Thoughts going in, Sunday Dec 29th

Matthew 2:13-23:  13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead." 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

There is a LOT going on in this week’s Gospel reading—both liturgically and textually. Liturgically, it’s the first Sunday after Christmas which, unless it falls on January 1^st, is observed in the Roman Catholic Church as the “Feast of the Holy Family.” The Revised Common Lectionary (*our roadmap of readings) doesn’t use the language of ‘holy family,’ however, it follows the Roman lectionary almost verbatim in the Gospel readings, giving at least implicit agreement that the emphasis of the day should be the holy family. As a sidenote, these verses from Matthew also commemorate the martyrdom of the “holy innocents,” the children needlessly slaughtered by Herod. Their day of commemoration is always December 28^th on the calendar. In other words, we’ve got one text being used for more than one ‘occasion’ on the liturgical calendar… but since the focus of SUNDAY’s liturgy is the holy family and not the holy innocents, I’ll confine my comments to the former.

            The Roman Catholic emphasis on the holy family as a liturgical celebration is relatively recent. It was born in the 19^th century. The story goes that as the world was becoming more and more secular, and as the family unit seemed to be disintegrating, the Church wanted to lift up the family of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mother, and St. Joseph the Guardian of our Lord as an example par excellence. They were an example of mutual love and support, as well as paying critical attention to the leading of God in their lives. Mary responds behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Joseph receives divine guidance and follows it without question. Jesus says, I must be about my father’s business. Each in their way are true both to their vocation as family member and as individual member of God’s higher plan and purpose.

            The lesson we take from this, then, is to see how we in our Christian vocation(s) can do the same. While it may seem strange to our modern sensibilities to think of the 19^th century as a time when the family was crumbling (compared to what we see all around us today), the emphasis doesn’t seem like a bad one. There **is a holiness to the family, and something that can be lifted up and celebrated as an example of God’s activity in our lives at the micro level, and in creation at the macro level.

            There are also, however, other things going on in the text. Whether this is read as a commemoration of the holy innocents or as the flight of the holy family, regardless Matthew chapter 2 gives us the stark DARKER side of Christmas. The angels sing peace on earth good will toward men, but Herod and the powers of darkness want nothing to do with God’s offer. In this sense, Matthew 2 offers us a stark real-world reminder that while the wrapping paper is still strewn all over the living room floor, while the Christmas leftovers are still in the fridge, and while the tinsel is still on the tree… DEATH and EVIL are still out there, all around us.

            In that sense, the message of this text is **not that God protects his own. That was the temptation of Satan to Jesus years later. Go ahead and throw yourself off this cliff, God will protect you. The Bible is full of examples of God’s non-intervention of Evil’s plans. I have no doubt that good, godly women suffered loss and experienced horrific grief in the events of Matthew 2. The lesson stands as a stark reminder. The savior of the world has come; he has had his life divinely preserved at this **moment… but the presence of DEATH & EVIL in the story serve as a reminder. The Savior comes not for silly, mundane, or sentimental reasons…. Rather, the Savior comes because this world is wracked by DEATH & EVIL. The Savior comes because there is such a profound NEED for him to come.

            Christmas tragedies are always the saddest. On the other hand, they always remind us that Christmas is no sentimental Hallmark Card event. The world is a very dark place, in dire need of this Savior born in Bethlehem.

Cheers,

TM