Beth
Matthew 2:13-23
Now after the wise men had left, 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, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son." (Hosea 11:1)
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
"A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more." (Jer. 31:15)
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more." (Jer. 31:15)
When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 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."
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So how many of you saw the irony in the Children Youth and Family Director preaching on a text where the King says, Kill all the children? I certainly did. Shouldn’t I have chosen a text which more accurately reflects our hopes and dreams for Skyline’s children? Surely, this is not the future I hope to see for these kids here. This is true. I don’t hope for this story to be the one that reflects the lives of the children in our community. But I do hope that our community can be a place where they learn to struggle with the hard stories in our text and in our tradition, like the one we are presented here. It is too easy to take our text at face value, but we understand the need to wrestle and work to interpret the ancient library that is contained in our Bible. I believe our church should be a place where children and youth can find a safe place to question and connect to these stories; finding places where there is resonance and places where there is something to struggle with, in our texts. And struggle we do every Christmas season. Struggling between celebrating the season and becoming more materialistic than we might hope. And struggling in time trying to get it all done. Struggling to find our truth in the fantastic story of virgin birth and extravagant gifts for a poor carpenter’s son.
In the past weeks, we have heard the time honored tale of Christmas, the birth in the stable, the wise men who present gifts to the King of the Jews, the happy animals surrounding the idyllic scene. In our reading this morning, however, we turn a sudden corner and are thrown back into the real world. A flight to Egypt and a price on the young child’s head. Feels a little drastic right? How many of you woke up this morning suddenly thrown back into the fast paced world, out of the calm or quiet that might have taken temporary hold on your houses for Christmas Day? Maybe just for one day you were able to sleep in, well, if you don’t have young children in the house. To wake up when your body woke you up, rather than the alarm clock, just for a moment. So too with our reading. Merry Christmas! Now what? ……. Right?
My oldest sister was born on Christmas Eve. It always seemed like Christmas and not Christmas at the same time. Growing up, Christmas never started until we left for the late night church service. Until that point, it was Jen’s birthday. There always seemed to be a rush right up until dinner that Christmas Eve night, last minute presents to wrap, last minute adjustments to be made to the next day’s menu. Did you put on your Christmas dress? Where did the salad bowl go? Did you take the dog out?
But then came Jen’s birthday dinner. Much like the quiet scene we might think of when we see the Nativity scene in our imagination, everyone sat down to dinner and had birthday lasagna, got along for that hour and had real conversation. After dinner, we bundled up and ran off to church, and CHRISTMAS began. After church and a good night’s rest (at least for us kids), we would share a day of peace and quiet where we celebrated being together. That was Christmas. Right after Christmas dinner though, it was back to work. My mom was a teacher and always had more papers to grade, and my sisters and I went back to homework, flying off to our own personal Egypts of math homework, term projects and individual bedrooms. How quickly the Christmas spirit flutters away. … How many of you have similar experiences? “Get up, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you to return.”
When we flee to Egypt how do we know when to return? Joseph was given an order to retreat and wait for the call to return, and he was GIVEN that return call. In our own lives, do we know when to return from exile? Too often, our retreat remains more permanent than we would like. That personal Egypt of solitary time can be a problem too.
I’m sure it’s not just the speed at which the story changes that feels familiar to you however. This story strikes similarities with several other biblical ancestors and stories. Throughout the reading, it becomes clear that the author is working hard to connect this story to the Hebrew tradition of a messiah who will change the world. Matthew’s gospel is more distinctly connected to the Hebrew world than the others we have, so our text seems in part a long justification to ensure that Jesus is portrayed as very Jewish. It is Matthew after all who begins the birth story by connecting all the way back to the great father of Israel, Abraham. Matthew begins by saying “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, …and so on until we get to… and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.” This list acts as a veritable who’s who of the Hebrew Bible! There are even a few notable women in that list, whose stories in the Hebrew cannon stick out tall. Thus, all readers would begin their reading of the text in the right frame of mind, seeing the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy in THIS babe born in the stable.
But it isn’t just to the Jewish tradition that Matthew is connecting, it is more specifically to the Prophets and the architect of the Jewish faith, Moses. Moses’ birth story is clearly paralleled here and his ministry provides a model for Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus the adult as well. Herod’s action in ordering his people to kill all those under two strikes a close similarity to the story in Exodus chapter 1: “Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” That’s why little baby Moses was put into a basket and sent down the river. Now here we are again, threatening the lives of too many children. Daniel J. Harrington, Catholic priest and professor of New Testament at Boston College has noted several of the parallels between Moses and Jesus that abound in this small scene and in so much more, the decrees of death from a wicked king, flight to escape the decree, the slaughter of innocent children, and the return after the death of the wicked king all point to these similarities. How about the fact that they are fleeing persecution into Egypt and will leave Egypt to return and begin Jesus’ ministry. Moses on the other hand leads the Hebrew people out of Egypt at the start of his career in ministry. The parallels between Moses and Jesus go further, but for now, we can see the trend. The author of Matthew knows his tradition. Some have even claimed that these narratives are a “midrash” of the Jewish tradition, they are elaborations built upon biblical texts rather than real events.
