Sermon Sunday January 5, 2025
Rev. Norman A. Michaud
“The End of the Beginning”
John 1: 1-18
Matthew 2: 1-12
News burns in our minds this week. President Carter will lie in state in our Nations Capital and will return to Plains, Georgia to be interred next to his beloved wife, Rosalynn. Domestic terrorism in the name of religion stalks public events. An American veteran, who swore allegiance to the Constitution, acted alone and tested our safety in New Orleans. An active duty Green Beret from Colorado killed himself in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Security in public places, churches, and even our home towns has rendered many to be concerned and vigilant.
Evil seems to have found places to thrive in the world. One nation’s understanding of “terrorists” may be the face of resistance for oppressed people somewhere else. I do not know what may come. I repeat the words of Christ, “Do not be afraid.”
I would lie to you if I did not respond to these words with a loud “Yeah, But … !” I, too, have fears for my family, community, congregation, and world. It would all be easier if I read no news. Christ commands that we pay attention and call out oppression, injustice, and evil. This morning, let us find comfort in the opening of John while Matthew shows us the evil of duplicity and the hope of God’s redemptive promises.
I have read John 1-18 first this morning. This reading is designated as the lectionary text from the New Testament for the Second Sunday of Christmas. John’s poetic writing may represent some of the New Testament’s most beautiful and lyrical writing. The writer, John, invokes Genesis. The Word, the very breath of God, brings all things into being. Life becomes synonymous with Light. First, John the Baptist is the Light, but he reveals the great Light, Jesus, the Son of Man. John the Baptist is not alone in carrying the Light, for John, the writer, declares that the “Word became flesh and blood.” As God, Jesus is “generous inside and out.”
This generosity mirrors God’s grace, which is given freely. Though I find John’s writing lovely and stirring, John’s Good News stands removed from Mark, Matthew, and Luke. John’s Gospel is not considered to be among the synoptic trilogy. John writes to elevate Jesus, who appears less human, and emphasizes Jesus’ divinity. Jesus’ feet barely touch the ground as he walks from place to place. Jesus is Christ, more holy and less human in John, and more apparition and Holy Spirit than a man. However, the seduction of the beauty of John’s words regarding Logos, the Word, moves me and others.
When I was fortunate enough to study writing and the writing process at the University of NH, the writing professors advocated that we, “Show, don’t tell.”
Characters develop through conflict in literature. We can see this in Shakespearean dramas, novels, and all forms of storytelling. Exposition, the setting of time and place, comes first. John’s narrative provides the time of Jesus as eternal. The Logos, the first and last, the universal and eternal, are reflected through John’s opening narrative. Exposition, by definition, means “to Show.” Christ’s divinity is known to John’s readers. The earlier Gospels are already familiar to Christians when John composes his words. The followers of Jesus rely less on Hebrew Judaism and have come to include Gentiles within the fledgling Christian churches. John’s writing takes place several generations removed from the life of Jesus and the Apostle Paul.
Matthew’s Gospel, 2: 1-12, presents “light” differently. Epiphany is a word that translates as “show.” The Light, or star, signals to the Magi that a King has been born. In Matthew, God reveals that the baby Jesus is the Messiah. It shows location, time, and place. It presents a conflict as Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee Herod’s brutal world that wants the child dead. Jesus is not the expected warrior king who will liberate the Jews as Moses and David liberated them. Matthew’s passage begins with the words, “In the time of King Herod.” These words launch the story of the Magi and their search for the infant king. The Magi’s quest is inspired by their exploration and understanding of the night sky.
The story includes their encounter with Herod, who is enthusiastic about aiding their search and revealing to him the location of the baby Jesus. The Magi were magicians in their time, but their wisdom and being outsiders to Judaism elevates their respectful visit. Imagine the awe and wonder at the arrival of these unique guests from the East. The East is the location of past invaders and those who created the exile to Babylon, basically Syria and Iraq. The scene appears idyllic, but we know the situation around the baby Jesus remains ever more uncertain and perilous.
Matthew revealed that Herod, with information gleaned from the Magi, wants to murder every male child from infancy through two years of age. The order will come promptly in Matthew 2:13-33. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus will flee Judea and remain in exile until Herod dies. The wise astronomers are warned in a dream and choose another route home. They, too, realize that they are in danger from Herod’s treachery. Why? Because Jesus was born “in the time of King Herod.”
These six words highlight Herod’s time and cultural, social, and political climate. He reigns and oppresses through the power of Rome, for which he serves as a ruthless puppet. No ruling king wants to be overthrown by someone whose lineage is more prominent than their own. In Matthew’s genealogy, which opens his Gospel, Matthew 1 verifies through signs, descent, and Hebrew prophecies that Jesus is the One and that his way will be The Way. However, for many, the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, will bring resistance and violence.
Surprise! Jesus comes with a New Covenant of Love, and He will be the victim of violence by the Empire. Few are willing to take action to upset the Status Quo and the “Peace of Rome.” Roman Peace is found not in salvation and freedom but in death and oppression. “When King Herod heard the message from the Magi, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.” The phrase “in the time of King Herod” indicates that these powers and principalities are ready to destroy any promise made through God’s new covenant.
But it also gestures toward the imminent fulfillment of God’s purpose—God’s kingdom represented in this newborn baby, who embodies a steadfast resistance to such systems of violence that he has been born to break. During this particular time and space, in “Bethlehem of Judea,” we see how God’s promise has been written right into the story from the beginning, from the generations that preceded this moment. Even “in the time of King Herod,” when life seems precarious and all creation cries out to put an end to oppression, Jesus’s entrance into the world activates people from vast distances.
We can’t read “In the Time of King Herod” without recognizing how the genealogies show the inevitability of the New Covenant of generosity and love, even amid a social and political improbability. God will do this work no matter what, and God will invite all to participate—a young woman, a stepfather, and strangers from the East. Jesus will come to welcome all into the reign of God. By all, Matthew shows fishermen, widows, desperate parents, the desperately sick, and even fallen women as God’s doubtful and worthy servants.