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Sermon at All Saints
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This week I heard tell of a small child who was asked to draw a picture of something connected to the Christmas story. When her parents asked to see her picture they saw that she had carefully coloured a Boeing 747. "Darling", they asked, "what is this?" "oh", replied their little one, "it's the flight to Egypt of course". Moving quickly on to look at our gospel reading we see that it is made up of three brief narratives which is each rounded up with an assertion that what had been just described in the narrative was a fulfilment of God's promises through his prophets. The first narrative describes the escape of the Holy family into Egypt. As you will recall Israel had a mixed history with Egypt. Joseph had done well there despite an inauspicious start. His father and brothers had sought refuge there during a severe famine in Canaan. On the other hand, for Joseph's descendants Egypt became a place of bondage out of which God would liberate his people. With the flight of the Holy family, the former place of slavery became a place of safety once more. And once again out of Egypt God would draw a liberator for His people. The second narrative details the response of Herod. Herod the Great, who ruled between 40 and 4 BC. The massacre appears very much in keeping with what is known about Herod. The ruthlessness of his later years, particularly where a potential rival was concerned is well documented. Josephus, the historian noted that Herod's many victims included 3 of his own sons. It is not improbable then that Herod's fear of a potential rival would lead him to order a massacre. This act which horrifies us, could be to Herod a relatively minor act in a period full of atrocities. We've already noted the link with Egypt in the previous narrative, now we hear further echoes of Israel's history. For Herod's fury and insistence that the children of Bethlehem be killed provides an echo of the order given by Pharaoh for the systematic slaughter of the Israelite babies. A slaughter in which Moses who was to lead God's people out of captivity was miraculously spared. The 1st and 2nd narratives therefore provide us with links between what God had done in liberating his people in the past and what he was doing in the child now spirited away. The last narrative tells of the return to Israel and the decision that the family would be safest in the north of the country. Thus, his parents take Jesus, to their hometown, Nazareth. Nazareth was a relatively insignificant place. Remember Nathaniel's incredulity when Philip told him he had met the Messiah and that he was from Nazareth? Yet now it is known the world over. Jesus lived and grew up there during the quiet silent years of his childhood and early adulthood. He transformed the reputation of an obscure village when he made his home there. He has been transforming lives and situations ever since, investing them with eternal meaning and purpose. How far from the royal palace the insignificant settlement of Nazareth was, not merely in geographical distance of course. The Heodian dynasties supplied the models of Kingship that most people of the age knew and expected. The difference between Herod and the man who grew from the babe, the man born to be King of the Jews, is striking. Herod had secured his power by careful strategy and military might. He divided his opponents, conciliated the religious powers by building the great temple in Jerusalem, he took care to keep on the good side of the Romans and made swift use of a mercenary army and a system of military strongholds including Masada. Herod clung to power at all costs, willing to sacrifice others, his own children and the children of others included, in his own self-interest. Consider, in contrast, the kingship of Jesus, who as Philippians reminds us, was willing to empty himself and to take on our likeness, humbling himself, even unto death. This is not a sovereign who clings to power at all cost nor who stands apart indifferent to suffering. As we heard in the reading from Isaiah, God is a ruler who is truly present, a saviour even in the midst of distress. In the reading from Hebrews too we are reminded that Jesus is a pioneer made perfect in suffering, who knows what joys and sorrows we humans bear. He became like us in every respect. He is not a God who extends an indifferent stony gaze as children are killed in Bethlehem in the first century. Nor in the 21st in Bethlehem, or a thousand other places in our world today. But what of us? I'd like to end with an excerpt from a poem by Godfrey Rust called 'Herod's Last Request': When Herod came to dinner Amen. |