Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Christmas: The Exercise of Power – preached at the Eucharist, Sherborne Abbey, on Sunday, 1 January 2023 by the Reverend Christopher Huitson. (Hebrews Ch 2: v 10 – end; Matthew Ch 2: v 13 – end)
The story is told about a bishop who, when he wrote a letter to his clergy, would add under the date the name of some obscure saint who might be remembered on that day – St. Hyacinth or St. Cyprian of Carthage for instance. One of his clergy got fed up with this ecclesiastical one upmanship and so in his reply placed under the date the legend “Wash day at the Vicarage.”
You may not realise the complications which such a seemingly simple task as finding out the readings for the epistle and gospel for each Sunday engenders. Take today as an example 1st January. Of course, it is New Year’s Day but the readings don’t take much notice of that. Instead, they look to the Jewish law which required male children to be circumcised 8 days after birth. Since in the Jewish calendar the day changed at 6 pm rather than midnight so 8 days from Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day lands us on January 1st. The day also has a more Christian description as the Naming of Jesus. But minor festivals are often moved to the next day as in this case, so that if the circumcision and naming of Jesus are moved to the Monday then Sunday 1st January is kept as the second Sunday after Christmas rather than the first Sunday which you might have expected – BUT the readings to be used are those set for the first Sunday after Christmas.
I tell you all this not to dazzle you with my erudition or to tie your mind in knots but to explain why we have the gospel reading which we do, for it contains the description of scenes which recall tragic events.
It is all too easy for us to have a sweet, sentimental picture in our minds of the Christmas story. As it is, the secular world tries to suck out from Christmas anything about God and religion. The High Street decorations are of snowflakes, reindeer and stars – well at least a star can just about relate to the wise men. The music playing in shops is often of secular songs rather than hymns and carols. A south coast university has referred to this time of year as “winter closure period” and we no longer have Christmas parties but “festive celebrations!” And even Christians imagine a lovely warm stable full of beautiful, sweet hay with the holy family bathed in heavenly light and angels singing a quiet lullaby as the shepherds arrive with their clean sheep and friendly sheep dog. We want it all to be different from ordinary life, to be presenting an image of peace and delight.
But reality keeps breaking is. The church in its wisdom places on the day after Christmas day, the Feast of St. Stephen, cruelly stoned to death as he berated his hearers for their lack of faith and their failure to understand the OT prophecies. A later martyr was Thomas Becket who is remembered on December 29th while the day before, the 28th, is kept as Holy Innocents Day and our gospel reading today also includes this harrowing remembrance of the slaughter of the young children of Bethlehem. This was an attempt by Herod the Great to eradicate a possible rival king. St. Matthew’s gospel is the only NT book to include this incident and he ties it closely with verses from the OT – Jeremiah’s words about “Rachel weeping for her children”. Then, in a text linked with the return of Mary, Joseph and Jesus from sanctuary in Egypt a line from a prophecy by Hosea is recalled: “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”
It has to be asked whether actual historical events have been linked with appropriate OT prophecies or whether an imaginative reconstruction has taken placed based on the prophecies. Our only independent author of the time, Josephus, who took great pains to catalogue Herod’s crimes, does not mention this incident, which is surprising and suggests that he did not know about it. What we can say though, is that such murderous rage was entirely in keeping with Herod’s character for he arranged the execution or sudden unexplained disappearance of members of his own family or former friends if he had reason to doubt their loyalty or discovered their involvement in plots against his life.
Herod had ungovernable passions both of love and hate and he was in constant fear of losing his life or his throne. The death of a few children would not have mattered to him. Other leaders at the time were just as bad if not worse.
If we look back over the world’s recent history, we can find parallels just as disturbing. We think of millions killed in warfare in the two world wars or those who were annihilated in the holocaust. Most recently we look at the slaughter in Ukraine and hear in the news of powerful weapons either accidentally or deliberately targeting schools or children in hospitals. It seems as though human beings are corrupted by power. They begin to use any means to preserve that power and to protect themselves from the consequences of their immoral actions. Once they begin to despise other people and begin to regard them as less than human, then lives become unimportant to them.
The Christian Church over the centuries has not always been a shining example of the right exercise of power. Yet time and time again there have been heroes of faith who have pulled it back towards the right path. This is because the child born on Christmas Day grew into a man who spoke of humble service to others, who saw the welfare of each individual as important to God and where power and great wealth were seen as obstacles, making it much harder for those who had them, to find the kingdom of God.
The deaths of the Bethlehem children speak of the world we know, of which we are now a part, a world where power is misused and where we live in uncertainty and some fear because of the random possibility of terrorist atrocities or unexpected violence. In some countries of our world the institution of government itself acts with illegal force to coerce and control its citizens.
Today’s gospel shows us the worst side of human nature, but Jesus shows us the best as he came to deal with such a world as it then was and as it now is. He calls us to a sacrificial love just as he himself gave his life in sacrificial love on the cross. The very birth of Jesus in a shelter for farm animals reflects a lack of power and wealth which lack he exhibited all his life. Only so, could he live out a different way – of love – a way which we are called to follow.