Today I wanted to post the sermon I gave during church service. When I fill the pulpit, I use the Revised Common Lectionary. We are in year A and this Sunday’s passage was from Matthew 2: 13-23 After reading and thinking on this passage, this is the message that came to me.

Fear and a Strange Land                         Elder Henry Johns

We have just celebrated Christmas and the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The Word made Flesh, here to teach us and save us from sin.  With festive lights and evergreens, parties and family gatherings, and gifts (the favorite part for the children).  Lavish dinners and wonderful deserts, feasting and sometimes some Pepto Bismol.  

The Magi, the three wise men from the east, had followed the star, traveling far from home to see the babe that had been foretold and bring him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  They had stopped at King Herod’s court and had spoken with the king, and he asked them to come back to him and report on where he found the child, so that he may also go and pay homage. And the birth of the Christ child was greatly anticipated.

But we often don’t thing of the first years of Jesus life and all his parents went through to keep him safe.  Our passage from Matthew recalls the time following the birth of Jesus, a time that was more fraught with danger than most people stop to think about.  We have no clear timeline for the events Matthew tells us about, but we can reasonably assume it happened over a period of months and years.  Travel in those days took time since everyone traveled by foot or on the back of animal like a donkey or camel.  A journey of 20 miles could take a day or more on foot

The little family of the babe born in Bethlehem, had no idea of what was ahead.  Like all families with newborns, they first discovered there was no instruction manual on what to do or when.  So, when Joseph, who was a good and righteous man, had another visit from an Angel of God, he took notice.  “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you….”   Herod was seeking the child’s death.

So, Joseph got up, and I am sure informed Mary of his dream, then packed what they would need and could carry for the journey.  Now the words used by the Angel, “flee to Egypt”, would indicate the need for haste.  With a baby, they would have traveled slowly, possibly 10-20 miles a day, not the 20+ miles often seen in modern walking estimates. They would have traveled through rugged terrain, crossing the Sinai Peninsula. 

The shortest route to the Egyptian border was around 40 miles. The full journey to safer Egyptian territory could be over 600 miles, much of it over brutal desert. Egypt in those days was under Roman control and had large Jewish communities in several areas like Memphis and Delta region.  It was there they would find help and safety from King Herod.  It was there that Joseph would be able to find work to support his family.  It was there that they would be safe from Herod’s reach.  And so they went, and in time settled into a life, quietly living in this foreign land.

Now we know that when the Magi left Bethlehem, they did not travel back to King Herod’s court to report on this birth that they had told the King about.  The Magi having been warned in a dream by the Angels, returned by a different route.  When the wise men did not return, Herod he was furious.   He sent his army to Bethlehem to find the child.

I am sure that news reached Joseph and Mary, of what had happened in Bethlehem, how King Herod’s soldiers had entered the town and proceeded to murder every infant and child within 2 years of Jesus’ birth.  I’m sure their fear for Jesus was intense and overpowering at times.  I cannot imagine living like that, somewhat safe, but always in fear.  Always looking over your shoulder, never able to really settle down.

I could not help but wonder, did they enter this Roman Provance legally?  What if Roman or Egyptian border patrol where there to question them and deny them entry? Would they have snuck into Egypt? Crossing the border with what little they could carry, moving quietly through the night.  Or paying what little they had to a guide who told them he would sneak them past the Roman outpost.  Would he abandon them in the desert?

When they reached a city would they need to keep traveling in secret to some place they could settle.  Keeping a low profile, staying with communities of people like themselves in the hope of not being noticed? Quietly working, paying taxes and trying to have the best life they could in this land of freedom from Herod.  A better place than Bethlehem had become.

What if the Roman Governor declared that residents had to prove their Roman citizenship? Would they have had to go into hiding, moved from town to town.  Living in fear of being discovered. 

What if the local Egyptian carpenters didn’t take kindly to Jew, a foreigner willing to work for less than they charge.  Would they report him to the local Roman Immigration, Customs and Enforcement authority (RICE for short)?

Would masked and armored members of RICE have kicked in Mary’s door and dragged her from their home while Jesus sat in his crib and cried.  Would they have surround Joseph’s place of work and tackle him, as he was on his way home at the end of a hard day, throwing him to the ground and binding him?

Now the Roman system of laws, magistrates and judges was well known, but what if the family had been placed in a cart by RICE, and deported back to Judea without ever seeing Roman justice?  What if they were deported back to Bethlehem and under Herod’s control?

Joseph, Mary and Jesus were refuges, strangers in an unfamiliar land, where they had few friends or allies, didn’t speak the language or know the customs.  Refugees who fled violence and death to keep their child safe.  What does God ask of us but to do justice and show mercy.  Jesus lived because someone was willing to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry and shelter the oppressed.

Luckily this story has a happy ending.  After a few years, King Herod had died and the Angel of God returned to Joseph in a dream, telling him it was safe to return to Judea.  So, the family packed their belongings again and made the long journey back to Judea.  But Joseph had heard that Herod’s son was now ruling and he was not entirely sure how safe Bethlehem was, so he took the family to the obscure town of Nazareth and settled there.

Jesus grew up with loving parents in a quiet little town of no real consequence.  He studied in the Synagogue and learned Hebrew law and Torah to become a Rabi himself.  He gave us instructions to live by and as his name, and the profits said, saved us from sin.

We all need to remember the story of Joseph and Mary with the baby Jesus fleeing across the desert seeking safety.  We need to remember the murder of the innocents around the world.  We need to remember those who aided and assisted Joseph, Mary and Jesus.  Should we do less in our world today?

Amen