This week, using Matthew 2:13-23, we look at the gift of faith -- both God's faithfulness as well as our faith in God. And then we consider what it means for us to continue to offer the gift of Jesus to a world in need of peace, hope, love, joy, and grace.
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Merry Christmas! As we come together on this fifth day of Christmas, it seems appropriate to remember that the Christmas season begins on Christmas day and continues for twelve days (just like the song) to end just before Epiphany. And so we continue to celebrate the gift of Christmas today.
As Advent and Christmas drew closer this year, I was struck by the practice of gift giving we engage in this time of year. For many of us, we celebrate the birth of Jesus by sharing gifts with friends and family. We do this to symbolically commemorate the gift that God has given to the world that we celebrate at Christmas -- the gift of Jesus.
Over the course of Advent and Christmas, we reflect on the ways in which this gift that God has given us is a gift of hope and peace, love and joy. But as I approached the season this year, I had an additional thought. As Christians, we are members of the body of Christ. So I began to ponder the question: how do we continue to offer the gift of Jesus to the rest of the world?
This first Sunday of Christmas is one of my favorites. On this particular Sunday, rather than looking at the birth of Jesus, we usually wind up with a story from somewhere early in Jesus’ life. It is a good reminder that Jesus had a life between his birth and his baptism by John.
This is a point made humorously in the movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Whenever he prays, Ricky Bobby always prays to baby Jesus. At one point, his wife stops him to say that this is a little weird. In one of the more profound theological insights ever found in a comedy, he tells her that when she prays she can pray to grown up Jesus or teenage Jesus but his favorite is Jesus as a baby.
It is a good reminder that Jesus was born and had a life just like we do. He grew up as part of a family. He went through all the growing pains that we do, faced all of the uncertainties of getting older that we do, before he started his official ministry in the world. It reminds us that God came into the world to be with us. Not just in a miraculous birth and not just as a wise teacher. God became flesh and lived a life just like ours.
And so here on the first Sunday after Christmas, we get a story from Jesus’ life that reminds us that his life was full of many of the uncertainties that we face in our own lives. This year, we get a particularly stark reminder of the difficulties Jesus faced in life. Not everyone was overjoyed with the pronouncements from heaven. Not everyone was excited to learn of the birth of the Messiah, God with us, Emmanuel.
After the pronouncements of the angels, after the visit by the shepherds, after the magi from the east, God’s gift to the world was threatened. King Herod, who had initially learned of Jesus’ birth when the magi stopped to ask for directions (and let's be honest, the fact they stopped to ask directions is proof they weren't all men), was extremely upset to hear that a new king was being announced. He was king, in name at least, and he was responsible for governing the region and keeping the peace. He could not leave his reign in jeopardy or risk a civil war if people rallied to this new king. Just as Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars universe knew that any children Anakin Skywalker had would be a threat to him, King Herod knew that a Messiah would be a threat to his own rule.
After realizing that the magi had failed to return to tell him exactly where the child could be found, Herod ordered the execution of all children aged two and under in the region just to be sure this new king was killed before he could have a chance to be a threat.
But God is faithful to the promises that have been made. An angel appears to Joseph to tell him that the family is in danger and that they should go to Egypt until the threat has passed. Just as Luke and Leia were hidden from Emperor Palpatine to keep them safe, the holy family travels to another country to hide and remain safe from the threat of King Herod.
God is faithful even when there are threats to the promise. God is faithful even in the midst of our lack of faith. God is faithful even when we turn our backs on God. God still fulfills the promise of grace and mercy even in the face of threats of violence and death.
Thankfully, Joseph responds with trust and faith of his own. It can’t be easy for him. We are told he is a righteous man. Tradition tells us he was also an older man. He is engaged to be wed to a young woman, but she becomes pregnant before they are together. And then an angel tells him that this child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and will be the promised savior that they are waiting for. His birth will be the fulfillment of God’s promise to be with us.
Can you imagine being in his place? Can you imagine what thoughts would have gone through your head in his place?
And yet, he has faith in God. He remains with Mary to raise the child as his own. And when another angel appears to tell him of the threat, he does as he is told and flees to another country to protect his family and keep them safe. We aren’t told how long they remained there, only that they remained until they heard that King Herod had died. Joseph’s faith and trust in God protects Jesus and keeps the family safe from those that would kill Jesus as a child.
Sometime after King Herod has died another angel appears to Joseph to let him know that the threat has passed and they should now return to Israel. Again, displaying his faith in God’s promises, Joseph takes the family and returns to Israel, settling in the area of Nazareth.
Through this continuation of the Christmas story, we see the gift of God’s faithfulness and the faithful response of Joseph. Joseph’s actions protect God’s gift to the world, supporting the promise of salvation for all people.
Which brings us full circle to the question I carried with me as I approached Advent and Christmas this year. How do we as church, the continuing body of Christ in this world, continue to give the gift of Jesus to the world? In this case, how do we continue to give the gift of faith to the world? How are we examples of faithfulness to God’s promises? And just as importantly how are we part of God’s faithfulness to the world?
This is what it means to be followers of Jesus. This is what it means to be the body of Christ. When the world sees us, they should see Jesus. They should see the one that came into the world, lived a human life, and showed us what it means to be in relationship with God and each other. When the world sees us they should see God’s love and mercy and grace. When the world sees us they should see peace and hope and joy.
Is this what the world sees when they see us? Does the world see the body of Christ, the church, as a gift?
When we trust in God’s promises and continue the ministry of Jesus, the world can see the light of Christ shining through. When we feed the hungry and heal the sick, we show the world what the gift of Jesus looks like. When we repent of our selfishness and love each other as God loves us, the world sees the evidence of God’s gift to the world.
As I approached this season this year, with this idea of God’s gift to us centered in my mind, I thought of the hymn, “What Gift Can We Bring.” This song is often sung in response to the offering, but it seemed particularly fitting as a theme song for this season.
What gift can we bring? What can we possibly ever say or do that is enough to fully convey how we feel? What response can we give to the gift that God has given us?
At the same time, we have faith that whatever tomorrow brings the promised Word remains with us, continuing to guide us, continuing to show us God’s love and mercy.
And so “we rest in God’s keeping and live in God’s love.” We continue to offer the gift of Jesus to the rest of the world. We continue to make God’s gifts of hope, peace, joy, love, grace, and faithfulness present to a world in need of all those things. We show the world what lives lived in faithfulness to God can look like, the mercy and love that flows from God, the promises that are fulfilled, the salvation that is ours.
God remains faithful to us.
Through our faith, may the rest of the world know this as well.