12/29
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| The Ecclesia worship crew |
It's a mild winter day as I head to the Marcus Garvey Park Drummers' Circle for the weekly gathering of the Ecclesia congregation for eucharist and breaking bread with te homeless. More intense scrutiny by the NYPD has had a negative effect on people coming out, but still a congregation gathers and still there are conversations to be had. During prayers, one congregant prays that his son may avoid the fall into homelessness he has endured. We tend to forget that most who are homeless once had homes. We assemble the alter and prepare for worship. Sing "Joy to the World" and "O Come All Ye Faithful." Read the Gospel and it's time for reflection....
So it’s the 5th day of Christmas. (“Five golden rings!”) I am one who believes in celebrating all 12 days. We’re done with all the secular society build up to Christmas. Now’s the time to celebrate the church’s Christmas. Liturgically, this is the first Sunday after Christmas. Liturgically, we’ve got the "Feast of the Holy Innocents.” This darkest story within our Christmas narratives. There’s been barely enough time to unwrap the presents from the visit of the wise men when Herod flies into a rage, believing a threat to his throne is arising, a child with more legitimacy than his claim. So he sends out his henchmen to murder all children under two in the Bethlehem region.
There’s always debate over the historicity of the event. But the bottom line is something like this….this kind of behavior was so typical of Herod, who even murdered his own son, as to not even drew attention, especially in a small insignificant town like Bethlehem.
All well and good but what does it mean for us?
I think it starts here….we live in a day when across our world, more people are in motion right now than at any other time in history. Maybe some of you here this morning have come here from other places. And the fact is, most people who are in motion are doing so because their lives have become unlivable where they are. It can be for political reasons:
* Like a Muslim in Kashmir or
* An Ambazonian in the Cameroun or
* A Rohingyan in Burma
Or people threatened by their government like a Nicaraguan or Venezuelan who has protested having to flee
Or because some combination of agribusiness and climate change and environmental degradation has made subsistence farming impossible.
People leave home when home is no longer viable.
Christmas is about incarnation ….God wanting to be in our midst, God wanting to know our lives intimately. From inside our flesh, as it were. So God in the form of a vulnerable human baby is With a family that has to flee for its very lives to another country. Driven form their home. Sin papeles. Undocumented. Illegal. Seeking asylum. As the Biblical narrative goes , they find asylum in Egypt. And the Christian community in Egypt is very proud of this tradition. They’ll show you places where various incidents happened to the Holy family. The house where they lived, right up the street from where Moses was drawn from the river. They are proud of having sheltered the human one, the holy one, the holy child.
How different it would have been if they had encountered a 30 foot wall topped with razor wire at the Egyptian border. Or if they had bene forced to sleep outside in the street for weeks waiting for a chance to tell their story with a 2% chance of receiving asylum. Or been forced out into the most dangerous part of the Sinai without even a donkey. Or maybe separated with Joseph and Mary deported back to certain death in Israel and Jesus put in a cage in the desert. The point is, God is experiencing our lives right now. In our midst. Our displacement, our exile, our homelessness, whatever it is, whatever your story is, Immanuel, GOD IS WITH US.
Let us see the face of God in those around us in this circle. And may we in turn, show the living face of Jesus to each around us. As we receive the Eucharist this day, may it be we who are transformed into the living body of the risen Christ, standing side by side with each other.
Immanuel. God is with us. Happy Christmas. Amen.
Eucharist is shared. Then the meal is laid out. Turkey sandwiches. Salads. Peach pie. And festive egg nog. More conversation. the police stop by to check things out. Are offered sandwiches. Slowly the circle disperses. People off to their separate directions. Until next week.
Gospel Matthew 2:13-23
13Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
16When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
19When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead.” 21Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”
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