January 1, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "Joseph Heads South!"
Scripture: Matthew 2:13-23
(Other lectionary choices include Isaiah 63:7-9, Psalm 148, and Hebrews 2:10-18.)
Matthew 2:13-23
The Escape to Egypt
13Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." 14Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."
The Massacre of the Infants
16When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 18"A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."
The Return from Egypt
19When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20"Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." 21Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean."
Good morning, and - again - Happy New Year. When I was in seminary my first year, and 1966 became 1967, the pastor of the First Christian Church of Berkeley, right across the street from Pacific School of Religion, where I was a student, had as his sermon title, "Happy New Year", and he began to list the things that he would like to see happen for it to be a Happy New Year for him. I won't do that because I think we all want the same: the end of the war in Ukraine, peace and harmony at home, and good health and prosperity. And, of course, we each would like to see some things happen that are special to each of us. I do wish each of you a Happy New Year!
The sermon title is, "Joseph Heads South!", because an angel appeared in a dream and told Joseph to take Mary and baby Jesus away from an enraged King Herod, who, we are told, sent out an order for all baby boys two years old and under to be killed. Such an order fits in with Herod's personality: he had one of his wives killed because he was suspicious of her, and also one of his sons! He was not a nice person, and perhaps a bit paranoid. "PERHAPS!" That is an understatement! The guy was crazy, and he got worse as he got older. The angel told Joseph to head for Egypt, which is south of Palestine, maybe SW of Palestine, or even South Southwest - but you get the idea.
It is interesting that Matthew quotes the prophet Hosea, who said, "When Israel was a child I loved him - and out of Egypt I called my son." Hosea lived in the 8th Century B.C., and what he meant -- probably – is that God called Israel out of Egypt, and Moses led them out. But the writer of Matthew is expanding Hosea's meaning. He is trying to say that Jesus is now the son - that doesn't take away from the original meaning of Israel being God's son. But now Matthew is giving Hosea's words an expanded understanding, a NEW understanding of who the son is. Remember - as I have said before - the writers of the Gospels have been called the Four Evangelists, and they believe Jesus is the Messiah, and so they also want you to believe that, too. And not only that: ALL the early Christian writers practically scoured the Old Testament, looking for passages that support their point of view. So - Matthew is saying - it is no ACCIDENT that the angel told Joseph to flee to Egypt. God delivered Israel from bondage under Moses as the Israelites came up out of slavery from Egypt........and now God is planning to deliver his people from another kind of bondage - SIN - and he's doing it through another son who is coming up out of Egypt. There is a lot of hidden theology in this story, just in case you didn't know!
One of the things I have always liked about the Bible is that it doesn't pull any punches. It tells the truth. And sometimes it tells us things that we may not like to hear. One of the hard truths is that Jesus had a price on his head from the beginning, and Matthew's telling us this story of the flight into Egypt is an example. From the time he was a little boy, some people wanted Jesus dead. Mean old King Herod is the first, but he's not the last. And the reason Matthew tells us this is to let us know that the shadow of the Cross was always over Jesus, even before he knew what his mission on this earth was! We are shocked into hearing this by Matthew, who just finished telling us that Wise Men from the East came looking for the new-born king. Today's Scripture is from the second chapter of Matthew's Gospel. He opens Chapter One with a genealogy that goes back to Abraham, and then he tells us how Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Then the Wise Men come looking, bringing with them their three symbolic gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold symbolizes kingship, frankincense some kind of religious figure, and myrrh symbolizes death. And what comes next? The threat of death from King Herod, who wants to kill any threat to his throne, even an infant under two years old! Isn't it interesting how quickly we go from the Christmas story to Joseph's running for his life and the life of the Holy Child he is to protect? God works in strange ways, we all have heard......and sometimes faster and more quickly than we'd like! Since it's January, we will celebrate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday later this month, and I have a Dr. King story to share, and I may have told you this before. When Dr. King moved to Montgomery, Alabama, in his early days as a minister, there were already plans for a bus boycott that helped to start the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's. A group leading this boycott was looking for a place to meet. Somebody called the young Rev. Martin to ask about meeting in his church. His first response was, "Well, let me think about that for a while." The answer he got back was, "Make up your mind in a hurry, will you? Because we're planning on being there this Thursday evening!"
I love this story, because it shows that even someone as devout as Dr. King wasn't as quick as he might have been to get involved in a Civil Rights movement before he had a chance to think about it! And I think it's the same for Joseph: he has barely had time to relax after saying good-bye to the Wise Men when the angel of God tells him it's time to move! God does that sometimes, surprises us before we're even ready!
Joseph heads south to Egypt, and after Herod dies, he is told in a dream again - Hey! I just thought of something: Joseph has a dream in EGYPT! Somebody else named Joseph who lived long before the Joseph of Joseph and Mary made a CAREER out of interpreting dreams in Egypt! But I digress. Joseph is told in a dream again to return back north, out of Egypt. But when he heard Archelaus was ruling Israel - that's mean old King Herod's SON! - he decided to settle in Galilee, in the town of Nazareth. The fact that Herod's SON is on the throne is another reminder of the constant threat on Jesus's life. And Matthew the Evangelist does not let us forget it.
One more thing......Matthew is linking a passage in Isaiah 11 to the fact that Jesus settles in Nazareth. In Isaiah 11:1, there is the word "nazir", which means "branch". A branch, says Isaiah, shall grow out of the root of Jesse, who was David's father. What Matthew is saying is that a new beginning will be made for the royal house of David. Says the scholar N. T. Wright, "This is what the whole passage is promising, and Matthew is determined to find hints of it wherever he can. In Jesus, not despite the frantic and tragic events that happened around his birth but because of them, God is providing the salvation and rescue that Israel longed for, and through that, his justice for the world." What Matthew is saying, according to Professor Wright, is to watch as God's new Exodus unfolds before our eyes. And I would say, Wow! What a way to put an exclamation point on the meaning of the Christmas story! Amen.
Pastor Skip
