"Back to Real Life"

Matthew 2: 13-23

     Dear Friends in Christ,   

  Let’s face it, it’s hard not to feel a little let down on the day after Christmas.  Kind of like one pastor who a few days after Christmas one year was noticing that all the Christmas decorations at one of the local pharmacies had already been taken down and replaced with Valentine’s Day trinkets and cards.  Red boxes of candy, teddy bears with big hearts on them, and red candles for romantic lighting could be seen where just a few days before there had been Christmas trees, ornaments, and lights.  The clerk behind the counter was complaining to one of her co-workers about how much she hated Valentine’s Day because she never had a boyfriend with which to celebrate it.

   Then this pastor went on to say, “Nothing is as over as Christmas when it’s over.  The empty boxes, the pretty paper on the floor, the stray tinsel from the tree with which the cat has played and left abandoned on the sofa, the empty cartons of eggnog stuffed into the trash bag.  Life has come back to normal, whatever that is, and it means that the diversion of the past few weeks, the frenzy and fuss, the lights and glitter are packed away once again like the star at the top of the tree…And what is left?  A war in Iraq and Afghanistan, homeless people sleeping in door stoops, hungry people begging for food, worries about health, kids that concern us, jobs that wear us down.  We’re back to where we left off before the holidays…Like the folks who were left in town after the Lone Ranger had been for a visit, we may ask out loud, “Who was that masked man?”  Or perhaps a better question would be, “Who was that babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger?”

   Well, we haven’t moved that far from Christmas yet.  We’re just one day away from the glorious celebration of our Savior’s birth.  But there is the inevitable letdown that does hit us sooner or later.  And I think that’s to be expected because we have a tendency to pack so much into the 4 weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas.  And while we can talk all we want to about keeping Christmas all year long, who could really handle it?  I for one certainly would not want to face the long lines at Wal-Mart all year or the overcrowded malls and parking lots.  And who could maintain the pace of eating that we adopt during the Christmas season?  In fact, many of us, I’m sure, are already planning out diets that will begin one week from today on Jan. 2.

   So in reality, we need a little break, a little respite from all the busyness, don’t we?  Just like Mary and Joseph were not allowed to reside permanently in Bethlehem, neither can we.  We need to move on.  We need to get back to the real world.  Hence the title of my sermon today: “Back to Real Life.”

   As for Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, our text reminds us of what happened to them sometime after Christ’s birth.  After the Wise Men had visited them, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him: “Get up, 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.”  And what did Joseph do?  He obeyed.  He took the child and his mother during the middle of the night and headed for Egypt, where they stayed until the death of Herod.  Meanwhile, Herod carried out one of the most dastardly deeds in all of human history when he sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to kill all male children 2 years and under in his jealous attempt to get rid of what he perceived to be a potential threat to his throne.  Then after Herod died a few years later an angel alerted Joseph in a dream that it was now safe for them to return to their home and their families in the small town of Nazareth, which meant another lengthy journey for the holy family.

   And we complain because we have to go back to the real world following our celebration of Christmas!  My friends, our world – at least the one most of us live in – does not begin to compare to the world that Mary and Joseph and Jesus lived in.  Theirs was a world where a cruel tyrant like Herod could order the instant and immediate slaughter of all infants and toddlers in a particular town.  Theirs was a world where there were no planes or buses or cars to take them comfortably down to Egypt and back to Nazareth.  Instead, the back of a donkey would have to suffice.  Or it’s quite possible they had to make the journey on foot since I remember reading once that donkeys were owned and used only by the wealthiest of people back then.  Theirs was a world where even after Herod’s death they still could not be certain they would be safe, for Herod’s sons were just as cruel as he was.

   But even though our particular corner of this world may not be as bad as Mary and Joseph’s, we still have to face the fact that Christmas is over.  So where does that leave us?  What do we do now?  Well, my suggestion is that we pick up a few pointers from Joseph that we observe in our text for today, starting with this one:  We trust God.  When Joseph was warned in a dream to flee Herod’s wrath, he didn’t dilly-dally around.  He didn’t ask a lot of questions.  Rather he trusted God then just as he trusted him when the angel told him that the child Mary was carrying was conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This was the kind of man Joseph was.  He was a man of character who trusted God.  When God spoke, he obeyed.

   Recently I read about 2 brothers who were visiting a graveyard in a rural part of Alabama.  It was off the beaten path by about a quarter of a mile and was actually the family cemetery for the owners of a 19^th-century plantation.  As the brothers strolled among the gravestones, most of them 150 years old, they saw markers that contained the usual phrases like “Loving father,” “Beloved mother,” “Darling son,” “Rest in peace,” and “Asleep in Jesus.”  But then there was one that really caught their attention.  It consisted of a five-word statement that summed up this individual’s whole life.  It said: “A man of unquestioned integrity.” 

   Well, those words could have very easily been etched on Joseph’s grave, for that’s exactly what he was, a man of unquestioned integrity, a man who trusted God.  And as we face the unknown days ahead in the aftermath of our annual Christmas celebration, it would do us well to follow suit.  But how do we do that?  How do we relinquish control of our lives and simply trust God as Joseph did?  The answer is really very simple.  We do it by first and foremost recognizing that God is trustworthy.  We do it by looking at his track record in our lives.  That’s what David did in the 13^th Psalm where he pours out his heart to God.  He says: “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.”     

