Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the First Sunday of Christmas, where we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents. This morning we have just one service in the parish, a Parish Eucharist at 11.15 am at St Thomas' Church, and there is no service at St Agnes'.
If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find resources below to worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly"
Today's Gospel
Matthew 2:13-18 Holy Innocents
Now after they had left, 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.”
Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. Then what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
Reflection
The waiting of Advent is over as we celebrated the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ just a couple of days ago. I do hope you all had an enjoyable time.
And now we find ourselves in that liminal space between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
For some it will be a time to rest and recharge. A time for calm and reflection after a hectic few days, and for others you may still be running full pace preparing for more parties and celebrations. Some of you may even have returned to work or if you’re really unlucky you may have had to work throughout the festivities.
For the Church, we are only just starting the whole season of Christmas, which will last until 2nd February when we celebrate Candlemas and the Presentation of Christ at the Temple – more about that at the time.
However, in this first week of Christmas, amidst all the joy, it feels counter intuitive that we are also confronted with the account of the Holy family, Mary and Joesph with the newly born Jesus, a babe in arms, fleeing for their lives from Bethlehem. The joy has evaporated and they are full of fear and terror.
A newly born child who is the Messiah, being forced into exile as a refugee. Fleeing the slaughterous intentions of the evil King Herod, who is about to kill all the new born children and toddlers in Bethlehem in a hopeless attempt to kill Jesus.
How incredible must this have seemed to Joseph as he yet again he was visited by an angel in his dreams. Once more, despite how improbable this message seems, Joseph does not hesitate to obey without question.
How confused must Joseph and Mary have been. First they are told that Mary “would give birth to a child who would be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. … one who will rule over the people of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.”
Yet now they are told to run for their lives! But there is no indication that their faith in God ever wavered, they just did what the angel told them and they stayed in exile until Joseph’s next encounter with an angel telling them to go back home to Nazareth.
This is truly an outstanding level of obedience and faith.
For ourselves, there may be occasions where our faith is challenged. In the times we now live in, we can quite easily envisage the turmoil and fear of the people around Bethlehem as Herod’s evil and murderous edicts are implemented and hundreds of children are massacred.
When we look at the regions of the Middle East still beset with war and see pictures of innocents killed and maimed in their thousands. When we hear of hundreds of children kidnapped from schools and villages in Africa.
Or when a child is killed or stabbed here in England for no apparent motive. It can be hard not to ask the question, where is God in this pain? How can a God who loves us allow such things to happen?
Indeed there is a whole branch of theological thinking on this very question. It is known as Theodicy, dating back thousands of years where scholars such as Augustine try to answer questions like, “where is God in the suffering of the world?” and “why does God allow evil?” If evil is due to mankind having free will, why did God permit it? Why didn’t God prevent the fall of man in the garden of Eden?
We can go round in circles, as many have, but the bottom line is, we cannot possibly explain the vastness of God and nor should we try to attribute human motivation to God.
However, we know that though His incarnation in Jesus, he experienced the reality of man’s brutality to fellow man. Our God loves us so much he sent His only son to experience our suffering and ultimately his death on the cross. God understands our suffering.
But he is not an alien scientist who will reprogram us and take away evil thoughts and make everyone perfect. He created the world to be perfect and whilst man has fallen, we are not beyond redemption. Through Christ we are shown the path to redemption and how to deal with suffering by helping one another, looking evil in the face and rejecting it. God’s power is not in eliminating evil and bad people, but in standing with us in the presence of evil. God comes to us in those who, like Jesus, comfort and heal the afflicted, support and aid the downtrodden and oppressed, and those who hold leaders to account and stand up for justice.
Wishing you all a happy and fruitful New Year. Paul
Our Prayers
Father God,
You sent your only son into a world full of hatred and brutality.
Yet he chose to care and heal, to feed the hungry and stand up for the weak.
He taught us about your healing salvation and chose not to hide from suffering.
We pray that we may follow his example
To be brave and compassionate and work to bring your kingdom near.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "What Child is This"
Notices
There is no Tuesday morning service this week, and no Worship for all Generations, but everything will be back to normal next week with all our services at the usual times.
