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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
You and I may or may not be big fans of baseball as it is played at its various levels, but we do not have to be big fans of baseball in order to know that, whether a player is standing at the plate or running the bases, a player’s being called “out” is not a good thing. However, in today’s Gospel Reading, being “called out” is a good thing for the Child Jesus, as it was for the people of Israel before Him. And, as we consider today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Called Out”, we will realize that being “called out” can also be a good thing for us.
Today’s Gospel Reading tells both of Jesus’s flight presumably from Bethlehem into Egypt and of His return from Egypt to Nazareth. Sort of in between its telling of those two events, the Reading describes what is sometimes called the Slaughter of the Innocents, and about half the Reading is also appointed for yesterday’s Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs. (You can read a few of my thoughts about that occasion in my column that ran in yesterday’s newspaper.) The basic gist of the whole of today’s Gospel Reading for the First Sunday after Christmas, however, is God’s repeatedly using Jesus’s guardian Joseph over a period of years in order to safeguard His Son and so also in order to safeguard His Son’s purpose of redeeming all people. In the Reading, St. Matthew notes both God’s use of three different dreams and God’s “fulfilling” three different prophecies from the Old Testament, including God’s statement through Hosea, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
Most of us are probably at least somewhat familiar with the Exodus of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and their eventual entry into the Promised Land. God’s statement through Hosea, about God’s calling out His Son from Egypt (Hosea 11:1), refers back to that Exodus from slavery and entry into the Promised Land. And, St. Matthew’s divinely-inspired use of that quotation recalls the larger context of Hosea: the context of a fervent and bold description of God’s tender and lavish love for His people (Hosea 11:1-11). As we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 63:7-14), despite that steadfast love of the Lord, the people of Israel rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. Through Hosea, God described the situation this way, “The more they were called, the more they went away” (Hosea 11:2). Through Hosea, God specifically rebukes the people of Israel for their sacrifices and offerings to false gods. The people’s unfaithfulness roused the anger of the Lord, and He exiled Israel to Assyria, but He also had compassion on them and envisioned a future where His repentant children would come home to Him.
How do you and I respond to God’s tender and lavish love for us? Do we rebel and grieve His Holy Spirit? The more He calls us, do we all the more go away? Even if we do not overtly make sacrifices or give offerings to false gods, do we fear, love, and trust in God above all things? Our sins and our sinful natures rightly rouse the righteous anger of the Lord, but He also has compassion on us and calls us to repent and come home to Him. God calls us out. He wants to save us. How do you and I respond to God’s calling us out? If we reject His call, His call brings us judgment. But, if we receive His call in faith, His call brings us grace. When we turn in sorrow from our sins, trust God to forgive our sins, and want to do better, then He forgives our sins. God the Father forgives our sins of not fearing, loving, and trusting Him above all things. He forgives all our sins, whatever our sins might be. God the Father forgives them for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Today’s Gospel Reading’s stating the fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy about God’s calling out His Son from Egypt is arguably the first time in St. Matthew’s Gospel account that Jesus is referred to as the one and only Son of God. No human father is mentioned; Joseph is the guardian of the Child and His Virgin Mother. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Galatians 4:4-7), when the fullness of time had come, God had sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. The Old Testament Exodus and the people’s return from exile point forward to that greater redemption that God, out of His tender and lavish love, accomplishes through Jesus Christ for us. That is why the divinely-inspired St. Matthew can say that Hosea’s reference to a past event is itself fulfilled in the Child Jesus’s return from Egypt. Jesus is, as it were, the representative and substitute for all Israel and for all of us. Jesus raises all the Old Testament signs and promises to a higher and permanent significance.
Herod the Great feared for his throne and so wanted to kill Jesus, so God the Father had Joseph take the Child Jesus and His Mother and flee to Egypt for safety. Jesus’s hour to die had not yet come (John 2:4), and likewise there were other times when He “withdrew” for safety (for example, Matthew 4:12-13). But, when the fullness of time did come, Jesus, the despised Prophet from Nazareth, entered Jerusalem and was betrayed (Matthew 21:11; 26:71), and He was crucified on the cross, died, and was buried, for you and for me. When we as individuals believe that Jesus died and rose for us as individuals, when we trust that Jesus’s Sake God forgives our sin, then God does just that, He forgives our sin. He forgives our sins of not fearing, loving, and trusting Him above all things. He forgives all our sins, whatever they might be.
You can see why God used dreams to direct Joseph to safeguard the Child and His mother; their lives were that important to His plan of salvation, which had to be executed when the time was right. Our lives are important, too, but we do not expect God to direct us through dreams. As some of us heard on Christmas Day, the author of Hebrews says (1:1-2), “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by his Son”. The Son, Jesus, is the final and complete revelation from God, and in these last days we continue to hear the living voice of Jesus in His Word, as it is purely preached and it is rightly administered in His Sacraments. God will not deal with us except through His Word and Sacrament; whatever is attributed to the Holy spirit apart from such Word and Sacrament is of the devil (SA III viii 10). Through Word and water in Holy Baptism God gives the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, as we heard in the Epistle Reading, enabling us to cry, “Abba!”, that is “Father!”. By so adopting us as His children, as we heard in the Old Testament Reading, He becomes our Savior. Through the Words of a pastor in Holy Absolution, God individually forgives the sins of those who privately confess them. Through the Word and bread and wine in Holy Communion, God gives us Jesus’s body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins and so also for life and salvation, strengthening and preserving us in body and soul to life everlasting. God calls us out into this fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:9).
Today’s Gospel Reading is the last time we hear of Joseph’s being alive (in St. Matthew's Gospel account), and we must conclude that he was a good guardian of the Child Jesus and His mother, as Joseph largely seems to have obeyed the Lord to the letter. Even Joseph’s possibly sinful fear of Herod’s son Archelaus seems to have been used by God to fulfill prophecy. Joseph may not have understood everything along the way, and he may even have regarded the journeys as a form of suffering or hardship (after all, even a treasury of gold, frankincense, and myrrh would only go so far). But, God had a plan, was in control, and provided for them one way or another. The same is true for us. God has a plan, is in control, and provides for us one way or another. God protects us, and, even without directing us by dreams, He uses us, despite our sin, for His good purposes. God calls us out in Christ through His Word and Sacrament and for His own purpose. He calls us out to suffer, as Christ did, for the good we do (1 Peter 2:20-21). And, ultimately, He will answer our petition to “deliver us from evil” by calling us out of this Vale of Tears, that is, by taking us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.
Whether in baseball or in any other sport—football, basketball, volleyball—I cannot think of another time that being “called out” is good. Apparently based on use with dueling, being “called out” can also bring to mind being confronted over something, which also is usually not good. However, in considering the Gospel Reading this day, we have seen that being “called out” was a good thing for the people of Israel and for the Child Jesus, and so being “called out” is a good thing for us. We pray, as we did in the Collect, that God, our Maker and Redeemer, Who wonderfully created us and in the incarnation of His Son yet more wondrously restored human nature, would grant that we may ever be alive in Him, Who made Himself to be like us.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +