December 31, 2023 | Rev. Loren McGrail
We Cannot Wait
Matthew 2: 13-23
Rev. Loren McGrail
Holmdel Community United Church of Christ
December 31, 2023
There’s no getting around it: Matthew’s “slaughter of the innocents,” as the church has called it, is a god-awful text. Some of us may remember being taught “the Flight into Egypt” as children, usually in a matter-of-fact way, sometimes as an adventure story designed to make Mary and Joseph heroic, when in fact they were simply refugees. I don’t recall being terrorized by images of soldiers slaughtering babies, but I certainly got the point: this was one very dangerous world for Jesus. At the time, at least, I thought that our own world was safer for children.
Pam Fickenscher, Remembering Rachel: The Slaughter of the Innocents
It’s New Year’s Eve, a mix of anxious anticipation, resolves for the future, and the offering of blessings. New Year’s Eve was also an evening of anxious trepidation. Slave owners made decisions about selling, buying, or renting out slaves on January 1st which became known then as ‘Heartbreak Day.’ New Year’s Eve has always been a time of waiting for African Americans. Later it became Watch Night as enslaved people across the country waited for the previously announced Emancipation Proclamation issued on January 1, 1863, to become real. Slavery did end but real freedom is still on the horizon for many African Americans who are still waiting for reparations for the land they never got, the rights they have been denied, and the racism they still face. Holmdel Community UCC still flies the Black Lives Matter flag for all these reasons.
And then there is our current reality, refugees criminalized at our border and children in other parts of the world including Gaza still being targeted and dying while mothers weep like Rachel or keen into the dark or each other’s arms.
Our Palestinian Christian partners tell us they know what it is like to be terrified like Joseph and Mary, to be forced to flee your home. They are living this story every day now.
Dear Ones, what Herod did then is still being done today by other Herods who use their power to secure their power through violence.
So, who was Herod? And who are we in this bloody story? And what does it mean that the Prince of Peace was born, and saved while so many other children were slaughtered? What does it matter to us?
Pastor, I hear you mumbling, couldn’t we just sing some carols before we pack up the Christmas lights? And the answer is yes and no. We must deal with these bloody biblical texts and our present stories of violence and killing and then Dear Ones, we must light more candles and then we must sing our hearts out, so they don’t become frozen or hardened in despair.
Back to King Herod the tyrant king. When Jesus was born Herod was nearing 70 years old and had reigned over Judea for more than 30 years. He was rich and powerful and increasingly paranoid as he was still yet a vassal of the Roman Empire.
He was born of an Edomite father and a Jewish mother but did not descend from the Davidic royal line. As a client king unpopular with the local Jewish population but useful to Rome, Herod was always on the lookout for the next political revolt so when a convoy of distinguished magi from Persia arrived in Jerusalem with the news that a child had been born king of the Jews, Herod became more anxious than ever for he had claimed this title for himself.
Out of his fear and lust for power, he committed one of the greatest crimes in the Bible—the killing of children. We call it the Slaughter of the Innocents. The Catholic church remembers this event on December 28th and commemorates it as a feast day. Matthew tells us that Herod sent death squads to Bethlehem with instructions to kill all male babies under the age of two. Historical records do not corroborate this slaughter, but it is certainly in the range of terrible acts that he could have committed.
This is why Joseph was warned in yet another dream to take the baby and the mother and escape to Egypt. This story echoes of another Joseph who escaped and the story of baby Moses saved by the Midwives and Pharoah’s daughter. Matthew wants us to see how this new story connects to the Hebrew story of God’s ongoing redemption for God’s people.
And while this story of the holy family fleeing is playing out, the Wise Ones decide to go home another way in order to avoid Herod. They have seen and worshipped the real king--- bent on bended knee and offered their treasures. The star guided them there but now they must resist empire’s demands and return another way home.
Dear Ones, I would like to stop here and check in with you and ask who are you identifying with this morning in our sacred text? I imagine that nobody wants to say they feel like Herod, but what leaders might be exhibiting these behaviors today? If you identify with those Wise Ones, what new roads are you going to take this year? How are you not going to comply with our own Herods? Who are the holy families today seeking refuge? How are you working to stop the violence that has pushed them out of their homes? How are you going to find ways to stop the violence or welcome them when they show up?
Look at the cover of our bulletin---look into the eyes of that mother or child. What do you see? How does this make you feel? What can we do as a church family?
And theologically speaking, what does it mean that God was born into a body? If God has made flesh sacred, then how are you protecting bodies, all bodies?
Finally, what does it mean that Jesus who is our redeemer was a refugee? That God chose to enter a traumatized place to be born, that God’s self knows trauma?
Have you ever thought about these ideas before? How does it change or expand your understanding of Emmanuel, God with us? So many questions. I invite you to turn to your neighbor and share what is stirring in you now? Which questions are calling you?
So, Dear Ones, let us sing our favorite songs celebrating the birth of Christ not in spite of this part of the story but including it. We will sing the Coventry Carol as our sermon response this morning. It is a lullaby created in response to the slaughter of the innocents.
The lulu part is women hushing baby Christ so that Joseph and Mary can escape safely. In Medieval England women would sing this carol in the streets as they too faced dangers.
In WWII the Germans bombed this same Coventry Cathedral. In retaliation the British bombed Dresden including the lovely Church of Our Lady Cathedral. Innocents were killed once again.
So Dear Ones, let us sing quietly this morning to hush the crying children still suffering persecution or boldly to announce that God came down so we could have hope, peace, love, and joy. Let us live into these words from Madelene L’Engle, First Coming:
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!