Today I was given the opportunity to preach my first sermon at my home church, Bethel Baptist in Lansing, MI. Words cannot express how nervous I was before I started, but now that I've done it I'm actually EXCITED to do another one! Despite the times I felt it was a little disjointed, I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out (and even more with the delivery). I truly felt the SPIRIT moving through me as I was speaking. I'm still high from this morning; it's like a never ending "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee" flowing through my heart. I never thought parish ministry was for me... could things be changing? It's something I need to do some serious thinking/praying about. Anyways, below is the lectionary Gospel and my sermon follows. At this time, the sermon doesn't have a title. Perhaps one will strike me later down the road. I'm open to any and all constructive criticism. :)
Matthew 2:13-23
Now after they 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.”
Sermon:
When Pastor Robinson first called me to ask if I would like to be a
guest preacher, my heart stopped. My first thought was: “But I don’t take Intro
to Preaching until February! I’ve never delivered a sermon before!” I think the
audible response I made was something along the lines of “Uhhhhhhhh….” But, in
his cheerful Pastor Robinson like way, he told me he was confident I would do
well, and not to worry. But I did worry. I wanted to make it perfect for you. I
worried all semester. It didn’t hit me until just a few days ago that I hadn’t
prayed about this. I was bouncing ideas off of friends, interviewing people who
actually lived in the places described in this passage—I was doing everything
except praying. I was not trusting that God would provide me with what I need.
Today’s scripture is all about trust. In it, Mary and Joseph uproot
their entire lives and flee their homeland based on the word of an angel in a
dream. Just before this passage we learn that Jesus is born in Bethlehem and
sought out by wise men looking for a child of prophecy. They inquired after him
at Herod’s palace, asking to see the “King of the Jews.” Afraid that this
‘king’ the wise men spoke of would attempt to take his crown, Herod became
obsessed with finding and killing the child. Later, the Holy Family is visited
by these same exotic strangers. They present the child with presents fit for
royalty-- gold, frankincense, and myrrh. For the first time, the baby Jesus is
treated like a king! These moments, so filled with hope, suddenly came crashing
down as the angel of the Lord visited Joseph in his dreams. Flee, the angel
said. A world of terror is coming your way, you must get out. Joseph’s dream
turns into a nightmare.
One can only imagine what happened next. One of my favorite visions
comes from the writing of Thomas Troeger. He puts it so beautifully, just close
your eyes and imagine this: “This nightmare does not end when Joseph awakes.
There is a frenzy of activity: stuffing together whatever they have, walking
down the street and out the gate onto the main road to get to Egypt as fast as
possible, the child crying, the mother exhausted, Joseph’s heart clutching in
his throat every time he sees a soldier.”[1]
Jesus essentially starts his childhood as a refugee: fleeing from Bethlehem to
Egypt, then briefly from Egypt to Judea, and finally to Nazareth. Jesus’ early
childhood inspires what Matthew will later have Jesus summarize in his own
words: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay his head from the day he is born.”[2]
The Gospel of Matthew is unique in the sense that it is ripe with
Old Testament scripture. In this small passage alone it is referred to in
almost every verse. He was writing to a primarily Jewish audience, and wanted
them to see how the events of Jesus’ life were connected to prophecy. In this
way, we can interpret Jesus in the context of Israel’s past, and the hope of
its future. We can see God is constantly moving his plan along throughout the
Old and New Testaments, from the moment of creation, up until the very present.
Another unique feature of Matthew is his bluntness. Matthew has
absolutely no problem telling us like it is. Take the children that were killed
by Herod, for example, sometimes called the Holy Innocents. What are we to make
of their senseless deaths? It raises questions like, how are we supposed to
trust God when there is no apparent reason to? Where is God when we need him?
