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SERMONS

Second Sunday after Christmas
January 4, 2009

By The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky

Jeremiah 31:7-14
Psalm 84:1-8
Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a
Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

When my husband and I went to the Holy Land last November, we went to Bethlehem to see the place where Jesus was born. Joseph and Mary were thought to have taken refuge in a cave, where Jesus was born and where he was put in a manger by his mother. That’s the spot where the church is. In order to enter the Basilica of the Nativity there in Bethlehem, you must pass through a very low door called the Door of Humility. That means you, as a visitor to this church, must physically stoop over in order to get in the door, much like you would if you were entering a cave. You can see that the door to the church used to be taller, but the top of this entrance was bricked in during the Ottoman era.  Some say this was done to prevent mounted horsemen from entering the Basilica, horse and all; other say this was done to keep out looters with their carts. (Eyewitness 175) At any rate, you walk through the Door of Humility to enter the Basilica of the Nativity, then you take a set of narrow stairs to an underground cave located beneath the basilica, which “enshrines the site where Jesus is said to have been born. The exact spot is marked beneath an altar by a 14-pointed silver star set into the marble floor and surrounded by silver lamps. (Wiki 2)There’s another altar down there in the Grotto where they think the manger was.(2) The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem has been a place of pilgrimage for Christians for centuries, although it has been a much-fought over piece of real estate, “seized and defended by a succession of armies – including Muslim and Crusader forces.”  (Church 1-2)

Now, about three miles southeast of Bethlehem lies one of Herod’s palaces, Herodium.  It is a “massive mountain [palace fortification.” (Peterson 199) and it is, among other things, the place where Herod the Great was buried. Herod’s tomb is in a manmade mountain, that rises “high above the flat desert.”  (200) Mind you, there was a modest natural hill nearby, but that wasn’t good enough for Herod. “[H]uge quantities of dirt and rock” were moved at Herod’s insistence, to create this volcano-like mound, on top of which sat Herod’s palace, and eventually, Herod’s tomb. About this burial place, Eugene Peterson wrote: Herod didn’t intend to disappear into the grave forgotten when he died. This was an in-your-face burial place, designed to keep people aware and impressed with Herod’s] power and importance and fame forever.” (200)

How different these two pilgrimage sites are! You’ve got the birthplace of Jesus there in a cave in Bethlehem, and not three miles away there’s the palace-fortress of Herod, where Herod was buried, and which is designed to impress. And isn’t it interesting that, between the two, the site that today gets the most attention from pilgrims is the modest place where Jesus was born, not the place Herod is buried. (200)

Herod and Jesus remain two of the most important characters in the Christmas story, and at the beginning of today’s gospel, they are both alive and well and living in Palestine. In fact, we are still in Bethlehem, lingering there a bit longer, because there’s more to the story.

Today’s gospel brings to the front of the stable a figure that, in the Christmas gospel, is a relatively minor player. In the Christmas Eve gospel, Joseph is always on stage, but he’s usually either helping Mary or gazing adoringly on his wife and child. In fact, in many paintings  of the nativity Joseph is usually kind of in the background, hovering around the edges. And, in some paintings, Joseph is represented as “rather a bumbling old man….” (ODCAA 259) In the creche set I inherited from my parents, Joseph is a young man, with brown hair and a neat beard, And for some reason, he’s carrying apples in his hand. Were they for Mary? Were they for the donkey? Can you even find apples - apples in Bethlehem this time of year?

At any rate, in my creche set, Joseph is pretty youthful and vigorous-looking. And that fits with the depiction of Joseph in the gospel of Matthew. While Joseph in the gospel of Luke gets very little to do, Joseph in Matthew’s gospel, really drives the action. Because after Jesus is born and after the wise men visit, Joseph has a series of dreams, and those angel dreams are what drive the action forward in the gospel of Matthew.

Now this isn’t the first time dreams have been important in the action. After all, remember that it is a dream that convinces Joseph not to dismiss Mary quietly when he finds out she is pregnant. (Mt. 1:20-1) It is a dream that tells the wise men to go home by another way, (Mt. 2:12) to avoid Herod, who is determined to find the child and to kill him.

In today’s gospel, dreams continue to drive the action, because it is a series of dreams that help Joseph  protect his family from Herod, whose intention is to eliminate any kingly competition in the neighborhood.

