< back to Sermon archive

Sermon for Christmas 1 2023

First Reading: Isaiah 63:7-14

 7I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 8For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And he became their Savior. 9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. 10But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.11Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit, 12who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, 13who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. 14Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.

 

Psalm 111

 1Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation. 2Great are the deeds of the Lord! they are studied by all who delight in them. 3His work is full of majesty and splendor, and his righteousness endures forever. 4He makes his marvelous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. 5He gives food to those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant. 6He has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the lands of the nations. 7The works of his hands are faithfulness and justice; all his commandments are sure. 8They stand fast forever and ever, because they are done in truth and equity. 9He sent redemption to his people; he commanded his covenant forever; holy and awesome is his Name. 10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding; his praise endures forever.

 

 Second Reading: Galatians 4:4-7

4When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

 

Gospel: Matthew 2:13-23

 13When {the wise men} had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, 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.” 14And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 18“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” 19But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

 

 The Downside of Christmas

I ran across this poem the other day and I thought I’d share it with you as a prelude to today’s sermon.  The author is unknown, but obviously, this person has a great sense of what happens, way to often, in households today.

‘Twas the day after Christmas, When all through the place, There were arguments and depression—Even mom had a long face.  The stockings hung empty; And the house was a mess.  The clothes didn’t fit; Dad was under stress.  The family was irritable; The children not pleased.  The instructions for the swing set, Were written in Chinese.  The bells no longer jingled; And no carolers came around.  The sink was stacked with dishes; And the tree was turning brown.  The stores were full of people Returning things that had failed.  And shoppers were discouraged; Earlier purchases [they made] had now been put on sale.  ‘Twas the day after Christmas; Joy had disappeared.  The only hope on the horizon Were [the] Bowl games of the New Year.

Welcome to worship on this New Year’s Day, the first Sunday after Christmas.  I hope that little poem was far funnier than it was relatable.  Since the stores may still be overflowing with those returning gifts, and of those seeking to use their gift cards to take advantage of the after Christmas sales, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about the “down-side of Christmas.”

When Luke tells the story of Jesus’ birth, he puts six scenes in the operetta, concluding it with the blessing of Jesus in the temple by the old prophet Simeon.  In Luke’s narrative, there’s a song in the air.  There’s joy in the room.  The nativity of our Lord all comes to a nice conclusion when our evangelist tells the story.  However, this isn’t the case with Matthew.  It takes just twelve verses into the text to find the Holy Family on the run trying to escape Herod’s massacre of the innocents.  Before we can leave the little town of Bethlehem, our noses are rubbed in politics and pain, blood and sorrow, jealousy and murder.  Barley a week ago, all was calm; all was bright, in the warm, soft, glow of candlelight.  Today we hear the cry of the children and the wail of Rachel, the ancient mother of Israel, who refuses to be comforted even from her grave.

So why do we return to Matthew’s story every other year?  Why not stick with the much more pleasing story we find in Luke’s gospel?  The answer is the same for why we visit each story in the Bible, pleasant or unpleasant; there are lessons to be learned from this sobering story.  The first comes from the angry outburst of rage from a king that has been repeated millions of times throughout history; evil is present in this world and this evil often has huge impacts on our lives.

One of our most popular Christmas stories is Dr. Seuss’ tale about The Day the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Just north of Whoville lived the Grinch, who hated Christmas—maybe his shoes were too tight, maybe his head was not screwed on right, most likely his heart was just two sizes too small.  Whatever the reason, the Grinch, under the guise of Santa, steals all the presents, swipes all the decorations, and stops the bells from ringing in hopes of keeping the Whovillians from singing.  Evil is the absence or reversal of good; evil is live spelled backwards.  Wherever there is hope and good will, wherever people gather in good cheer, wherever there is a life force among us, there are reversals at work as well.  We can’t even get away from it in our children’s stories.  We need to warn our children, even while they are yet young, that evil is all around us.  Even the Grinch comes to steal Christmas.

The truth is, hate is strong.  Bitterness is real.  Greed is rampant.  Terror plays havoc with our ordered ways.  And the sad truth is, history shows us that when evil strikes out, those who suffer the most are the children.  And to put out gospel passage into perspective, Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, in Matthew’s narrative, is a tragic example of this truth.  While the actual number of young boys killed is unknown, the Orthodox church in America, places the victims in the thousands.  Tragically, hatred didn’t end with the slaughter of those boys.

In the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum, there’s a dark tunnel where one by one, day after day, the names of millions of children who died in Hitler’s ovens are spoken.  As one might expect, an eerie silence fills the place.  In a chamber near the end of the hall, is a room with a six-foot high stack of children’s shoes gathered from those days.  I’ve seen the pictures, and I can attest to the fact that you don’t have to be a Jew to be profoundly affected by the scene.  Everyone I’ve talked to who has seen the museum, seems to ask the same question, is there no mercy for the children of the world?

As I was reading the news on the internet the other day, there were two contrasting stories that also illustrate the suffering that innocent children go through on a daily basis.  On the first page there was the beautiful, color candlelit view of a church’s sanctuary in Tennessee.  The picture included a group of children acting out the Nativity of Jesus.  I thought, “What a nice way to get into the Christmas moment.”  Then on the next page, there was the reprint of a headline that had previously run, “five million orphans inhabit Ethiopia—their parents lost to famine, disease, war, and AIDS.”  The catastrophe is “tearing apart the social fabric of our nation,” say national leaders.  Caring for these orphans costs $115 million a month in a country whose annual health budget is only $140 million.”

