Sermon, 2nd Sunday of Christmas

Well, another Christmas has almost passed through. The dried-out Christmas trees have served their purpose and are waiting on the sidewalks to be picked up by the trash collectors passing by. Many have already packed up the lights and manger scenes and ornaments, and passed them back into storage until next December. There are still a few bowl games left. But the great December festival of new hope has just about passed through for the year.

Those brothers and sisters of ours, who come to worship with us twice a year, have renewed their hope for another six months until we see them again at Easter. Even those who don't make it to Church need this time, to see the world around them bright with lights, bright with new hope and new resolution. But it takes a lot of work to conjure up the light and hope in the darkest nights of the year. So after a month, we're all tired, ready for Christmas to pass through.

One of my favorite "modern" Christmas songs is by a folk group of sisters called the Roches. As they themselves sang, that's R-o-c-h-e. On their Christmas album is a song they composed called "Christmas Passing Through."

What's the time? Christmastime
I love Christmastime
Look at that Christmas tree
Shining brightly over
Peace on earth, peace on earth…

Doesn't that first night of Christmas feel so peaceful? Few cars disturb the quiet of the night with their engines. We're all happily stuffed, enjoying our new-found treasures with those we love. Does not that Christmas tree in your living room shine brightly over peace in your house? If only that peace could last. But of course, it doesn't, which is why the sisters end their song, not with peace, but with hope.

Here's a gift wrapped up tight
Open up this hope tonight
Love for all, not just a few
Another Christmas passing through
Peace on earth, peace on earth.

To be honest, the Roche sisters sound hopeful, but also a little weary as they sing of yet another Christmas just passing through. The Christmases come and the Christmases go. And we who are weary at the beginning of January wonder: Is the hope any closer than it was last year? Or the year before?

If it's any consolation, then know from today's reading that this hope seemed to be just passing through for that baby king with no crown, along with his mother and father. There has been barely enough time for Mary to recover from childbirth; barely enough time for Joseph and Mary to take in the shepherds and the wise men. But much too soon after the joy, and trauma, of this newborn life comes the angelic warning: Get up! Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, for Herod is searching for this child to destroy him.

They too were weary. They too were forced to come back to "real life" too soon. They too found themselves facing unexpected resistance and opposition, even cruelty; but to a newborn child?! For some, power is about the crown, the security that comes from everybody knowing not to mess with you. That was Herod's idea of power; the assumption that there are two kinds of people in the world – those who do and those who are done to. That power might be used for service, for giving, is beyond his comprehension.

The hope endures. The child survives, although the rest of the boys of Bethlehem do not. But the opposition does not end. Matthew has already foreshadowed that. We heard in today's Good News that Herod sought to "destroy" the child. Much later in the story, we hear that the chief priests "persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus." From the beginning of the story, from the innocent babe to the innocent man, there are those who seek to "destroy" the hope he brings to this weary world. And up on Calvary Hill, they would seem to have succeeded.

But of course, we know that the story does not end there; but continues to that incredible Sunday morning and the empty tomb. It is that hope that brings back the people here with us at Christmas for Easter. But we who are here today on this second Sunday of Christmas know from today's "Good News" that this hope must endure conflict, resistance and opposition. And we who are here as another Christmas passes through; we are called to keep that light of hope burning through the messiness of life together in the Church.

You don't need me to tell you those things that would disillusion us and cause us to give up on this thing called "church." But we are not disillusioned. We know the reality, the reality of the risen Christ who feeds us in His Word, His Body and His Blood. Another Christmas is passing through. The hope of that king with no crown, crucified and risen, never passes away.