Year A First Sunday after the Nativity 26 December 2010
Isaiah 63: 7-9 Psalm 148 Hebrews 2: 10-18 Matthew 2: 13-23
Life on planet Earth is not easy. God coming to us in human flesh, Jesus, reminds me of the Superman II movie. In this episode, in order for Superman to be united in love with Lois Lane, he gives up his super powers and becomes like a normal human being – able to be hurt and vulnerable. At Christmas we celebrate that God did the same out of love for us, but we seldom realize the magnitude of that act and the part that human obedience played.
Hebrews 2:10 “ In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.”
The suffering of Jesus started right from the time he was born... actually even before that. Mary could well have been stoned to death for being pregnant- and her unborn child killed along with her. The path that God took was completely fraught with danger at every turn. We read in the Gospel that Herod tried to kill him and although Jesus was saved - only through the obedience of Joseph, many others were killed by Herod.
Matthew 2:16-18 “ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
Great joy is expressed in the Christmas message about the fulfilment of the promise of God, but parallel to that great joy and accompanying it is incredible stress.
I have occasionally heard people say, “Come Lord Jesus!” What they mean is that they are eagerly awaiting the second coming of Christ. Christ will come again, but just as the contemporaries of Jesus time misunderstood God’s ways then, I expect many Christians will misunderstand the plans of God when he comes again. Those who are so eager for Christ’s return are often those who are finding life on planet Earth way too difficult and want a way out. From what I read and if the message of this week’s readings are to teach us anything, it is that the way of the wonderful promises of God always have been, and always will be, fraught with danger.
We need to look closely at the example of Joseph and Mary in order to learn how to co-operate with promises of God. Danger was always present and with it was great stress, but when they listened to and trusted in God, God’s plan and purpose was fulfilled.
Matthew 2:13-15 “ ... an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.””
It is interesting that for us to be saved – to become a Christian, we need to believe God and to trust him and give our lives to him. Likewise, to walk in his promises, we have the same guidelines – Trust in God completely and give our lives into his hands.
We can not escape our troubles by praying for Christ’s return. It is certain that for many who become Christians, that is when their troubles begin – think of those early Christians fed to the lions – think of St. Paul, a respected Pharisee of high standing in the community – after becoming a Christian he was whipped, stoned, imprisoned, ship wrecked, etc......
After knowing all this I’m sure many wonder why anyone would become a Christian. Why would Mary, a young virgin say yes to God about being the mother of Jesus – knowing that by law she could be stoned to death because who would believe that this child was by God....????? They were obedient to God because they knew God. These people knew the love and mercy of God. They trusted God because they knew his way was the way of Good News and the troubles that they would experience would be entrusted to Him to take care of and He would carry them through.
We experience troubles and, if you are like me, you grumble at God and complain that He doesn’t really care about you. We know from scripture though that this is not true. We know what God is like because Jesus shows us clearly His mercy and love. When we feel that God is removed from our sorrows we can know that it isn’t true. Even the Old Testament reading clearly explains how God feels our distress;
Isaiah 63:8,9 “8 He said, “Surely they are my people, children who will be true to me”; and so he became their Savior.9 In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”
Note that we are not likely to be free from distress, but that God feels this with us and along with saving and redeeming us, he will carry us through. We also know that He understands our sufferings because in Jesus He became fully human and experienced suffering:
Hebrews 2:14- 18 “ 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
At the end of the Superman movie Superman has to take back his super powers for the greater good. Lois Lane is left confused and hurt. Many of us live in the same confusion and hurt. We are Christians and proclaim the Good news, yet life’s experiences leave us battle weary, confused and hurt. Jesus has risen (taken back his super powers), and for the time being his Kingdom is not yet on Earth as it is in Heaven. We, like Lois Lane in the movie, do not have the whole story. All we can do is to grow in our relationship with God such that we can fully trust him.
Troubles on planet Earth are a certainty. For those who love God, all things will eventually work for Good.... Following God and walking in the path of His promise is no exception to a life of trouble and danger but know that God feels our every distress and so trust in him fully – he will save us and carry us through.
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