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1st Sunday after Christmas, 12/30/2007
Sermon on Matthew 2:13-23, by Walter Harms
THE END OF CHRISTMAS
How many of you have begun to put your Christmas decorations away?
Christmas is coming to its end, if not already over. If you haven't
gone back to work already, you will no doubt be going this week and the
routines will begin again. That is except for the children, they have
another whole week to be bored, drive the parents crazy, fight with
each other and give the parents plenty of reasons to rejoice that they
go to school, have homework and all the other activities.
For many of us, we have been moved by the spirit of Christmas to be
generous to those we love, and perhaps even to other charities which
have touched our hearts. Our bank statements and credit card bills
give evidence of that. My main credit card bill always comes on the
26th of the month, so I have had to face the music already of what I
did to make the holiday happy ones.
It is definitely the end of Christmas. At least for the year 2007.
With all our gifts and parties and giving in general, we wanted to
make others, particularly our families happy, perhaps appreciative,
perhaps thankful that they had such generous persons in the family.
We want to be in charge of making people happy, at least for the
holiday. Whether we succeeded or not is another question, but we enjoy
being in charge. We want things to go our way. We don't like someone
else invading our territory and telling us what to do. In our work,
whether in the home or outside, we try to be in charge.
Did you ever notice that children go to extraordinary measures to have
us do what they want, to get for them what they want? They want to be
charge even of their parents. And do not think that parents are any
different when it comes to our relationship with others. Adults have
clashes because I want what I want and the other person wants what he
or she wants. Adults play subtle games to get what they want. I am
sure that at least some of you have heard the expression: candy is
dandy, but liquor is quicker.
Overshadowing the reading from the narrative of the life of Jesus
written by Matthew which we heard is this man by the name of Herod. He
is a king, often called Herod the Great because of lesser "herods' that
followed him.
He had out maneuvered a number of competitors to gain political control
over the area we roughly call Palestine today. He wanted to keep his
job, and as long as he forked over the desired revenues to Rome, they
were happy and he got to keep his job.
You think some of those Eastern countries are cruel today, they would
have been no match for Herod. He killed any person caught in any
opposition to him. He had his own mother and sons drowned because he
thought they were plotting against him.
You remember what it said the mood in Jerusalem was because when the
wise men knocked on Herod's door and asked where the newborn king of
the Jews was so that they might, catch this, worship him? The whole
city was disturbed. Herod would go on another of his blood baths. Who
knew how many people would be butchered!
He asks the wise men to find this newborn king and to come back to tell
him, so he too might worship him. You bet, worship him!
When he realized he had been tricked, he had this killing of the boys
two years old and younger take place. No one, no one was going to be in
first place in his realm. No one.
So the wise men had been warned and returned to the east by a different
route. Joseph had this dream of warning, and he rose and took the
child and Mary to Egypt.
Jesus leaves his land because someone didn't want him there. It was
the end of Christmas for Palestine that year.
Who is going to be in charge of your life? Who is going to rule?
Perhaps even what is going to rule? And if Jesus is not going to be
the person in charge, the king of your life then what will happen to
him? I can tell you, he will flee from you to somewhere else.
It is not in the USA that conversions are taking place, but in Africa
where 10,000 persons accept Jesus as their King every month. Is that
because we no longer wish Jesus to rule and govern our hearts and mind,
our dreams and ambitions, our choices and our feelings?
Have we just gone through the motions of honoring Jesus, but really
been centered on self-centered enjoyment of how great we are, how
important we are and how much we have and have gotten as gifts?
There was a young man, I suspect much like many of you, who came to
Jesus as asked what he could do to get to heaven. It says that Jesus
loved this man. He told that person to sell all that he had, give it
to the poor and then follow him. He went away because he had many
possessions.
Sad to say, each one of us is like that. We cannot by our own efforts,
regardless of how much clout and power we have get into God's favor.
Each one of us tries to be king of our own little patch and the result
is that Jesus cannot be there.
So Jesus goes to Egypt, into exile as his people had done a couple
thousand years before to avoid extinction, that time from famine.
Jesus goes there to begin again the people of God. Israel is called
God's Son; here Jesus is called God's Son, the beginning of a new
people of God.
He comes back and goes to live in a place called Nazareth. Why?
Because that is God's plan for the salvation of all mankind from the
tyranny that lives in this world, in our culture, and in our own hearts.
From there he finally confronts those now in charge of his city, Zion,
the Jerusalem that was always his city. What Herod the Great did not
do, Pontius Pilate the point man for the power of Rome accomplished.
He got this "king of the Jews" hung on a cross, and that was to be the
finish, the end once for all of Christmas.
But all of this was according to God's plan. From the time of man's
precipitous fall into the darkness of self deception and erroneous
belief that he was as smart as God, God wanted man, you, me, all of us
to have a way of escape.
Our way of escape from our desire to control things to trust that the
only one in charge of this world, our world, is not ourselves, not
someone else, not some terrorist or the fear that life engenders, but a
gracious loving God.
It is true that we may have to flee into exile in some kind of Egypt.
It is true that we many finally end up miserably because of our faith
in Jesus as Savior and King, but there is a larger truth. And it is
this.
Jesus is king, always. He is in charge. He came that first Christmas
to reveal how much he loves us. He loves us enough to give up his life
to conquer that evil enemy we call death, and to give us life eternal.
I don't know about you, but the only way I am going to live always is
because of Jesus, the King. We may always because we are fallen human
creatures, believe we need to control our world, but in the middle of
all our fears, doubts and errors to know that the king has come and we
will always have him as king even if we are poor subjects of his.
Yes, it is the end of Christmas, but let it be the start of Jesus being
the king of all our lives. Amen.
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