Sermon January 4, 2004 Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23

“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.’” In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Bible commentary I use calls Chapters 1 to 4 of Matthew, the person of Jesus the Messiah. This story passes so quickly before us. Matthew starts with …

The genealogy – how Jesus is a son of David.

The conception – how Mary agrees to an angel’s announcement.

The coming of the magi – how non-Jews recognize Jesus as the messiah.

And now today’s gospel – how the Christ child is delivered from Herod.

Each of the gospels begins differently. Matthew was written from the view of second generation Christians. No longer Jews. His writing was to serve as a foundation book for his community. The Christian community of that day and of our day.

Our gospel today doesn’t include the terrible part. Those verses between what we heard. The part where Herod sent word and had all the children two and under killed. The church refers to that event as the murder of the Holy Innocents and marks its date as December 28. Closely following the birth.

The gift of a babe followed by evil. This is the reason God sent us Christ, that evil is in the world and all around us, but so are redemption and forgiveness. All we have to do is recognize it, act out our call to be active Christians each day and to seek God’s forgiveness, and change our ways. The message we get each week is that Christ is incarnate in our world, a babe in a manger and a man on a cross. He is always with us.

The world continues the battle between good and evil. From the beginning, this is the message that holds true. The world is full of both good and evil. And that is without watching the TV news. It is up to us. What we do with that knowledge. What we choose.

In today’s gospel, Joseph follows the directions of an angel that appeared to him in dreams. Mary and Joseph both listened when God spoke to them through angels. They not only listened, but they did what the angel said.

For me, the listening to God’s messages is very important. The problem is I can’t usually hear it for all the noise around me. Mary and Joseph didn’t seem to have a lot of other noise around them, so they could hear the message I guess.

I have a lot of trouble getting that still, getting that silent, being that calm. Both my head and my life are so full of noise, that it is really hard to discern that voice or message. Think about all the sounds in our lives: the people around us talking, the TV set blaring, the phones ringing, alarm clocks waking. Noise everywhere. It is even hard to find quiet or silence in this place, because we are all so busy we want to get the church’s work done and we have so little time to do it.

Each of us needs to make an effort and remember that God means for us to stop and listen. He has told us to keep a Sabbath, a time for God and rest and renewal. He has showed us that he sends us messages through dreams and angels. He has showed us what happens when people listen.

Joseph listened. Time and again, angels spoke to Joseph and each time we are told he listened. He accepted Mary. He cared for her child. He got up, took his family, and fled the harm. And now, he returned to Israel.

Like millions of others throughout history, the Holy Family became refugees. Joseph took his family and fled in fear.

We live in a country based on people fleeing here from many places for freedom and the opportunity to raise their children in peace. We in this area are surrounded by people who came here from other places.

You may know people who have terrible stories in their lives. Things I can’t imagine. Or maybe you can, maybe your family came from another place to find freedom and peace here. I live in a town that’s foundation has been built by immigrants. The new arrivals are always changing, new populations, from different sections of the world. I have friends from Sierra Leone. They know the meaning of fleeing from evil. They know the meaning of family and friends being killed. They know the meaning of listening to God’s message. And they give thanks to God each day for the freedom and peace here in this country.

As Christians, God has given us this opportunity to reach out and help those who have fled. I frequently comment that it is not always in the big things we say or do that God’s work is done, but it is in those little day to day things. How we lead our lives. How we treat other people with our words and deeds. How we let others see our example.

Good and evil are always in action. Just listen to the comments around us about all those people who are different then ourselves.

Being a Christian isn’t easy. It isn’t about just coming here one hour a week. It is about twenty-four –seven. It is about every minute of every day. It is about what we do with the message we receive. The words we hear. It is about what we do with that message and those words. How we take that and live our lives.

It isn’t easy being a Christian. It puts us in uncomfortable situations. It means that when we see wrongs or hear wrongs, we need to stand up and say something or do something. Each of us can make a difference. We can help those people who have fled or who are new to our neighborhood. We can do that in simple ways, by welcoming them, by reaching out, by offering help. It doesn’t have to be big things. We can make a difference in another person’s life, by just reaching out to them.

I haven’t made a huge difference in the lives of my friends from Sierra Leone. But, I have welcomed them into my life, I have kept them in prayer, and I have made others aware of the situation in that country.

I imagine when Joseph got to Egypt someone must have reached out to him. Helped him find a place for his family to live. Helped him find work to do. Then when he returned to Israel, friends and family and others he didn’t know, probably once again reached out to him, to his wife, and to the Son of God that he helped nurture.

It isn’t easy being a Christian, because we are all called to follow. To get out of our comfort zone. And to reach out to others. It doesn’t matter where they are from or what they look like. If we are all made in the image of God. They are also.

Our world is full of good and evil. As Christians it is our call to be part of that good. It isn’t easy. If we are here, we hear the message and the word, it is our responsibility to do it.

Today’s psalm ended with these words, “O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.”

The psalm ends in a prayer for a safe journey home. The way we get home is by taking the message and the word of God out into the world by our actions and words. That’s one way we can listen to God and do what he has called us to do. Amen.