Sermon on The 2nd Sunday of Christmas - by The Rev. Michael Burke, St. Mary's Episcopal Church
When our elders, our grandmothers die in the cold in our city, sleeping half covered in a tent, we do not “quickly move on!” When people next to us cry, we do not leave them to cry alone.
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I’m coming to you with something that has been weighing on my heart.
Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, I have been looking back at St. Mary’s pictures from the year past. In particular, I’ve been reviewing the photos from the Christmas Eve 4:30 service, which was attended by over 300 people. In the next week, I plan to get some of the pictures out on our Facebook page, and perhaps a few on the weekly e-newsletter. They are just adorable. There were fuzzy little sheep, and donkeys, with floppy ears hanging down. Angels with their feathery wings, wise men and women, looking so regal in their long robes and jewels. And of course, Mary and Joseph, looking a little wary about all the commotion and attention. And very concerned that they wouldn’t drop the infant child Jesus as they carried him in. Outside was a real life donkey, our special friend from the Alaska zoo.
All of it – the smaller children snuggling into mom or dad’s shoulder, the younger kids singing out the Christmas songs, the older ones being very very serious in their important task of narrating this sacred story…
I wouldn’t change a moment of it – not even one bit of the confusion and carefully managed chaos of forty children, all geared up and excited about Christmas coming!
And now, as we move through Christmas II this morning, and the Eve of Epiphany this evening at 4pm, we can easily slide right into the tale of the visitation of the magi to the infant Jesus, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
All this… all this… is wonderful! ... As it should be.
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But, it’s just that I have this little tiny persistent whisper – maybe the voice of the Spirit, in which case I better hear it. Behind the Gospel readings from Matthew today, and behind all the scriptural stories of the birth and infancy of Christ, there is another story, a back story, a deeper story that does NOT make its way into our pageant. I have never seen it depicted in beautiful or powerful artwork on a Christmas card. Few hymns that I know of speak much of it.
Obscured by the tinsel, and shiny wrapping paper, and “jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock”… is a more troubling telling of the birth of Jesus, the coming of God into our world. The Gospel writer, Matthew, does not make light of it:
After the angel of the Lord had appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet; “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
And then, as if to illustrate my next point, the lectionary instructions direct the lay readers to omit the next three verses, verses 16, 17, and 18.
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
But we don’t read that out loud, do we? My point is that we sometimes, and understandably, we want to skip over these distasteful and difficult passages. [ there’s no judgment here...] Really, what kind of sensitive pastor brings up the slaughter of the innocents the week after Christmas? What kind of congregation wants to hear this?
I’ll tell you: A congregation that is committed, really committed, to taking the Holy Scriptures (not literally, but) seriously. And a pastor who has no interest in calling us together to “play church,” but only to truly follow Jesus. The real Jesus, not a sanitized caricature that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy, all of time. In other words, a community that wants a faith grounded in the real world, and not simply a child’s storybook.
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Perhaps I made some of you just a little bit uncomfortable last week. And then again, maybe not, because this congregation has some of those mature and committed Christians I have ever been blessed to walk alongside and learn from.
I began worship the wonderful fifth day celebration of Christmas last Sunday on what we call “The First Sunday of Christmas,” but I stopped first to acknowledge that earlier that morning, the Anchorage police department had reported the death of a second woman who had frozen to death in the city in the preceding 72 hours.
Elaine Cleveland, who had crawled into a parked van at an auto dealership on a Wednesday night in order to try to stay warm through the night, froze. And on Saturday Dec. 21st, Phyllis Ayaprun, 57 (grandmother and mother of five), succumbed to the cold while sleeping in a tent in the woods off Commercial Drive. And no, I would not be surprised if alcohol was a factor in these deaths. And yes, it is likely that personal decisions, shaped by a narrowing choice of marginal resources, and maybe a lifetime of trauma, played a role in these deaths as well.
And no, I do not know a simple answer to this complex problem.
But can we so easily put this out of our minds and move ahead?
I believe that a full embrace of the Christmas story calls us to live deeply into the entire story, not just the parts we have scrubbed of moral ambiguities, tragedy, trauma, and done our best to sanitize. Mary travelled a journey of an estimated more than 60 miles on a colt while nine months pregnant in order to bring the light into the world in a place fit for livestock. Mary and Joseph feared for the life of their child. The Maji risked everything, even death and imprisonment, for daring to go against the wishes of the ruler Herod, intent on discovering and destroying this child king. And the innocent infants and toddlers and their families suffered at the hands of a despot whose many other acts of cruelty are well documented by the Jewish historian Josephus.
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So what do we, as faithful followers of Jesus DO about these painful realities that break in upon those nurturing, safe places we have worked so hard and so lovingly to build and maintain? We KNOW that “Compassion” means, literally, to “suffer with.” And we know that God calls us to the practice of compassion.