   David is pretty distressed there, isn’t he?  But I love how he ends this psalm.  He says: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.”  You see what David was doing there?  As he looked back over his life, he recalled all the times when God had been good to him and thus earned his trust.  And we can do the same, my friends.  For rare is the person who does that, rare is the person who places his blessings in the balance over against the tough times he’s faced and comes away saying that the tough times far outweighed the blessings.  And no matter how tough your life may have been, no difficulty that we face can ever come close to measuring up to the greatest blessing of all that God has made possible for us in Jesus, the blessing of having our sins forgiven and our eternal salvation made certain through the atoning death of Jesus on the cross and his victorious resurrection from the dead.

   So the first thing we need to do after Christmas as we get back to the real world is to trust God.  Then secondly, we need to take care of those we love.  That was Joseph’s primary concern.  He loved Mary and Jesus and he was committed to doing whatever was necessary to keep them safe and to provide for them – not just physically or materially, but also emotionally and spiritually. 

   We all know who Jesse Jackson is and regardless of whether you’re a fan of his or not, he does tell an interesting story of a visit he made to the University of Southern Mississippi some years ago.  While touring the campus with the university president, he saw a towering 6-foot, 8-inch male student holding hands with a fidgety coed who was barely 3-feet tall.  The contrast between the two not only caught Jesse Jackson’s attention, but it especially piqued his curiosity when he saw the young man bend down and tenderly kiss the coed and send her off to class.  So he asked the president about it.  The president said that the student was a star basketball player and the girl was his sister.  Their parents had passed away when he was a teenager and he had made a vow to look after her.  Many scholarships had come his way, but his sister had only gotten one offer.  And that came from Southern Mississippi, so he opted to go there. 

   Well, Jackson was so impressed by this young man that he went over to him, introduced himself, and told him how much he appreciated the way he was looking out for his sister.  The athlete shrugged as though it were nothing and said, “Those of us who God makes six-eight have to look out for those he makes three-three.”

   I think Joseph would have liked that comment because he saw to it that the little baby that God had put in his charge was protected and well taken care of.  And we need to do the same with those we love, those who are nearest and dearest to us, regardless of their age.  Which takes us to one final lesson we can learn from the earthly father of Jesus.  And that is we need to expand our horizons and take care of others.  You see, by taking care of Jesus, Joseph was in essence taking care of a lost and dying world that needed the Savior that Jesus would one day become.  And we need to do the same, my friends.  We need to realize that we’re part of a bigger picture, a bigger family, a family that includes all mankind.  And when we adopt that kind of a mind-set and follow through on it, sometimes it’s amazing how it all plays out.

   Consider the haunting account of what happened to one man who was walking down a dimly lit street late one evening when he heard muffled cries coming from behind a clump of bushes.  As he slowed down to listen more carefully, he realized that what he was hearing were the unmistakable sounds of a struggle taking place between a male and a female.  Only yards from where he stood, a woman was being attacked.  He froze in place, hardly daring to breathe lest the attacker should notice his presence.  Then the obvious question arose in his mind: should he get involved?  After all, he had family responsibilities.  What if the attacker had a weapon?  What if the attacker used the weapon on him and he became just another statistic?  What good would he be to his family then?  He had the urge to run to a safe place and call the police on his cell phone, but then it might be too late because he could hear that the struggle was becoming more intense.  He had to make a decision and he had to make it fast.

   Finally he resolved that he could not turn his back on the fate of this unknown woman, even if it meant risking his own life.  So even though he was not known for his bravery or his athletic abilities, he nonetheless summoned up all the courage and physical strength he could muster and ran behind the bushes and pulled the assailant off the woman.  The 2 men wrestled on the ground for a few moments before the attacker fled the scene. 

   The man then got to his feet and approached the girl who was crouched behind a tree, sobbing uncontrollably.  In the darkness he could barely see her outline, but he could certainly sense her fear.  Not wanting to frighten her anymore, he first spoke from a distance.  “It’s ok,” he said soothingly.  “The man ran away.  You’re safe now.”  There was a long pause, and then the girl spoke words that I’m sure he’ll never forget.  “Daddy, is that you?”  Then out from behind the tree stepped his youngest daughter.

   That’s a powerful story which communicates to us the importance of getting involved in other peoples’ lives.  It helps us realize that we will only have the true spirit of Christmas when we understand that every person on this earth is ultimately our son, our daughter, our brother, our sister. 

   So even though Christmas is over, living for Jesus is not, for that is something that lasts forever.  And while many of us may have been doing that for most if not all of our lives, some of us may just be getting started.  Whatever the case, as we do so, let’s take a few cues from Joseph and remember to trust God, to take care of those we love, and to expand our love to include all for whom the Savior came.  If you do that, then the spirit of Christmas will live in you and through you and it will be yours to enjoy throughout the year.

     Amen.