Family Life

Happy 5th day of Christmas! Below is a copy of my sermon from Sunday, December 26th, Holy Family Sunday. Thanks for the requests to read it...

I know that the birth of a baby causes chaos in the life of everyone around the new family. This is particularly true of the parents, of course, who find that their sleep schedules…meal schedules…personal hygiene schedules are all now subject to the whims of an infant. I was reminded of that when I was reading a Facebook post from my sister—who gave birth to my nephew Benjamin a month ago Thursday. Janelle was recounting the wonderful successes of the people in the family: great test scores for one niece, a part in a musical for another niece, and a nice bit of home care done by my brother-in-law. My sister’s listed accomplishment for the same time period? “I make milk!” There is no question that this is an important accomplishment in the life of the family, but not something that people usually celebrate.

In Luke’s Gospel that we read on Christmas Eve, the story is that Mary and Joseph left Nazareth and traveled to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, a star appeared, angels sang, and shepherds came; it is a lovely story of celebration and reflection. But there is nothing sentimental in Matthew’s “Christmas Story;” There is no travel prior to Jesus’ birth in the city of Bethlehem. Instead, Jesus’ birth is set in a turbulent time; tyrants see conspiracy at every turn and violently respond and families flee in the middle of the night. There are no angels that sing “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, goodwill.”

Whatever the realities of their traveling and living situation, I can imagine that Mary and Joseph may have been feeling that same sense of lack of selfhood as they cared for the infant Jesus in the days after his birth. While Mary’s days would have been busy with all of the usual tasks of feeding and keeping clean a newborn, Joseph might very well have been at loose ends, working in his workshop, keeping his hands busy while he thought about all that happened to him and this new family that had come about so quickly. Even so, after a couple of weeks, it is likely that a certain sense of normalcy would have settled upon them, as it does with most young families.

So this new message that came from the angel, "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," would have created a great deal of consternation. They had managed to settle in and Jesus was growing in the way of children…surely they wouldn’t need to flee for their lives…but the angel was insistent, and Joseph listened. He told Mary to gather the baby and anything she could carry; he loaded their good and faithful donkey, and set out before the sun could rise and lead those who would kill the child right to them.

So Joseph, Mary, and Jesus step into the world of the exile. They flee to Egypt, following in the steps of Israelites generations before. A different Joseph—also a dreamer—was sent as a slave and became a high ranking servant of the Egyptian Pharaoh. This Joseph walks in with wife and child, seeking asylum from the Egyptian people so that he can make a living there until another dream calls him home again. Matthew’s Gospel shows a provident God who uses dreams to lead a compassionate and trusting father out of danger, so that the child Jesus will grow to become the savior of his people and generations to come.

Egypt became the childhood home of Jesus-perhaps for as much as ten years. Even though we don’t have the stories of Jesus’ childhood, in the Gospel of Matthew, the story is that it was in a foreign land that Jesus learned his father’s skills; it was there that he heard the stories of his people. For him, Egypt would be both the land from which his people had to escape…and the land that offered them refuge, saving him from the wrath of his own king.

We know that we are shaped by our experiences. Jesus’ formative years were lived as a refugee and an immigrant. We don’t know how he and his family were treated in Egypt, but we do know that when the Israelites left Egypt before, it was with Pharaoh’s army on their heels. It seems likely that Jesus’ family might not have been welcomed with open arms, and in fact, might very well have been met with suspicion and fear. And, as many immigrants have experienced, they might have lived as outcasts the whole time they were in Egypt. Even when they returned “home,” the family moved to Nazareth rather than returning to Bethlehem; again there is some likelihood that the family lived on the edges of the community.

Jesus was born into a people who had a history of caring for the stranger, or the foreigner in their midst because that is what they had experienced time after time. The story of the stranger comes out of the Exodus.  In chapter 19 of Leviticus we are told: “You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the Land of Egypt.” Israel’s very identity is that of the Immigrant as Foundress.  It is Ruth who says to Naomi:  whither thou goest I will go; your people shall be my people; your God will be my God.

In the genealogy of Christ in first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel there are four uppity women who are Strangers:  Ruth, an immigrant from Moab; Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law; Rahab, prostitute of Jericho; and Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite and an adulteress.  All of these women are depicted as foreign and/or disreputable to indicate the importance of disruption in the formation of Israel’s identity and the shaping of the Covenental tradition of both Jews and Christians.

In our own day and time we find ourselves in the midst of the debate about an appropriate immigration policy. One side of the debate can be symbolized by laws such as the one passed in Fremont; the other side of the debate can be symbolized by the proposed bill named “The Dream Act. In between these two examples are churches offering amnesty for undocumented immigrants and families being separated by deportation. Caught up in all of these actions are conversations about states’ rights, federal responsibility, and the role of compassion. There are no easy answers.

When I read today’s Gospel lesson, however, I begin to wonder how our current debate might be changed within our churches if the rumor were to arise that the Christ Child had been born somewhere south of the border. And even more so if the story were to include details about the family trying to keep this new child alive by any means possible—including entering this country without documentation—in order to escape the violence of the drug wars. Would such a story change how we responded to their plight—and if we are truly followers of this Christ Child—should we treat anyone’s child differently than we would treat him?

Jesus became the advocate for the poor and downtrodden of our world at least partially because his family experienced the necessity of fleeing to save his life. For us to cut ourselves off from the immigrant or the stranger is to cut ourselves off from the source of our own faith traditions—and from most of our own ancestors who immigrated to this country at some point in time. The Community Organizer, Ernesto Cortez, Jr. says:

“… our faith tradition calls us to reach out to the Stranger, to be able to befriend those who are other – not part of our tribe.  God is not just a noun, but a verb.  St. Thomas Aquinas taught that God is pure act.  And Nicholas Lash reminds us that there is no distinction between what God is and what God does.  The more we reflect God’s divinity in our actions, the more human we become.  If we are truly made in God’s image, then we are called to act – to welcome the stranger.”

This Christmas season we are reminded that Emmanuel—God-With-Us—came in the birth of this child. This incarnation allowed God to experience the ups and downs of our life…and in the process Christ learned a better way that can lead us into God’s kingdom.  May we experience his birth this year in a way that leads to our continued transformation…and to the coming of the reign of God.

Alleluia, Jesus is born! May our lives reflect the gift of his life. Amen.

Blessings of the season to all of you!