"Don’t Become Blinded By Life"

Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – December 29, 2013

Centenary United Methodist Church

Genesis 37:23-28; Matthew 2:13-23

 

    Our lesson for today is the story of Joseph and Mary’s flight into Egypt.  Word had come to Herod from three Persian astrologers that a new king had been born in the region.  In those days, the word of such men was both respected and feared.  Any potential threat to a current ruler was taken very seriously.  

    After registering for Roman taxes and giving birth to their son, Mary and Joseph continued their journey by heading into Egypt after having advanced warning that Jesus was in danger. There, the family waited for word of Herod’s death before relocating in Galilee. 

    Most of us really enjoy the story surrounding Jesus’ birth.  We rehearse it every year and never grow tired of it.  If you read Letters to the Editor in yesterday’s Gazette, you read Bishop Dill’s response to an anonymous writer who expressed his doubt about the entire Jesus story in a letter earlier in the week. Both writers had a distinct difference of opinion.

    Even though the story is beautiful, we have to look at it with a sense of detachment because many of the details do not match anything in our experience.  It would be wonderful if we were given such obvious guidance from angels and given warnings of impending danger in plenty of time to take a detour. Who would not want to receive timely advice on when it was safe to return to an environment that was once hostile to our baby boy?   

    The experience of God for most of us is not one where God micromanages each phase of our lives. What would be the purpose of faith if we never experienced the pain of indecision, took risks when the outcome was unknown, or had to weigh our options before taking those leaps of faith?

    The Scriptures completely gloss over any emotions or thoughts that Mary and Joseph experienced during the Christmas Story.  Let’s use our imaginations as we consider what the couple may have experienced. Imagine being Mary and Joseph for the moment.

    Mary was near her due date.  She had to ride a donkey or walk as the two made their way to Bethlehem.  When they arrived, they were greeted by a place teeming with people.  Mary’s contractions started.  As Joseph was trying to figure out what to do, the intervals between the contractions became closer.  Joseph became anxious.  

    Joseph pleaded with an inn-keeper, “Please help us!  I seldom ask favors from people but my wife is having contractions. Is there anything that you can do for us?”  The inn-keeper responds,

I am about ready to lose my mind.  Rome makes these crazy decrees on tax registration without thinking of the unintended consequences of bringing hundreds of people into a small town like ours just because they happened to be born here.  We have no means of taking care of all these people. (He pauses)  I tell you what.  Go over to the barnyard and I’ll bring several bales of clean straw.  I’ll get my wife to help with the delivery.  I am sorry that I can’t do more for you.  The crowds of people started pouring into Bethlehem four days ago and I and most of the shop keepers are overwhelmed at the moment.  We had no warning that this edict was coming.

    This kind of emotional drama is totally missing in the Gospels, but I assure you there were plenty of apprehensions and lots of questions of what was going to happen next.  We enjoy this wonderful story every year because it is clean of stress, anxiety and doubts. 

    A large church not too far from where we live in Maryland goes to great expense to do the Bethlehem story with live animals and authentic attire for the actors.  Even with all the realism dramatized by spot lights and amplification, the events surrounding the birth of Jesus have been completely sanitized of all the emotional drama.

    Another experience that comes to mind like this happens periodically in the states. Hundreds of citizens gather to celebrate the Civil War, a war where approximately 620,000 Americans lost their lives.  The war was horrible.  It split families, churches, states and the nation’s government.  Each year, however, hundreds of men dress up in the uniforms of the Confederate and the Union troops.  They roll out the canons and have their Whitworth or Brunswick rifles ready.  With drawn swords they ride their horses toward each other as they re-enact a savage battle.  After the battle is over, I’m sure they fire up their grills and sit down together for a picnic.  All the agony and savagery have been scrubbed from the script.

    What was the author of Matthew attempting to do with his story about the flight into Egypt?  We need to understand that the author wrote his story from a distinct point of view for the followers of Jesus who were Jews.  Matthew’s author wanted his readers to know that Jesus was the Messiah that was foretold in scripture by the prophets.  However, he used statements from earlier prophets that had nothing to do with the coming of the Messiah.