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience." Colossians 3:12 ESV
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. "Galatians 6:2 ESV
But who wants to come to church to suffer? Who wants to be bummed out about tragedies? I want and need to be nurtured and uplifted! Ay, there’s the rub:
And I don’t blame you a bit for feeling that way. I have times when I feel that way as well.
So here is something I learned a long time ago, and have often found my “better self” practicing as a spiritual discipline:
Walk with those in painful places. Open your mind and ears, heart and soul to them. But do not do so alone, in isolation. Jesus sent his disciples out two by two., in pairs. This is why we live in community.
But go! And keep going, two by two! Like the first few workouts at the gym you might have just started going back to, as a New Year’s resolution, you build muscle by practice and repetition. By daily pushing yourself out of your own comfort zone, you get bigger and stronger as you go. And it is easier to maintain this practice with others alongside you.
But beyond a healthy discipline, be gentle with yourselves. Do not push too hard, or too quickly lest you do damage to yourself in body, heart, and mind. In which case you are likely never to return to the gym, (or the daily practice of compassion) again.
Remember, you and I are not Jesus! We are neither the messiah nor savior of the world. That job is taken.
But neither should we walk away, or block unpleasant thoughts and situations of tragedy and need from our minds. Rather, we are called, I believe, to take these things into our heart, and in our heart, and to carry them to God in prayer.
For God works, not in isolation, but through us. I cannot emphasize that, or model that, or teach that enough. I have no doubt, as the Scriptures tell us, “God is able from these very stones to raise up children to fulfill his promise.” But God does work through us, individually, and collectively as the body of Christ. God chooses to work through St. Mary’s! I DO NOT know why. But it is so.
And God works through other faith communities and (gasp!) through other religions! God works through those we sometimes arrogantly call “nonbelievers.” God is able, Amen?
And it is not necessary for us to “fix” everything or to “solve” every problem. That decision, as well as the discernment on how best to proceed, God will place in our hearts if we ask for, and are open to receive it.
Let our prayer be, “O Lord, if it be thy will, stir up in us the fierce tenderness to accompany those in pain; the lost, the poor, the vulnerable of this world. And stir up in us a passion as well as the direction and the means to resist evil and turn again to you as the source of what is right and good and life-giving. Embolden us, to search for the lost and to bind up the wounds of the broken. Strengthen us, O Lord, with your help, to seek you in one another, to strive for justice and peace in this world, to uphold the dignity of each person.”
Help us to teach our children well, to make sure no one suffers in depression, despair, or illness alone, that our business is handled professionally and thoroughly, and our worship feeds the hungry soul and glorifies your name.
Now I want to ask you something: On January 26th, we will have [an 8am service, and] a combined morning service at 10AM. It will be followed by our annual All Parish Meeting (yes, with lunch provided.) And in that annual meeting, we will be electing the women and men who will lead this congregation of St. Mary’s in mission and ministry. Who will it be? Is it I, Lord? Here I am, Lord, send me!
Look around you. Who among us is God calling to walk humbly with others? Who is God gently nudging and whispering to, to rise up and help organize others in meeting the needs of our community and the world around us?
Who will lead us, O Lord, not as a solitary savior, but as a member of a spiritual community of ministers, servant- leaders, centered in you, depending not on their own strength, wisdom, or experience, but on your Spirit and your direction and call?
This is not another thing the preacher says, to which we nod, and promptly forget by the time we get to the dismissal. ( I know.. I know… not that that ever happens…). Here is your work, people of St. Mary’s, People of God; here is our work in the next five days: Read this. (Hold up the Discerning Ministry 2014 Booklet, available on the counter). Inwardly digest it. Pray about it. Pray about your own calling, your own prioritization of time and energy. Discern what is physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy for you, for God wills your health and wholeness.
And then come back to me with names of persons you have discerned or spoken too. Lift up your neighbor’s gifts and calling. Perhaps, for some, they are sitting there, ask wondering, “Who? Me?” Say “Yes, You! Rise up!”
• The people of God are in prayer and discernment.
• The people of God are awake and engaged with God’ mission, thinking of the talents and gifts they have seen in others and how they might be best strengthened and deployed.
• The People of God fear no difficult news, nor do they run away and hide from the challenge to walk in love and compassion.
** When our elders, our grandmothers die in the cold in our city, sleeping half covered in a tent, we do not “quickly move on!” When people next to us cry, we do not leave them to cry alone. **
And the answer to this is obedience to God.
A member of this congregation once passed on to me his grandmother’s best wisdom:
“Son… knees on the floor in prayer,
heart and mind on God’s promises and power,
and eyes and arms wide open to the world.”
Shalom. Rev. Michael+
Matthew 2:13-15,19-23
Now after the wise men 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." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and 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." When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "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." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But 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. There 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."
