Emblems

This week, on Communion Sabbath, Pastor Isaac brought our Advent Sermon Series to a close as he reflected on the story of what happened in Bethlehem after the Magi left, noting not only the persistence of Herod, but also that God does not give up either. 

But not only is this a story of persistence, it is also a story about refuge - why it was needed, and where it was found.  Last week we noted how God reached out to people who were considered by many of the Jews at the time as "outsiders" from the east (Magi).  This week we noticed that it was to the south (Egypt), also among those who would have been considered "outsiders," that God provided a place of refuge. 

Sadly, because we live in a dangerous world where genuinely evil agendas can inflict devastating pain and suffering, often on innocent people . . . though God is our refuge and strength . . .  sometimes it is a strength we experience in the midst of loss as much as what we experience when we are able to escape.   This story tells the truth, and contains portrayals of both.

But which ever way our own stories go, whether we suffer loss, or escape from it, this story reminds us about God.  God is our refuge and strength.  He is as close beside mothers beyond consolation when they lose what is dear to them, as with those who do find refuge and shelter, even if it is in places we might least expect to extend it.

If you would like to listen to Pastor Isaac's sermon once again, click here. 

Matthew 2:13-18 (NIV)

  13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

    14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." 

    16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

    18 "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." 

    19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."

    21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

The prophecies cited in this passage speak both of great loss and of providential deliverance.

 One of the prophecies did not reflect the will of God, but rather described what ensues when God's will is rejected. 

Others reflect the irony that we are sometimes safer among those who many would not count among "God's people" than we are among those they might include.  

Yet, in the midst of it all, God is present and at work, and His kingdom is not thwarted. 

All of which makes this story, perhaps, more appropriate for the celebration of Communion that it might seem at first - where great pain and loss inflicted on the innocent does not, despite how things might appear, signal that God is not in the midst of it all, assuring that the success of His ultimate plan is still assured.