Bible Text: Matthew 2:13-23 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
William Kurelek was a prolific Canadian painter. He was well known for his immigrant prairie pictures that often included mundane, everyday activities in bright colours and interesting frames. In 1976 he received the order of Canada. He also suffered from mental illness and depression but through his difficult journey he found faith and became a devout Roman Catholic. In fact, he painted 160 panels of the Passion of Christ. His artwork is inspiring, challenging, sometimes frightening, and often moving. He published a semi-children’s book entitled “A Northern Nativity” in which he depicts the holy family in various locations typical of a 1930s Northern Canadian experience. While many are not typical pictures of the nativity they remind us of how diverse the interpretation of the story can be. He includes writings, based on dreams, with each picture and he always asks the question, “If it happened there, why not here? If it happened then, why not now?” One of his nativity scenes is of Mary, Joseph and Jesus tucked into a box car at the Winnipeg Freight yards during the depression. Kurelek writes, “It is the wrong time to be young, ambitious and full of hope.” For the last couple of weeks I have included reflections on how the nativity story is not quite as sweet as we interpret it. The focus on Matthew’s Gospel does that to us. Kurelek reminds me even more so how that is true, that in amongst the scene of angels announcing and wise men offering, there are still realities of human hardship, human anger, human fear and human hatred. That is the world that Jesus entered, a world in which rulers oppressed and people suffered. On this Sunday, that is called the first Sunday of Christmas in our lectionary year and on this first day of the year of our Lord, two-thousand and seventeen, we hear a story about a serious warning of coming peril. It isn’t a happy ending and it is difficult for us to move from the lights and wrapping paper to these stark images. It is difficult to reflect on the joy and hope expressed at New Year’s Eve celebrations to these words of fear and flight. It’s difficult to preach on them! But then again it is difficult to feel joyous on the occasion of the New Year when we hear news of attacks in Aleppo and around the world. I’m kind of glad to see 2016 leave us.
In our passage from Matthew we read that Joseph received a message and heeded a warning immediately. Joseph’s obedience is saintly. He never seems to question but rather gets up and goes. The flight to Egypt was unexpected in so many ways. What a change in circumstances in such a short period of time! The story of Jesus’ birth has just occurred both in the readings and in our liturgical calendar. But the chronology is a little off because we have yet to celebrate epiphany, the recognition and gifts from the magi, which our passage this morning follows, and which in our calendar year we celebrate next week. However, Jesus has just received some symbolic and important gifts from some pretty unusual visitors and then the family must run for their lives, fleeing Herod, who wants to destroy this young child’s life and it is their only option. We know that some time has probably passed since the birth. It was not a week like we celebrate, but probably a couple of years. Even then, this trip must have been fraught with fear and danger as they looked over their shoulders and tried to remain calm for their toddler son.
The problem of course is that fleeing to Egypt saved Jesus’ life but it did not stop violence back home. The most difficult part of the entire story comes up when it says that the loss of these innocent lives was a fulfilment of Scripture. We have to be very clear about something. The fulfilment of the Hebrew text is limited at best. It comes from Jeremiah 31:15 and it is regarding the restoration of Israel and Judah. When Jeremiah wrote this both the Northern and Southern kingdoms were in exile and God had promised that they would be brought out of captivity and restored to their land. To connect this sentence from Jeremiah with the events following Jesus’ birth is a stretch. However, that is how Matthew understood it and tackled the harsh events. It is also a reflection on the history of the Israelites. God has already led the nation of Israel out of bondage, in Egypt. The child Jesus is reliving God’s past dealings with Israel and then living out God’s future plans for all people.
It was Boxing Day 2004 when this passage was to be preached as part of the lectionary. I remember it well. I was doing pulpit supply at West Flamborough Presbyterian Church- a church that was enduring a modestly lengthy vacancy. It was also the morning that the Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami hit the Indian Ocean. It always struck me that on the very day after Christmas, the world and many families on vacation were hit by a massive tragedy. It is the realities of our world and it can always bring into question the very existence of a God who is love. How could this happen to innocent people if God loves us. I know, it is a morose thought for the first day of the year but I am sure it is one you are asking yourselves.
What the text does make clear is that the event of the flight to Egypt was not ordained by God. It was ordered by Herod. It may be understood as fulfilment of Scripture but it was not a fulfilment of God’s desire but rather examples of human power and anger. It is this part of the Christmas story that is more real to us, to refugees in Syria, to victims of cruelty, terrorism, exclusion or racism than that of the manager scene. And therein lies the problem.
Too easily we switch from the decorations on the tree to storage boxes. What a difference a day makes from opening thoughtful gifts to line ups for Boxing Day sales, from welcoming the new day brought by a small baby to the celebration of a new year with champagne and over consumption. The month leading up to Dec. 25th is filled with kettle drives, turkey dinners for those in need, extra special thought for those less fortunate in our community but then too quickly we switch off the charm, joy, good will and transition back into routine. I am not suggesting that our own post-Christmas lethargy can be compared to physical loss of homeland through warfare as the holy family experienced. That is a pretty terrible example of “first world problems”. I am suggesting, however, that more people can connect with the story of the flight to Egypt in some way or another than with the Nativity and being visited by wise men and that’s a terrible truth.
What is clear is that God is at work and does intervene in all this human made anger, fear and hatred by creating new journeys. Matthew tells us that God is at work. The powers in this world can be terrible and often align themselves in opposition, just as Herod did when he learned of the birth of Jesus. But God is also faithful in fulfilling promises and purposes. Most importantly, God can be counted on to act to bring divine plans to fruition. Throughout history we can see- through the lens of faith- God’s work, human opposition, and God’s faithfulness despite the opposition. The world in which Jesus entered was full of pain, but it is at this time that we remember that God’s promise was so intimate that God, in Christ, suffers with us.
William Kurelek’s final image in his Northern Nativity is of the family hurrying off in a horse and buggy. In his dream William runs after them and yells, “Please don’t go!” He is heard and the compassionate response comes floating on the wind, “We will return one day- when you are ready to receive us with undivided love.” Kurelek asks, if it happened there, why not here, if it happened then, why not now? But he also has the profound insight that if it did happen here and happen now, would we notice? Amen