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Isaiah 63:7-9

I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD,

the praiseworthy acts of the LORD,

because of all that the LORD has done for us,

and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

For he said, "Surely they are my people,

children who will not deal falsely";

and he became their savior in all their distress.

It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them;

in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;

he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Hebrews 2:10-18

It was fitting that God,

for whom and through whom all things exist,

in bringing many children to glory, should make

the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified

all have one Father.

For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them

brothers and sisters, saying,

"I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,

in the midst of the congregation I will praise you."

And again, "I will put my trust in him."

And again, "Here am I and the children whom God has given me."

Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood,

he himself likewise shared the same things,

so that through death he might destroy the one

who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

and free those who all their lives were held in slavery

by the fear of death.

For it is clear that he did not come to help angels,

but the descendants of Abraham.

Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters

in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful

high priest in the service of God,

to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.

Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

  

Matthew 2:13-23

Now after [the wise men] had left,

an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,

"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."

Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night,

and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord

through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men,

he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children

in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under,

according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

"A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said,

"Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead."

Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother,

and went to the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea

in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.

And after being warned in a dream,

he went away to the district of Galilee.

There he made his home in a town called Nazareth,

so that what had been spoken through the prophets

might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean."

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It’s a bit jangling to the nerves

         when the beautiful Christmas story of Jesus’ birth,

         the angels singing,

         the shepherds and wise men following a star,

is followed only one week later by this story we hear today,

         how this holy family is forced to rise up

         in the middle of the night and flee for their lives,

         because the king of Judea, Herod,

         has learned from the wise men about this new king,

         a newborn baby,

but with the power and glory of the LORD God.

And of course, when people with power

         become afraid of losing that power,

         they usually act out their fear with violence.

The gospel verse that comes just before our reading today

         says that the wise men were warned in a dream

         not to return to Herod,

and so they left for their own country by another road.

You see, the wise men had tipped Herod off

         about the child’s birth who would become

         the king of the Jews.

He ordered them to come back to him after finding the child,

         and tell him where he was,

so that he could also go and “honor” him, so to speak.

When they did not return, King Herod was outraged,

         and since his plans to kill this child were blocked,

         he ordered his soldiers to kill all the young children

         in Bethlehem and surrounding areas.

Based on the warning he receives in a dream,

         Joseph gets up in the middle of the night,

         and runs with his family for their lives.

Their escape, of all places, takes them to Egypt.

Now, if we step back for a minute into the Old Testament,

         the Hebrew Bible, the book of Exodus,

you might recall that the reason Moses was sent floating

         in a basket down the river was because

         Pharaoh had ordered all the young children of Israel

         to be killed.

Pharaoh did this out of fear that the people of Israel

         were becoming stronger in number and ability

         than the people of Egypt.

Again, fear is being handled by a person of power,

         by means of violence. 

And so in this story the escape of Jesus’ family into Egypt,

         the location of so much oppression

         for God’s people in the past,

carries with it a great irony –

this place of torture,

         from which God’s people escaped

         with Moses as their leader

         and God with them all along the way,

now becomes a place of safety for Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

So the wise men avoided Herod

         and went home by another way.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph also took another way

         to their eventual home,

         going first to Egypt and then leaving there

only after they received word that Herod was dead.

Even then, Joseph was afraid to go back to Judea,

         since Herod’s son was the new ruler there.

So instead he went to Galilee, and settled in Nazareth.

They found home by going another way.

There are plenty of stories in recent history

         that mirror these stories in scripture.

I heard on The Writers’ Almanac this past week

         that it was on December 29, 1890,

         that US federal troops killed

         almost 300 Lakota men, women, and children

in the massacre at Wounded Knee.

One of the survivors was Black Elk,

         the famous medicine man,

         who was 27 years old at the time of the massacre.

He wrote: “… I can see that something else died

         there in the bloody mud,

         and was buried in the blizzard.

A people’s dream died there.

It was a beautiful dream.

And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth, —

         you see me now a pitiful old man

         who has done nothing,

         for the nation’s hoop is broken and scattered.

There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.”

His words reminded me of the words from the prophet Jeremiah that are in today’s gospel reading:

“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."

For the Lakota people, their sacred home was no more.

         All they had to hold onto was the hope

         that they would somehow find a new home

         by going another way.

And here and now, the people of Syria,

         thousands upon thousands of them,

         are fleeing for their lives,

taking great risks to try to find home,

         wherever it may be, by going another way,

because home as they once knew it is gone forever,

         and by praying and hoping

that somewhere, somehow,

         there will be kind people in other countries

         who will help them.

Kind people like those in our state,

         this county and this community

         who have reached out through Welcoming Michigan

         to help create a new and welcoming home for them.

And I also know that most of you

         have had some sort of personal experience in your life

         that changes everything, and when this happens,

no matter how much you might wish it to be so,

         the safe refuge of home and family

         the way they used to be cannot be brought back,

just as it was.

You can’t go home again,

         to things just as you liked them before;

         you must find a new meaning of home,

         a new normal, a new way of life, by going another way.

It is one of the truths of our faith

         that you really can’t meet Jesus

         and ever expect to go “home” again,

ever go back to things the way they were, business as usual.

If your life was easy before meeting Jesus,

         it’s going to get a lot harder, not easier,

         as you follow him.

If your life was a mess before meeting Jesus,

         your encounters with him will put you onto roads

         that are challenging in a whole new way. 

Christ does not walk us over onto Easy Street.

But Christ walks with us through all our dark valleys,

         supporting us and sharing our burdens.

And Christ offers a peace that surpasses understanding;

         he gives us grace and mercy,

         forgiveness and compassion without end. 

This grace and mercy and peace

         are what give us strength and courage

         to be Christ’s people, to do Christ’s work,

         wherever we may land.

When you meet Jesus, you can’t go home again,

         because your home is not and never has been

         your true home.

Our true home is not our house, not our community,

         not our church building, not our country,

         not even this planet.

Our true home is the kingdom of God,

         which permeates and transcends

         all of these other homes we try so hard

         to protect and maintain as safe space.

Our only refuge is in God.

Our true home is with God.

And God is with us, every step of the way,

         from the moment we set foot in this life

         until the moment we return to God’s loving arms.

Just as God is with all God’s children, all the time.

It is not God’s will that horrors or tragedies or suffering

         happen to us or to people we love.

When the Rev. William Sloane Coffin

         delivered the eulogy for his young son, Alex,

who was killed in a car accident,

he reminded his listeners that it is not the will of God

         that things like this happen to God’s beloved;

in fact, it is God’s heart that is the first to break.

God gives us minimum protection, he said,

         and maximum support.

And this support comes to us

         through the compassion of others.

And it is our compassion in the name of Christ

         that provides the support that so many others

         so desperately need.

In this season, we celebrate the arrival

         of Jesus the Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.

God is with us, always,

         and God will never make us walk this journey alone.

No human power,

         no violence,

         no illness,

         no loss,

         no change whatsoever

         can ever, ever, ever change that.