As I pondered these two contrasts, I realize that even in our country, one of the most blessed nations on earth, over 20% of our children live in poverty.  Exploitation of children, through poverty, drug addicted parents, human trafficking, child pornography, sex trafficking, and abandonment, has become a national problem.  How can we keep from hearing the cry of the children?  As a nation, there is good reason for us to weep with Rachel and not be comforted over that which would destroy the most innocent that live among us.  Evil is indeed in our world today and the most innocent among us suffer it’s affects.

The good news for us, as we begin this New Year, is that we haven’t been abandoned to suffer alone.  The promise of the season, Immanuel, God with us, brings us hope.  And even in the most troubling of times, we can rest assured that not only is God present in our suffering, but God does indeed help us in our times of need.

Psalm 46:1 give us that assurance, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.”  We know that it isn’t God desire or will that children suffer.  It isn’t God plan for children to be neglected.  It breaks God’s heart that any child should fail to receive the good gifts of loving parents, positive opportunities, and unconditional acceptance.  The Bible reassures us, in many places, that God’s will is what’s best for us and for all humankind.  God is not the source of our pain, and neither will He abandon us to our suffering.  In Isaiah 49:15 we read: “Even if a mother should forsake her child, I will not forsake you.”

One of the ways God helps us in our times of pain is that we can run, we can find a way of escape.  The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said—Get up.  Take the child.  Escape to Egypt.  Stay there.  The imperatives used in this passage convey the urgency.  Like the Kenny Rogers song says: You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run.  We will do whatever we need to, to keep our children safe and protected from the evil ones, including locking the doors to our schools and childcare centers.  There are times in life when the best thing we can do is run.  Another thing we can do in times of trouble is we can have hope.  God is forever filling us with hope, which is at the core of our Christian faith.

It was Christmas 1863.  The Civil War was in full swing.  The battle of Gettysburg was not more than six months past.  In this war-torn country of ours, where brother was killing brother and fathers were fighting sons, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: ““I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” And in despair I bowed my head, There is no place on earth I said, For hate is strong and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men.””  But not even Longfellow could stop there.   He had to write another verse of it.  “Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead nor doth He sleep.  The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men.”  That’s our hope.  As Christians we live as people of hope.  It’s something we should never forget.

How does God help us in time of trouble?  We can run, we can hope, and we can remember.  There’s a quote that I like to remind myself of in times of difficulty, there is no trouble that enjoys everlasting life.  During WWII, Hitler was making a speech to a large audience.  On the front row was a man of obvious Semitic appearance.  He seemed to be smiling.  It made Hitler furious.

Hitler approached the man after his speech and asked, “Were you making fun of my speech?”  “No sir, I was not laughing; I was thinking.  I was thinking about my people, the Jews whom you deeply hate.  Centuries ago, there was another man who hated us deeply, an Egyptian Pharaoh.  He made us slaves, but in God’s time, Moses came and set us free.  Every year we celebrate the Passover and eat a little three-cornered cake in remembrance of Pharaoh and our deliverance from him.

Centuries later another man hated us—Haman—you can read about him in the Bible in the book of Esther.  He wanted to get rid of us, but he wound up hanging on the gallows he made for us.  Every year we have another feast.  It’s called Purim and every year we eat a little four-cornered cake in memory of Haman and that we were set free.  As you were speaking, sir, I was just wondering what kind of cake we would be eating in remembrance of you, when your time of terror has ended.”  In the midst of evil, God is there to give us the help we need!  It’s a promise we must never forget.

There’s one final lesson we need to learn from our gospel reading for today, decisions matter.  The actions we take help to shape the future.  What if the Magi had reported back to Herod?  What if Joseph chose not to follow God’s message given to him in his dream?  What if our forefathers and mothers had resigned to the evils that threatened to undo them?  What if those who lived before us gave in to the pressures of the day?  What we do, not only affects our future, it also has an effect on the future generations that will follow us.

One of the things Terry and I do from time to time is to recount our many blessings.  On one occasion, after we had done this, I got to wondering, I know we support the church and contribute to the community and try to live faithful lives, but when we hear the cry of the children, I wonder if we could do more?  The question that came to mind is one my father used to ask us as a family: could we live more simply that others may simply live?”

In this New year, what is God calling us to do with our time, talents, and resources?  Is it possible for us to live more simply, reach out to others more often, and share God’s love with our neighbors more consistently?  What difference can we make with our words and actions for the hurt of the world?  The actions we take will have an impact.  The attitudes we hold will make a difference.

There’s an instrument on an airplane called an Attitude Indicator.  It measures the aircraft’s position in relation to the horizon.  When the nose of the plane is pointed up, it’s called a nose-up attitude.  When the nose of the plane is pointed down, it’s a nose-down attitude.  Bearing in mind that our attitudes and actions make a difference, what will our attitude be as we begin this New Year, is it pointing up or down?  God is our refuge and strength; He is our help in times of trouble.  So, consider this, you and I, by our attitudes and actions, just may be the person God is working through to provide refuge and strength for our neighbors.

Amen

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

< back to Sermon archive