The back story for this Gospel reading involves King Herod, and his desire to kill Jesus. This would have been Herod the Great who was a historically powerful and very cruel man. Herod was a great builder, and he built Masada among other things. Herod was also an effective military leader in many ways, but he was perfectly willing to have members of his own family executed.
According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod heard from the Magi that the King of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem. This was a title he enjoyed and was not interesting in giving up. Matthew tells us that Herod ordered all the male children in Bethlehem under the age of two killed. These children are called the Holy Innocents, and they are considered the first martyrs of Christianity.
It is popular these days to dismiss the Holy Innocents as fiction. The first century historian Josephus never mentions it, and he mentions plenty of other people murdered by Herod. If Josephus proves anything it is that Herod was ruthless and perfectly capable of something like this. If the murder of the Holy Innocents is not mentioned, it may very well be because it was a minor blip on his radar when more important people were getting killed by the guy.
For sure the Coptic Christians in Egypt believe the Holy Family hid from Herod’s wrath in Egypt. I am willing to believe the Gospel of Matthew and side with these local Orthodox Christians.
So Joseph is visited by an angel three times, and Jesus is spared. The family lands in Nazareth, and this town is where Jesus spends his childhood. Now we are thinking this is interesting and all, and it has inspired a lot of great art, but where is the lesson for me? How does this Gospel reading inform my faith? I want you to hold these questions in your head. I’ll come back to them, but you need a personal story first.
When I taught at Webb in Tennessee, we used to leave faculty meetings and a friend of mine would turn over rocks. This was a semi-private joke. You see, he was looking for the plan. He knew there had to be one, and he was just the man to uncover it. We got a lot of humor out of this, and to be honest, things on the administrative end seemed a little random sometimes. We never found that plan, but we insisted there had to be one. If we could just find it, everything would be clear.
Now, I am going to return to the Gospel. God has a plan. This is the first lesson from today’s reading. God has a plan, and he has revealed it to us in the Scriptures. We may not understand it, but we don’t have to turn over rocks. It is enough to read the Bible and pray that God would help us discern his will for us. Even if we do not understand what we have read, or we do not appreciate God’s plan, He has one for us. It is not missing.
Second, when I read this lesson, I see a plan that is working. God has the pieces in place, and it is not just a plan for the sake of having one. Many of you may be familiar with crisis management at work, and there will be some initiative to have some written document to prepare for nuclear attack or a terrorist threat at the textbook depot. This is not the kind of plan that I am talking about that we file away and make sure we get included in our performance evaluation. God’s plan is one that is working now. It is in place and fully functional and it works.
The third important thing I see as I read today’s Gospel is that God takes care of His people. The Holy Family has a part to play in His plan. God will take care of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus and not let them fall victim to Herod because they have work to do. God keeps them safe.
Now this safety may have seemed a little hollow to Mary each time Joseph told her they were moving again. I am sure that living in Nazareth made it a little far to travel for the holidays. You know how these things are, and many of you may be able to relate here.
I would like you to think of your lives and think of where God is moving in your life. How do the Scriptures speak to you? What do you think God’s plans for you include?
The first step here is to have faith that God has a plan. It may not be revealed to us very clearly, but there is one there. Those random areas in your life that look meaningless or absurd on some level may have some significance we don’t understand. There may be significance we will never understand in this life, but I have faith that it is there. Having faith that God has a plan is important because it can give meaning when we don’t know what to think.
Notice that Joseph had three different dreams, and they told him different things to do three different things. He heard what he needed to hear at that moment, and he was not briefed on all this years in advance.
We are probably not called to see forest and understand the big picture. God does that, and He is the conductor who gets to see all the scores. We are called to listen and respond when we are called. We need to have faith in God’s plan and understand that not only is God’s plan working, but we have important parts we are playing in it.
I have talked a lot this Advent about watching and waiting. I have talked about waiting with hopeful expectation and not dread. The last point is all about the hopeful expectation. God will take care of us in the same way he took care of the Holy Family. He loves us and will see to it that we are able to do our jobs.
So God has a plan. The plan is working and we have work to do. We must listen and have faith. God is taking care of us so we can do our jobs.
The first big step is not really a step so much as a leap. It is that leap of faith. We need to believe that God has a plan. We have to have faith or none of this makes much sense.
I am going to leave you with three questions:
- Do you have this faith?
- Do you act on that faith and read the Scriptures and pray that God will reveal His plan for you?
- Do you respond to God’s call as Joseph did?
My prayer for you is that the answer to each of these questions is yes.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sermon preached by Fr. Tom at St. Thomas, Plymouth
January 3, 2016; The Second Week of Christmas – RCL I