{"id":560,"date":"2019-12-29T08:34:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-29T08:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=560"},"modified":"2019-12-30T01:36:53","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T01:36:53","slug":"first-sunday-of-christmas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/12\/29\/first-sunday-of-christmas-2\/","title":{"rendered":"First Sunday of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matthew 2:13-23<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merry Christmas! It may\nbe December 29, but the Christmas season continues for another week!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\ntoday\u2019s gospel reading is a Christmas reading, it is not one of my favorites;\nthe reason is simple; it does not tell about the happy events of Christmas. Traditionally\nit is known as the story of the slaughter of the innocents. The church has set\naside December 28 to commemorate \u201cHoly Innocents, Martyrs\u201d and so to remember the\nlives of those children lost to King Herod\u2019s anger, actually lost to King Herod\u2019s\nfear of there being a threat to his throne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because\nof where our reading begins, we miss the part of the story about when the\nwisemen told King Herod that they were looking for the newborn king. We also\nmiss the part of the story that tells us that the wisemen were warned in a\ndream not to go back and tell Herod where they found the child, Jesus. Again, we\nmiss the part of the story of the wisemen taking heed to the angels warning and\ngoing home by another route, and so they did not tell Herod the where-abouts of\nthe child king. We do not know, how long Herod waited for the wisemen to return\nto him, but we know that Herod was not a happy camper. When our Gospel reading\nbegins, an angel of the Lord appears again to Joseph in a dream and the angel commands\nJoseph to get up and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. By now\nJoseph has gotten pretty good at just doing what the angels tell him to do (without\nquestion) and so off to Egypt they went. Thankfully the gifts that were given\nto them by the wisemen made their escape and their new life in their new land,\nin Egypt, a lot easier. Joseph and Mary surely were able to set up a household\nand Joseph was able to establish his carpenter\u2019s shop, enabling them to stay\nfor as long as they needed. Actually, we know little to nothing about their\ntime in Egypt, only that it lasted until King Herod died. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just\nso, you do not get too confused, there were a few King Herods, there was this\none, who was around at the time of Jesus\u2019 birth, and there was another King Herod\nwho was around at Jesus\u2019 death, and to really confuse things there were a\ncouple of other Herods not connected to the life of Jesus. (It brings to mind\nthe boxer, George Forman, who named all his sons George and of course they all\nhad the same last name \u201cForman\u201d. He would introduce them, this is George and\nthis is my other son George, and so on.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back\nto Mary, Joseph and Jesus: It is assumed that this exile did not last too many\nyears, and not hearing of any problems, it was probably a safe and comfortable\ncouple years allowing them to adjust to their new life as a family. But while\nthey were safe in their exile, King Herod, knowing that the birth would take\nplace in and around Bethlehem sent his troops to that region to do his damage. The\nwisemen, Herod knew, had been traveling for a couple of years; Herod figured\nthat the child, this newborn king must be 2 years of age or younger and so\nHerod ordered the murder of all the children, in and around Bethlehem, who were\n2 years of age or younger, both boys and girls. These children had done nothing\nwrong; their parents had done nothing wrong; these children simply had the\nmisfortune of being born around the same time as was Jesus. Like most Bible\nstories the author reminds us of the former prophecies; in this instance the prophecy\nmentioned was spoken by Jeremiah; it told of how in Ramah (an ancient city) there\nwould be wailing and lamentation at the loss of their children. The author of\nMatthew saw in Herod\u2019s heartless killing of the innocents, the fulfillment of\nJeremiah\u2019s prophecy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nus, it makes no sense that there would have to have been such an unnecessary act\nof violence and killing, but it is not for us to always understand and such\nvile acts happen even in today\u2019s world; it seems that evil regularly makes its\nappearance when and wherever God does a good thing and Jesus\u2019 birth was a very\ngood thing, so we see that it was accompanied by a very evil act. We within the\nchurch continue to remember this day as a way of recognizing the great\nsacrifice made by the parents and children of Bethlehem and the surrounding\narea, that took place near the time of Jesus\u2019 birth. These children and parents\nshould not be forgotten. They deserve to be honored for the very difficult part\nthey played in the story of Jesus\u2019 life; I sincerely believe that they are\nhonored by God and by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as well. Sadly, the\nsuffering of innocent victims is a common thing in our world. We cannot save\nthem all, but we can certainly pray for them and their families; I\u2019m sure God\nwill give them his peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An\nimportant thing that we should learn from this story is the real danger that\nour Lord Jesus was in, from the time of his birth and all throughout his life. And\nwe all know, how his life ended. Jesus\u2019 sacrifice and struggle all throughout his\nlife was for real as was the danger he lived with. And the events of the\nslaughter of the innocents should also remind us that bad things do happen to\ngood people. The bad things that happened to those children and their families\nwere definitely not deserved. The theology of their time would have said that\nthey must have sinned greatly for such events to have taken place in their\nlives. But we don\u2019t believe that; we are very much aware that bad things happen\neven to the best of people. We know that Satan is at work creating sorrow and\nall kinds of evil. And in the battle taking place between God and Satan, even\nin our time, Satan does not care, he may even take pleasure knowing that\ninnocent people suffer in the process. It may actually be a part of Satan\u2019s\nplan. We need to be aware that evil is as much a part of our world as God\u2019s\nlove in Jesus Christ. We serve Jesus and our world best by caring for those who\nsuffer, who get caught in the middle, who are innocent victims and by sharing\nJesus\u2019 love by word and deed with the world around us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 2:13-23 Merry Christmas! It may be December 29, but the Christmas season continues for another week! While today\u2019s gospel reading is a Christmas reading, it is not one of my favorites; the reason is simple; it does not tell about the happy events of Christmas. Traditionally it is known Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":561,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions\/561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}