“OUT OF EGYPT”
Saint Matthew 2. 13-18
The Sunday after The Name & Circumcision of the Lord: 2 January Anno Domini 2005
Fr Watson
To the eyes of the world it looked like they were fleeing. To their own feelings and emotions it appeared as if their entire routine, family life and very physical safety were in jeopardy.
"Lord, how can you sleep at a time like this? We are drowning!"
"Oh ye of little faith."
But unlike the 12 on the Sea of Galilee with waves crashing over the sides, St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin showed no panic. That which they held close to their bosoms, the Christ of God, had given them faith to comply with the herald's warning.
To the perceptions of this wicked and sinful world, the things which "come upon" you look untoward and unfair. To your own sinful senses, the daily defeats, the constant pains (emotional and physical) and the feelings of being "driven out into the long dark night of the soul" seems bitter, fruitless, and empty.
But like Sts. Joseph and Mary, look not to comfort, routine, princes, or self; look to the Christ. Try not to grasp the empty promise of glory in this world, but seek to clasp tightly the cross of Jesus which will carry you to the future and eternal glory of the world to come.
The stark reality for the Holy Family was that they had to leave behind their home and friends, their familiarity and peace, and travel quickly into the wilderness. The Divine reality behind it all was that God was protecting them. The Divine reality behind it all was that God was fulfilling the prophecy which the Holy Ghost had given the Prophet Hosea to utter and write hundred of years earlier. The Divine Reality behind it all was that even then, the Christ Child was fixing the sins of the world; and your sins too.
God had given Adam paradise. Because of Adams' sin the garden was lost and Adam was lost to death, the desert of a spiritual "Egypt." God rescued him and his descendents by giving them the promise of Jesus to come.
God had given the patriarchs the land of Canaan. Because of the continual sins of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the sins of the 12 sons of Jacob, the land flowing with "milk and honey" was lost, and the Hebrews were lost to death, the desert of "Egypt." God rescued them by giving them Moses the prophet, priest, and king; the "type" of Jesus to come. God called his sinful children out of Egypt and gave them the Promised Land once again.
Because of the spiritual idolatry and rampant apostasy and unbelief; because of the blasphemous idol worship, the Hebrews again lost Israel. They were carried away captive to the desert of a new "Egypt," the land of Babylon. God rescued them again.
The final and permanent rescue, to which all of these others pointed as arrows, was now tucked closely to Mary's breasts. Jesus went south to Egypt, even as a toddler, to fix all of this mess; to fix all of your mess.
The angel, that is, the messenger of God, told Joseph and the Virgin how the Lord would take care of them. To the world it seemed nonsensical. God would provide for His beloved children by having them "run away," by having them live as outcasts, foreigners in a land not their own, to be weak and of no import. Yes. Praise the Lord, for in their humility His strength was made known. After obeying perfectly, where the congregation of Moses could not, where you cannot, Jesus was called forth by His Father out of Egypt back to the light, back to the Land of Promise, for Jesus was the Promise now revealed, the New Israel, the Light itself, the conqueror of deserts, pagans, idols, and Egypt's.
Today, this morning. Angels tell you too how the Lord will take care of you; an angel, that is, a messenger of God speaks by His command and in His stead.
I tell you, you have been called out of Egypt; you have been delivered from sin, death and Satan in the washing of rebirth, the Holy Spirit has put upon you and put into you Jesus the Living One. I tell you, you have again been forgiven all your actual sins, in thought, word, and deed, by His Holy Absolution, your ever-continuing Baptism "in action," You have been called out of the "Egypt" of the second death, hell and torment, by the Great Feast of Faith, the Meal of Immortality. I tell you, "Take eat, take drink," this true Body and Blood of your Savior strengthens you in body and soul to life everlasting.
In, with, and under Christ, you have been delivered from the land of slavery; servants no longer. He calls you brother and sisters.
You have been called out of Egypt,
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost