Year C
\u00a0Jeremiah 31:7-14
\u00a0Psalm 84:1-8
\u00a0Ephesians 1:3-615-19a
\u00a0Matthew 2:13-1519-23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bp. Frank Louge\u2026 of the Diocese of Georgia wrote\u2026 that on this Second Sunday after Christmas\u2026 Matthew recounts the narrow escape of the Holy Family\u2026 when King Herod ordered the execution of all babies two years old and younger\u2026 in and around Bethlehem\u2026 but Joseph has a dream\u2026 he flees with Mary and the infant Jesus into Egypt\u2026 and in Bethlehem there is such a lamentation going up that it echoed among the pyramids\u2026 an unknown number of innocent children are killed\u2026 only one is known to get away\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the king\u2019s plan had worked\u2026 the joy of Christmas would have been snuffed out even as the light of Christ was coming into the world\u2026 and yet\u2026 while Herod could\u2026 and did\u2026 exercise his own will\u2026 he could not thwart the overarching will of God\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This matters\u2026 because what happened in Bethlehem was not an isolated incident\u2026 Herod\u2019s slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem\u2026 is part of a pattern with which we are all too familiar\u2026 Pharaoh worried that the Hebrew slaves were growing too numerous and so slaughtered innocent babies\u2026 only the infant Moses escaped that time by way of a floating basket that carried him into Pharaoh\u2019s own household\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And throughout history\u2026 we have seen the ongoing pattern in which tyrants can kill who they will\u2026 in recent memory we have Stalin\u2019s wholesale execution of opponents in the Soviet Union… Pol Pot in Cambodia\u2026 and so on\u2026 down to the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s\u2026 and within the last year or so\u2026 the South Sudan government has recruited child soldiers to fill out armies in a costly civil war\u2026 so how do we make sense of a loving God\u2026 looking over a world in which such senseless slaughter of the innocent is a repeating pattern\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fleeing Bethlehem\u2026 Mary and Joseph and their infant son become displaced persons\u2026 refugees\u2026 their flight\u2026 like that of so many others\u2026 from the power of a dictator has become all too familiar in the killing fields of the world\u2026 making sense out of Bethlehem\u2026 is vitally important\u2026 because it means making sense out of the fallen world in which we live\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
God is omnipotent\u2026 which means all-powerful\u2026 but even this can’t make two contradictory things happen at once\u2026 God cannot both give humans free will\u2026 and take away that free will\u2026 if God prevented the choices we make that lead to pain and suffering in the world\u2026 then we would no longer be free\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The limits of what God cannot do\u2026 are set not by logic or some arbitrary boundary\u2026 the limits of what God can and cannot do\u2026 are set by love\u2026 love is the founding principle of all that is\u2026 to say that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son<\/em>\u2026 explains so much\u2026 because it shows first and foremost that God loves us unreservedly\u2026 and true love can never be demanded or coerced\u2026 there is no other way\u2026 oppression cannot create even the faintest spark of the fire of love\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes\u2026 one can coerce some sort of reaction\u2026 you can force someone to act out the semblance of the symptoms of love\u2026 but you cannot force love\u2026 because what you arrive at without free choice\u2026 is not love\u2026 love must be freely given and freely accepted in order to be love\u2026 and for God to love us means that God must give us free will\u2026 there is no other way\u2026 and this is exactly what God did\u2026 God gave us a choice\u2026 and through our choices we can get hurt\u2026 and we can hurt\u2026 or even kill\u2026 others\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n God has created a world in which love is possible\u2026 and we humans can bend our wills to do some very ungodly acts\u2026 the result includes death at the hands of murderers or drunk drivers\u2026 it also means that birth defects can occur from known causes\u2026 like a mother taking drugs while pregnant\u2026 or causes less understood at the time\u2026 such as infants harmed by thalidomide\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n A universe where real love is an option\u2026 will always be a world in which pain and suffering