To listen to the sermon as it was preached at the 9:00 am service, click here.
To listen to the sermon as it was preached at the 10:45 am service, click here.
St. Charles Episcopal Church - Saint Charles, IL
The Second Sunday after Christmas - Christmas 2 RCL – Year A
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Jeremiah 31:7-14 – Psalm 84:1-8(9-12) – Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a – Matthew 2:13-15,19-23
Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Well, we seem to be a bit mixed up with our readings today. The feast of the Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus to the Gentiles, and the coming of the three wise men from the East, is still four days off. But today we hear the story of what happens right after they leave. Or I should say we hear part of the story.
In this section of the Gospel, Matthew gives us three examples of how the coming of Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. I know you were all paying attention and so you are probably wondering to yourselves, “I only heard two examples.” And you are correct. The second example was omitted from our reading today.
If you look closely at your bulletin, you will see that verses 16, 17, & 18 were left out. They fit into the gospel right after Joseph takes his family to Egypt and right before the Angel tells him that Herod the King is dead. They go like this.
16 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. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “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.”
Why is it that this section was removed from our reading today? The incident that has come to be known as the slaughter of the Holy Innocents is remembered in our calendar by a special day on December 28. These children have come to be known as the first Christian martyrs. But having a special day of their own is not the reason why they were removed from our reading today. Biblical scholars have found problems with the historicity of these events related in the beginning of the gospel of Matthew. It appears that Matthew was not a very good historian. Many of the events that he uses to establish dates conflict with each other. There is no corroborating evidence of the slaughter from other sources and even the wise men are difficult to defend from an historical perspective. But historical accuracy is not the reason this section was removed from our reading today. At least I don’t think so. In point of fact I do not have the slightest idea why the writers of the Revised Common Lectionary decided to omit this section from our reading today. I hope it was an attempt to draw our attention to it...though I doubt it.
Why would they choose to take this part out of the reading for the day, not even making it optional? What is it about this story that is so unsettling to us? Could it be that it appears our God of steadfast loving kindness would allow all these children to be slaughtered just to make a point? Again, I don’t think so, but you do have to admit that it does feel that way.
To approach this incident with any sort of integrity, is to ask hard questions. We have wandered into the question of evil and why God allows it, and this is deep water. Our trouble gets compounded when we confuse Matthew with an historian. He is not. Matthew is a theologian. The Gospel is not a history book but the good news. Matthew wrote this Gospel to try and explain an encounter with the living God, to tell the good news, not the daily news.
Our reading from Jeremiah today is a part of the hymn of rejoicing that the people of the North Kingdom sing as they return from their long exile in Babylon. It too is good news. The weeping of Rachel that Matthew quotes in the missing Gospel section I gave you is also part of that Hymn, though as I am sure you noticed, we missed it as well in our reading this morning. In this hymn the Hebrews struggle to find meaning in their long exile and bondage in Babylon. In the story of the Holy Family’s exile to Egypt we hear an echo of that other exile. It is an intentional echo. With the short excerpt of scripture about the weeping of Rachel, Matthew connects these two stories helping us to remember the love of God and the power of that love to redeem the People of God, even in the most harrowing of circumstances. At the same time the senseless death of the innocents at the beginning of the life of Jesus foreshadows the senseless death that will end his life and it’s greater meaning for us as well. That is why Matthew puts this story into the Gospel and why we do ourselves a disservice when we remove it.
It is far too easy for us to confuse the good news with history. In these days of CNN and instant news we get history as it happens. In the past week we have been snowed under (pun intended) with stories, and pictures, and videos of the snow storm that hit the east coast and disrupted post Christmas travel and shopping plans. We in Chicago know how a snow storm can disrupt the operation of a city. We also know that the story of a storm can be very different from its actual history. Just ask Michael Bilandic. Remember that with History our search for truth is a search for what actually happened.
Today, we get so much history thrown at us, day in and day out, that we can miss the good news when it comes along, if we are not careful. The Gospel is a story written to try and explain an event in history, not describe it. In that way the Gospel is a search for truth of a different kind. When we confuse the difference between these two truths, historical truth and theological truth, we put ourselves at risk. Even we in the church are guilty of this on occasion. We must constantly be reminded that history is different from theology. They seek to accomplish different things.
The truth of the story of the Slaughter of the Innocents is a theological truth, not an historical one. The truth is that God can take the most horrible, inhumane act of one human being against another and redeem it. This is a big part of the truth of the incarnation. This is what Matthew is trying to tell us. Whether it is the sacking of an entire kingdom and the enslavement of a race of people, or the death of hundreds of innocent children in the region of Bethlehem, or the death of Jesus on the hard wood of the cross, nothing is beyond the redeeming power of God. If even these acts can be redeemed, then we need have no fear for our own sins.
Whether we look back over the last year, the last century, or the last millennium, it is far too easy to see the results of humanity’s inhumanity against itself. It would be easy for us to despair of us ever changing. Indeed we are powerless to change. We are slaves to sin. Yet still we are not without hope. Our hope comes from above. We need only confess our sin, and ask forgiveness, offering our sin up to God and allowing God to redeem that through us. And that, my friends, is Good News indeed.
“With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble... Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.”
Amen.