Isaiah 63:7-9
I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord,
the deeds for which he is to be praised,
according to all the Lord has done for us—
yes, the many good things
he has done for Israel,
according to his compassion and many kindnesses.
8 He said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will be true to me”;
and so he became their Saviour.
9 In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.
Matthew 2:13-end
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
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. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord 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 trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
I have had one life experience which was a bit like Joseph’s in today’s reading, albeit in a far more trivial manner.
It was the first day of the Christmas holidays in 2010 and my wife Jen and I were relaxing after a long hard term at school.
We had a couple of days of nothing much before we were due to catch the train to Wrexham in North Wales where Jen’s Mum lived, and where she would spend the Christmas period.
I checked the weather forecast and noticed something alarming. The following day, from midday onwards there was an extreme weather warning for heavy snow due to hit everything north of Watford. Our train wasn’t booked until the day after the snowstorm.
I had to make a quick decision. A few internet searched later I spoke to Jen and said, ‘I think we need to catch an earlier train, we need to go early tomorrow morning.’
Jen, not seeming to understand the severity of the situation thought it’d be fine. ‘We can always catch a later train’ she said.
‘No, no!’ I was insistent. We must go tomorrow morning.
And so we did. Early the following morning, we made our way to London Euston, and on to Chester, and on to Wrexham. A long, boring and tiring journey in order to flee from the danger that lurked behind us.
I said mine was a much more trivial trip than Joseph’s one. And that was true, although it wasn’t insignificant. The reason I’d been so very keen to get to Wales on time was because that year I proposed to Jen, and the rest, as they say, is history.
t’s not a nice feeling, being chased. It’s not nice to think that you have someone or something pursuing you.
It’s uncomfortable. It’s terrifying. It steals what little peace you have.
I cannot imagine what it must have been like to have to flee for your life with a little one. Or rather, flee for His life because of who that little one is.
Herod, understandably, is often overlooked in the Nativity story. Unsurprisingly we don’t tend to focus on the murderous actions of a despotic King. And yet it’s there, isn’t it. It’s as important to the story as wandering wise men and dazzled shepherds.
The pain he caused. The suffering to all those families at Herod’s hands. It is unthinkable.
One of my favourite lines of scripture from the Nativity story is from Luke’s gospel and it comes in retrospect.
Luke writes of Mary recalling the events of that time…..
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
I wonder whether, alongside the happy memories, the bustle of the shepherds and the pomp of the wise men, that Mary also pondered the immense pain that was caused through Herod seeking out her son.
The Prophet Jeremiah wrote:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
That weeping is not something we tend to dwell upon, but we cannot escape that the life of Christ is inextricably linked to pain and suffering.
Often, quite understandably, we don’t know what to do with the problem of pain. What do we do a Christian people in a world which is capable of such awfulness?
Of those who object to faith in a God, usually the most common issue comes in the form of suffering and pain.
‘If God is so great, why does he let children die?’
‘If God is so loving, where was he when this terrible things happened to me?’
As a Christian those questions are hard to answer. Not simply because quite frankly, we don’t know. But also because they are almost always laden with pastoral significance. It’s one thing to debate pain and suffering on an intellectual and theological level. It’s another to sit with a set of grieving parents who only spent a precious few hours with their newborn baby.
The problem of suffering bothers me. I hope….it bothers you too! We ought not to be comfortable in a world where so many are having a really awful time.
But what are we to do with it?
I think there is a clue in the Old testament reading that we had today. A clue as to how God reacts to our pain and suffering.
Isaiah writes:
God said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will be true to me”;
and so he became their Saviour.
In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.
Trivial stories about trains and snow storms aside, I too, like most of you, have experienced my fair share of pain and loss over my lifetime.
Those days when things hurt, when there isn’t an easy solution.
I can tell you from personal experience that on those days it felt very much to me like God was just as sad as I was.
He mourned as I did. He grieved as I did. He took a deep breath just as I did.
To me, if we are to truly embrace the message of Christmas, that is God with us – Emmanuel...then surely it makes sense for God to be ‘with us’ in the bad as well as the good.
On this New Year’s Day, we often look forward with hope. With fresh plans for what the year will hold for us individually.
This year, my hope and prayer is that we as a church and as individuals will be closer to God. To be closer to Him in our joy and our sorrow. To live our lives filled with His light and presence, and to be able to share that with those who still walk this painful and difficult life without someone to lift them up.
That is my prayer, and I encourage you to make it yours too.
Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment