December 26, 2010
Sirach 3: 2-7,12-14 + Psalm 128 + Colossians 3:12-21 + Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
There is little in our imagination or experience that would allow us to grasp what physical, emotional, and political risk was involved in what these verses from Matthew’s Gospel tell for these young parents. In fact, it is probably only about 200 miles from Bethlehem to border of Egypt. While it was outside the jurisdiction of Herod, even Egypt was under the Roman Empire. Which means that the journey might have been a comparitivly safe journey except that it began at night, and the territory between Bethlehem and Cairo crosses the desert: cold at night, barren, and empty. It makes me wonder how many of you might manage a trip to Dallas on foot with an infant.
While sound Biblical Scholarship would be anxious for us not to take this story literally, Matthew has some serious business he is concerned to accomplish with this episode. All through Matthew’s Gospel as we shall proclaim it this coming year, you will hear time and again echoes of Old Testament Prophets which Matthew will use to establish the identity of Jesus. So Matthew moves the family to Egypt so that the Hosea’s prophecy can be fulfilled which says: “….and out of Egypt I called my Son.” So already in the second chapter of Matthew’s Gosple the identity of Jesus is revealed: “God’s Son.” Even more so we shall see and hear Matthew develop the character of Jesus as a new Moses who leads God’s people to the promised land, and how better to do so than to start with Egypt. Matthew wants us to see in Jesus the whole story of Israel. So just as Israel came out of Egypt, so does Jesus come out of Egypt, and here begins the story that becomes our own as the new Israel.
It is a story that begins in a family as do all our stories. Everything we know and see, hear and understand about Jesus tells us about his family. The German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that “One act of obedience is better than 100 sermons.” And how better to understand how Jesus became obedient to the Father’s Will than be remembering the man Joseph in whose house and under whose protection Jesus grew up. Joseph’s obedince as told by Matthew is a whole sermon in itseld. He obeys when told to Mary into his home. He obeys when told to get up in the night and take the child and Mary on a long journey. Again he obeys when he’s told that it is time to go back.
The human qualities of this man called out of Egypt are things he learned at home. That Old Testament Wisdom we heard today at the beginning of this Liturgy is exactly the kind of wisdom that would have shaped the values of any Holy Family: honor, kindness, reverence, obedience, and prayer. These are not virtues that wear out my friends. They are the essential buidling blocks of any good and lasting relationship. Failure to inherit and integrate these virtues is the reason for failed, fractured, and ruined relationships.
What made this young family holy was not their child, but their obedince to God’s Will, their willingness to honor their tradition and each other, their reverence, and their prayer which we see revealed in the careful practice of their faith. When you begin to look at this young family in this light, I hope you will realize that there is not just one “Holy Family”. This church is filled with Holy Families. It doesn’t mean that there is a father, a mother conceived without sin, and a divine child. Anyone in here have one of those? It means that a Holy Family is an environment of relationships where honor, kindness, reverenve, obedience, and prayer come before anything else. Or as Saint Paul just said to the Colossians: where every word and every deed is is done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Imagine how many injuries and offenses would be avoided if that were the norm in our homes.
This family that Matthew puts before us as the model of holiness was guided by their openness to God and God’s will. In their willingness to endure personal sacrifice and inconveniene for the sake of their child, Mary and Joseph continue to teach every mother and father everywhere. Because they were attuned to God, they were will willing to undertake impractical and seemingly impossible measures not to see their son wearing the finest clothes or the latest style of shoes, or going to the most prestigious schools or driving the latest model car. They wanted one thing. They wanted to keep him aware of the guiding influence of God in his life.
May it be so for you my dear friends at Saint Mark. May you truly become more and more holy families; not because you are perfect, but because you make real and reveal day after day the presence of God in your lives and in each other; and because you long for and desire above all things to fulflill and become obedient to the Will of God. When you do, it will make no difference what your childen look like on the outside, where they go to school, what they wear, drive, or how much money they make. They will be children of God, full of grace, and so will be your home.