A S E R M O N FR O M S T . M A R K ’ S E P I S C O P A L C HU R C H
N E W C A N A A N, C ON N E C T I C U T
Christmas – A New Hope
A sermon by John Kennedy III
The Second Sunday after Christmas Day ~ January 3, 2016
Based on Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
T
oday is the final Sunday in Christmas.
According to the Church calendar, the
celebration of Christmas isn’t confined
to December 25th. Instead, Christmas Day
marks the beginning of the 12 days of
Christmas, as that carol goes. When I first
found that out, it came as a big relief because
I never felt like one day was enough for the
most anticipated and celebrated time of the
year. It’s nice to have 12 days to take in the
fullness of the season.
Still, I must say that Christmas has felt at
times, despite all of its holiness and magic,
and perhaps because of it, to be a bit of a
disconnect from the reality of our world,
afflicted as it is by terrorism, violence,
injustice and environmental crisis. This feeling
has been especially pronounced this year, for
reasons I’m sure we’re all uncomfortably
aware of. There’s been no shortage of
devastating news in the last two months.
And so it’s almost like Christmas is a retreat
into a warm, cozy log cabin with a fire
burning and your loved ones gathered around,
a good book and some very good scotch or
hot chocolate, depending on your preference,
while a storm rages just outside of the cabin
walls. When the time for rest has passed, what
do we bring with us when we go back into the
storm? Christmas ends in three days, and
hopefully, we’ve felt our hearts strangely
warmed. But does it have anything to say to
life on the other side, life in the cold, life in
our broken world? Does Christmas have
power?
Well, to find out, let’s start with one of my
favorite things, something I have in common
with many of the young people here: Star
Wars. I’m sure many of you have seen the new
movie, The Force Awakens, but for those of you
who haven’t, go see it, today! But, don’t
worry. I won’t ruin it. The only plot details
that follow are things you are told in the
opening text crawl, you know, the part when
the exposition in yellow letters float away into
space.
In this Star Wars adventure, we are introduced
to the First Order, a military junta and the
successor to the evil Galactic Empire of the
original trilogy. Like the Empire, they have a
powerful army of storm troopers, a fleet of
star destroyers, TIE fighters and other
instruments of death including their most
powerful weapon, the terrifying Starkiller
base, the size of which makes the original
Death Star look like a peanut and has the
ability to drain an entire star and blast its
enormous energy at whole systems of planets,
destroying them instantly. That’s some serious
military machinery. Luke Skywalker, our hero
from the first movies, has suffered a terrible
defeat at the hands of the First Order and has
gone into exile under threat of death. He is in
hiding and his power as a Jedi Master, though
significant, would seem to pose no threat to
the colossal First Order.
T
his sounds remarkably similar to
today’s Gospel reading: “An angel of
the Lord appeared to Joseph in a
dream and said, “Get up, take the child and
his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain
there until I tell you; for Herod is about to
search for the child, to destroy him.”
Like Luke, our hero, Jesus is on the run, in
exile and under threat of death. Like Luke,
Jesus’ enemy was powerful and seemingly unopposable. Herod the Great, named King of
the Jews by the Roman Senate who appointed
him in 37 BC, ruled over what is roughly the
Northern half of modern day Israel, as well
parts of what are now Jordan, Lebanon and
Syria. He had a bodyguard of 2,000 soldiers
and the backing of the Roman Empire, the
largest and most powerful military force in the
world at that time. To oppose Herod would
be to oppose Rome, and to oppose Rome
would likely get one crucified. Who could
come up against that?
This story crosses into some dark territory
that we haven’t heard in our earlier Christmas
readings. In the words of NT Wright, a
leading New Testament scholar, “The gospel
of Jesus the Messiah was born in a land and at
a time of trouble, tension, violence, and fear.
Banish all thoughts of peaceful Christmas
scenes. Jesus was a homeless refugee with a
price on his head.”
Interesting, then, that both enemies of Jesus
and Luke Skywalker feared them and
perceived them as threats. The supreme leader
of the First Order, concerned that a resistance
movement would find Luke, says “If
Skywalker returns, the new Jedi will rise.” The
Jedi, of course, were guardians of peace and
justice, part monk and part warrior.
Even more remarkable is a scene from The
Empire Strikes Back, the second movie in the
original trilogy, of a conversation between
Darth Vader and the Emperor of the Galactic
Empire. The Emperor says “Luke Skywalker
could destroy us,” to which Darth Vader
replies “He’s just a boy.” Nevertheless, the
Emperor insists “The Force is strong with
him. He must not become a Jedi.” At the
time, Luke is, like Vader said, just a boy. He
was no more than 28 years old and had only
left his life as a farmhand three years earlier.
Not exactly the kind of person you might
think could strike fear into a dark lord who
rules over an entire galaxy with an iron fist
and can shoot lightning out of his hands. But
there you have it.
