God with Us, Amidst the Treachery

God with Us, Amidst the Treachery 

Gospel: Matthew 2:13-23

The story of the wise men avoiding Herod and getting out of town in a hurry, highlights the reputation Herod had for cruelty and conspiracy theories. It is a pattern long associated with the immature and selfish leaders. 

Then that angel appears to Joseph in the middle of the night, as if the parent of a newborn needs another reason to be awakened in the middle of the night. The angel says that Herod will seek to destroy the child. How paranoid do you have to be to fear an infant? This is the same Herod the not-so-great, who had John the Baptist beheaded to please a dancing teen-age girl. He may be the king, but he is not mentally stable. 

The evangelist Matthew frames this story as another way to “prove” that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He again recalls a quote out of the book of Isaiah, our old friend, saying that God will call a savior “out of Egypt.” Indeed, bringing Jesus back from Egypt is intended to remind the faithful of Moses leading the people through the Exile to the Promised Land. These Exile events clearly established the heritage of the Hebrew people as the “Chosen Ones” of God. Matthew wants us to see Jesus as the “new Moses.” 

In a practical sense, we understand that the rich and famous often have their weaknesses. We laughed as children at the old tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes, when the impressionable King was persuaded to parade around naked, exposing his - his foolishness. The other side of this awareness is that these fools may also have a total lack of empathy for the pain of others. This causes immature people in positions of power, to be willing and able to inflict great harm to others with no correction from a guilty conscience. They cannot sense feelings in anyone but themselves. 

So the dutiful Joseph, soon to disappear from the narrative of the life of Christ, takes the child out of Israel to wait out the life and reign of the unpredictable, cruel, and self-seeking King Herod. Then he returns the family to Israel, but to the distant Nazareth. Matthew finds another Old Testament verse to justify the choice of Nazareth. 

In these short days after Christmas, why are we distracted by the political climate around Jerusalem? Shouldn’t we get to sing praises to the infant for a few weeks? 

The short answer is, we are people who live in both the Kingdom of God and the political world around us. We need to be aware of what goes on around us, and take the actions that are appropriate. Even the infant Jesus was threatened by political power entrusted to an unstable person. 

So if God is with us, it helps to know that from the moment of his birth, Jesus was impacted by the events of the political climate. Born in a stable not in comfort, threatened by the powers that be and not celebrated, clearly Jesus of Nazareth became a child of the real world. 

The more difficult question of course, is if an angel came to warn Joseph about the danger, what about all of those other families? Why allow those other families to suffer, but spare Jesus? Surely, the killing of infant boys should have more meaning than to simply reenact the birth narrative of Moses. 

Many Christian churches teach that heaven is only for those who have been baptized. I do not agree with this premise, but many accept it as truth. All who were not baptized were destined for hell. It may seem unfortunate, but it worked for the theology of the time. In time the church suffered pangs of conscience, when they considered the sacrifice of these innocent children, as Herod tried to kill the baby Jesus. If they were martyred in the name of the Christ, who would deny them entrance to the gates of heaven. There is an unofficial teaching about the Limbo of Infants, where these souls wait for the Savior to release them at the end of the age.    

These are the complications that arise when humans try to force a single, human understanding of God - into the narrow boundaries of human doctrine. You and I, we see that God acted to preserve the infant Jesus to carry out his role as our savior. We can see that the family of Joseph, armed with useful information, acted in time and space, to be responsible. 

We look in horror at the story of the slaughter of the innocents. We look in horror at the murder of Elementary School children at Sandy Hook four years ago, and turn our prayers and tears over to the God of Creation. In your great compassion O Holy One, help us to believe in your goodness in the face of cruel injustice. 

There is so much about the mind of God that remains a mystery to us. I will not try to resolve your uneasiness with platitudes and dogma. God permits humans free will. Some humans abuse that free will and behave dismally. In the face of tragedy and disasters, the love of God appears - in the creative protective actions of teachers, in the presence of the first responders, and in compassionate neighbors. 

Did you and I sleep through the warning message from the angel that might have allowed us to avoid the disaster? I do not know, but I will not create another artificial reason to feel guilty about what I was never responsible for. The angel did not stop Herod, but only warned Joseph. 

God is with us. In this messy, dangerous, and unstable world, God is with us. That does not make everything magical, although it is so much better than being alone. The presence of God is invisible, unless you and I actively look for blessings, and actively work to make blessings available to others. Amen.