Well so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes. Some have gotten broken--and carrying them up into the attic. The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt, and the children gotten ready for school. There are enough leftovers to do, warmed up, for the rest of the week--not that we have much appetite, having eaten such a lot, stayed up so late, attempted--quite unsuccessfully--to love all our relatives, and in general grossly overestimated our powers. Once again as in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed to do more than entertain it as an agreeable possibility.
A poem "For the Time Being" by W. H. Auden for these days after Christmas. The glow is almost gone, along with the Christmas cookies. The shopping malls are almost done with their after Christmas sales. But not in the church. Here in church the season continues for 12 days encompassing this Sunday, the first Sunday of Christmas. Here today we get another Christmas perspective. The same, but just a bit different. While we're used to Luke's portrayal of the blessed night and we love to get lost in the poetry of John's elegant passage, "and the word became flesh and dwelt among us," today we get a different slant--not an altogether welcome one. After the last glimpse of royal gold and purple robes have left center stage the gospel writer Matthew shares the story of the escape to Egypt.
It is not a pretty story. Nothing about this episode will allow us to sentimentalize it. Joseph is told in a dream to "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. We see in our minds eye the frantic gathering of possessions, the hasty acquisition of what food might be found, the exchange of fancy gifts into cold, hard cash, the numbing, blinding fear. And then in the nick of time the holy family escapes. But that is not the end of the story. We have still to experience the terrible vengeance of a powerful ruler. Our minds eye recoils from the scene of innocent newborns being torn from the arms of screaming mothers or panicked parents trying in desperation to conceal their infants. It is not a pretty picture.
Some years I have felt the need to preach this text as a wake up call. Sometimes I have felt that the sentimentalizing of Christmas has taken away from it's essential message. Sometimes the nativity has attained such a golden glow that we allocate it to the context of fairy tale. We revel in the good news stories where Scrooge does right by Tiny Tim and the Grinch is brought into the fold. At those times we need to be reminded again that the essential message is that God has entered a messy, scary, and often heartless world. We need to be reminded that there is still evil in the world, that Herod is just one of many rulers who did not mind a little murder in order to advance his political ideals. We need to remember that under armed occupation , Bethlehem is not lying still this Christmas any more than it did 2001 years ago. And that Rachel still cries for her children in Bosnia and Somalia and Afganistan. Tyrants like Herod and Milosovic and Bin Laden still wield power and enact a bloody vengeance.
But this year I'm not so sure we need that wake up call. We don't need to be hit with a sledgehammer to imagine political unrest, refugees escaping, tyrants gone wild. It seems to me that we've had a more subdued expression of Christmas this year. Perhaps our understanding is more real, less escapist. Perhaps the lesson today hits a little closer to home. And so it seems to me that we are more receptive to sifting out and hearing the good news of this gospel lesson today, for assuredly there is good news in our gospel. This gospel may not be the Christmas story we want, but it is the Christmas story we need. For any God who is unwilling to come to Bethlehem, in its messy state today or 2001 years ago, won't do us much good. If any God is going to save us, God will have to come to where we are, because we can't get to God.
Today's epistle lesson, from the letter to the Hebrews says, "For it is clear that Christ did not come to help the angels" but to the people living in real places on this real earth. Not to angels but to us. This lesson from Hebrews 2 emphasizes the role of suffering and testing in the life of Christ. Jesus is the pioneer for our suffering. He is the one who was tested, suffered and died so that we may live. Because Jesus knows suffering and temptation we are assured that Christ is able to help us in our own suffering. Just so we don't forget this, Matthew uses two verbs in his lesson today that will appear again in the passion narrative. We read that Herod wants to destroy Jesus. This same verb is used in the passion story where the chief priests and scribes want to destroy Jesus. The second verb is found in the 16th where Herod feels he's been "deceived." This verb carries a sense of mockery in its meaning and we find Matthew using it again where Jesus is deceived or mocked by the soldiers, chief priests and while on the cross. Matthew points us from the manger to the cross, or better yet, gives us an image of the cross above the manger. Wailing tears will not be hidden by Christmas cheers in this gospel.
So what are we to make of all this on the first Sunday after Christmas? First there is death, tyranny, murder, violence and the killing of the innocent. For the world in which we live is broken and driven by sin, death and the power of evil. As Christians we understand that we do not live in a world where every day children unwrap presents, enjoy perfect health and never are hurt. Second we need a savior to come and rescue us from our violent selves. We cannot change ourselves without the gift of Christ and the Holy Spirit. We need a God who knows our weaknesses and our world. We need a God who will become like us. We need a flesh and blood Savior who is born, lives and dies in this deceptive Christmas world. Third, the good news is that we have such a God who has come to us in Jesus Christ. This loving and forgiving God will carry us through our distress, lead us out of our slavery to freedom and save us from the Herods of this world. For the Herods of this world do not have the final word. This is not the end but only the beginning. The one called King of the Jews will go head to head with our kings and kingdoms and will come out victorious. All for us and our salvation. All in the name of love. For there is nothing more powerful than the power of Love, which will enter even our messy world in this, messy time to show us the way.
Teach us O loving God to be honest about the darkness, to be courageous in calling out to you when it grows dark in our lives, then to be patient in waiting for the coming of the dawn.
Amen.
