7Xmas.1st
YEAR
A
FIRST
SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS
Matthew 2: 13-23 (Sermon 1:
“Why all the fuss about Jesus?”)
(Sermon
2: “Let’s play happy families”)
Hebrews 2: 10-18
Isaiah 63:7-9
Psalm 148
We may have stopped
feasting,
many folk may have a hangover,
but certainly Christmas is not over:
Christ our Saviour is
born among us
Amen! Thanks be to God!
Praise, yes joyfully
praise our God!
Lift praises high above the clouds!
Sing praise from outer
space!
Sing praise all you angels!
Praise God all stars
in the universe!
Praise, yes joyfully praise our God!
OR -
The
amazing grace of the Lord of Bethlehem be with you
all.
And also with you.
It is
a bit difficult, isn’t it,
to
bounce back from the busyness and excitement
which
that led to the celebrations of yesterday?
When
we now feel weary and our spirits flat,
it
is not easy to present eagerly for public worship.
Yet
maybe this is when our Christmas worship
reaches deeper and higher than before.
For
today we worship in spite of sluggish feelings
or
in defiance of very weary minds and bodies.
Therefore
today is very special.
With
Isaiah of old we dare to say:
Today we will recount the
steadfast love of God,
and give praise to our loving Lord,
in response to all that has been done for us,
and God’s great goodness to the house of
which has been given our of sheer mercy
and from God’s abundant generosity.
Loving God, as we
gather to praise you, give us both the desire and the will to rise above
dullness of mind and spirit. Enable us to make ample room for the presence and
growth of Christ Jesus in our lives. May our minds be open enough, our spirits
humble enough, and our hearts warm enough to receive and entertain him with
great joy. For your name’s sake.
Amen!
It has been said
that confession is good for the soul. The Bible is more holistic in its view;
confession is good for body, mind and soul.
Let us pray.
Most Holy Friend,
God and Saviour, our lives are so crowded and rushed, that even our holy days
and vacations leave little room for searching thought and prayer. Have mercy on
our pretentious, scurrying, little lives.
If in our busy
flurrying we have left scant room for the feelings our family, and friends, and
fellow church members;
Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
If in our short
sighted worrying about non essential aspects of this festive season we become
insensitive to wonder and awe in the presence of your Holy Incarnation;
Christ have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
If in our frenetic
scurrying between self indulgent feasts we have insulated ourselves against the
cries of the hungry and oppressed, the poor and the dispossessed;
Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Holy Friend, save
us not only from our obvious sins but also from our misguided activities. Save
us from wasting the precious moments of life on that which is second-best, and
from gaining a world of trivia but losing our own souls. Forgive us the hurt we
have inflicted on others by our insensitivity or neglect.
Please grant us
the grace to repent and to find again that peace and joy which nothing can ever
take from us, yet from which we ourselves can let slip away. Please put your
arms around us and cling to us, Incarnate God, for without you we are surely
lost. Grant this we pray. Through Christ Jesus our Saviour.
The peace of the Lord
Jesus Christ be always with you.
And also with you.
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
Dear
God,
isn’t
it weird that having got ourselves
so
excited about receiving presents at Christmas,
already some gifts don’t mean much to us?
Have
we been looking for happiness
in
the wrong places, God?
Bring
us back to your Christmas gift,
that
special present of baby Jesus,
lying
in a poor manger for his cot.
Help
us to find our true happiness
by
letting him live in our hearts.
Amen!
See
Australian Psalms page 29
Ó B D
Prewer & Open Book Publishers
Like boat people,
at the
they flee their coast,
hiding far from homeland
and the massacres of foul men
intent on holding power
at any cost.
I see them arrive
on our land’s wide shore,
to be seized by authority
and summarily consigned
to remote detention camps
where hope soon turns sour
into futility.
After two harsh years
their case in heard
by the keepers of my nation.
Mary, Joseph and the
Child,
are despatched back
to King Herod
who strokes his beard
with expectation.
Ó B D
Prewer 2000
COLLECT
Holy Friend, from whom every family on earth
receives its hope, please induct us into the faith
which sustained Mary and Joseph. Pity our vulnerability, and enable us to see
and trust your saving hand in all events. Lead us from danger to safety, and at
the right time, from a precarious environment into your eternal home. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen!
SERMON 1: WHY ALL THE FUSS
ABOUT JESUS?
