Dry Stones

Matthew 2:13-23 (The Message)

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." 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. They lived in Egypt until Herod's death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: "I called my son out of Egypt." Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he'd gotten from the scholars.) That's when Jeremiah's sermon was fulfilled: A sound was heard in Ramah, weeping and much lament. Rachel weeping for her children, Rachel refusing all solace, Her children gone, dead and buried. Later, when Herod died, God's angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt: "Up, take the child and his mother and return to Israel. All those out to murder the child are dead." Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother, and reentered Israel. When he heard, though, that Archelaus had succeeded his father, Herod, as king in Judea, he was afraid to go there. But then Joseph was directed in a dream to go to the hills of Galilee. On arrival, he settled in the village of Nazareth. This move was a fulfillment of the prophetic words, "He shall be called a Nazarene."

__________

A child has been born, a hope for all nations and all people, and God made flesh has come in the form of a helpless infant. But only a few days after celebrating the Christ-child’s birth, we find that things aren’t as peaceful as we would have thought. After the magi, or scholars left, King Herod was thrown into a fit a rage. He couldn’t imagine losing his authority and power, so he called for his generals and ordered the unthinkable. Yet, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Mary and the Christ-child to the land of Egypt so that the prophecy of Hosea might be fulfilled. How is it that we move so quickly from the birth of Christ to a picture of a family who is on the run and flees to a far off country in search of refuge? 

There are a couple of things I’d like us to focus on this morning: 1.) What’s King Herod’s deal? 2.) What happened to Mary and Joseph and Jesus while they were in Egypt? 

So let's start with King Herod. What drives such a man like Herod to commit acts of murder and bloodshed against his own people? Herod must have been afraid of something, and that is where I imagine Herod began to lose sight of what was important. Herod wasn't concerned with whether or not he was on the right path that God had laid out, and he was more preoccupied with making sure that his power was secure. And when a king, a monarch, or any other kind of ruler feels like their authority is threatened, history has proven that they show their true selves. Something still isn't right though, Herod is supposed to be a king who has a deep relationship with God. Yet it seems like even though Herod was surrounded by a people, religion, and rabbis, the teachings about who God really was, didn't seem to sink in. 

And this is where my allusion to “The Godfather” comes into play… 

There is a very powerful scene in Part III of “The Godfather” where Michael Corleone meets with Cardinal Lamberto. The two walk by some stone pillars and a fountain while Michael explains an impending scandal at the Vatican. Cardinal Lamberto laments over what has happened and then reaches for a stone. He tells Michael, “Look at this stone. It’s been here for a very long time, but the water has not penetrated it.” Cardinal Lamberto then whacks the stone on the side of the fountain, breaking it open, and says, “Look, perfectly dry.” The cardinal then tells Michael that the same is true about God, that God has surrounded people with a message of love, but the message has not seeped in. God doesn’t live within them. 

Of course, Cardinal Lamberto isn't giving Michael Corleone a lesson about theology and history. In truth, the cardinal has been talking about Michael this whole time. And this is where the movie "The Godfather" intersects with our reading for this morning. Because the evocative image of a dry stone that's been submerged in water for many years is what speaks to us this morning as we find a family on the run. It speaks to us and asks the question, "How can a stone that has been submerged for many years still be dry on the inside?"  The truth of the matter is that if God's love surrounds us, but it doesn't change how we live our lives, then something in our lives must change!

It’s a moment of revelation when Cardinal Lamberto cracks the rock to reveal that it is dry on the inside. We can be surrounded by God’s teachings of love, hope, peace, and joy, and we can bathe ourselves in them making us feel good. But that doesn’t mean any of those things have made their way to the core of our being. If we what we do is out of blind loyalty to something else or fear, then we haven’t allowed our hearts to be changed. And this is what Herod, what we ourselves, wrestle with when we find that things don’t go our way. Perhaps it’s all the more important then for people like ourselves to speak out a kind reminder of what really matters when we see such acts of unbridled power go awry, because the consequence of that kind of misbehavior leaves scars that reverberate throughout space and time. 

And with that, I want to pivot now to Mary and Joseph and Jesus as they fled to Egypt. Mary was strong to make another journey after having struggled to find a place to give birth. And Joseph too must have questioned what he got himself into when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream once again. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus would have looked like any modern-day family fleeing an oppressive regime or war zone. When the angel appeared, they must have grabbed everything they had and made their way to the Egyptian border, not knowing what was going to happen next. While they didn’t have travel documents like they do today, there still must have been a considerable amount of uncertainty, and there is much to this story that we are never told. 

Were there soldiers who questioned why they were coming to Egypt? Who knew, Mary and Joseph could have been spies. I wonder if people thought that more riff-raff had come into town, I mean those people from up North had a reputation for causing trouble and being up to no good. Who knows what went on through the minds of the people Mary and Joseph came across. Perhaps people’s hearts were filled with compassion as they say a young mother and father are fleeing for their lives with a child in their arms. I guess it’s up to us to fill in the blanks of what happened during their time in Egypt and allows us to play out what kind of moral choice we would make if we were in the shoes of an Egyptian. The decision being whether or not we help these people who are fleeing from danger or do we let them sleep in the streets or out in the shadowy parts of town because we can’t be bothered to help people who are not our own. 

I’m going to go back to the illustration from “The Godfather,” because I think it brings both Herod’s portion of the reading and Mary and Joseph’s section together. If we were to crack open the stones of Herod, Mary, Joseph, and the Egyptians, what would we find? Would you find stones that are dry on the inside or stones that have soaked up all the water? It’s something to think about as we draw close to the end of another year. What would we find if we were to crack open the stones that represented our hearts and souls? Would we find that the life-giving essence of God has filled them? Or would we discover that there’s only been an outer coating that hasn’t made its way deep into the core of our being? These are questions that we cannot solve in one moment, but questions that we should strive to answer daily. 

The King Herods of the world will come to pass eventually, but that does not mean we stop our pursuit of living lives that would go and risk something to protect those who are like Mary and Joseph, who find themselves as refugees in a foreign and unfamiliar land. In showing our ability to be more Christ-like, God-like, may our dry stones be filled with water. And may we be reminded that God made flesh is still with us, walking beside us, as we make our way through the world rubbing against our own Herods and Pontius Pilates. But as we do that good and faithful work, may our souls be filled with the refreshing newness of life that comes from God. Amen.