SERMON FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM MISSION CHURCH

JANUARY 04, 2004

REV. FR. RICHARD L. STAPP

The gospel appointed for this Second Sunday After Christmas is the conclusion of the second chapter of Matthew which begins with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem followed by the adoration of the Magi, the flight of the holy family to Egypt and the murder of the children of Bethlehem. Matthew is more of a historiographer than the other three in his organization of the chronology of events. And he is the only one of the four who reports the visit of the Magi, the slaughter of the innocents and the journey of the holy family to and from Egypt.

Matthew emphasizes the fulfillment of the scriptures concerning the Messiah and is mindful of the scriptural sources relating to the life and ministry of our Lord; and especially the prophetic visions of the Messiah in the Old Testament. It is thought that Matthew, more than the other three, was addressing mostly a Jewish congregation who would readily see the scriptural associations to which Matthew often refers with his byline that it might be fulfilled as was written by the prophets.....

In Matthew’s Gospel we begin to understand that the the machinations of men and empires in history have always been bent to the will of God and not the other way around.

King Herod ordered the killing of the children in a vain effort to protect his earthly throne; as if he or any human being could control history or frustrate God himself. In the end, King Herod did not prosper and his petty kingdom which he had as one of Caesar’s leashed dogs was itself divided and shattered.

Joseph is warned by an angel to take the child Jesus and Mary and go to Egypt to escape the coming massacre in Bethlehem. Most commentaries on this gospel see an echo of Moses’ flight from Egypt to escape the wrath of Pharoah over the killing of his overseer. Likewise, Matthew is mindful of the parallel represented in the wanton murder of the male Hebrew Children by Pharoah. This precursor of the Bethlehem murders of innocents was accomplished to frustrate the prophecy that a leader of the Hebrews would be born who free them from their bondage in Egypt. We should again take note that evil will never work to frustrate the will of God; but ultimately God will mock evil by drecting the outcome to his own purposes.

It is not easy for us to translate these scriptural lessons about the preeminance of God from the broad tapestry of biblical history and the concomitant schemes of emperors, kings, and pharoahs into our own spiritual lives as ordinary Christians at mass in a small mission in Corona, California. None of us have the will and passion to murder or the means with which to attempt to assert our will for that of God. Or do we? Well it is highly improbable, even unthinkable, that any of us here this morning would countenance the outright muder of children for some temporal comfort or privilege; or the enjoyment of licit and illicit personal pleasure without the inconvenience of consequences.

Nevertheless, as our Deacon so eloquently preached last Sunday, it is wholly within the moral law of many today to perform the same murder by different means upon embryos and unborn children. Both in the name of science and progress and upon the counterfeit sentiment that it is a worse crime to have born an unwanted child.

God did not prevent the slaughter in Bethlehem or the one that preceded it in Egypt or the one that is taking place in the present age here where we live. But, he did accomplish his purpose, as he always does. Moreover, there are always consequences. The seven plagues of Egypt, the death of all of their first born, the decline and fall of their empire to waves of invaders and the political and social mess that survives in the middle east to this very hour. All of those things most feared by Pharoah juxtaposed against the means employed by him and those like him to prevent such an end may be laid end to end with all typologically similar exhibitions of human pride.

The face of evil has not changed since Joseph fled with his family to Egypt. There are still demonic forces intent upon bringing spiritual ruin upon mankind in order to frustrate the divine will that we should have salvation by grace through faith. There has never been any creation of humanity that could rule with the justice and mercy of God. The sin of Adam will eventually infect and corrupt those efforts into a lust for preeminence, dominion and the tangible things of desire. Eve was tempted to disobedience by the taunting of Satan that she might equal God if only she would do that which God had forbidden.

Our only salvation is by faith. And thus we are given in this chapter of Matthew an indelible illustration of such faith. Joseph is the antithesis of human pride and willfulness. Joseph is comfortable in the shadow of our Lord and even as he is obscured he is the yet the center of the safety of his family. Obscured in the sense that he is caught up in the flow of events rather than in the role of deciding between alternatives. In this context, Joseph is a model for faith as he has been since he discovered that his fiancé was already pregnant and accepted that Mary had conceived by the Holy Ghost. His duty was both inspired by his faith and defined by it. He did not attempt to alter his instructions or avoid the indignity of taking as wife a young woman already with child. Scripture does not tell us of Joseph’s thoughts. There is no Magnificat recorded concerning Joseph’s sublination of his will to that of God; there is only the bare record of his unhesitating response to divine command.

In his conduct he prefigures the apostles who abandon their professions and other attachments to follow our Lord. Likewise, Joseph disappears into the mists of time as do most of the apostles following the resurrection of our Lord.

There are no newspapers or other means of mass communication in the ancient world. Moreover, the passing of petty tyrants in a backwater of the Roman Empire is not front page news even if they had a front page. Additionally, Herod’s son, Archaelaus won the murder lottery of survival escaping his father’s tendency to kill his own children and succeded his father to the throne. Archaelausn nevertheless, was at least the equal of his father in misrule until he was deposed by his Roman masters. But Joseph did not seek confirmation that the danger to Jesus had passed but returned to Israel in the same faithfulness in which he had departed his home.

Joseph returns with his family to Nazareth and not to Bethlehem. Matthew deliberately suggests that Jesus is to be known as a Nazarene and says this is fulfilment of scripture. However, Matthew’s assertion notwithstanding, there is no scripture that says the Messiah will be known as a Nazarene. Matthew is, of course, summarizing. Nazerites in the OT were those dedicated to the service of God. Samson, for example, was a Nazerite. Nazerites supposedly abstained from alcohol and were ritualistically pure or not contaminated by the pleasures of the world so as to detract from their service to God. Our Lord was, however was sinless from the beginning. He had no need of purification rituals. It is logical, therefore, that this is another scriptural echo of Matthew suggesting that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Nazerite ideal. In any case, it is obvious that Jesus did not observe in his lifetime the Nazerite rigors.

Jesus in his childhood is dependent upon his parents as are all children. He learned his craft as a builder or carpenter from his human father as do many to this day. His divine power is veiled so that he may fully experience his own human nature and bring to perfection that which Adam ruined. Jesus’ human frailty requires Joseph to take his family to Egypt for safety and to return when the danger is past. Matthew organizes the story so that it echoes the life of Moses rather than conforms to it in any explicit way. Moses flees from Egypt only to return and lead God’s chosen people to freedom to the promised land. Jesus returns from Egypt to redeem the world from sin and damnation.

We flee from temptation even as Joseph fled with his family from the evil murderer in Judea on the road of faith and cross over into the safety of divine grace and love. The road of faith is obedience to God established in our liturgy as the Summary of the Law. If we obey the summary of the law by loving God with all our hearts, souls, and minds there will be no place for faith in fallen creation at the expense of faith in God. But failing that perfect obedience, our salvation is by grace through our Lord Jesus Christ who bought our freedom on the cross with his blood.

The divine purpose in our individual lives is that we should be saved from eternal separation from God. To that end he sent his only begotten son so that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. God will not be frustrated by micro biology, cloning or any other modern horrific device or scheme to elevate creation above the Creator.

As it is written by the Apostle Paul in Romans: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord.