My sermon this week was based on Matthew 2:13-23.
To download an audio of my sermon, click here.
I want to ask you to do something this new year that will sound counterintuitive. I want to ask you to do something that scares you.
Before I go on, I want to explain that here is such a thing as good fear. I love horror movies and roller coasters, for example. I actively seek those fears out and I enjoy them. There are fears that are instinctive and are there to keep us alive, such as the fear of getting hit by a car that reminds us to look both ways before crossing the street. I would argue that from a survival standpoint, those fears are also good. But I also suffer from anxiety and depression, and those are decidedly fears I would rather do without.
Most of us would do just about anything to avoid most situations that scare us, but I would argue that it is those very situations into which God is constantly calling us, and from which we can expect to grow the most. I cannot think of any new lesson or any new growth I have made in this life by remaining in my comfort zones, and I suspect neither have you.
Joseph did something that must have scared him a great deal in today's Gospel passage, something that likely goes unseen by our modern eyes. He discovers that Herod is killing all the first-born males under the age of two in an effort to eliminate this "King of Kings" that has been prophesied. So he takes his wife and newborn son and flees to Egypt.
This should sound somewhat familiar as a very similar situation transpired in the opposite direction some 1500 years earlier when Moses led the enslaved Jewish people out of Egypt after the slaying of the first-born.
Imagine, if you will, being forced or compelled to return to a land that had historically enslaved, exploited and abused your people? I have no idea what relations were like between Egypt and Judaism at the time of Christ's birth, but even if they were harmonious, it would have to take a fair amount of courage just to uproot yourself and your family and flee to a whole different country. Most of us get stressed just moving house!
But God is always calling us towards something new, into new and sometimes frightening territory. I would argue that this is positive sign. When you are afraid, you know you are being challenged, you know you are going to grow.
Think of anything you have done that caused you fear: asked out that boy or girl out who later became your husband or wife; moved to that new house that then became your home; started that new job that then became your career.
Fear tells us we have something to overcome, and most of the time, there is a payoff to pushing through it. Fear tells us that we are about to embark on the unknown, and our lives are quite likely going to change as a result.
Generally speaking, we can respond to our fears in one of two ways, exemplified by Joseph's reaction in today's Gospel passage, and by Herod's reaction.
Joseph is no doubt fearful of giving up everything he knows and moving to another country to escape persecution, and so he and his family become refugees. But through it all, he trusts that as God has directed him to this place, he and his family will be safe.
Conversely, Herod responds to the birth of Christ, the birth of the King of Kings, by going mustang. He locks down the whole country and commands every first-born male to be killed. He did so because he was afraid of losing his power and position.
But the kingdom of God is not based on power and position. Herod was afraid of losing it all and so he reacted with violence, but Joseph was ready to lose it all, and that's how the Kingdom works.
This year, if you are in the habit of making resolutions, I would invite you to resolve to do something that scares you: ask that person out, apply for that job you've always wanted, go back to school, try to cook a souffle, whatever. Do something that intimidates you. Try something you have never tried before. Go out on a limb.
God is always calling us to abundant life, and that life is out there, beyond the boundaries we set for ourselves.
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