First Sunday After Christmas

Reformation, Media

Larry V. Smoose

Ed Steimle, the renowned radio preacher on the Lutheran Hour for many years once portrayed Christmas as the eye of a hurricane.  He recounted his own experience in 1954 when Hurricane Hazel, the strongest hurricane ever to hit so far inland, came directly over New York, on its way to Toronto.   The ferocity of the storm was astonishing, and even today you can see high water marks from this hurricane if you ride up along the Delaware River above New Hope.  One moment, said Steimle, you were being buffeted by 120 mile per hour winds, and then all of a sudden the winds died down, you could look up and see blue sky and the sun was shining.  We were in the eye of the storm.  It lasted for perhaps 15-30 minutes, and then just as suddenly the howling winds and battering rain returned, pummeling everything in its path.

The image is frighteningly accurate.  Just a few nights ago we sang, all is calm, all is bright.  We nostalgically listened to the story of the birth of the infant Jesus, with images of personal moments of birth filling our hearts with the wonder and hope of those moments.  Even at midnight it seemed as if the sun was shining as we held our candles aloft. 

But then, just days later, the violent storm of earth’s warring children returns as Benezir Bhutto is killed, riots erupt, a cabbie in Upper Darby is murdered, a despondent mother kills her 6 year old son in South Jersey; in Darfur, 16% of children where fighting continues to be active are malnourished and this past year alone, 230,000 people in that nation were displaced into refugee camps.  In Indonesia, they are still searching for bodies from the landslide, Turkish jets again are bombing Kurdish rebels and each day there are more deaths in Iraq. 

The voice is heard in Ramah, Rachel wailing or her children – these were  Jeremiah’s words from the 6^th century BC were describing the anquish of Israel as Babylonia destroyed Jerusalem, killed hundreds and carted thousands into captivity.  The voice of Ramah, Rachel wailing for her children --  Matthew used these words to report Herod’s massacre of infants in his attempt to find and destroy the child who was a king and could threaten his rule.  A voice is heard in Ramah, Rachel, wailing for her children – it could be mothers in Darfur or Iraq, or North Philadelphia. 

Christmas is over, the eye of the storm has passed, back to the realities of the world and of our lives.  Welcome to earth Jesus – and run for your life to Egypt!  Have you ever wondered why the church commemorations immediately after Christmas are The Holy Innocents, Martyrs and St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr?  Why is this most festive occasion so abruptly interrupted by these terrible acts of violence?  Well, I don’t know about you, but while I love escapist movies and delight in fanciful tales from Star Wars to Harry Potter, we live in the real world, not a make-believe world.  We live in a world where dictators control some countries, where greed is the basis of too many decisions, where the powerful are not always responsible and the little ones are often innocent victims. 

We live in a world in which those who fight for great causes can die, but in the dying, help to define the value of the cause and reveal the fear of those who oppose the cause. When God came among us, it was to this real world and not to a make believe world.  The great power of the Bible is its setting in the midst of all of the turmoil and intrigue of history.  Among ordinary events like the birth of a child, a census, everyday work, going to worship, or watching sheep, there is another layer of history at work as rulers defend their power, wars are fought, robbery and murder occur, disasters strike and our lives are lived in the midst of all of it. 

I want a God who knows and understands this real world and all of the forces in everyday life that we must contend with, whether we are living in the U.S. or Darfur or Iraq or Pakistan, these forces are at work – some for good and some for evil – and too often the innocents are the victims.  Ask the families of the four little girls killed by a bomb in the church in Alabama in the 1960’s; or the family hiding Ann Frank in Amsterdam in the 1940’s or the lost boys of Sudan who fled to this country and others in the past decade.

Jesus, from the time of his birth, before he could understand what was happening, became a refugee and his family pawns in the events of history.  Life would not get easier as Jesus got older. As he reached his twenties and began to follow the path God had laid out for him, the same forces that tried to hunt him down in Bethlehem focused their energy and power on his efforts to establish the reign of God in the world -- A reign of love that only threatens those whose motives are destructive.

But, in the real world, people die from random violence and from carefully orchestrated plots to get rid of those who might overthrow dictators and tyrants – and so even when Christmas decorations are still gleaming brightly and the afterglow of celebration remains in our hearts and minds, we are reminded that the cross looms over the life of Jesus.  He will be put to death by his enemies.  The Innocents are just collateral damage.

But, the writer of Hebrews tell us, “It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, . . . should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. . . . Since the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.”  Jesus had to become like us in every respect – fully human, suffering as we suffer, understanding the refugee and the resident alien, understanding the poor and the homeless, understanding the victims of violence of every place and time. 

Jesus proclaims that in this real world, God is still active.  In this real world with all of its destructive forces and unexpected happenings, God is still at work and God’s purposes shall not be thwarted.  As Jesus was raised from that tomb on Easter, so also there was resurrection for the disciples and the church was born.  For two thousand years, the followers of Jesus have embraced the widow and orphan, the homeless and helpless, victims of disaster and tragedy and  they continue to work for peace and justice in our world, while the glory of Rome is in ruins, fit only for the curiosity of tourists.  You can kill Martin Luther King, Jr., but you cannot stop the movement for civil rights in the U.S.;  you can kill Archbishop Romero, but you cannot end the struggle for human rights in El Salvador; you can kill Benazir Bhutto, but you cannot contain the determination for freedom and democracy in Pakistan; because God is at work in this world, with all of its mess and violence and nothing, says St. Paul, Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If  I’m going to believe that, then I don’t want a fairy tale God.  I want a God who is a realist about the world, but whose love power is greater than the world.  I can’t believe in a Hollywood Jesus with artificial wounds and stunt doubles for the hard scenes.  I want a Jesus who was born of a woman, who has lived through real life, suffered with real pain, cries real tears; dies a real death on the cross and had to rely on the power of God to give him new life.  A Lord like that -- who in the midst of dying has enough compassion to care about his friends and mother; has enough humanity to tell people they are making a mistake; and enough love to forgive his enemies – is a Lord I can worship and rely upon when my life is tough.  

As Luther wrote in his great hymn: 

Though hordes of devils fill the land, all threatening to devour us

We tremble not, unmoved we stand, they cannot overpower us;

Let this world’s tyrant rage, in battle we’ll engage! 

His might is doomed to fail; God’s judgment must prevail!

One little Word subdues him.

God’s Word forever shall abide, no thanks to foes who fear it;

For God himself fights by our side with weapons of the Spirit. 

Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child or spouse,

Though life be wrenched away, They cannot win the day.

The kingdom’s ours forever.

So in the shadow of Christmas, we pray for the Innocents of Bethlehem and of every age and place.  We pray for Benazir Bhutto and freedom fighters before her.  But God’s Word is sure, the long terrible hurricane of the world’s violence and destruction will not have the final say, and instead of a momentary eye of the storm, we will experience the bright new day of God’s tomorrow where the Innocents and the Martyred, The prophets and the Faithful will sing God’s praises and the victory for which they gave their lives will be won.

Amen.