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Some of you know that very early in this New Year I will find out about my continuing employment with my secular employer.

The Story Isn't Finished!       Cicero United Methodist Church January 3, 2010

Text: Matthew 2: 1-12             Epiphany Sunday                  Jack Keating.

Some of you know that very early in this New Year I will find out about my continuing employment with my secular employer. After 20 years it is possible that my career in church insurance will end - and naturally Becky and I have some concern about that situation. But, as we discussed in the car over the holiday travel season, "God is good in all situations".

Let me stop to repeat that to you - because it is relevant to this sermon - "God is good in all situations". Most of you here have probably heard me quote Romans 8:28 at one time or another in our ministry together. It goes like this:

''And we know that in all things God works for tile good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. "

And it is so. It is so despite the fact that all things are not good and it is so despite the fact that all things will not be good until the Day of Judgment.

We have heard the Christmas story several times over the last few weeks. The Sunday school did a version of it at their Christmas pageant. On the fourth Sunday of Advent the choir led us -in a superb musical program about the story. On Christmas Eve and again last Sunday parts of it - or almost all of it ­were read and sung.

It is a marvelous story - the story of the conception and birth of Jesus but it is a story in which certain characters are most often forgotten - and their actions and the meaning of those actions are not thought about.

Today I want to employ a tactic used by the great Paul Harvey in his radio ministry and tell you the rest of the story that comes to us, in part, because of the visit of the magi or the wise men to see the infant Jesus - the one whom they describe to King Herod in today's scripture reading as "the one born King of the Jews".

It doesn't matter how you tell the Christmas story, no one loves King Herod. No one includes him in the Nativity scenes. No one sings carols about him. No one admires him.

And there is good reason for that. Herod wasn't a nice man. Even by the standards of his day, he was a ruthless, conniving, backstabbing ruler.

People had a reason to dislike him for what he did. To make matters worse, the people of Israel had a reason for disliking him for what he was.

Herod, who was king of the Jews, wasn't a Jew. Herod was an Idumean.

Israel had conquered the neighboring country of Idumea about 150 years before Joseph and Mary arrived at Bethlehem. And the Idumeans were forced to convert to the Jewish faith, but they were treated as second class Jews.

Herod's father had been a general, who had served the last Jewish king. And when the last Jewish king started an uprising against Rome, the Roman Senate made Herod king of the Jews. Herod then led the Roman army, and proceeded to take the country by force, making it into a Roman state. Herod controlled everything in Israel, including deciding who ran the religious institutions. In fact, several times Herod made a handsome profit from selling the position of High Priest to the highest bidder.

It seems graft, nepotism and corruption are not new inventions.

So imagine the impact of the visit of the Magi to Jerusalem for a moment.

Our reading today - that old familiar reading - says when the wise men came to the city and started asking, "where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?" and claiming that they had seen "his star in the east and have come to worship him" Herod was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him."

Herod had every reason to be disturbed. Every reason to be concerned.

A real Jew, born to the line of the kings, would have a lot more political support among the people than Herod ever would.

A real king, born to David's lineage, would have more religious support than Herod could ever dream of. And so the part of the story that we are familiar with continues on by telling us that after the chief priests and teachers of the law tell Herod that the Christ - the anointed one promised of old - was to be born in Bethlehem, that Herod calls the wise men to him in secret - finds out when they first saw the star in the East - and then instructs them to go to Bethlehem, locate the child, and then immediately report back to him so that he too may go and worship him."

Well, we know that the wise men don't do that.

They are warned in a dream not to return to Jerusalem, and they depart for home from the side of the infant Jesus by a different route than they had arrived. Here is what happens next:

"When they had gone, and angel 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." So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled wheat the Lord had said through the prophet: "out of Egypt I called my son. "

When was the last time you ever thought of Mary and Joseph - and the infant Jesus - as poor refugees?

As a family forced to flee from their home and their country because of the injustice and inhumanity of their government? As refugees forced to flee to the very land where over 1400 years earlier their ancestors were kept as slaves. As refugees subject to all the indignities refugees undergo at first .... and sometimes at last was well. No family, no friends, no food, no shelter, no work.

Mary and Joseph were put in a situation similar to that of the people of Afghanistan during the recent past. A situation like that suffered by the people of the Sahara and of Vietnam and of Cuba and Cambodia and so many other nations over the last few decades.

Yet, in these awful circumstances in which Mary and Joseph and Jesus found themselves, the scripture is fulfilled that says, "Out of Egypt I have called my son", and through those terrible circumstances the life of Jesus is saved.

That is really something to think about isn't it? Especially it is something to think about when we are thinking about the refugees who seek safety here in America and how our nation should respond to their plight.

