Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, 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.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt , saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel , for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel . But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth , that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”   Matthew 2:13-23

 

            Somehow I thought this year would be different.  I guess I’m pretty naïve but I really thought that this year once Christmas came there might perhaps be a chance that such wonderful spirit and joy might continue after December 25.  But stores have quickly changed their decorations and now instead of Christmas advertisements all we have is the plea to spend more on year end sales.  The music on the radio has returned to what it was back in November.  People are once more compiling their year end list of the most important events and people of 2007 in preparation for the New Year’s celebrations –and sadly it will be the Paris Hiltons and Brittany Spears who dominate the lists of people with whom the world is fascinated.  You have probably returned to work by now, although you are at least hoping for a shortened week this week.  Even the people who come to Church once a  year on Christmas whom I hope and prayed I would see perhaps today may have gone back to their spiritual habits despite our prayers and hopes.

            I will tell you who wastes no time at all in getting back into business.  It is Satan.  He has had to endure another year of celebrations of the One He hates with all of His perverted heart and believe me when I say that he desperately wants a return to business as usual.  In fact, if he has not left his calling card yet for you please know that probably soon you will be reminded of his presence also in our world with a grim determination to get things back to his perverted definition of normal.

            That was the way it was in our text today.  Mary and Joseph have experienced all the wonders and awe of that first Christmas.  They have treasured up in their hearts the message of the shepherds who came to that manger the first Christmas night.  Joseph has learned that Mary has been faithful to him all along and the joy of having her as his wife would not in fact be denied him.  The journey to Bethlehem for those taxes has happened;  it was frantic for a while but the baby came safe and unhurt and Mary was doing well.  Granted, his birth was in the most unusual of places.  But the angels have sung and the shepherds have told everyone the marvelous news surrounding this birth.  And the Wisemen have come too.  In many ways Mary and Joseph have received quite a financial windfall.  Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh will surely help them to get their feet on solid ground financially.  And Bethlehem would not be the worst place to raise their son so they may have thought.   And even if he was only an adoptive son to Joseph, just like Galatians reminds us today that we are all adoptive children of God our Father, Joseph still had a son – a son to train in the ways of the carpenter, a Son to carry on the family traditions, a Son to whom Joseph could teach the Torah and the great Truths of God.

            But Satan did not waste any time in shattering this world.  He had an ally in King Herod and King Herod is not fond of sharing power with anybody.  If Herod had no problem in executing his own sons because he thought they would challenge him for his throne he surely will not hesitate in exterminating this upstart from Bethlehem whoever he was.  And once more Joseph and Mary have to flee and make an unplanned journey. This time they could not even stay in Israel .  If Jesus came to God’s people Israel at the start of that road of salvation Satan drove the Son of God out of nation itself through his good friend Herod. 

            You see, Satan will try anything at all to keep Jesus out of your life.  He cannot stand the fact that you know Jesus as Savior and Lord.  And do you think he is going to waste his time on those who are already under his thumb and who already are his and are no threat to him? No.  Unlike God Satan does not have unlimited power and resources.  He has to budget his time and use his abilities and those in his service wisely.  So he attacks where it is most effective.  Do not be surprised when you feel like you are a special target for Satan… because you are.  In fact, the more you grow in the Lord, and how I pray you will grow in the Lord in 2008, the more Satan will grind his fangs in rage when he thinks of you.  But the good news is that God protects His own. The Lord is stronger.  He made sure Joseph knew what to do and He kept Joseph and Mary and Jesus safe.  The day would come down the line where Jesus would suffer the full fury of Satan on the cross. But it would be in God’s timing – and so it is with each of us. Do not listen to the devil’s lies when he tries to tell you he has unlimited abilities to mess things up in your life – he can only do what the Lord allows him to do – and even then so often Satan plays right into God’s hands.

            In fact, I remember having a discussion with Bishop Obare of our partner Kenyan Churches one day when he was visiting us.  He spoke to me in a private conversation of the many hardships that the devil cast the way of his people – poverty and rampant disease to name a few.  But Bishop Obare went on to say, and pardon my poor ability to speak with a British accent but I’ll try just the same;  he said:  “All in all the devil is a rather stupid creature.  Of course on my own apart from the Lord I would surely fall to his attacks in a moment.  But the devil does not realize that his attacks only make us stronger as Christians as we rely more and more on the dear Savior.  But he keeps coming back for more defeats again and again.  You would think after all this time that he would have learned by now.”  And that is the same promise God gives to you out of our text. 

Yes, Satan loves to rear his ugly head in our lives and as soon as he can;  he wastes no time in trying to destroy the joy of Christmas or the peace and good will it creates.  And we see a perfect picture of his version of a world in his image in the next part of our text.  You and I today are given a grim reminder of why Jesus came to be with us.  Innocent children suffer at the hands of an insane tyrant who sees enemies everywhere.  The most innocent of all who are no threat to anyone have to die to satisfy the hunger for power in the mighty.  And you know, this is still the picture of our world today.  I think of all those unborn children who lost their lives in abortion.  They never even had a chance to live.  And it doesn’t stop there.  How many innocent people will die in carbombings today in the Mideast who did nothing wrong other than to be in the wrong place today when the bomb went off?  How many more people will die in wars because we cannot solve the problems any other way it seems?  The powerful exploit the weak again and again.  And in this world even today how many Rachels will cry again because someone they love has died.  For some reason Christmas did not stop the obituary page from being filled in the Harford Courant this week.  But that is why Jesus came.  That was the real reason for Christmas.

            And today the joy you and I have is not in somehow finding ourselves immune to the attacks of the devil or the hurts of the world.  The joy is in knowing that Jesus Christ makes a difference.  Someday you and I and all the children of the Lord will go to a place where these things are no more.  But until then we have the words of Isaiah today spoken about God, “He became their Savior.  In all their affliction he was afflicted.. in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;  he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” 

            And his message on this second to last day of the year is that because Jesus makes a difference to you and to me and because Christmas is real in every sense of the word, “Don’t go back to the life you once led.”  That was the message given to Joseph.  Don’t go back to where you once were.  For in Joseph’s case maybe the name changed.  Maybe evil King Herod had died.  But his son Archelaus was now ruling – and he was almost as bad as his father was.  So Joseph went back up to northern Galilee to the city of Nazareth – and Jesus grew up there in the town from which Mary and Joseph originally had come.

            It is not quite the same thing as St. Matthew is saying, but one message that comes to you and me today is, “Now that you have experienced Christmas, now that the Savior lives in your heart, don’t go back to life you once had.  Don’t go back to the same places of temptation and sin and ruin that once were part of your world.”  As I said that’s what most of the world is doing right now.  The Christmas atmosphere is quickly evaporating and the decorations are being stored again.  And it won’t take long before the same problems and angers and frustrations reassume their place on the throne of most peoples’ hearts.  Maybe it can be different for you and me with the Lord leading us.  Maybe we can send our feet onto another path in life with God guiding us.  And maybe Jesus can continue to make a difference for us all as His redeemed children.  I know that the “maybes” are very real possibilities and it is what I would want for my life.

            For somehow I might have thought it would be different for the world – but again and again I am sadly disappointed.  But you and I can see the difference that being God’s child can bring us.  I pray like the Wisemen, and Joseph and Mary, that we take a different path as the Lord allows us in the days to come.