December 28 2025 Christmas 1

Isaiah 63.7-9   Psalm 148   Hebrews 2.10-18   Matthew 2.13-23

Three days ago we were singing joyfully, feeling happy about the birth of a new born son, albeint in less than ideal conditions.  But it was a ‘feel good’ story; it was a story we tell and tell; and one which leaves us with ‘warm fuzzy’ feelings.  And now we have this story, and maybe, we might feel a bit cheated, because those warm fuzzy feelings didn’t last long enough, and this story brings us back to reality with a huge ‘thump’.  Less than two years after Jesus’ birth, just after being visited by our astrological visitors, Joseph receives another dream which tells him to ‘run away’, ‘run fast’ and don’t look back.  And then we hear of the ‘slaughter of the innocents’.  How do we deal with the violence of Herod.  How do we deal with him killing all the boys under 2 just because he frightened that he was going to lose power.  And when we look around at our world today, are there similar things happening even now.  Millions are still losing their lives just to maintain the status quo of the ruling powers while powerful countries threaten to close the door to refugees.

 And there is political irony in this story.  Jesus, infant Son of God, flees as a refugee to Egypt, Israel’s sworn and symbolic enemy.  This place where the Hebrews had been oppressed for 430 years, and where Pharaoh had unleashed his own infanticide against Israelite male children, has now become a safe refuge for Jesus and his parents. The events surrounding Jesus’ birth remind us of how the saviour of the world ‘shared in our humanity’ and was ‘made like us in every respect’.  And because he himself suffered our every pain and sorrow, from the infanticide at his birth to his death as a criminal, as Paul tells us, ‘he is able to help those who suffer’.

 We often speak of God as ‘God-with-us’, but that term would have little meaning if it was only God-with-us when things were going great, when we are having those ‘touchy-feely’ good times.  Because, while we are pleased to have God-with-us when we are feeling good, we are also desperate to know we have God-with-us when life has turned to custard, and it is all going wrong.  This reading from Matthew is not easy to hear, but it is important to hear it because it reminds us that God is not only with us in rejoicing, but God is also with us in sorrow and grief and loss and fear.  And Matthew doesn’t stop at the slaughter, he reassures us there is recovery and restoration as well.  This reading shows us that not only is God with us, but God is for us, promising to bring us through to the other side, maybe not always unscathed but still victorious.

 God is with us, in our dark times, and God is with us in our good times.  And when things are dark, God will accompany us and bring us through to the other side so that, in time, we will also know the good times.