To make his point even clearer, the author quotes liberally from the Hebrew prophets. Particularly in this passage can we see this happening. Three times in those ten lines are we told that this is to fulfill what the prophets said… Using the words of Jeremiah and Hosea, the point is made that this story connects clearly to those prophetic statements, and the need for fulfillment. More specifically, these Prophets, Jeremiah and Hosea wrote out of a time of great need in the Hebrew people. Jeremiah wrote during the exile when the Hebrews were ensnared under Babylonian rule. Hosea wrote at a time of decline in the Northern Kingdom. In times like that, HOPE is needed and these prophets sought to ensure that a vision of hope could be seen. I’m sure the author of Matthew needed that hope too, as he was writing following the destruction of the Jewish temple, while seeking to show other Jews that the Jewish tradition could be carried out by following Jesus in that first century world. To do each of these passages justice, however, we need to have the background. Matthew’s early readers, however, might have been assumed to have a good grasp on these texts as they were cornerstones for the Hebrew people. In these quotes however, very slight attention is given to the original historical setting or literary context of the biblical quotation. It seems the point is just to underscore a certain word or idea to emphasize and apply to the event connected with Jesus. What we struggle with, however, is that our tradition doesn’t spend as much time on these texts and so much of the allusion is lost for us without reading the prophets alongside the gospels. I won’t be able to delve deep enough here to give all the back story of Hosea and Jeremiah. I don’t want to get too far off track here, I have my own sermon fulfillment to look after.
In prepping for this sermon, these two texts continued to return to my mind, bringing with them, the rich history Christianity is built upon. I kept getting caught up reading the verses on either side of Matthew’s quotes just to see if his quotes were taken out of context or if it was to the greater tradition he was referring. As we look at our text critically and responsibly this morning, we must seek insight from these primary sources as well. As I look at this passage from my perspective in seminary, I wonder if we could see Matthew as an early seminarian writing his own exegesis, his own commentary, connecting HIS tradition to this new prophet he found in Jesus. Looking through his bible, he sees foreshadowing everywhere, and lets us know by quoting from these sources.
2000 years later, however, the tradition built around the once new prophet dominates on the political and cultural level. And Matthew’s proof-texting can be problematic. By quoting so liberally from the Hebrew texts, Matthew sets up a triumphalist argument; that the whole of Jewish history was nothing more than a set up for OUR more important prophet.
Last week, I listened to a podcast of a sermon from one of the mega church pastors, Mark Driscoll. His church, Mars Hill, is near Seattle boasts a membership at 9 campuses with over 10,000 members. In this sermon, Driscoll introduces Jesus into the story of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis chapter 32. For Driscoll, Jesus is the culmination of the Hebrew testament, and many others agree with him. This type of thinking devalues the place of other religious traditions in our multi-religious world, in particular Judaism. And I hope for a better answer than this Our God is better than Your God type of thinking.
As a progressive church, we have a responsibility to ensure that we are not abusing the traditions of another for our own gain. Prophecy in the modern era must be seen differently. We have to undo the assumptions of an argument that claims OUR superiority. While . . . finding a way to claim authentically our connection to the Divine, found in the person and the story of Jesus. We cannot claim that my way is right and yours is wrong. With this text, we are challenged to claim authentically the traditions that feed your spirit and find ways to receive the traditions of another. Some have said that the liberal church doesn’t stand for anything, that because we say all are welcome, anything goes. This second part, I know not to be true. All are welcome is a part of our theology, and integral to what the UCC believes. But more than that, all are welcome to sit at the same table and be in conversation.
How do we hold space open for the celebration of Christmas while maintaining a respect for traditions older than ours? By being in conversation. How do we celebrate in these old stories which have some truth in them, but which were written and translated by humans with human fallibility? By learning to allow conversation with these texts, our faith, our understanding of science and miracle all at the same time. In a fast paced world, how do we make the space to hear the call to retreat and the call to engage? In our quest for a fulfillment of prophesy, how do we tell this story without stepping on the Jewish prophets whose hope continues for a messiah to come even today?
This is something I think the greater Christian Community still need to continue to work on. I cannot accept that my tradition comes at the price of another’s, and I HOPE to live into a world where the fulfillment of prophecy is not as small-minded a salvation as what some might propose. Welcome for all must be our motto, and conversation our method. This is what I learn from the story of Christmas each year. That hope springs eternal, if we open our eyes to see it. That intra-religious dialogue is a necessity. That Christmas peace and joy is not a once a year media event, it is always and forever. And that we together are family, thankfully gathered this day to better understand our world, our neighbors, ourselves.
How will you live out the Christmas story?
