Sermon for the First Sunday of Christmas

Preached at Grace Lutheran, York and Canadochly Lutheran on January 1, 2017
Scripture text: Matthew 2:13-23

I preached on Christmas Eve of my need for a real Christmas. Real as in one anchored in the real world, with all of its pain and ugliness, not a fairy tale that glosses over those things as so many in this time of year try to do. I said I needed it because of those ugly things, because it is pain and anguish that Jesus came to deliver us from.

Thankfully, Christmas is real and it did happen in the real world. And if anyone ever doubts that, they have only to keep reading in Matthew’s Gospel. After the shepherds are gone back to their fields and the magi have come with their gifts, the third arrival to the manger are the soldiers. Sent by Herod the Great, whose descriptive nicely glosses over his notorious brutality, with murder on their minds. And murder they do, every male child under the age of two in Bethlehem. Just to make sure Jesus didn’t escape (which thankfully, he did.)

Picture from Pinterest

We call this atrocity the slaughter of the Holy Innocents and it stands as our Gospel lesson today. It is a shocking imposition of the real world into the Christmas story. Children murdered! By the very soldiers and king who are supposed to be their guardians and protectors. But that’s how the real world works. The most vulnerable often suffer the most.

Two thousand years later and things have not changed much. The vulnerable still suffer. Few if any of us will forget the image of the young boy, covered in blood and soot and ash, from the city of Aleppo. His face shell-shocked by the things he’s seen.

Picture from NPR.com

His name is Omran Daqneesh and he has seen horrors that would shock any of us. But lest we think such nightmares confined to the far reaches of the world, our own American city of Chicago saw 50 people shot, 11 of them killed, over the Christmas holiday. How many of them have young siblings or children of their own?

Or our own government? With some of the powers-that-be determined to let children starve in order to punish the tiny fraction of people who abuse our social welfare system. Less than one-tenth of a percent, I believe. What happens to the millions who depend on food stamps to eat, many of them children? There’s a dangerous  irony in the pro-life movement of this country. Too many are eager to save babies, but will vote against helping children. That’s not pro-life, not really. If we truly want to be pro-life, we have to fight for both.

Evil does not sleep in our world. St. Paul himself once wrote of the devil, the personification of evil in our world, as a lion seeking someone to devour. We are too quick to forget this lesson. We forget our own capability to be evil. We forget the capability of those like us to be evil. And we forget the world’s eagerness to inflict pain and suffering whenever and wherever it can.

It’s tempting, I know, to want to look away. Guilt at our own failures and vices is an uncomfortable feeling. Seeing the enormity of the world’s evil can feel overwhelming. Escape is always a tempting out. Hide away. Ignore it. But that child in the manger came because of it. He came to put an end to it. He came to show us a better way, a better life, a kingdom of heaven where the vulnerable are protected, the sick cared for, the voiceless spoken for, the poor given aid, and no one gets left behind.

WE are disciples of that child in the manger. He came to save the world, everyone if possible. From the smallest child to the most venerable elderly, each life precious to him. Can we do any less? Can we turn our backs on those that he loves?

No. We are Christians and that word means something. To too many in this country and this world, it’s become associated with evil. It’s past time to change that. Past time we became who we were meant to be as Christ’s disciples and followers. Past time, we started spreading that kingdom, showing the world that better way. A way of love and compassion and care and kindness. A way that truly fights for life for all people, that combats evil with good.

• Don’t like gays? Jesus loves them. We need to love them too.
• Think the poor are lazy and worthless? Jesus loves them. We need to love them too.
• Think the rich are heartless thieves? Jesus loves them. We need to love them too.
• Don’t like blacks or immigrants or old people or millennials? Jesus loves them. We need to love them too.
• Don’t trust Muslims and think they’re all terrorists? Well, take a guess.

It may not be easy for all of us. But this is what we’re called to do. That child in the manger came to save the world from evil, from sin. He taught us what that looked like with his parables and his sayings and his commandments. He showed us what that looked like with his miracles. And then, at the last, he went to a cross to die for the sake of all of us. All of us.

We like to talk about how “all lives matter.” Well, to Jesus, they really do. Even if they don’t believe in him. Even if they don’t act like us or think like us. All means all to him. He came for all. He was born for all. He lived and taught and did his miracles for all. He died for all. And he rose again for all.

If we want an answer for the evil of this world, there it is. The love of a God who won’t give up on us, who sent his son to redeem this fallen world. To save us all from sin and evil. To bring life instead of death. This is our hope and salvation, but it’s not ours alone. We are meant to share it as far and wide as possible. You know what you have to do. You know where you have to go. Go ye therefore. Amen.

Image from azquotes.com