The first angel dream that directs Joseph’s steps comes to him after the wise men had left. The angel comes to Joseph in a dream and  tells him, “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.”  (Mt. 2:13-4) And Joseph obeys.  He gets up in the night, and takes his family off to Egypt, which is outside Herod’s jurisdiction. (Harrington 44)  And it’s a good thing Joseph did, too, because when Herod discovered that the wise men had “tricked” him he was furious, and on his order, all male children two years or under were killed.  (2:16) We call this grisly event the slaughter of The Holy Innocents. These children are honored by the church as really the first martyrs -- the very first people who died because Jesus lived.  (LFF 110)

The second angel dream comes to Joseph in Egypt after Herod is dead, and the angel tells him:  “Get up, take the child and go” back to the land of Israel.  (2:20-1)  And again, Joseph obeys the angel, and he and his family head back to Israel. But in the wake of Herod’s death, his kingdom was divided among his three sons. And Joseph found (again through a dream) that Judea was still a dangerous place for his son, because the son who ruled Judea was no less cruel than his father. But Galilee, which was given to a different son, was relatively stable and secure (45), so that is where Joseph stayed, in Galilee, in Nazareth. So the dreams lead Joseph and his family home.

On this Sunday between Christmas and Epiphany, Herod’s story intertwines with Jesus’s story, and reminds us that Jesus was born into a world ruled by a king who didn’t want Jesus to live. Jesus’s life was threatened by Herod, because Herod the king did not want any royal competition. Isn’t it still true today, that the world into which we tell the story of Christ’s birth, is a world where there are plenty of other kings just begging for our allegience. Christ is born, reveals himself, to a world that thinks we don’t need him or want him -- in fact, we want to kill him. And Epiphany challenges us to ask ourselves, given the many other rulers begging for us to follow, which king will we worship? Which throne will we approach bearing our precious gifts?

And I think the stories of Epiphany and Christmas challenge us to ask ourselves also about that star -- that star that, in Matthew’s gospel, led the wise men to the place where Jesus was. What are we to make of the appearance of that star into a heaven already crowded with stars? What does the light of that star signify to us? Epiphany is about the light of Christ, coming in to the darkness. Jesus the Christ “brings light in darkness” (Pervo 9) but doesn’t dispel it or take the darkness away. And that’s good news, especially if you’ve spent any time lately in your own darkness, whether metaphorical or literal. The promise of God is not a promise to take all darkness away from us or protect us from all darkness -- rather, the promise of God is a promise to come to us, and be with us, no matter how dark it is, and no matter how alone we feel. Through the angels that came to Joseph in his dreams, God guided Joseph’s steps, so that he could keep his family safe, and so he could defeat the evil intentions of a wicked and selfish king.

As we come to the end of this Christmas season, on the brink of Epiphany season, ask yourselves about the angels and stars -- what star shines the brightest for you? Which star will you follow -- the one that leads us to God? How will we know which light leads us to God and which lead us the other way? 
                                               
When you think about it, we don’t know what was it that made the wise men leave their countries and embark on this strange journey. We’ll never know what convinced them to leave behind the familiarity and safety of their hometowns and set out for God-knows-what?  All we know is that “something beyond them was calling them,” (Taylor 29) and they set out in response for territories unknown. And maybe that’s the call to us as well.

To leave behind the familiar and the safe; to look for the lights that will lead us closer to Christ; to follow the star that we expect will take us to grand palaces and mighty kings, but instead takes us to a humble cave and a straw-filled manger. “This can’t be the place, can it?” (Hausley 24)
           
The wise men were willing to follow the star, without knowing exactly where it would take them. And it ended up taking them to God.  And maybe, just maybe, if we, too, are willing to leave behind the familiar and the safe and take some steps into the darkness to follow God’s holy light, maybe it, too, will lead us to Bethlehem, and to our Saviour. 
                                                                                                            Amen.

                                              
Works Cited

“Church of the Nativity.”  www.wikipedia.com  December 9, 2008.

“Church with a turbulent history.”  BBC News, World Edition. April 4, 2002

Jerusalem & The Holy Land. Eyewitness Travel Guides. London: DK Publishing, 2002.

“Joseph, Saint.” Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture. Eds. Peter and Linda Murray. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. 257-8. 

Lesser Feasts and Fasts. New York: Church Hymnal, 994. 110-11.

“Nativity Church, The” www.nativity-church.com

Peterson, Eugene H. The Jesus Way  Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans    Publishing Co., 2007. 

Taylor, Barbara Brown. “Home by Another Way.”  Home by Another Way.  Cambridge: Cowley Press, 1999.

Wallis, Joy Carroll. “Putting Herod back into Christmas.” Sojourners on-line