In all things God works for the good of those who love him        .

Anyway, the rest of the Christmas story continues this way:

"When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and gave orders to kill all the boys of Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. "

Man!!! Is it any wonder we don't want this part of the tale to be a part of the Christmas story? Is it any wonder it's not a part of the Christmas pageant?

Quite naturally we want to avoid pain and suffering. And equally naturally, especially when we are celebrating, we don't want to admit - or think about the fact - that we live in a world where innocents are slaughtered for no good reason.

But the sad truth is we do live in a world where innocents are slaughtered for no good reason. We live in a world where terrorists can hijack planes and kill thousands of people. We live in a world where unspeakable horrors can happen in the blink of an eye - for no good reason.

There is a reason no one loved Herod.

To Herod - killing a few hundred children from a small village was no big deal, especially if it would help ensure that he would remain in power. Herod was not only capable of such an act, he caused it to happen.

And the people wept.

The story, as told by Matthew, tells it this way:

"This what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled" 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".

Rachel was the mother of Israel, a mother figure for the nation. She knew all too well the pain of losing a child. Rachel died after giving birth to her son Benjamin - whose name means "A son of sorrow." .

For Matthew to quote Jeremiah's prophecy and say Rachel is weeping is a way of saying the whole nation wept at the loss of these children, much as we weep at the terrible things that happen in our world today.

It is also a way of pointing out our hope, a hope proclaimed by Jeremiah, where we find these words:

"Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears for your work will be restored", says the Lord. 'They will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your future', declares the Lord. 'Your children will return to their own land.'

There is a promise here - but the grief - ah the grief - such a grief is a hard one to bear - even in the midst of hope .... How much more so without hope!

The story of Herod and the infant Jesus - the refugee Jesus - and his family ends this way:

"After Herod died, and angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 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.' So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 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 another dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said by the prophets: 'He will be called a Nazarene. '"

And, as Paul Harvey used to say....      That is the rest of the story.

Scores of innocent children have been slaughtered. Herod has died - and someone not much better is now on the throne in his place. And Mary and Joseph and Jesus - while no longer refugees in a foreign land, are working and living in a town of Israel that is not their own.

The rest of the story does not tell a wonderful tale - things were not good; but it is a part of the story that is important to know and to understand because it points out to us how God is good in all things.

It is important to know and understand the rest of the story because it gives meaning to the first part of the story and transforms it from a cute tale about a special child being born in a special way, to the story of how God meets us in the midst of every situation and transforms that which is meant for evil into something that works for the good.

Think of the refrain throughout the entire Christmas story, the refrain heard even through the lesser known part of it, the refrain that goes: "this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet ... "

We live in a world of death, violence, hatred, tensions, and if I dare say it....sin.

And, as the old Christmas carol says, "Jesus Christ was born for this .... "

We celebrate Christmas not because we live in a world of death, but because one has come who gives life.

We celebrate Christmas, not to escape the hard realities of the times, but because one has come who has overcome the hardest of times, and who offers freely to all who seek him a lasting victory over sin and death, and a way to live now in a world that makes true the words "Bars and locks do not a prison make".

We celebrate Christmas because even the bad news is news that God can use and does use to fulfill his purpose. God's purpose is not thwarted by evil designs.

That old Christmas carol - that we will sing at the conclusion of our worship this morning goes on to say:

"Good Christian friends rejoice with heart and soul and voice! Now you need not fear the grave. Peace. Peace. Jesus Christ was born to save."

This applies every year, but it is particularly relevant when you consider how in this world the innocents continue to be slaughtered.

To skip over or ignore the harsh reality of our world is to say our faith has nothing to say about it.

But it is in these situations that the faith most strongly speaks, reminding us that even tough we are put to death - even though the innocents are slaughtered - we will not die - the innocent will not be lost forever ­nor will what is good be extinguished.

So during Advent and Christmas we light candles for our God, or ourselves, and for our world - candles of hope and peace and joy and love.

And most of all- in the Christmas season - and throughout the whole year, we light a Christ candle and we proclaim the deepest truth of Christmas time, the truth that is known by all who have encountered Christ and worshipped him with the shepherds and the Wise Men .... the truth that indeed in all situations God works for the good for those who love him, the truth that I proclaimed at the start of this sermon today when I said, "God is good in all situations".

Today we go into the world as the people of God, the body of Christ. --- Go to fulfill your calling knowing that nothing in this world can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord --- and in knowing that as you love one another and love the world as did he that the kingdom draws closer, the kingdom in which we and all the innocent are blessed forevermore.

Praise be the name of God, day by day. Amen.