The First Sunday after Christmas
Year A

By the Rev. Ann M. Smith

Based on the Gospel reading: Matthew 2:13-23

Today's reading is first of all a story of human tragedy. It is a story of the wickedness of a man who builds up earthly power and uses it for his own purposes. It is a story of despair. And yet it is a beautiful story for it tells us of God's care and concern for Jesus. It is a story of miraculous intervention and guidance, of the hope of faith, the compassion of God and the possibility of redemption. It goes beyond the 'warm fuzzies' that we relate to the Christmas story and puts it into its proper context. For the manger lies in the shadow of the cross.

There are millions of refugees in the world. One cannot pick up a newspaper without reading about people displaced by war, violence, politics, economic hardship, or famine. The faces of hungry children tug at our heartstrings as we are asked to find it in our hearts and our pocket books to sponsor them and help their whole village. Who has not been moved by pictures of a long line of people trudging wearily along a dusty road, packing all of their earthly belongings with them?

Recent reports number Palestinian refugees alone at about four million. The grief of refugees in Israel and Palestine has a long history. Today's gospel attests to that as we encounter the harsh reality of the world into which Jesus was born. It is a story filled with the tragedy that comes about through human selfishness, greed and hunger for power. Yet it is a story of hope, as faithful people throughout the ages will testify.

Herod is fearful of losing the power base that he has built up over the years. His father the first Roman procurator, had gradually acquired and consolidated power. He had been even more successful. They didn't call him Herod the Great for nothing! He had been on the right side when civil war broke out. As a reward for his faithful service Rome had appointed him king of Judea. For over forty years he had held absolute power over his people.

Yet when the news came to him of a child to be born a king it filled him with insecurity and fear. He learned what he could from Magi from the east who came looking for the child. He asked them to return when they found the child so that he too might bring homage. But God warned them in a dream that they should not return to Herod. They left for their own country in another way.

Realizing that he had been deceived, Herod decided that to protect his interests the child must die. Not knowing which child it was he sent out an order that all male children under two should be killed.

God sent another dream, this time to Joseph, Jesus' earthly father. "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." This Christmas story is about a family forced by circumstances to flee political unrest and seek asylum in another country. It is a story also of God acting to protect the child who will become the Saviour of the world that rejected him.

Yet the story raises some agonizing questions. Where was God during the Holocaust when millions of human beings were slaughtered? Where was God when terrorists took over planes and flew them into the World Trade Centre killing thousands of people? Where was God when my friend died of cancer? Where was God when I suffered through no fault of my own? Where is God for the millions of people who wander homeless and hungry throughout our world?

Sometimes it seems that God's power is limited. God doesn't intervene when terrible things happen. And yet God did intervene in the circumstances of the Christ Child. God led Mary and Joseph to take Jesus to Egypt where he would be safe. God intervened in the course of human history. God came to our planet through Christ. And this is what Christmas is really about. God has visited us. God has intervened in the lives and affairs of people. God is present in human affairs and historical events. God suffers in the suffering of creation.

We come into the presence of this child. We kneel before him in adoration. We become participants in the event. We reach out to others empowered by the love that came down at Christmas.