parents, that seer:
...might perhaps have seen something like a great grey ghost that looked over his shoulder; have seen behind him filling the dome of night and hovering for the last time over history, that vast and fearful fact that was Moloch of the Carthaginians; awaiting his last tribute from a ruler of the races of Shem. The demons, in that first festival of Christmas, feasted also in their own fashion. Unless we understand the presence of that Enemy, we shall not only miss the point of Christianity, but even miss the point of Christmas. (G.K. Chesterton, "The God in the Cave," from The Everlasting Man, 1925, pp. 311ff.)
Open a newspaper these days, read any one of a number of stories, and you'll see how active the Enemy continues to be in our world. This is especially true of the baseball steroids scandal, which has plunged our time-honored "national pastime" into what is perhaps its darkest episode since the gambling scandals of the Shoeless Joe Jackson era. How disillusioning an experience this has been for many fans -- particularly the kids in their Little League uniforms, who have a tendency to make Major League ballplayers into heroes.
Yet, we shouldn't be surprised: because sin is everywhere. Always, in the face of our fierce desire to succeed at whatever it is we're doing, there is the temptation to cut corners, to fudge the rules, to make those little compromises that seem so minor at the time, but which swiftly snowball into huge and tangled ethical problems.
No sooner was Jesus born into this world than he and his parents had to flee for their lives to a far country. Such is the power that evil wields. Yet, greater still is God's power -- for, if it is God's will to accomplish something, then God will find a way to do so, even if it means a lengthy sojourn in Egypt.
The message of our Christian faith is not that life is to have no pain, but rather that, in Christ, the ultimate victory has already been won. That same Jesus who was gently laid by his mother on the smooth-worn wood of a manger would one day be nailed to the rough wood of a cross. There he would die, taking onto himself the sin and suffering of all the world. Then, from a dark place not far from the place of his dying, he would be raised: an eternal symbol of the truth that evil is vanquished, once and for all. Herod may win some battles, but he can't win the war.
There's a story from the Jewish tradition that comes out of Russia in the 1930s, a time of terrible persecution by the Communist authorities. It one particular village, there was a Jewish grave digger who saved many lives by hiding fleeing refugees in his freshly dug graves.
One night, as a young woman and her husband were hiding in this grim place, the young woman gave birth to a healthy baby. "This," the grave digger declared (when he saw the child nestled in his mother's arms), "is surely the Messiah -- for who else would be born in a grave?"
Who else, indeed?
ANOTHER VIEW
Good News with a Price
Stephen McCutchan
It has been a rather disturbing year for the religious community. In addition to the various scandals that we have endured in our faith communities, there have been several incidents of violence invading the church. The most recent of which took place in Colorado where five people were killed and five others wounded in two incidents. The shooter was part of a deeply religious family who apparently was angered when he was rejected from being part of a missionary group associated with the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs.
This, of course, follows several incidents in the larger society when people were shot at a shopping center and at a school bus stop as well as more than one foiled plots to replicate the violence of places like Columbine. Most of the perpetrators of these violent incidents were members of relatively prosperous families and more than one were part of religiously active families. At first, the association of religion and violence might seem contradictory. Yet as our lectionary lesson (Matthew 2:13-23) for this first Sunday after Christmas reminds us, violence and faith are not strangers. Has the practice of the Christian faith in our society become so accommodated to our culture's search for comfort and security, that we have forgotten that the history of our faith has been intimately associated with the experience of violence in our society?
It is striking to recall that the three major monotheistic faiths in our world have their origin in a geographic spot on our planet that seems to have been perpetually plagued by violence. It is as if God looked down on this planet Earth and chose to be present where humans had the most difficulty living together.
There are several interesting parallels between this incident at the beginning of Jesus' life and the life of Israel that would suggest that this reflects the pattern of God's compassionate response to the dark side of our humanity. Given the recent debate about how Christians relate to the pluralism of our world, it is also instructive that the sovereign God is at work in the very places that we might be most inclined to avoid. It's as if God is revealing to us through scripture that it is not in a cotton-candy religion but rather the real struggles of humanity where we are most likely to discover God at work.
