Psalm 148; Matthew 2:13-23

    
     Now that we have discussed the applicability to our lives of the four themes of Advent and celebrated Jesus birth, we are now going to turn our attention to the drama where Joseph, Mary and their son flee into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod.  A thread woven through the Christmas story is how Mary and Joseph trusted God for the unfolding of their lives.  This morning I want to apply their experiences to our own. Their experience, however, was not without stress and anxiety as the gospel writer implies.

    Before we delve into our Scripture lesson today, I want to give you a brief orientation to the author of Matthew.  This Gospel writer created his story from a distinct point of view.  While writing to a Jewish community, he wanted them to know that Jesus was the Messiah as foretold in Scripture.  However, he used statements from earlier writers that were never meant to be prophetic in order to support his understanding.

    For example, in our lesson we have two instances of this.  The first is when he wrote, "This was done to make come true what the Lord had said through the prophet, 'I called my Son out of Egypt.'"  The actual quote from Hosea 11:1 reads, "The Lord said, 'When Israel was a child, I loved him and called him out of Egypt as my son.  But the more I called to him, the more he turned away from me.'"  Matthew's quote had nothing to do with foretelling the arrival of the Messiah. 

    A second reference is when he wrote, "A sound is heard in Ramah, the sound of bitter weeping.  Rachel is crying for her children:  she refuses to be comforted for they are dead."  This is a quote from the prophet Jeremiah 31:15.  The Gospel writer tweaked the Scriptures to suit his need to transform a simple statement into prophecy.  This statement in Jeremiah had no connection with predicting Herod's slaughter of the babies in Bethlehem.  The context of the Jeremiah passage was the passing of the Jews by Rachel's grave (I Samuel 10:2) as they were being led away into exile. 

    We may find this style of writing strange, but to the Jews and Jewish writers, factual information was seldom their goal.  Hebrew writers wanted people to recognize that God was still very active in their lives.  The Jews were no strangers to this point of view.  They understood for centuries that they were God's chosen people. Modern readers must understand Hebrew writers as coming from this highly subjective point of view.  

    The final literary device that the Gospel writer used was an angel that came to the key participants in a dream that provided them with specific instructions for how they were to trust God with their destiny. Again, historically, the Jews were well informed about how God communicated through angels, so Matthew used this medium as a segue from one portion of the story to another.

    Why have I subjected you to this background?  Few of us have the luxury of having someone verbally reconstruct our lives from hindsight.  Biographers have a wonderful way of showing how the various stepping stones neatly fit together as a person made his or her way across the river of life.  However, even though we trust God with our lives, most of our steps are not easy to take.  Most are filled with hesitancy and risk. 

    Regardless of how this episode in the life of a young family was reported, the issue was that they had to trust God with their destiny.  This is what it means to have faith.  This task may be the greatest challenge for us because we know that trusting God for our destiny intersects with our assuming responsibility for the decisions we make.  We were taught, "As you sow, so shall you reap."  Matthew glosses over any struggles that Mary and Joseph had, and thus the background was necessary.

    Secondly, many of us recognize that our Gospel story is filled with imagery and symbols that are different from our own.  For example, we do not have the tradition of angels bringing messages from God that specifically direct our lives.  People in our day, who have attempted to predict the future by using specific biblical references, have all missed the mark.

    To validate this understanding for ourselves, it would be interesting to see what our response would be if one of our presidential candidates indicated publicly that God spoke to him directly from a burning bush that was not consumed?  Be honest.  Would you continue to see this candidate as objectively as you did prior to this revelation? 

    Some of us may recall when Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club, was running for President some years ago.  During the campaign a powerful hurricane named Gloria was headed straight for the shores of Delaware, Rhode Island and New Jersey.  Mr. Robertson indicated that his prayers directed the storm to veer due east, sparing our eastern states massive damage.  Rather than evoke praise, he suddenly dropped dramatically in the polls and soon bowed out of the race.

    It is fascinating how a person's religious orientation has become a factor in the race among today's presidential hopefuls.  Many of us have slept in Marriott hotels without ever questioning if the facilities are managed fairly and skillfully because the family who owns the company is Mormon.  Another candidate's credibility has been questioned because his name sounds Islamic.  Another candidate has created uncertainty in the minds of some voters because of his statements that grew from his experience as a Christian and a Baptist minister.  

    Yes, we enjoy having our faith reinforced by our Biblical heroes, but if the truth were known, most Americans would prefer that such people stay in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.  People whose lives speak to us from thousands of years ago are safe because the outcome of their deeds of faith is known.  When such people of faith come into our lives today and are interviewed by today's talk show hosts, their witness gives us pause.  Clearly, the images and symbols from the lives of Biblical characters are much different from our own.

