From Matthew 2:13-23 (Year
A:Christmas1)
Staying the course with
one thing doesn’t come easily especially when contemporary consumerism offers
many options, colours, models, opt-outs and opt-ins and terms and conditions to
click as read. Attention spans are measured in seconds rather than minutes.
Advertisers (and unfortunately politicians and media professionals) know this
only too well. However, people who have passed through great danger and
suffering attest to the power of the ‘present moment’ – when suspended between
the past and the future there are no choices or options. You survive through
fleeing wisely to safety or fighting or standing your ground where you are. In
great danger decision is called for. Courage comes later!
In this passage Joseph,
the ‘man of honour’ does the honourable thing – defends those in his care and
avoids what is evil by removing them from immediate danger. A romanticised and nostalgic picture of the
Christmas crib gives way very quickly to a picture of violence and the threat
of violence and the human response to this.
According to the Gospel story the first Christmas did not leave a trail
of peace in ‘Bethlehem and its vicinity’ especially if you were a family with
an infant boy under the age of 2. The consequences are harrowing and deeply
troubling (Matt. 2:18) and echo through the ages to the present day:
“A voice is heard in
Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and
refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
In a world of violence,
power struggles and hatred, families and small communities on the margins of
society continue to survive. For some it means fleeing and ‘staying the course’
wherever they find themselves after fleeing. There are no options or choices when
it comes to survival in the face of death.
And this is the daily
lot of 100,000s of refugees right now, this Christmas, in the Middle East – in
‘Bethlehem and its vicinity’. There are lots of Josephs out there still ….And
some of them might be nearer than we think. Worth thinking about.
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