We begin our reflections right after we are told that the wise men, after having visited the baby Jesus, were "warned in a dream not to return to Herod..." The birth of the Prince of Peace did not change the violent nature of the world. God came to us in the form of a fragile child who was vulnerable to the violence of the world. "... an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt.' "
This is not the first time that we are told how God communicated through the dreams of a human to counteract the dangers present in the world. God communicated to an earlier Joseph through dreams (Genesis 37:5-11), and that Joseph was led into Egypt so that when starvation threatened the very existence of Israel, Egypt would be the place of their salvation (Genesis 37 and 39-45). Now again, when Jesus' life was threatened, it was by means of Joseph in Egypt that his life was preserved.
Christians often forget that both Israel (Exodus 4:22) and Jesus are identified in scripture as God's first-born son. Both are preserved by God in Egypt, a land traditionally seen as an enemy nation. Herod immediately ordered the killing of all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding region who were two years old or under. This is paralleled in Exodus 1:15-2:10 where the pharaoh was threatened by the growth in number of Israelites and ordered all male children killed at birth.
The horrible events of the massacre, not God, fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15. Rachel was the favorite wife of Jacob but was barren, while her sister, Leah, and a couple of maids were very fertile (Genesis 29:31--30:21). Finally Rachel gave birth to Joseph and became pregnant a second time. The second birth was too strenuous for her, and as she was dying, she named her second son Ben-oni, or "son of my sorrows." Rachel was buried at Ramah, and the tradition grew that the spirit of Rachel, the ancestress of Israel, continued to mourn and protest the fate of chosen Israel whose sorrowful experience seemed to contradict the very promise of God.
For Matthew, Jeremiah's promise of a new creation (Jeremiah 31:22) found fulfillment in the birth of Jesus that took place in the midst of the fratricidal tendencies of humanity. The world's violence needs to be protested by the Rachel in us that refuses to be consoled in the face of evil.
On this first day after Christmas, it is good to recognize that the Christian faith is not naive about the harsh conditions of the world in which we live. While we are shocked by the violence of our society and our churches, we should not be surprised. The good news from Matthew is not that our faith can shield us from such violence, but that God is not defeated by it. For Matthew, such violence did not end in protest. God was seen in Jesus reaching into that world of violence and giving birth to a new hope. As was made very clear in the recent response of the Amish community to the violence in their society, the call to Christians in such incidents is to give strong testimony in such times to that redeeming power of God that is not defeated by such violence.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Did you notice that on this first Sunday of Christmas-well, in reality the only Sunday of Christmas this year, because next Sunday, January 6, is the actual day of Epiphany, the day we celebrate the wise men's coming to see the baby Jesus -- did you notice that all of our four scripture readings today talk about angels?
Isaiah says, "It was no messenger or angel but [the Lord's] presence that saved them" (63:9).
The Psalmist urges, "Praise the Lord! Praise him, all his angels" (148:1-2).
Matthew tells us that, after the birth of Jesus, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt" (2:13). And later, "When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel' " (2:19-20).
And the writer of the book of Hebrews reminds us, "For it is clear that [Jesus] did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham" (2:16) and, by extension, to help all of us.
We don't talk much about angels today, but they were certainly part of the biblical story. The word "angel" means "messenger," the Lord's messenger. The Lord sent them whenever there was a message that needed to be conveyed to the people. And we know that the Lord continues to speak to us today in whatever ways work the best.
How do you believe the Lord gets messages to us today? You could talk about this with family and friends after the service.
* * *
Did you notice the story in the news a few weeks ago about a seven-year-old girl in Detroit, Alexis Goggins, who threw herself between a crazed gunman and her mother and took six shots? The little girl yelled at the man not to hurt her mother and lunged forward.
It isn't just adults who can be heroes.
The girl and her mother are recovering, and people are calling Alexis an angel.
* * *
And did you notice the story about the bank in Fargo, North Dakota, that gave its 500 or so workers money this Christmas -- money that they had to donate to their favorite needy cause? Full-time employees received $1,000 and part-timers $500, and they had to give it all away (and not to relatives, neighbors, friends, coworkers, or themselves).
They were, in effect, to be angels to some needy person or group, and had to provide photos confirming the transaction.
Some of the bank's workers may have really needed the money themselves. Should the bank have rather just given the money outright to their employees and let them decide what to do with it?