are not only possible but likely\u2026 and yet\u2026 this world of choice based in love is also what makes all noble acts of self-sacrifice possible\u2026 this world is not only a world of pain and suffering\u2026 but also a world of generosity\u2026 kindness\u2026 and love\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n God showed real love for creation\u2026 not by taking away the choice that made love possible\u2026 God showed real love\u2026 by becoming weak and vulnerable\u2026 God entered into the creation in Jesus to gently repair the tattered tapestry of our world\u2026 with love\u2026 and through our free will\u2026 we can choose to respond to God\u2019s love by committing to follow Jesus\u2026 in answer to that love\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are reminded today\u2026 the painful truth\u2026 that when Jesus was born\u2026 Herod struck out against innocent children in Bethlehem\u2026 and still\u2026 we learn more about God since God\u2019s plan cannot be thwarted\u2026 God loves us so much that God is willing to enter into the pain and suffering of this world to redeem it\u2026 and even as Herod could exercise his free will to do the unthinkable\u2026 and end too many innocent lives to secure his power\u2026 Herod still did not have the power to stop God\u2019s love and the plan of salvation for all\u2026 yes… the world is fallen\u2026 yes\u2026 those who wish to do evil have the free will to act on their misguided desires\u2026 but the free will of those who commit evil is powerless to stop the love of God\u2026 evil exists for but a painful\u2026 tragic moment\u2026 compared to God\u2019s eternal love\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n What God did in Bethlehem during Herod\u2019s slaughter of the innocents\u2026 was to be present to those children in life\u2026 and then to be with them always in eternal life when they died\u2026 for the parents\u2026 God remained with them in the tragedy and stayed with them always\u2026 God does not abandon us in our suffering\u2026 but remains with us in the midst of our pain and loss\u2026 then God works with all the terrible pain we humans cause\u2026 to bring good even out of loss…<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bible does not hide the painful truth of the world as it is\u2026 scripture does not try to pretend that all is well\u2026 throughout the text we see the painful truth of the world\u2026 that given the free choice to do good and to love others and act on that love\u2026 many will distort the image of God within them and do unspeakable things\u2026 yet God does not let that choice stand unchallenged\u2026 Herod could not put out the light of God\u2019s presence born in Bethlehem\u2026 Herod could not steal the gift of love which was Jesus\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And in answer to the evil humans do\u2026 God offers love\u2026 real\u2026 enduring\u2026 eternal love\u2026 love that in time will break the power of evil and death\u2026 we see that an evil tyrant could use the gift of free will to do evil\u2026 but we also see that evil could not and did not win a victory in Bethlehem\u2026 and it will never win an ultimate victory in all of creation\u2026 the power of love can and does defeat evil\u2026 love will win out in the end\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C\u00a0Jeremiah 31:7-14\u00a0Psalm 84:1-8\u00a0Ephesians 1:3-615-19a\u00a0Matthew 2:13-1519-23 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Bp. Frank Louge\u2026 of the Diocese of Georgia wrote\u2026 that on this Second Sunday after Christmas\u2026 Matthew recounts the narrow escape of the Holy Family\u2026 when King Herod ordered the execution of all babies two years old and younger\u2026 in and around Bethlehem\u2026 but Joseph has a dream\u2026 he flees with Mary and the infant Jesus into Egypt\u2026 and in Bethlehem there is such a lamentation going up that it echoed among the pyramids\u2026 an unknown number of innocent children are killed\u2026 only one is known to get away\u2026 If the king\u2019s plan had worked\u2026 the joy of Christmas would have been snuffed out even as the light of Christ was coming into the world\u2026 and yet\u2026 while Herod could\u2026 and did\u2026 exercise his own will\u2026 he could not thwart the overarching will of God\u2026 This matters\u2026 because what happened in Bethlehem was not an isolated incident\u2026 Herod\u2019s slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem\u2026 is part of a pattern with which we are all too familiar\u2026 Pharaoh worried that the Hebrew slaves were growing too numerous and so slaughtered innocent babies\u2026 only the infant Moses escaped that time by way of a floating basket that carried him into Pharaoh\u2019s