The grief of the mothers in Bethlehem was so great after the
slaughter of their children they refused to be comforted, just as Rachel wept
for her children and refused to be consoled. Where could the blessing possibly
be in this? Matthew has no problem telling us about how bad things are, but he
also never fails to affirm that God is working in our lives, just as he did
with the Holy Family. Therein lies the blessing of such a cruel, violent act:
the Messiah’s escape. His escape meant life and comfort for all in the kingdom
to come. He would reign one day and there would no longer be murder, violence,
and strife.
We know Jesus and his family eventually return to Nazareth
essentially as refugees. It is here that Jesus plants his roots and starts his
ministry. When we meet him again he is much older and already on the move,
making disciples and spreading the Gospel. It is important to note that
Nazareth was not considered a very nice place during this time. In fact, the
footnotes in my Study Bible say it was “despised.” Run down and dirty, it
wasn’t considered a place fit for a king. But, both God and other people
nurtured Jesus and his family while they lived there. His upbringing in town
had a positive impact on his growth and ministry. Nothing good was expected to
come out of Nazareth, but our Lord and Savior did. The family of outsiders, the
refugees, were taken in by the “despised,” and cared for.
I think each and every one of us have been in a situation similar to
the Holy Family, where we had no choice but to take the hardest road. That time
where we feel hopeless, and wonder how it’s all going to turn out. It’s not
easy to trust when situations are not to our liking. Right now, many in this
country are worrying about how they are going to feed their families, keep the
power on, or pay for their medical bills. We are facing mass layoffs and
increasing unemployment rates. There are companies shutting down that people
believed would be around forever. More people than ever before are being
diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Working and middle class people expect
to retire and cannot. They have homes they cannot sell and their income is
scarce. God, where are you in all of this?
It’s really easy to fall down that trap door of worry when you are
alone. I think it was easier for Jesus and his family to listen to God’s word
because they were in it together. Joseph didn’t scoff at the words of the angel
and Mary didn’t ask for “just ten more minutes” of sleep before fleeing. They
knew their escape to Egypt was dependent on their working together. What if we
could be more like the Holy Family and work together on our journey with God?
What if we expanded our idea of what it means to be part of a family, looking
at those people in our community as brothers and sister in Christ? What would
our world look like if we could take I'm the refugee and the despised? Would these uncertain social, economic,
and political times be so hard on us?
When I was living in South Africa I observed that food was not
prevalent in every household. There were some weeks when people couldn’t afford
their rice or cornmeal, and their neighbors would share what little they had.
The next month the borrowing family repaid the kindness by sharing their food.
Nobody was keeping score or recording the debt, it was just understood that is
what you do. You feed one another because it is the right thing to do. I’m not
saying the community I lived in was perfect, but they understood what it meant
to be a member of a community far better than I did. “Ubuntu,” they call it,
which means, “I am someone because you are someone.”
The women in the township of Zonkizizwe have extremely hard lives.
Most of them are without jobs. Some are losing their battle with HIV/AIDS, or
taking care of someone who is. Many of them, especially the ones who lived
during the last years of apartheid, have experienced serious trauma in their
lives. They watched the execution of their own children, parents, and siblings
as they were snatched away in the night during raids conducted by the apartheid
government. But you know what? These women would never let you know they were
suffering. I woke up every morning to the sound of hymns being sung while they
hung the laundry to dry. I woke up to people parading through the streets on
Sunday praying loudly Zulu as they made their way to church. There was a
celebration of life on every corner, taking shape in brightly colored fabrics,
loud and booming township jazz, and friends calling to me from their window:
“Sister, come have a biscuit with me!” In a place where people had little or
nothing, they clung to God and each other.
Returning to our reading, it is Matthew that calls all who observe
the birth of Jesus to renew their hope. The world of baby Jesus isn’t too much
different from ours today. It still riddled with violence. Not all of us are
able to pick up and leave our old lives behind like the Holy Family did. We
have obligations and priorities that need to be addressed here and now. We are
trying to pay our bills and keep our families together. And so we worry. But
God knows our needs, and God wants to provide for us. It will not happen in our
time or even in the way we expect it, but God is working all things together
for good.
