Protecting the Child

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
January 3, 2010; 2 Christmas, Year B
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Matthew 2:13-15,19-23) – Now after the wise men 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." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and 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."

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "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." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But 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. There 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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We rarely get to hear this story of the Holy Family's flight into Egypt. Some years, when Christmas happens earlier in the week, we don't have a Second Sunday of Christmas before January 6th, when Epiphany comes. If we do get a second Sunday between Christmas and Epiphany, some years we hear the story of the visit of the Magi; other years we get the story of the Family's visit to Jerusalem where they lose Jesus for a few days while he is in the Temple debating with the Rabbis; occasionally, rarely, we hear this story, about Joseph's leading his family away from trouble into a foreign land, and back.

Whenever I hear the story of the journey of Joseph, Mary and Jesus into Egypt, I always think of all of the refugees and immigrants throughout the world. So many families fleeing from violence or threat, famine and poverty. So many parents following their dreams, moving to a place of new hope for their families, a new start for their children.

This story awakens my imagination. I wonder about that sojourn into Egypt. I wonder what sort of welcome the Holy Family received in a foreign land. Did they have to hide and run from border guards? Were they living under threat of deportation? Did they suffer prejudice? Most certainly they sought hospitality among their own people, among the other Jews living in Egypt. Did the Egyptians treat them with respect? Could Joseph find work where they would pay him a just wage and not take advantage of his immigrant status?

I thought about Joseph and Mary last week when I visited with a young Mexican woman who had been repeatedly paid late for her work in a local restaurant, and when she was injured on the job, her employer fired her and paid half what she was owed with a hot check. People who visit regularly with our local immigrants hear these stories all the time. A September report that surveyed low-wage workers in three major cities found that nearly seven out of every ten workers interviewed had been cheated out of some their rightful pay in the previous work week. This was a survey covering all low-wage workers, not just immigrants. People take advantage of the weak and poor.

I thought about Jesus recently when I heard the story about a young man who grew up from age two in California and graduated from Harvard last May. His parents were unable to complete the complicated process for naturalization before he reached his eighteenth birthday, so he is now an illegal immigrant. He's lived in the U.S. virtually all his life, has a Harvard degree, and now, he can't work here. After graduation from Harvard, he had to move to his birthplace, Mexico, in order to get a job. I hear stories like that and I wonder what might have happened to Jesus if Joseph had stayed in Egypt?

Whenever I hear conversations and debates about immigration in the U.S., I always think about Mary and Joseph and Jesus fleeing from their home in Israel to find refuge as immigrants in Egypt. I yearn for laws and policies that would give today's Jose, Maria and Jesus the kind of respect, protection and opportunity that we would have wanted for the Holy Family during their sojourn in a foreign land.

Whenever I read this story, I am also struck by Joseph's leadership and the fateful decisions he makes. Two things stand out to me about the way Joseph makes these decisions. First – he decides in terms of the child. His first priority is the good and protection of the child. The second thing that stands out, is that he makes reference to his dreams, and uses his dreams as a source of wisdom and direction.

What would our society look like if we made children the first priority for our important decisions? What if we never let money or power or the comfort of adults be more important than the interests of children, now and in the future generations? Native American wisdom has a tradition that every important decision must be made with the interest of the seventh generation in mind. That's worth thinking about.

There's another way to access the good of the child when making decisions. Many people find their own personal direction with reference to what is sometimes called our "inner child." Books like John Bradshaw's Homecoming teach us how to get in touch with our inner child, a part of us which is our God-given personhood – who we are before we became limited, hurt and defined by others. ...before we became cynical, self-protective, pessimistic. That child is always present within us and within our culture and our world.

What does the child represent? The child is always new life, promise, possibility, tomorrow, change, challenge, hope. The new child is the creative present. God's great "Yes!"

That child is in you. No matter how stale, stuck, penned-in you may feel, no matter how routine or limited your life may seem, that original and God-blessed inner child is within you. We sing with the Christmas carol, "O holy child of Bethlehem, be born in us today," and we touch the divine child, the holy child within, that place of new life and promise and hope, the realization of unqualified love and security. That child is always present in you.

The child is also present in the church, in our society and in our culture. Its voice is often the spirit of challenge and change, of new ideas, new ways, new possibilities. It resonates to the energy of the quest: How can we make love more bountiful? How can we make life more abundant, for all?

Wherever the child is trying to be born, Herod is also present.

Herod resents the new reality coming to birth and tries to stop it, especially if that future means a change of power. Herod is our fear of new life and new ideas. Herod is the energy that tries to hold back the possibilities for our future. Herod lives inside you and in me. Herod is the inner voice who says, "you can't; you're no good; forget it." Herod is the voice that says "be afraid; be afraid of change; don't do anything differently; the way things are is the way things are supposed to be; we've never done it that way before."

Herod is no dreamer. Herod knows where the power is; where the bottom line is. Herod's self-interest is the status quo.

Herod is in each of us. Whenever we are more comfortable with the cold reality of the way things are than we are with dreaming of the way they could be, we are living in Herod's world. Herod tries to kill the child, the vulnerable hope of a new and better you, a new and better world.

It is so important to protect the child. Protect the child within you; protect the child within the world.

The Gospel says that the Spirit of God is always doing new things, bringing new life through divine creation, the unexpected, the surprise; not by power, but by love. Maybe that's why dreams figure so prominently in this story. When we are most vulnerable, least in control, most childlike, letting go in trust, when we are within the renewing gift of sleep – then dreams come.

Some say dreams are the child in us, speaking to us. Some say dreams are one of God's ways to communicate with us. It seems very likely that dreams are a way for the deepest part of us, to communicate with the rest of us.

When Joseph was faced with serious threats and important decisions, he paid close attention to his dreams; and by doing so, he discovered direction – life-giving direction that helped him protect the child.

We too can dream of a better way to live. We can dream of a better world. We can care for the child – our own inner child and the generation of children living in our time. We can protect the child, and protect others who share the vulnerability of children, such as low-wage workers and immigrants.

Respect, protection, and hopeful dreams.

The message of Christmas is that God is with us – Immanuel. Every family, therefore, is a Holy Family. Every Child is a Christ-bearer. The child we protect and nurture is the new possibility that God is birthing among us for the healing of the world.

Arise dreamers. We have much to hope for. We have much to protect from Herod. And we have much to care for. It is a holy journey for all of us immigrants.
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(1) Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers, published by the Center for Urban Economic Development, U. of Illinois at Chicago; the National Employment Law Project; and UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.
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