Matthew 2: 13-23
Why all the fuss about one baby born in one
small village in
THE MASSACRE
First the ugly facts in today’s Gospel
reading. The slaughter of
It is not uncommon for arrogant rulers to
cause untold suffering to innocent people. Massacres happen. In more recent
times they have happened in
What is more appalling for those of us in
this Southern Continent is that we don’t have to go far back in Australian
history to find massacres taking place here. Aborigines were being hunted down
by men on horses with dogs, women being raped and children having their brains
splattered on rocks, tribes poisoned at water holes, mass executions under the
guise of colonial justice.
So it was in the time of Jesus. King Herod,
the monster who stopped at nothing to retain power, even murdered members of
his own family, including 3 of his sons. At his death, his will asked that one
member of every family in the land be killed so that the nation would truly be
in mourning.
No surprise then that Matthew tells of a
massacre in
Jesus escaped, many did not. The terrible
sound of wailing parents filled
However, as relevant as this account in
Matthew seems for us today, we need to realise that Matthew was not telling the
story to remind us of our responsibility to welcome refugees. Or to make us guilty about the brutal aspects of our national
history.
Nor was he, by the way, providing a story
about the Holy Family, to be used on the first Sunday after Christmas. The Holy
Family will be celebrated in numerous places around the world today. Which may be a very good thing. But that is not the theme of
this passage from the Gospel of Matthew.
MATTHEW’S PURPOSE
Matthew has a much deeper theological point
to make. It is about the unique importance of Mary’s firstborn child.
Matthew picks up incidents from among the
many stories concerning the life of Jesus to affirm the special nature and
mission of Jesus. Like all Gospel writers, he decides what to put in his Gospel
and what to leave out. He has a message to proclaim and he selects from his
sources to proclaim the good news.
He highlights incidents which echo the story
of Moses.
Up to the time of Jesus the biggest name, and
the most revered in the remarkable story of the Jews, was Moses. Moses was paramount, even more revered than
Abraham and King David.
You and I cannot even begin to comprehend how
awesome Moses was, and is, in Jewish thinking. He was a giant and his words
were sacrosanct.
Moses was the great Saviour of the nation who
delivered his people from slavery in
Moses was the great law giver who shaped the
Hebrew tribes to do what was right in the eyes of Yahweh.
The gift of the law through Moses, including
the Sabbath, became the most important thing in the mind and soul of the
righteous Jews.
Moses was the colossus. He still is.
Matthew dared to place another name beside
Moses. He tells of an amazing newcomer who is also God’s liberator, and a
remarkable teacher of the ways of God.
Therefore Matthew deliberately emphasises the
parallels between Jesus and Moses.
* Moses was born at a time when
When Jesus was born king Herod ordered all
infant boys, up to the age of two years, to
be slaughtered in the region of
* Moses escaped the slaughter by the
providence of God, who had great plans for him.
Jesus
escaped the slaughter by the providence of God who had great plans for him.
* Moses the liberator led his people under
the cover of darkness to make their escape.
Joseph takes Mary and the baby in the middle
of the night to make their escape.
* When
the time was ripe, Moses led his people out of
Land.
When the time is ripe, Joseph brings his wife
and child out of
Promised Land.
There is no doubt that Matthew wants his
readers to notice these parallels and to sit up and take notice. This Jesus is
one who is similar to the greatest person in their rich religious and ethical
history. As such he deserved their rapt attention.
By including the story of Herod’s brutal
massacred of infants, and of the flight of Joseph and Mary and their child to
YET GREATER THAN MOSES
Of course, Matthew does not stop there. As
his Gospel unfolds we encounter something more wonderful and mightier than
Moses.
Matthew does not only underline the parallels,
he also offers contrasts. For Matthew, Jesus does not annul Moses and his law,
but exceeds them.
The weight of the Law of Moses ground people
down and made many fastidious, nit-picking and exclusive.
The love of Jesus lifted people up and
included them.
The Law of Moses dealt with external
behaviour, things that can be commanded and policed by religious or political
enforcers.
Jesus dug deeper into our thoughts and
motives.
Moses led to judgement and condemnation of
sinners.
Jesus called sinners to repentance,
forgiveness and liberation.
Many who became successful at observing the
teaching of Moses became self righteous.
Those who trusted Jesus were content to be
embraced by, and have their sins covered by, Christ’s righteousness.
The opening of his Gospel was preparing his
readers for this glorious truth. Preparing them for a big
leap of faith. Get ready, Matthew was saying, to lift your sights much
higher than the teaching of Moses, and to journey down deeper into the most
Holy Mystery of a God who is truly with us in a new and unique way.
AND FOR US?
I commenced by asking: “Who is this Jesus
whose birthday we celebrated yesterday? Who is he for us?”
Your response to that question cannot be
assessed by the lavishness of your festivities yesterday. Nor
by whether you can repeat the proper words of the creed. The question who is this Jesus can only be
answered by the way we actually live our daily lives when the Christmas extravaganza
is over. Whether our
lives exhibit the fruits of faith in Christ.
For example, how well do we treat those close
to us? How do we treat those who are not close to us? How much do we cherish
and build up our Christian fellows? How do we handle conflicts of opinion
within the church?
Do we attempt to live the compassionate life
style of Jesus in this greedy, hard-hearted society in which we spend our days?
To what degree do we love not only our more prickly neighbours but also our
enemies? Do we do good to those who hurt us and pray
for those who persecute us?
Can it be said of us that by the quality of
our loving we store up treasures in heaven? Or will it be said that we, either
openly or secretly, stored up treasures on earth where moth and rust corrupt,
an anxieties broke through and stole our peace?
Do we really believe in One
who is greater than Moses? Do we trust something deeper than an outwardly
respectable life? Than obeying the Ten Commandments and
dutifully paying our respects to God’s church? Is Sunday truly the
Lord’s Day of resurrection and not an imitation of the Sabbath ordered by
Moses?
Some years ago, when I was browsing through a
Jewish book of prayers and liturgies for worship, I realised that if I altered
the key words, by substituting the word Christ for law or Sabbath, I could own
those prayers as my own.
For example, a prayer for public worship in
which I have made the substitution:
For Jesus of
For the witnesses to his
resurrection, and the joy of worshipping on this Lord’s Day, we thank and bless
you.
God of ages past, may our
fellowship with Christ on this day be pleasing in your sight,
Make us holy through his saving
grace, and let his love become our way of life. Satisfy us with his kind of
goodness, and make us happy in his salvation. Cleanse our hearts that he may
live within us.
In your gracious love, let this
Lord’s Day be our heritage of grace, that all your church, trusting Jesus, may
find healing, rest and peace. Blessed be your name O God, for Christ and his
holy love.
Matthew announces a new Moses who far
outstrips Moses. The Gospel for today asks us:
What or who is it that truly has our
allegiance. Whose spirit it that rules in our heart and mind?
Who is this Jesus in our experience? Who is
this Jesus whose birthday we celebrated yesterday.
SERMON 2: HAPPY FAMILIES?
Sirach 3:6
“If you obey the Lord by
honouring your father and making your mother happy, you will live a long life.”
Much of the church today will be focussing on
the Holy Family as a model for our families.
Let me say at the outset, that I regard much
of what is often said as a simplistic, saccharine piety far removed from the
complex dynamics of our real families.
In fact, I would rather dodge the issue by
preaching on the flight of the Holy Family into
But no. I am led to try and work through the issues of filial obedience in
Sirach and link it to the reality of the Holy Family.
HONOUR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER?
The
writer of Sirach is big on obeying and honouring father and on making mother happy. “If you obey the Lord by honouring your
father and making your mother happy, you will live a long life.”
Behind
this teaching are assumptions. It is
assumed that mother and father will be honourable people.
It is
presenting a Jewish ideal family, where children are taught (by their devout
parents) from infancy the stories of the faith, the primacy of God in one’s
life, and the difference between right and wrong. This was an ideal, of course.
The reality would have fallen short of this ideal. However, it must be said
that aspects of it were better fulfilled in many Jewish homes than it is in
many contemporary Christian households.
I
have spent one third of my life in an era when parents abrogated their
responsibility, by handing over the teaching of children the basics of the
faith to Sunday Schools.
In
the second third of my life (you can see I’m planning a long life!) I have seen
parents who don’t even bother to send their kids to Sunday School.
Today
(in the last third of my life) there is a dangerous vacuum. Very little
spiritual and moral teaching now goes on in the homes of our nation, or at any
other level. In fact, far from being “honourable parents” the vast majority by
word and deed give an example of naked hedonism. I believe we are rearing a
society of psychopaths (with varying degrees of anti-social manifestations)
where “everyone does what seems good in their own minds.”
How
can we expect children to honour a father and mother who have little wisdom or
altruism about them?
How
can you ask children to respect parents who spend much of their time
fornicating among their friends and neighbours? Parents who readily put their
marriages at risk? Think of the kids who wake up in the morning to find that
Mum or Dad has once more shared their bed with yet another complete stranger.
What possible sense could the words of Sirach make in the ears of children in
such situations?
