December 29, 2013 Christmas 1

Matt 2:13-23  (The Promise)

13 After the scholars were gone, God's angel showed up again in Joseph's dream and commanded, "Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him." 14 Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. 15 They lived in Egypt until Herod's death. 19 Later, when Herod died, God's angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt: 20 "Up, take the child and his mother and return to Israel. All those out to murder the child are dead." 21 Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother, and reentered Israel. fulfillment of the prophetic words, "He shall be called a Nazarene.”

This story is “a turn toward lowliness and humility rather than grandeur and greatness....Jesus is to be identified, not with the powerful, but with the helpless, vulnerable people of this world.”
As the writer of Hebrews says he was “one of the dispossessed”.

This is the greatness of Christianity - it’s lowliness.  There is no place too unimportant, no event too insignificant that God has not been there and will not be there again.  God has become penetratingly human - nothing is beyond his reach.  This is what Christmas is all about!“

"Jesus is to be identified, not with the powerful, but with the helpless, vulnerable people of this world.”