Similarly, King Herod fears Jesus. He is afraid
of Jesus because Magi from the East come to
him in the beginning of the chapter and ask
“Where is the child who has been born king
of the Jews?” Now, Herod was called King of
the Jews, so anyone who challenged his claim
to this title by applying it to himself or having
others apply it to him was perceived as a
threat. However, to think that a baby from a
peasant family could really be a problem for
Herod is a stretch. As we’ve already said, he
had a lot of power which was backed by the
mighty and brutal Roman Empire. Anyone
who actually tried to take Herod’s power
would be swiftly executed, if not by Herod
then by Rome. Even if we were to give Herod
the benefit of the doubt in his fear of the baby
Jesus, and I’m not suggesting we should, he
didn’t stop there. “When Herod saw that he
had been tricked by the wise men, he was
infuriated, and he sent and killed all the
children in and around Bethlehem who were
two years old or under.” This is a very fearful
man.
Could there be something we can learn from
the fear of Herod and the dark lords in Star
Wars? Perhaps they know, better than anyone
else, that the power they possess is ultimately
fleeting and that despite all appearances, it has
vulnerabilities. It is not impenetrable, it is not
indestructible. They can lose their iron grip
and they know it. Not only that, but they
know their power can be destroyed not just by
tyrants and wicked people who employ the
same methods they do, but by those
committed to justice and peace. They know
that it’s possible, against their wishes, for light
to shine in the darkness, “a light that the
darkness does not overcome,” as the Gospel
of John says.
Now, back to our original question: Does
Christmas have power? Does it have anything
to say to our broken world? I believe we can
answer this with a resounding “YES.” During
Advent, our time of anticipation leading to
Christmas, the mantra is “Come, Lord Jesus.”
We are beckoning Christ to come into our
world, to shine his light and heal us, and we
are confessing that he is Lord, that he is King,
that his authority and rule is ultimate and that
all others, especially those opposed to him, are
temporary, provincial and destined to fall. For
the first Christians, this meant that Jesus is
Lord and that Herod and Caesar are not.
And so we are emboldened, encouraged, and
inspired to go out in the world after beholding
the mystery of Christmas to shine the light of
Christ, to challenge the patterns of aggression
and exclusion that characterize too much of
what goes on in our world, to love, to forgive,
to name and resist evil, to join in the struggle
for justice. This is not because we are
progressive humanists who believe we can fix
the world, but because we believe that in
doing these things, in living this way, God is
with us because Jesus is Lord.
And where God is, there is power. There is
potential for resurrection where we can only
see a cross. Despite all the temptations we
face in the world to give into despair and the
seemingly irredeemable, endless cycle of
violence and power struggles, we must
remember that Jesus is Lord, the same Jesus
who commanded us to love one another, to
forgive our enemies, who taught us that when
we feed the hungry, bring water to the thirsty,
welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, we
are doing it for Christ himself.
Just look to the examples of Gandhi, Martin
Luther King and Desmond Tutu. Gandhi led
India to independence through nonviolent
civil disobedience and inspired movements
for civil rights and freedom across the world.
His ethical thinking was heavily influenced by
Leo Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is Within You,
a radical reclaiming of Christ’s message of
nonviolence and its power to overthrow
authoritarian and oppressive regimes.
Martin Luther King Jr advanced the cause of
civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience
based on his Christian beliefs and is known as
one of the greatest orators in American
history. He said “Before I was a civil rights
leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This
was my first calling and it still remains my
greatest commitment.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of our own,
was instrumental in defeating South African
apartheid. Not believing in the widespread
myth of an eye for an eye, he instead followed
Christ’s teachings and advocated
reconciliation between all parties involved in
apartheid. His deep commitment to peace
through forgiveness and reconciliation was on
full display at a 1993 funeral when he led a
crowd of 120,000 to repeatedly chant “We
will be free! All of us! Black and white
together!”
All three of these men changed the world in
their own way. Two of them are Christian
ministers, consciously drawing on the power
of the Spirit and the real presence of the risen
and living Christ.
Now, I’ll be honest with you. When I did
some research on Gandhi’s struggle for Indian
Independence, and Bishop Tutu’s work to
end apartheid, never mind that Gandhi and
King were martyred, I realized that the truth is
a lot more complicated than the more simple,
triumphant versions of their stories I had in
my mind. Though they accomplished much,
violence, division and injustice persisted. It
can leave one feeling like the dark side will
always tarnish whatever good is done. Like
Luke Skywalker, I find myself asking, “is the
dark side stronger?” I remember Master
Yoda’s response: “No, no, no. Quicker, easier,
more seductive… but not stronger”
The truth is that the victories of Gandhi, King
and Tutu are slower in their unfolding
compared with how quickly things escalate
and are destroyed through anger, greed and
aggression. Yet I remain unshaken in my
conviction that the Way that Jesus embodied,
taught and eternally is holds salvation,
redemption and eternal life for all of us. We
were created by Love, for Love. So, as we
receive him in the sacrament of his body and
blood on this last Sunday of Christmas, let us
be comforted and strengthened to do his will,
to live with courage and to really believe that
his light shines in the darkness, and that the
darkness does not overcome it. Amen.
John Kennedy is the Interim Youth Director
at St. Mark’s.