So
far I have not even mentioned the number of children who must grow up in homes
where even basic love is missing. There are numerous atrocious parents around.
How can a child honour parents who spend their evenings squandering household
money on the ‘pokies’? Why should a child obey parents who do not feed and
clothe them adequately? And how can
children be expected to honour parents who sexually
abuse them?
There
are thousands of children out there who are doing it tough! As one teenage girl recently said to her
middle-aged school teacher, who at least listens to sorrows: “You are more than
a mother to me than my Mum has ever been.”
I am
sad to say that I do not think the teaching of Sirach would make much sense to
tens of thousands of children and young people in our nation.
On
the other hand, I want to affirm those parents among us who are doing a
wonderful job.
Many
of you are giving your utmost in the Christian nurture of your children. In a
secular, pagan society you are giving parenthood your best shot. I admire you
as you provide your children with a wonderful heritage. You are parents who
will be honoured, not because the church tells your children that they should
honour you, but because you are through and through honourable parents. [Note that I did not say “perfect parents”.
Every family is in some degree dysfunctional. None of us get it completely
right. But “honourable’? Yes. Many of you are! Thank
God!]
THE HOLY FAMILY?
Now,
what about the Holy Family? Mary and Joseph and their
offspring?
Whenever
I am presented with a sermonic picture of the perfect Holy Family, where Jesus
always does the right thing by his Mum and Dad and they always do the right
thing by him; where there is beautiful harmony, politeness, even tempers, utter
altruism, I want just to say one thing: “Yuk!”
I
find it hard to identify with the words of the famous carol:
And through all his wondrous
childhood,
he would honour and obey.
Love and watch the lowly
Maiden
in whose gentle arms he lay.
I do
not wish to be offensive, but I do not for a moment believe that the family of
Jesus was perfect. In some ways it would also be dysfunctional.
I
reckon Joseph must have been a great Dad. If he had not, I don’t think that
Jesus would have been able to so warmly use the word “Abba” for God. But the perfect model?
Holy
Mary was a remarkable woman. To be chosen as the “Mother of our Lord” was the
highest honour and heavy responsibility. But perfect?
To
quote one of my grandchildren: “Get real!”
Unless
Jesus was brought up in a family which, like mine, shared heaps of love but on
many occasions of foolishness and sin, then I cannot see how he could
understand the rest of us. If he was given the perfect start in life, while we
must make it among multiple imperfections , how much would
his goodness be worth as a model? Moreover, how could we say with the letter to
the Hebrews: “He was tempted in all points as we are?” Unless he had to cope
with some of the normal family situations, he would not seem like my brother,
tempted as the rest of us are.
All
those pretty pictures, in pastel colours, about the Holy Family cannot be drawn
from the New Testament. There are only a few references. Yet in these we find
snippets of the misunderstandings which happen in all other families.
From
these we do know that Jesus could exasperate his mother: Like at the temple
when he was twelve years old and he did the typical kids thing and went
missing: “Son, how could you treat us like this? Your father and I have been
terribly worried, looking for you everywhere.”
Also,
when Jesus left home and became a wandering preacher, his mother did not
understand what was going on. We are informed that Mary, believing Jesus to be
deranged, came with his brothers to take him home. And that in that situation,
Jesus refused to speak with her, and even went so far as to say: “Who is my
mother? Who are my brothers? They who hear the word of God and do it, these are
my true family.”
Forget
the perfect model family. Joseph and Mary were good parents. I have no doubt
about that. Jesus knew so much about
love that they must have immersed him in love from his birth. I find the amazing
quality of his love the greatest testimony to Mary's and Joseph’s care of their
children. But they were not an
idealised, always sweet, never uptight, always happy, prototype family.
My
picture of them is a little vague, in keeping with the scant Gospel records. I
see Mary and Joseph as simple people of faith, and much love, who reared among
their equally loved children, one extraordinary Child. A child who as he grew,
humbly but boldly outstripped anything they could teach him or show him.
WHAT IS THE IDEAL FAMILY?
How
then do we find the perfect model? What is the ideal family? Where is the
blueprint?
I do
not think we find the perfect model in the writings of books of Scripture like
Proverbs or Sirach. Nor do I believe we find it in the dynamic relationships
within the most famous household of
The
truth is, we must painstakingly seek the way ahead
through our mutual attachment to Jesus Christ. Day by day, we must create our
own model as we exercise our discipleship.
We
need to accept the inevitable tensions of living together and work through
them, and embrace the profound joys with uninhibited gratitude. We must, when
it comes to family, find our own way ahead with the assistance of the Holy
Spirit. Each family will have different dynamics according to the respective
personalities of the members, but there is the one Spirit to guide and help us
find the pattern best for us.
As I
see it, the most essential ingredient for any Christian family is saving grace.
Nothing matters more: grace! The free, uncalculated, unlimited grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace to forgive one another seventy times seven.
Grace to affirm the other person and the grace to stand up for
ourselves.
Grace to own both our mistakes and our virtues.
Grace
to nurture and build up each other.
Grace
to celebrate the gifts that each has in spite of twinges of jealousy.
Grace
to help another family member without saying or thinking: ‘You owe me one’, and
the grace to allow them to help us.
Grace not to use emotional blackmail to get our own way.
Grace to apologise, and to accept an apology with humble goodwill.
Grace to love one another, especially when some are acting in an
unlovable manner.
Grace to sacrifice, far beyond the level of common expectations.
Grace to know that it is by grace that we are saved, in the family as
everywhere else, and not by our own self righteousness.
I
believe that if we live by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will do far
better than trying to emulate some Old Testament model, or attempting to
conform to some artificial picture of the perfect Holy Family at
For
myself, I find words in a letter that one bloke wrote to Christian friends,
most germinal as a stimulus to living as a family:
Make me really happy by having a common mind, sharing
the same love, following a
similar goal.
Don’t act from pride or selfishness. Learn to put
others before yourself. As you look to
your own interests, look also to theirs.
When you are together, have
the mind of Christ;
Although he had a divine nature, he did not try to be
equal with God, but emptied himself
like a servant, very much a common human being. As one of us he went humbly
all the way to death, even
dying on a cross.
Philippians
2: 2-8
That
is the way of grace.
We
cannot produce happy, highly functional families by law.
Not
by religious or moral indoctrination.
Not
by duty, nor by forcing obedience.
Not
by exploiting guilt to achieve our ends.
But,
thank God, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we can move forwards lovingly
and hopefully, and be enabled to achieve something worthwhile, even when
everything seems to have gone sour.
Wherever
there is grace, there can exist a degree of love that
transcends the dysfunctional factors.
Thanks
belongs to you, most
loving God, for placing us together in families and communities.
For those who
nurtured us in body, mind and spirit, and gave us the foundation and impetus
for a fruitful life;
We give thanks.
We give thanks for
sisters, brothers and friends, who cared enough for us to challenge our
conceits and self deceits;
We give thanks.
For those who
treated us with grace rather than law, and who opened up opportunities beyond
failure and shame;
We give thanks.
For
all who showed us how to work together for a common goal and demonstrated that
together we can achieve more than we can as isolated individuals;
We give thanks
For those who
believed in us when we could not believe in ourselves and who went on loving us
when we acted in most unloving ways;
We give thanks.
For the family of
the church; for the friendships grown here, the Gospel shared here, the sins
forgiven and the possibilities enlarged here, and the Spirit of the eternal
Christ who has met us with grace, mercy and peace here;
We give you thanks, most wonderful God and
Holy Friend.
Amen!
INTERCESSIONS
God of grace hear
your people.
God of grace, heal your people.
Families where there is
uncontrolled hostility and abuse, and where some members live daily in fear and
servitude.
Families where
husband and wife use their unfortunate children as weapons in ongoing emotional
war games.
Families where
mother and father force unreal expectations and ambitions on their children and
cause them to live with constant anxiety about failure.
Families where parents have
separated and the children feel irrational guilt that they may have been the
cause of the break up.
We pray also,
loving God, for families that are function well in spite of all the pressures
of life around them and within them.
Those where in spite of marriage
break down, the separation has been handled with much care and love for the
children.
Single parents
who are doing a great job in providing for the healthy nurture of their
children in body, mind and soul.
Ordinary families where there
are many mistakes but always enough love to carry them through the difficult
times.
Situations where only one Parent
is a believer and so must attempt to provide all the spiritual nurture for the
family.
Church going families where in spite
of the common tensions and misunderstanding of daily life, Jesus Christ and his
grace are always the bottom line.
Go on your way
with renewed spirits, rejoicing that the Holy Friend
who meets us in this house of prayer, will be with you through every hour of
this week.
Amen! We shall never walk alone.
Enter the New Year
with expectation. There is nothing that God is not prepared for, and nothing
that can outwit the ingenuity of divine grace.
Amen! We are better than conquerors through
Christ who loves us.
Grace mercy and
peace, from God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, shall be with you now
and always.
Amen!