Even some of the greatest theologians and church leaders struggle
with trust and waiting. Dr. Howard Thurman explains his struggle in his book
Meditations of the Heart:
“They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. How hard it is to wait for the renewal of my
strength. I know that I am surrounded by all kinds of limitation of mind and
spirit—even of will. I want to wait upon the Lord but somehow I cannot bring
myself to it. For so long, I have depended upon my own efforts that I must be
taught trust even as a little child knows trust. This is a discipline. And yet
it does not have the elements of discipline in it. Discipline means effort at
times, self-control, a certain mastery of self, or of the situation. But the
discipline of trust is putting down, an easing up, a releasing of tension, an
intense relaxation of spirit. Somehow this release is identified in my mind
with failure, with weakness of which something within me is afraid and
ashamed.”[3]
And this is coming from the
mentor of Martin Luther King, Jr. (both of which, may I mention, are alumni of
my school!)! The point is, it is good to know we are not alone in our
struggles!
It takes a conscious effort on our part to keep our mind focused on
the here and now and not worry about the future. We are socialized to believe
in the power of the individual, or that man is master of his own destiny.
Giving up our control is downright scary. Many of us are taught that “giving
up” is a sign of failure, but what of giving things up to Christ? We must
re-route our way of thinking. When we give up control of our own lives and
leave it to God, we are not quitting. We are just starting our journey with the
Lord. In another gem from Matthew we see this command in action when Jesus
tells his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”[4]
God will send people into our lives to nurture us. Listen closely to
the voices of others, especially the despised, and see what the Lord is trying
to say to you. In the days of Jesus, sending an angel of the Lord would get the
job done. These days God has to get a little more creative to get our
attention. We need to ask God for the things we want. Don’t be afraid to ask,
don’t think about what is right or wrong to ask for. Let us honor God through
our prayers by exhibiting the utmost trust in him. Let us pray without ceasing;
let us show our love for Christ by making our own lives tools of his ministry.
Let us show compassion and support for one another-- give sincere encouragement
to a friend or stranger, or carry out a random act of kindness. The ways you
can show love and gratitude are endless. Most importantly, we must pray with
and for one another. These are things we can do on a daily basis and cost us
very little.
I will leave you with this message: in this time of uncertainty it
is more important than ever that we are steadfast in our faith. Even if there
are no obvious reasons to believe in God or his saving power, the incarnation,
birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are reasons enough. God the Father came
to this earth as a human being and promised to destroy even death itself to set
us free from the bonds of sin. What a miracle. What a wonderful way to
interpret Immanuel, God with us. God is not only with us, but God is IN us! Our
Redeemer loved us so much that he came to our world in its most broken state, full
of violence and the actions and consequences of sin. In that promise lies hope
for the future. If nothing else consoles you, think of the baby Jesus born to
us in Bethlehem. He was among the least of these, born in a stable and wrapped
in rags. He was sent to live in a hated land, never expected to thrive. But
thrive he did. This poor child grew up to be the King of Kings. And none of it
would have happened if Joseph and Mary hadn’t put their full trust in the Lord.
Just as the Lord protected the Messiah, he will hide us away and protect us in
our time of waiting. Trusting in the Lord is the path to true freedom. This is
our path to true faith. All will be well. Amen.
Benediction:
Go now and serve the Lord in
mind, body and spirit. Let us bless and keep one another. Let kindness rule in
our hearts and compassion in our lives, until we meet again. Amen.[5]
[1] Bartlette, David L., and Barbara B. Taylor, eds. Feasting on the
Word: Year A, Volume 1, Advent through Transfiguration. Vol. 1. Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, 165.
[2] Matthew 8:20, NRSV.
[3] Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart, Harper & Brothers, Publishers
New York 1953, 167.