You could also discuss this question with family and friends later today.
* * *
"We may be a global village, but instant communication often isolates us from each other rather than uniting us. When I am bombarded on the evening news with earthquake, flood, fire, it is too much for me. There is a mechanism, a safety valve, which cuts off our response to overexposure to suffering.
"But when a high-school student comes to me and cries because the two- and three-year-olds on her block are becoming addicted to hard drugs; when the gentle man who cleans the building in which the Cathedral library is located talks to me about his family in Guatemala, rejoicing because they are alive although their house has been destroyed by earthquake; when a goddaughter of mine in Luxembourg writes me about the hungry children of the immigrant Portuguese family with whom she is living, then in this particularity my heart burns within me, and I am more able to learn what it is that I can and ought to do, even if this seems, and is, inadequate.
"But neither was Jesus adequate to the situation. He did not feed all the poor, only a few. He did not heal all the lepers, or give sight to all the blind, or drive out all the unclean spirits. Satan wanted him to do all this, but he didn't.
"That helps me. If I felt that I had to conquer all the ills of the world I'd likely sit back and do nothing at all. But if my job is to feed one stranger, than the money I give to world relief will be dug down deeper from my pocket than it would if I felt I had to succeed in feeding the entire world."
-- Madeleine L'Engle, "The Irrational Season"
* * *
"The love of our neighbor is the love which comes down from God to man. It precedes that which rises from men to God. God is longing to come down to those in affliction. As soon as a soul is disposed to consent, though it were the last, the most miserable, the most deformed of souls, God will precipitate himself into it in order, through it, to look at and listen to the afflicted. Only as time passes does the soul become aware that he is there. But, though it finds no name for him, wherever the afflicted are loved for themselves alone, it is God who is present.
"God is not present, even if we invoke him, where the afflicted are merely regarded as an occasion for doing good. They may even be loved on this account, but then they are in their natural role, the role of matter and of things. We have to bring to them in their inert, anonymous condition a personal love."
-- Simone Weil, "Waiting for God"
* * *
"I believe that as Christians our focus at Christmas for our children needs to get off SC (Santa Claus), and what I can get for me, and back to the gift of the Christ Child and his gift of love for the world. SC continues to promote greed and consumerism which is destroying our planet and killing many children around the world (and who knows what will happen to our children if we don't act quickly concerning global warming). Our society, and even some that is done in the church, promotes JC only as a cute little baby to celebrate with a birthday cake, while someone else (who doesn't need them) usually gets all the presents. So for this Christmas, let me urge you to remember what believing in SC eventually leads to -- here it is:
Four Stages of Life (this is a joke, folks!)
1. You believe in Santa Claus.
2. You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3. You are Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.
"Could Stage 4 be one of the signs of the results of greed and consumerism in our culture and our lack of concern for the suffering children of the world?"
-- Dr. John Brownsberger (from an internet discussion group called E-talk)
* * *
There was once a little child who asked a priest why it was that God would allow Herod to kill all the little children. Why would God allow such cruelty to their moms and dads? It makes no sense and makes you wonder if there is a God at all when God allows such things. Why the six million Jews? Why Darfur? Why? Why? Why? The priest wanted to explain that it was people who did these horrors and people who allowed them. But the child's horror stood starkly in contrast to the story of God's love. The priest resisted the temptation to answer too quickly the child's lament. Instead, steadily, quietly, he told the story of a little child born in a manger, who did wonders, and signs, and stood by the poor and the outcast. He loved everyone with a love undying until at last he could go on no more. Cruelty struck again and took the day, and He died. But then He rose again and that's the only answer there is to "why?" And finally the little child understood. And he too became a priest!
* * *
It took Mandela a long time to listen to the pleading voice of Desmond Tutu. Too many people were dying of AIDS, but finally it was Mandela's child who died from this great scourge. It was then that he could say; "There are nearly 40 million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS... Nothing can shake me more than sight of these innocent young children suffering physically, socially, and emotionally."
-- Nelson Mandela, (South African Statesman First democratically elected State President of South Africa [1994], 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace, b.1918)
* * *
The Innocent Ones, holy and otherwise, love to hear stories. As our children grew, we always lit a candle, told a story, said a prayer, and then bid them good night. What makes the Innocents holy is a story that brings them into the arms of the Holy One. My favorite childhood story was of the call of Samuel because it claimed that God could call children to serve. Being a storyteller for God is perhaps the highest form of care, love, and protection for the Holy Innocents. Armed with God, children can endure all that the adult word puts them through. If they are armed with God, even then when they are caught in the crossfire of a dangerous adult world, they will always have God. Give them the gift they will remember forever. Be a storyteller for God for them.
WORSHIP RESOURCE
Thom Shuman
Call to WorshipLeader: All God's people -- boys and girls,
men and women,
People: come and worship!
Leader: Shepherds, Magi, saints, and angels:
People: come and worship!
Come and worship!Leader: All who need the Savior,
all who long for comfort:
People: come and worship!
Come and worship Christ,
the newborn King!
Prayer of the DayIn your love, which never ends,
Steadfast Grace,
you hear the cries
of all the two-year-olds
cast aside by the world,
and the weeping of their mothers
who cannot feed them
because there is no hope.
Wrapped in an old blanket
to keep you warm in a cold stable,
and smuggled into Egypt to keep you safe,
Marginalized Messiah,
you know the searching of refugees
for a place they can call home,
for a life they can call free.
Cradling the innocents killed in war,
remembering those driven from their homes
by fear, or greed, or power;
singing laments with all the parents
who cannot give their children the lives
that they should have,
you proclaim God's name for us,
Spirit of Sanctuary.
God in Community, Holy in One,
you fill our hearts with joy,
for you continue to come into this world.
Give us the peace, the joy, the hope to carry
to all who cry out to you this day,
even as we pray as Jesus has taught us, saying,
Our Father...
Call to Reconciliation
Born of Mary, in a child called Jesus, God knew
life as we know it: our pains, our doubts, our
temptations, our hopes. Without sin, Jesus could
choose to judge us; instead, he redeems us and is
the midwife of our birth into new life. Let us confess
our sins, so we might be filled with God's grace
and joy in this season of holiness and hope.
Unison Prayer of Confession.
Dweller in Eternity, you became a little baby for
us. We chase down the corridors of power, while
you enter the hallways where weakness and suffering
reside. We grab for more and more, while you let
go of glory to become one of us. We reduce our
Savior's birth to tinsel. toys, and trash to be placed
on the curb, while you widen your embrace to
welcome all thrown out by the world.
Forgive us, Joyous Love. Come among us, filling
our hearts with your grace and truth. Open our lips,
so we might sing with the angels. Send us forth with
the shepherds, to tell everyone we meet of the good
news of the birth of the One who brings us life, Jesus
Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: The new we have hungered for fills our lives;
the news we have been searching for has found us;
the news that is for all people is proclaimed:
a Savior has been born -- for us!
People: The One who is our hoped has arrived;
the One who is our life has come to us;
the One who is our joy is in our midst:
Jesus Christ the Lord!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Follow God's directions
Object: a Bible and a Christmas package with candy inside (hidden somewhere)
Matthew 2:13-23
Good morning! In the gospel reading today, we heard about Joseph following God's directions. First, God sent an angel to tell Joseph to take his wife and the baby Jesus to Egypt. There was this mean old king named Herod who wanted to kill Jesus, so they had to get out of there. After Herod died, God sent another angel to tell Joseph that it was okay to come back, and again he followed God's directions. Of course, it would be easier to follow God's directions if He sent an angel to tell all of us what to do, but He doesn't do that. Where can we find God's directions today? (let them answer) Yes, of course, we can find God's directions right here. (show the Bible) The Bible tells us what is right and what is wrong, and as long as we are willing to follow it, we will be following God's directions. If we have a problem, we can look in the Bible and see what God has to say about that kind of problem. So, do you think it's a good idea to follow God's directions? (let them answer) Well, how about following my directions? Who thinks they could follow my directions today? (let someone volunteer) Okay, here's what I want you to do. I brought a Christmas present for you children today and I hid it here in the church. If ___________ can follow my directions, we will get to share in the present. (give directions to find the package and let him or her open it when it is found) Dear God in Heaven: We know that we don't always follow Your directions as well as Joseph did. Please help us find the answers to our problems in the Bible and continue to do what You tell us to do. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 30, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