    Another example occurred some time ago in an Episcopal church.  A search committee was established upon the retirement of their long-tenured pastor.  The task of such a committee is to receive resumes from the candidates who apply for the position, develop a short list, invite the candidates on that list to meet with the committee.  They are invited to preach to the congregation.  If everyone is satisfied with someone's performance, the committee makes a decision and issues a call to the finalist. 

    One day a member of the search committee had become increasingly frustrated with his group's tedious, judgmental rejection of one candidate after candidate.  He stood up one evening and read a letter purported to be from another candidate. 

    Dear Men and Women of the Search Committee,

Understanding that your pulpit is vacant, I should like to apply for the position.  I have many qualifications.  I am a successful preacher and writer.  Some people say that I am an excellent organizer.  I have been a leader in most of the places I've been.   I am over 50 years of age.  I have never preached in one place for more than three years.  In certain instances I have had to leave some towns in a hurry because my preaching God's Word offended a number of my listeners.  Occasionally my sermons even incited riots. 

    I have to admit that I have been in jail three or four times, but I assure you that I am innocent of all charges.  My health has not been good, particularly my eye sight, although I am still able to perform most tasks quite efficiently.  The churches where I have preached have been small, although most of them are located in large communities. 

    To be perfectly honest, I must confess that I have not always gotten along with other religious leaders.  In fact, some of them have threatened and even attacked me physically. I must also confess that I am not too good at keeping records.  I cannot recall the names of all the people I have baptized.  But, I have been in direct contact with Jesus.  I am confident that Christ will enable me to do my best as your pastor.

    The committee members sat there stunned, astonished and aghast.  The chair of the committee said, Harry, please sit down.  You are being absurd but I think all of us understand the point you are making.  Perhaps we are being a bit harsh, but all of us want the best candidate for our church.  We would be remiss in our responsibilities to do anything less thorough.  With that said, we would never consider hiring an unhealthy, trouble-making, absent-minded, criminal who probably has been smoking something to be our next pastor.  Did you write that to make a point or did someone actually have the audacity to sign it?    As Harry looked at those assembled around the table, he said,  "It was signed by the Apostle Paul."  Harry made the point of how disconnected they were from images and symbols that described the most famous follower of Christ in our faith's history. 

     I want to suggest to you that trusting God with our destiny requires that we take risks when the outcome is far from sure.  We may not have an angel that comes to us in a dream with specific instructions to attend this university, marry this potential mate, take this job, move to this location and apply for a new position within our company.  The quality and style of our faith has evolved. There would be no point to life if God micro-managed each of our decisions.  

    There were certain historic realities in Joseph's life that would have caused stress and anxiety in Joseph and Mary's life.  For example, Joseph would have known about Herod's potential for cruelty.  Most people in his society did.  As soon as he took the throne, Herod began assassinating the members of the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jews.  He slaughtered 300 court officers.  He murdered his wife, Mariamne, her mother Alexandra, and three of his sons. Even on the hour of his death, Herod gave orders for the slaughter of the highly visible politicos who were living in Jerusalem.  Joseph was very well informed about the threats that were present in his world. 

Fleeing to Egypt is what Jews frequently did when there was political turmoil.  Every major city in Egypt had a colony of Jews.  The city of Alexandria, for example, had a colony of over a million Jews.  The Egyptian government handed entire areas over to the Jews to manage.  The Jews were productive, industrious and an asset to the Egyptian economy.

    As our lesson indicated, when Herod died, his son, Archelaus, inherited Judea to rule, a territory that represented one third of his father's territory. Archelaus began his rule with an order to slaughter 3,000 of the most influential people in his territory.  Joseph was wise to settle in Galilee in the city of Nazareth.  Isn't it interesting how the characters change but the script for how some leaders govern appears the same? 

    Matthew's Gospel provides us with a wonderful story. What we can surmise from our reading the Scriptures is that each person in every age of our faith history from Abraham to Paul has had to face moments of uncertainty just as we do.  They had to make choices where no clear answers were known.  Once we discern the facts surrounding the lives of Mary and Joseph, the same could be said of them.  Living by faith is not a cake walk.

     What we can understand with certainty as we enter the New Year is that our destiny was assured before we were born. God's love would never allow our eternal destiny to remain up to our fragile, often fearful and uninformed decision-making.  Clerics who attempt to convince us otherwise are appealing to our fears while trying to micro-manage the way God expresses love, a love we cannot earn or deserve because of how we think, believe or behave.   God's love definitely comes to the just and unjust alike.

    We are creatures who are still evolving.  God is the creator.  We can only speculate about what our experiences mean.  God actually knows.  In that truth we can rest and find peace.