I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with some time to enjoy this special season with your families as you shared your gifts, reflecting the great gift that God has given us: his son, Jesus. One of the gifts that so many of you share with our parish is your family life. The love and dedication you demonstrate in your marriage and family are an inspiration to us all. You have generously accepted God’s call to marry and have children so that more of God’s children may come to experience his love in your families. And, the lives of Jesus, Mary and Joseph offer us all inspirational models of faithfulness, love and trust in God’s will, especially in the challenging times we all face.
I don’t know a family that hasn’t had its struggles. Sometimes the struggles are very evident for all to see. At other times, they’re hidden from public view but still very real. It’s all part of the fallen human condition we find ourselves in and it won’t change until our Lord returns in glory. The good news, however, is this: that’s exactly why God came into our midst. He came to accompany us in our struggles and to help us overcome our sinfulness as we journey back to being one with him. And, today’s Gospel story helps us to understand how it is that God accompanies us. It comes just after we have celebrated the lovely feast of Christmas. We like Christmastime to be warm and soft, a story that would look good on social media. Cute baby Jesus flanked by Mary and Joseph. The Magi bringing gifts after following a star. The angels singing in the heavens and the shepherds rejoicing in the fields. What a wonderful Hallmark story.
But we know that that’s not the end of the story; it’s only the beginning. Before we even get out of December we run into the dark side of the Christmas story. Before Jesus’ birth the angel of the Lord told Mary and Joseph that Jesus came to save us from our sins. Remember, the name Jesus means “God saves.” The Christmas baby came to save us from every form of evil, even death. That’s a heavy calling and a huge burden. And Jesus, Mary and Joseph discover just how hard that is as we hear in this morning’s Bible passage.
We’re all familiar with our gospel account; it picks up as the magi depart. They had been searching for the new king of the Jews. While following the star that marked the presence of the new king, the Magi stopped to ask Herod, king of Judea, for directions. And, we know how Herod reacted. He plotted to kill Jesus, afraid that he would threaten his earthly kingship. Herod had attained it through bribery and back room wrangling and he wasn’t going to take any chances.
After the Magi found baby Jesus and worshipped him, they returned home by another route after they had been warned in a dream. An angel also appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Jesus and Mary anD escape to Egypt. So, Joseph, trusting in the angel’s message, obeyed. He bundled up Jesus and Mary and they fled to Egypt. After Herod’s death, Joseph brought his family back to Judea, but out of fear of Herod’s son, Archelaus, they settled back in their little hometown of Nazareth. The name itself means “hidden” and that’s what they wanted to be: hidden.
We all like the Christmas story because, as we reflect on the coming of the infant Jesus, we can momentarily be distracted from the reality that being a human is often a struggle. To be human is to experience all kinds of pain and even tragedies, often at the hands of other human beings. The son of God came both to share that pain and ultimately to deliver humanity from that pain.
Incarnation – God in the human flesh – means God did not just take on human characteristics. God took on the human condition with all its aches and pains. Poverty, powerlessness, displacement. The suffering caused by human injustice. Jesus didn’t just look like us; he lived like us. That is why we have a cross, not a crown, as the sign of our faith.
Isn’t that why Jesus came? To remind us to look for God’s love, wisdom, mercy and goodness in every circumstance. To remind us that God is at work in the hardest moments of our lives. In fact, God is often most evident to us in our most trying moments, if only we are open to him.
When you find yourself in a place of confusion or loss or suffering remember that God is with you right there. The ending to the story of the first Christmas is neither warm nor soft. Jesus took on weakness and frailty and poverty and persecution and living as a refugee. He took on imprisonment and excruciating suffering and even death. He gave up his power and let the power structures of the world oppress and constrain his life to prove that the message and power of God cannot be constrained and that no earthly kingdom – which is transitory – can match God’s heavenly kingdom – which lasts forever. And, Jesus came to show us how to trust God in the present, no matter how much it hurts, and to trust God for a future when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death, or crying or pain, but only endless joy in his eternal presence.
As we continue this Christmas octave and prepare to enter into a new year, I pray we will remember that the greatest gift of all came into a world of hardship and injustice. What does that mean? It means that Immanuel, “God with us,” reminds us that God will be with us in every circumstance no matter how difficult it may be. And, he will lead us to joy that lasts forever. That’s the good news, the Gospel of the Lord. May you live that well in your families.