CHRISTMAS ROMANCE, REALITIES, AND OUR RELIGION

CHRISTMAS ROMANCE, REALITIES,

AND OUR RELIGION

©Wendell Griffen, 2019

December 29, 2019 (First Sunday after Christmas)

New Millennium Church

Little Rock, Arkansas

Matthew 2:13-23

13 Now after they 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.’ ¹⁴Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, ¹⁵and 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.’

16 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. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
¹⁸ ‘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.’

19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ²⁰‘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.’ ²¹Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²²But 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. ²³There 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.’

Praise is our cry, O Holy One of God,
for you have come among us and borne our burdens.
Give us open hearts,
that we might embrace our suffering sisters and brothers,
and welcome Jesus in the hospitality
we show to exiles. Amen.

        The second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel begins with the account about the magi (wise men) who journeyed to Palestine from the East to pay homage to Jesus during his infancy.  After doing so, they returned to their country without informing King Herod that they found Jesus in Bethlehem.  Our reading today is about what happened afterwards. 

Basically, we learn that Joseph had three dreams.  In the first dream (Matthew 2:13), an angel appeared and directed him to flee with Jesus and Mary from Bethlehem to Egypt, and “remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 

At that news, Joseph realized that his family was not safe in Bethlehem, in Judea, or anywhere else in Palestine.  An infant named Jesus had become a national security threat to a ruler named Herod.  

The message and image from Joseph’s first dream – flee Judea and Palestine for Egypt – was that Jesus wasn’t wanted or safe in Herod’s Judea.  And we learn that it became unsafe for all other male infants in Herod’s Judea because Herod went on a killing rampage when he didn’t find Jesus in Bethlehem. 

We don’t see many Christmas cards that depict the scene of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus rushing to Egypt (if we see any at all).  We don’t have Christmas cards showing Herod’s agents slaughtering infant boys.  We don’t have Christmas cards showing wailing mothers who mourned the murder of their babies.  When was the last time you heard, let alone sang, a Christmas carol about the threatened Jesus, the marked for death Jesus, and the refugee baby named Jesus? 

That imagery doesn’t fit our notions of Christmas.  We are comfortable with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph being in Bethlehem.  We are comfortable with visits from awe-struck shepherds and the later visit from adoring magi. 

But awestruck shepherds and adoring magi are not the only reactions we must reckon with concerning Christmas and Jesus.  Matthew’s Gospel moves us quickly beyond those heartwarming reactions so that we read that Jesus was not long in the world before he was considered a personal, social, and political threat to King Herod. 

We should not skip over this detail.  King Herod was the face of Zionist nationalism in Judea.  For Herod, the infant Jesus wasn’t a person to revere, but an enemy to eliminate.  Do not miss this!  Jesus did not begin, end, or live as someone considered the friend of nationalism, religious, cultural, or otherwise. 

Although the birth of Jesus was announced by angels to astounded shepherds as good news of great joy for all the people, Herod viewed Jesus as a threat, not a blessing.  Joseph and Mary didn’t know that. Jesus didn’t know it.  But God knew it!  So an angel (celestial messenger) from God warned Joseph in a dream to escape Herod and flee with the infant and his mother to Egypt.  If we will pay attention, God will reveal dangers, toils, and snares of those who oppose what God is working to do in the world, and in our lives.

The unpleasant – but not romantic – reality of Christmas is that Jesus and his closest kinfolk were forced to become refugees during his infancy because of Herod’s sociopathic nationalism.  Herod’s view of Jesus was never based on respect, let alone reverence, for God or God’s will for the world.  Herod viewed Jesus as a moral, social, and political threat even when Jesus was an infant. 

Joseph’s second dream happened while he and his family were refugees and strangers in Egypt.  This time an angel brought good news that it was safe to return to Palestine and Judea after King Herod died. 

Refugees always yearn to return home where they are not viewed and treated as strangers.  Then and now, refugees were forced to take the worst jobs.  Then and now, refugees were targeted for discrimination, abuse, and violence.  The second dream meant Joseph and his family could return to Palestine. 

But Joseph’s joy about being able to return to his homeland turned into anxiety when he realized that Herod’s son, Archelaus, was king over Judea.  Sometimes feeling better doesn’t mean feeling safe.

We don’t get Christmas cards today that feature the anxiety of Jesus and his family as refugees.  We don’t have Nativity scenes involving refugees.  We don’t have much artwork – if any at all – that portrays refugees around the world as kinfolk to the infant refugee named Jesus!  Why not? 

In Joseph’s third dream he was warned not to return to Judea.  Instead, he settled his family in Nazareth, a town in the northern area of Palestine known as Galilee.  The town had a poor reputation, but that is where Joseph settled and where Jesus grew to adulthood.

Joseph’s dreams force us to recognize that Christmas is not only about the romantic scenes and images we have about Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  Christmas also involves brutal realities.  God’s Son became a refugee due to nationalist hatred and fearfulness.  God’s Son became a refugee like the refugees who are fleeing war, violence, and persecution in their homelands today.  God’s Son, like refugees around the world today, was marked as an outsider, and treated like a threat, even when he was too young what being a refugee meant. 

Refugees are vulnerable people.  Refugees can be targets of discrimination and bigotry based on prejudice and fear. What are religious people doing to confront the Herod-like policies of our time that force people to become refugees?

Do we know Jesus well enough – beyond our romanticized notions of Christmas and Christianity – to recognize him in the plight of refugees today?  Do we know Jesus well enough to recognize the murderous hatred faced by refugees today?

People who support political policies that oppress refugees and asylum seekers appear to have forgotten what Jesus said in Matthew 25:  “For I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me.” 

·       Think about that when you hear and read about putting up a wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico to keep refugees out of the United States.

·       Think about the infant refugee named Jesus when you hear and read about refugee children being separated from their parents at the U.S. border and placed in holding pens.

·       Think about the refugee named Jesus and his working class parents when you hear and read about policies that capture and deport refugee working parents because they are undocumented refugees. 

·       How can we love the refugee named Jesus and hate other refugees? 

The truth about Jesus always forces our religion to face realities.  We live in a world where the love of God demonstrated by Jesus is hated by sociopathic leaders such as Herod.  In the same way that Herod had religious advisers, we live in a nation where religious people such as Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Robert Jeffress, Richard Land, and Jack Graham are cheerleaders and chaplains for corrupt and abusive political leaders such as Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, and their cronies.

During this Christmas season and always, let us refuse to romanticize Jesus.  Let us see Jesus in refugee infants, toddlers, and children.  Let us see a worried Joseph and Mary in refugee and asylum-seeking parents.  And let us see Herod in the cultural and religious nationalists who claim to follow Jesus while supporting and imposing hateful policies and practices against people who are refugees, like Jesus. 

Let us see and honor the refugee child named Jesus by seeing Jesus in the refugee children and parents of our time.  Let us know, honor, and follow Jesus – the refugee who came to us from God and who was marked for death as a threat by a nationalist and sociopathic politician named Herod.  Let us give thanks, know, honor, and follow Jesus as the refugee from God who is our Liberator, not our threat.  And let us see, through it all, God working to teach us to be neighbors with God through the ways we treat refugees like Jesus.

Amen.