Rev. Meredith Loftis First Presbyterian Church January 1, 2017 Matthew 2:13-23

Though we don’t celebrate epiphany—when the wise men came to worship Jesus, until January 6 th —our lectionary reading from Matthew jumps ahead, bypassing the magis for now, and reminding us that the holy family’s journey has really just begun.

13 Now after they [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.” 14 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15 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.” 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. 17 Then 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.” 21 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22 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. 23 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.”

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. We have been holding our breaths with great anticipation, walking through Advent, waiting for that star to appear and guide us to that manger holding the Godflesh, the tiny baby born of poor peasants; waiting for the shepherds to witness the terrifying glory of the angels and hear their message; waiting for the magi to appear with their gifts to worship the Christ child. With swollen belly, Mary lays in the hay of a stable, laboring like generations of women before her, anxiously waiting to meet her son, praying she survives childbirth to hold him. And then he is here and our mouths round with joyful songs, Hark the Herald Angels Sing , Go Tell It on the Mountain , and Joy to the World . We revel in our God who humbled himself, descending from on high, that God might become one of us. We are in the eighth day of Christmas, but for many, if not most, the Christmas season has about come to a close. We contemplate packing away the decorations, stuffing the tree once again in that small attic or dragging it to the curb; we eat those last couple of Christmas

1 cookies, get the kids ready for school, and start making our New Year's resolutions. Jesus is here, all is well. Until we turn to this scripture and remember that the Christmas story actually continues with this passage from Matthew 2. I’ll admit, it’s a scripture that I often forget is coming amongst the hubbub of the holidays. Our creches or nativity scenes depict the quaint setting that the holy family found themselves living in, just a little shelter behind some motel. Mary and Joseph peer down into the manger with cows resting behind them; a shepherd boy with a few sheep lingers outside the door; perhaps an angel tops the roof of your stable; the wise men bear their gifts, bowing before the baby King. But one prominent figure looms in the background, never taking shape in our nativity scenes, not allowed to partake in the joyous occasion of receiving the long awaited Messiah, for his heart is hard as stone: that forgotten Christmas character, King Herod. “The Gospel reading this [Sun]day after Christmas strikes a new tone for the season by dramatically leading us away from the anticipation of Advent and revelry of the holidays to the tenuous and dark days between promises and their fruition,” writes Eric Baretto of Princeton Seminary. 1 Herod’s re-entry into the story quickly brings us back into the reality that even though the promise of the Messiah has been fulfilled, death chases Christ from his first days. It is this world which Christ has come to redeem, but now we travel with him to Egypt, seeking refuge from powers that bring only death. Outraged that he has been tricked by the wise men who told him they’d share this new king’s location, Herod schemes in the background, his fear taking root and revealing itself in unspeakable slaughter and death. King Herod, also known as Herod the Great, was appointed by the Roman Empire to rule Judea, and according to historical records, had to fight for many years to take control of his kingdom, never feeling secure, which resulted in the construction of numerous massive fortresses that dotted his kingdom for him to seek refuge. “When he suspected intrigue in his own family,” writes theologian R. Alan Culpepper, “he killed his wife Mariamne and one of his sons. Before he died, he commanded that at his death political prisoners should be killed so that there would be mourning throughout the land. 2 Consistent with Herod’s paranoia and record of persecution, when he learns that the magi have evaded him and won’t reveal who this newborn Jewish king is, he orders the destruction of all children two years and under to solve this problem, for his fear has no regard for even the young and vulnerable. In these grotesque orders of this barbaric king, the author of Matthew harkens us to the past, to the Old Testament, connecting his first century Jewish listeners to their Hebrew scriptures of old. This episode is reminiscent of Pharaoh’s same order in Exodus during the age of Moses’ birth, to kill all baby boys as the Hebrew people were growing to be numerous and strong. Herod is another Pharaoh, using death as his weapon of choice. Like Moses, Jesus was born into a time of fear, a time when his people, the Jews, lived under the occupation of a foreign empire, just as the Hebrew people lived as slaves in Egypt. Another unexpected servant of God, Moses became the savior of the Hebrew people, chosen by God to do the impossible and lead them on the great exodus that would reshape their lives, granting them new life through the God that heard their cries. For Matthew, Jesus is the new Moses, disrupting the current powers, even in his birth as a tiny vulnerable baby and attesting

1 Eric Barreto. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3121 2 Feasting on the Word , Year A, Vol 1, page 167.

2 to the power that God shows even in the smallest and weakest of beings or during the seemingly most evil of deeds. “It is clear that Matthew wanted his community to understand that God is functioning in the earliest events of Jesus’ life [just as God did with Moses] and to signify fulfillment of the prophets’ words and redemption, regardless of the world’s activities to the contrary.” 3 The long awaited Messiah has arrived, states Matthew, telling his Jewish listeners that the God of old continues to provide new life. And we continue to heed Matthew’s message, that despite Herod, despite evil and chaos, our God continues to awaken us to new life through Christ. As crazy as it sounds, perhaps this ruthless and murderous figure unintentionally points us to the power of God through this child; Herod’s actions actually show us from the beginning that Jesus’ life was transformative and disruptive, causing the most powerful to tremble. Even though Jesus doesn’t actually do or say anything until the third chapter of Matthew, his very presence rocks the word he was born into. You see, "Herod represents the dark side of the gospel. He reminds us that Jesus didn't enter a world of sparkly Christmas cards or a world of warm spiritual sentiment. Jesus enters a world of real pain, of serious dysfunction, a world of brokenness and political oppression,” writes Joy Carroll Wallis of Sojourner Magazine .4 When we forget or skim past this part of Jesus’ birth narrative and the holy family’s flight into Egypt as refugees, we discount the very reason God first came to us. We sometimes forget that even in his early days, death chased Jesus. Professor Barreto again writes, “From the very first, the road Jesus walks is marked by both God's promises and human resistance. Jesus is both the living presence of God's promises and a consistent irritant to those in power.” 5 That is the reminder I hope you leave with today, that Jesus is living and working to fulfill the promises he initiated at his birth. Christmas is not just something we celebrate for one day or even 12 days. Christmas is the divine incarnation that we profess and claim changes our lives every single day. Every single day we claim that, though Herod might chase us, threaten us, and even harm us. This very day, New Year’s Day, many of us think of as a new clean slate; a time to start anew and refocus. We get energized thinking about the potential for change, seeking to bury the past, change habits, relinquish the old. But this scripture reminds me that Jesus’ birth does not come to give us a clean slate to start anew. Jesus comes to help us reclaim life in all aspects. Jesus comes to disrupt the past notions, past powers, past shadows that wound and scar us to radically transform them, to seek out that brokenness, the hurt, the lamentation and remold, reshape, and reconstitute them into life-giving sources that show the power of God in our lives. Maybe perhaps we even need Jesus to irritate or disrupt us a little in order to again fully see the abundance that comes from God and God alone. And with that abundant life we are given, we too become a part of that Christmas promise to thwart Herod, commanded by Christ to share the good news that God is with us. Let us pray.

3 Feasting on the Word , Year A, Vol 1, page 166. 4 "Putting Herod Back into Christmas," Joy Carroll Wallis, Sojourners , 2004. 5 Eric Barreto. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3121