A Sermon for the Festival of Holy Innocents

This sermon was written for our Sunday morning service on 28th December; the festival of the Holy Innocents. The Gospel was Matthew 2:13-18. I hope you enjoy reading it!


May I start this morning by wishing you all a very happy Christmas!

 

After this morning’s Gospel reading, that sounds a bit incongruous, doesn’t it? Herod learnt that he had been tricked by the wise men, and so set out and killed all the infants in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or younger. Happy Christmas everyone!

What a way to begin our Christmas season – mass murder and infanticide.

 

This part of the Christmas story is one we often gloss over. It does not – for obvious reasons – make it into our nativity plays. It does not feature in our crib scenes. It does not align with the message of peace and joy and hope that comes with the birth of the Christ child.

As such, it may not be one that you’re that familiar with. Let me provide a synopsis:

 

The magi have visited Herod, expecting the birth of a new king. King Herod, concerned about this, has consulted with the priests and the scholars, and has come to learn of the prophecies of the birth of a Messiah, born to rule over the Jewish people. That’s a problem for Herod, because that’s his job – and, putting two and two together, acknowledging that the only way that he stops ruling over the nation is with his death, he concludes that this new baby will eventually depose him, and one way or another, have Herod killed. So, he asks the magi to come back to him once they’ve finished following the star, and let him know where to find the baby. He’s planning, of course, to send soldiers to kill the child before he can grow up and fulfil his prophecy.

But then, the magi get a dream that warns them not to return to Herod, so they head back home a different way, avoiding Herod completely.

And that’s where our Gospel this morning begins.

We get another dream – this time for Joseph. And in this dream, Joseph is warned to uproot his new family, and flee into Egypt to escape the next step in Herod’s plan. If Herod can’t find one infant, then he can get rid of the problem, by ensuring there are no infants left.

 

The Massacre of the Innocents by Nicolas Poussin

 

 

And here, then, at the start of Jesus’ life, we experience some kind of perverted Passover. Where once a plague killed the infants of Egypt, triggering the events that ended in Moses leading his people out of slavery to salvation in the promised land, here the slaughter of the children of the promised land causes Joseph to carry the saviour back into the land of slavery.

 

Even here, even as a baby, the presence of Jesus turns things upside down. Our assumptions and preconceptions are turned on their heads. Where we once found our safety may not feel so secure any more. The places we feared might be the very places God calls us to be.

 

But here is the other message of Christmas. It goes with the peace, and the joy, and the hope we all carry into this season. This is the message of the angels; they said it to Zechariah when they told him of the birth of John the Baptist, they said it to Mary on announcing the birth of Jesus, and they said it to the shepherds on that hillside on the night Christ was born:

Do not be afraid!

 

Joseph understood that message. He was not afraid to take Mary as his wife, despite the shame it would have brought upon him in his community. He was not afraid to become a refugee and flee with his young family into a foreign country.

Joseph, a humble, lowly carpenter was not afraid.

Herod was.

Herod was overwrought with fear, fear of losing his grip on power; fear of being overthrown. And that fear led him to plan and organise appallingly evil acts.

 

It still does for rulers around the world. Genocides and war crimes and all sorts of atrocities are orchestrated by fear. We hear of them on the news every day; the same fears that Herod had over two thousand years ago.

We have those fears too. And whilst I hope the sins they lead us to will never be writ as large on the world’s stage as Herod’s, they can still lead us to cause wrong to others. They can still lead us to sin. Fear of losing our power. Fear of losing our security and safety. Fear of getting found out.

I think the world is becoming more fearful, year on year at the moment. It’s natural at this time of year to look to the future, and contemplate what 2026 will bring us. And, when we look at that world stage, it is hard to have hope for the future.

 

But this, today, is the message for us to take into the new year. The message of the angels to Zechariah, to Mary and to the shepherds:

 

Do not be afraid!

Your prayers have been heard!

The Lord is with you!

We carry news of great joy to share with the world!

 

For today, a saviour has been born! He is the Messiah, Christ the Lord!

 

St John tells us that there is no fear in love, but insteadthat perfect love casts out all fear. And Christmas shows us that love is real, and that love can be perfect, in the form of God, born in a manger, born to share our lives with us; born to cast out our fear.

 

Amen!

 

 

I’d like to finish today, if you’ll indulge me, by sharing a Christmas poem I wrote a few years ago. It feels apt for today. It is called ‘God is Sleeping’

 

Happy Christmas! 

 

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