Sermon Reflections Dec 30

The text for this week's sermon exposes the side of the Christmas story we don't often wish to remember.  Matthew 2: 13-21 relates the story of the Holy Family's flight to Egypt after Joseph was warned by an angel in a dream to leave Bethlehem. Herod has ordered the slaughter of all the baby boys under the age of 2 so that he can try to get rid of the Messiah, who has been rumored to have been born.

My question, a nagging problematic thought, surrounding this text is:

Why did Joseph get a vision to take his child and flee and all the other dads didn't have such luck?  I know Jesus is the Messiah and all, but aren't the other children also Children of God? Don't they deserve the same protective angelic shielding?

This seems to be leading my sermon into a direction of exploring the Haves and Have Nots of our Christmas season.  Those of us "haves" in the world often don't realize the pain and agony of Christmas when you are a "have not." There is a song called 'Star Child' in the Faith We Sing book (#2095) that talks about various 'children' of Christmas.  

If you have comments, please feel free to post them by clicking the link below or email me at pameverhart@fcfumc.net

See you Sunday!

Pam Everhart