MATTHEW 2: 13-23 

Matthew in the Margins… Christmas 1…Revised 2019

If we were to take a survey, many would tell us two of the most important issues facing our world are Climate Change, & the Refugee Crisis. Our passage speaks to the latter. To preach the flight into Egypt with relevance to today, we need to draw people’s minds beyond the challenges of Israel’s past to the challenges posed by today’s international Refugee Crisis.

Joseph represents those of us tuned into God enough to see the relevance of the Holy Family’s experiences in their day to today’s trials & tribulations. Are we representing today’s myriad refugees fleeing wars & persecutions, personal & larger scale. Last night’s news told of 80,000 fleeing one area of Syria alone!

How might YHWH see, & expect us to see, the myriads of ‘Boat People’ as so many contemptuously dismiss them? Having His own earthly family go through the trials & tribulations they do, equips God to understand from inside the experiences today’s refugees face. Will God then not expect us, His people to be accepting & pro-active in our dealings with them?

We could also explore our own various personal captivities & escapes & how these follow in the Holy Family’s footsteps. Are we prepared for life around us to become a kind of ‘enemy’ territory when we differ from the popular anti-refugee stance?

Are we ready to don 'wings' (or, shed them?) should God call us on Dial an Angel when someone needs our guidance & protection?

Joseph is the protector of his little family. He is a positive & wholesome role-model for today's males, many of them confused, &, maybe, angered by changing societal expectations. As Moses flees from Egypt (to Midian) to escape an avenging Pharaoh, the Greater than Moses flees with His family to Egypt to escape Herod. 

The flight into Egypt & back - reversing Hebrew history from long before - gives us opportunity to revisit our own personal history & find new God-given possibilities for our future. To be stuck in some ‘Egypt’ of our past is to hamper God’s plan for our future, wherever that may be, ‘kicking in’ with all the new life in Christ it brings.

Brian

Afterthought: As a class, angels are too valuable for us to pass them up so readily as we often do today. Bad spirits are very much 'in' in a lot of circles. Allowed to take over, rule the roost. Help the good guys & gals make a comeback. For starters, why not become one?