    For example, he wrote, “This was done to make come true what God had said through the prophet, ‘I called my Son out of Egypt.’”  The actual quote from the prophet Hosea 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.’”  (Hosea 11:1)

    The Gospel’s author also wrote, “A sound is heard of bitter weeping.  Rachel is crying for her children:  she refuses to be comforted because all of them are dead.”  This statement in Jeremiah had no connection with the prediction that Herod would slaughter babies in Bethlehem.  The context of the Jeremiah passage was the passing of the Jews by Rachel’s grave as the Jews were being led away into exile.  (Jeremiah 31:15)

    Why would the author of Matthew deliberately use scripture in this manner?  All Hebrew literature has to be seen in the context of showing how God was active in their lives.  The Jews knew that they were God’s chosen people.  This idea of being God’s chosen people was not just a highly subjective point of view.  This was and is the identity of the Jews.

    The Gospel’s author wrote the Jesus story from this point of view.  The Messiah had come to them in a form no one expected.  He was able to skip all the emotional drama because he was describing God’s activity just as earlier writers did when Moses was a reluctant savior of his people.

    What has occurred in every generation from the earliest days is that no one understands God’s activity during times of emotional and dramatic turmoil in their respective societies.  Today, issues appear much worse because we live in the midst of rapid chaotic change where communication of events is instantly transmitted all over the world.

    If we talk to people today, they often believe that “the world is going to Hell in a hand-basket.” People cite examples:  Countless nations are struggling over who will set the rules by which people live.  There are terrorists that want to impose Islamic rule by military action in small countries.  We find people losing interest in the Church not only in Bermuda and European countries but interest is waning in the United States. People in every generation have thought this way and yet God’s will is unfolding in spite of everyone’s fears.   

    Listen to this comment:

Our youth today love luxury. They have bad manners and show contempt for authority; they have no respect for their elders and they love to chatter constantly to each other instead of exercising their bodies; they no longer show respect by standing when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents.  They continue to be rude with their constant chattering even in the presence of company; they gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

     We might imagine that this statement recently appeared in the Lifestyle section of the Royal Gazette.  As a matter of fact, this quote actually came from Socrates, 380 years before Jesus was born.

    My point is that our lives are filled with all kinds of nonsense, stupidity and ignorance just as were the lives of Mary and Joseph.  The thread that held the lives of Mary and Joseph together was their confidence and trust that all was well in spite of how miserable and almost intolerable their circumstances had become. They were not blinded by life’s unexplainable twists and turns that made no sense whatsoever.

    One of the cruel ironies historically is that Mary and Joseph, all the disciples of Jesus and millions of believers through the centuries would all die before they knew what we know today.  They could not have possibly imagined that Christianity would enter the 21st Century with 2.1 billion followers of Jesus Christ world-wide. That number represents one third of the world’s population.

    Before we question and make judgments about the direction in which humankind is headed or question whether God is still active in our lives, we should remember Jesus’ admonition, “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your sister’s or brother’s eye.  (Matthew 7:5).  All judgments reflect only the spirit of the one making them.  Secondly, we should pay attention to the theology of the writer of Matthew’s Gospel.  He was writing to people who never questioned that God was active in their lives. 

    Life is very much like being on a rollercoaster.  People pay for a ride that absolutely terrorizes them, particularly if this is their first experience. We have to have confidence in the one who designed and built the ride that we will survive the experience.  Most of us walk away wanting to do it again. 

    What was important to the Jews is that they survived everything from the Babylonian captivity to the Holocaust atrocities at the hands of Nazi Germany.  We must never allow the ugly and painful losses of life to blind us to a reality that hindsight teaches – God has never nor will God ever lose control of creation.  God’s will is slowly unfolding regardless of our opinions about it, regardless of feelings of abandonment that some people have, and regardless of our inability to have a clear vision of where humanity is headed.  

    This is the most exciting time to be alive.  Try to imagine that our orientation toward life started with the birth of a baby in a very obscure part of the world.  The heart of Jesus’ message came in three short years.  That message has influenced the lives of one third of our world’s population. 

    God is active and we are most fortunate to be participants in the greatest show on earth.  Knowing this, we will never become blinded by life no matter how real our experiences appear.  As we celebrate the New Year, never give up hope that we are players in a drama that will eventually lead to the answer for which all of us pray – “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”