own household\u2026 And throughout history\u2026 we have seen the ongoing pattern in which tyrants can kill who they will\u2026 in recent memory we have Stalin\u2019s wholesale execution of opponents in the Soviet Union… Pol Pot in Cambodia\u2026 and so on\u2026 down to the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s\u2026 and within the last year or so\u2026 the South Sudan government has recruited child soldiers to fill out armies in a costly civil war\u2026 so how do we make sense of a loving God\u2026 looking over a world in which such senseless slaughter of the innocent is a repeating pattern\u2026 In fleeing Bethlehem\u2026 Mary and Joseph and their infant son become displaced persons\u2026 refugees\u2026 their flight\u2026 like that of so many others\u2026 from the power of a dictator has become all too familiar in the killing fields of the world\u2026 making sense out of Bethlehem\u2026 is vitally important\u2026 because it means making sense out of the fallen world in which we live\u2026 God is omnipotent\u2026 which means all-powerful\u2026 but even this can’t make two contradictory things happen at once\u2026 God cannot both give humans free will\u2026 and take away that free will\u2026 if God prevented the choices we make that lead to pain and suffering in the world\u2026 then we would no longer be free\u2026 The limits of what God cannot do\u2026 are set not by logic or some arbitrary boundary\u2026 the limits of what God can and cannot do\u2026 are set by love\u2026 love is the founding principle of all that is\u2026 to say that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son\u2026 explains so much\u2026 because it shows first and foremost that God loves us unreservedly\u2026 and true love can never be demanded or coerced\u2026 there is no other way\u2026 oppression cannot create even the faintest spark of the fire of love\u2026 Yes\u2026 one can coerce some sort of reaction\u2026 you can force someone to act out the semblance of the symptoms of love\u2026 but you cannot force love\u2026 because what you arrive at without free choice\u2026 is not love\u2026 love must be freely given and freely accepted in order to be love\u2026 and for God to love us means that God must give us free will\u2026 there is no other way\u2026 and this is exactly what God did\u2026 God gave us a choice\u2026 and through our choices we can get hurt\u2026 and we can hurt\u2026 or even kill\u2026 others\u2026 God has created a world in which love is possible\u2026 and we humans can bend our wills to do some very ungodly acts\u2026 the result includes death at the hands of murderers or drunk drivers\u2026 it also means that birth defects can occur from known causes\u2026 like a mother taking drugs while pregnant\u2026 or causes less understood at the time\u2026 such as infants harmed by thalidomide\u2026 A universe where real love is an option\u2026 will always be a world in which pain and suffering are not only possible but likely\u2026 and yet\u2026 this world of choice based in love is also what makes all noble acts of self-sacrifice possible\u2026 this world is not only a world of pain and suffering\u2026 but also a world of generosity\u2026 kindness\u2026 and love\u2026 God showed real love for creation\u2026 not by taking away the choice that made love possible\u2026 God showed real love\u2026 by becoming weak and vulnerable\u2026 God entered into the creation in Jesus to gently repair the tattered tapestry of our world\u2026 with love\u2026 and through our free will\u2026 we can choose to respond to God\u2019s love by committing to follow Jesus\u2026 in answer to that love\u2026 We are reminded today\u2026 the painful truth\u2026 that when Jesus was born\u2026 Herod struck out against innocent children in Bethlehem\u2026 and still\u2026 we learn more about God since God\u2019s plan cannot be thwarted\u2026 God loves us so much that God is willing to enter into the pain and suffering of this world to redeem it\u2026 and even as Herod could exercise his free will to do the unthinkable\u2026 and end too many innocent lives to secure his power\u2026 Herod still did not have the power to stop God\u2019s love and the plan of salvation for all\u2026 yes… the world is fallen\u2026 yes\u2026 those who wish to do evil have the free will to act on their misguided desires\u2026 but the free will of those who commit evil is powerless to stop the love of God\u2026 evil exists for but a painful\u2026 tragic moment\u2026 compared to God\u2019s eternal love\u2026 What God did in Bethlehem during Herod\u2019s slaughter of the innocents\u2026 was to be present to those children in life\u2026 and then to be with them always in eternal life when they died\u2026 for the parents\u2026 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