Gardens watered with tears

(Liturgical readings first, sermon to follow. Hymn of the Day is "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming")

Isaiah 63:7-9

I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD, the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, because of all that the LORD has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely”; and he became their savior in all their distress. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Psalm 148

Hallelujah! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise God in the heights. Praise the LORD, all you angels; sing praise, all you hosts of heaven. Praise the LORD, sound and moon; sing praise, all you shining stars. Praise the LORD, heaven of heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD, who commanded, and they were created, who made them stand fast forever and ever, giving them a law that shall not pass away. Praise the LORD form the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps; fire and hail, now and fog, tempestuous wind, doing God’s will; mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars; wild beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds; sovereigns of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the world; young men and maidens, old and young together. Let them praise the name of the LORD, whose name only is exalted, whose splendor is over earth and heaven. The LORD has raised up strength for the people and praise for all faithful servants, the children of Israel, a people who are near the LORD. Hallelujah!

Hebrews 2:10-18

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have oneFather. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you." And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.” Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that though 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. For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Matthew 2:12-23

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 saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” 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.”

****************************************************

Having only last week gathered in candlelight to sing Silent Night, and the week before that to watch our children share a Christmas pageant with us, this first Sunday of Christmas takes a turn for the terrifying, doesn’t it? Or did you also prefer not to hear that line in the middle of today’s Gospel, where Herod the king was so insecure in his authority, so threatened by a prophecy about a newborn infant, that he lashed out and killed every child two years old and younger? Granted, he had a reputation for brutality toward his own wives and children, so we can’t exactly be surprised. This is what we mean today when we say ‘fragile masculinity.’ A grown man, king, no less, who feels his power is threatened by his wife, his children, a baby, probably shouldn’t have that much power to begin with. I’m sure we would all prefer to ignore that whole infant genocide part, but this is the sort of state-sanctioned terror that makes refugees out of otherwise ordinary folks just trying to live their ordinary lives. And if we don’t talk about it in the text today we will certainly be all the more able to ignore it happening all around us in present day current events.

Did you see the pictures from Aleppo last year? Or hear about the southern border, all those migrants running for their lives having basic human needs cut off when water stops in the desert are dismantled? Or kids here in the States trying to get out of systems of poverty and racism being stopped at every opportunity they might have and redirected into the prison system? Every day, millions of kids, millions of families, are running for their lives, the way Joseph took Mary and her child and ran to Egypt. 

So many families were destroyed and distraught by Herod’s desperate grasp for authority, it hardly seems right to celebrate this one that escaped, but we can celebrate while we grieve, we can hold both terror and joy in tension as we learn to live in this world. It’s not easy, but to cut off one experience for the sake of preserving another, only makes one go stale and the other turn to gangrene that poisons the whole body. Jesus wasn’t born into a black and white world, but one which is all kinds of shades of grey. We don’t live in a strictly joyful or strictly grieving world, either. God didn’t create us to only live with joy and comfort, to avoid conflict, to live without passion or compassion, but gave us free choice, responsibility for our own bodies and for the care of those who have been cast aside. 

The birth of Jesus didn’t make the world into a Hallmark card or a Precious Moments scene, it didn’t clean up the afterbirth and leave bright sparkling white swaddling cloths for the baby. In a way, nothing changed when Jesus was born. But in a way, everything changed when Jesus was born. King Herod knew that power was tenuous, knew his authority was shaky, knew the system was broken, in the same way Pharaoh decided to turn the Israelites into slaves when they outnumbered the Egyptians. When Jesus was born, it was a challenge to that corrupt system, a healthy medicine injected into an infected body, and the sickness fought back tooth and nail.

We know this feeling in ourselves, when we change bad habits for healthier ones, when we struggle to take better care of ourselves in a series of failed new year’s resolutions. Breaking bad habits is hard, even when we know those habits may be killing us, but we fall into the rut of patterns of behavior that we take for granted and have gotten used to. Kind of the ‘better the devil you know than the devil you don’t’ way of thinking. 

But what if we were all refugees, and the kingdom of God welcomed each and every one of us in, without background checks, without paperwork, without proof of our good intentions? What if we could, like Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, escape the murderous self-hate talk that surrounds and invades us, and start over, begin anew, plant in fresh soil, draw upon a clean slate? What if we all were uprooted and re-aligned with mercy and compassion, instead of dragging our heavy feet through death and fear? What if we could drop our guard and be embraced for who we are rather than for what side we choose to be on or what family we come from? What if we could stop running? What if the whole world could stop running from death and live in that tension called life, with the depths of emotions and experiences that will not destroy us after all? If we were loved strongly enough to feel strong enough to see the world as it is, to look at it all head-on and recognize God present in it all as God is present in us as part of it all?

Kindred in Christ, this is the world Jesus was born into. The world we are living in. It is fragile, it is complicated, it is sometimes rather ugly, and it is often very heartbreakingly beautiful. Gardens of roses watered by tears, powers corrupted by fear being overturned by powers rooted in compassion, and every day a fresh start. A fresh start for everyone in God’s own carefully tended garden.