Heb.2

 

 

I heard folks complaining that all of the work for getting ready for Christmas goes by too quickly. So much work flies by in an instant. Perfection in setting up may have been missed by this much. Some folks are ready to burn the tree and take down the decorations. After all, some of them have been up before Thanksgiving. On December 26th the baby Jesus has been fed and changed and slept. As the sermon in Hebrews emphasizes, Jesus is a human being.

Some folks have Christmas blue or a blue Christmas or post-holiday blues. The Christmas season saturates the senses/We've been hearing Christmas music for a long time in stores, now we will hear it until next month in church. We touch fur-lined collars and give hugs to aunts and uncles. Oh, the good smells, of cookies and meat roasting in the oven and scented candles, and running into bath and body works for a stocking stuffer. The tastes of good chocolates and all those foods, and the crunch of a pastry.

 

What gifts are in the wrapping. how we tear it off to get at the treasure inside. My mother was always a bit hurt at seeing the wrapping job and the pretty paper dispensed so casually.What a gift was wrapped in swaddling in Bethlehem.Paul calls us temples of the Holy spirit. In other words we are wrappers with a treasure beneath.

 

The girls' Grandpa McKinnon died this year. He wore a stocking cap during the holidays. He kept a pile of Chicago Tribunes in the basement, because he was going to get to them; because he paid for them. He knew that there were treasures inside. In one of those was an article about a rash of baby Jesus statues stolen from Nativity sets all over a neighborhood, and 32 were dumped in a woman's backyard. She placed them all in front of a church to be picked up and called the cops. The cops let them stay, as the officer said, "baby Jesus should be in the manger, not in the evidence lock-up.

 

The place for baby Jesus was an unlikely place, a feeding stall. It was not to be running for his life as an infant. As an adult, it was not the manger, but where people needed him, and I assume that would be a police station too. After all, angels don;t need much help. Mt.'s quote of Rachel not in pretty church pageants. Mt. alters his citation formula here. Even though this is a horrible story, it  is still a story of escape, like Moses and his little ark. Legends have sprung up about the travel to Egypt. Part of me dismisses them, but I must admit I like that here a tree gave shade to the family. Now they are even farther away from home. They have no idea how long they will have to be refugees. The first Christmas season was on the run, fleeing from a death sentence.

 

Death surely was still in force in Bethlehem.The author/pioneer/leader  of salvation broke through the barrier of death. The Easter moment of new life was an ultimate present, so the fear of death is no longer an ultimate barrier. The preacher in Hebrews goes on to say that Christ was made complete in suffering. The same phrase, made complete,  used of a consecration for a priest, includes intercession, the work of the priest. The shared humanity of Christ also unwraps the character of God for us all.That same pioneer surely faced suffering when tested/tempted/tried, but he made it throurgh, like the pioneers of the West.

 

I usually had to serve Mass the day after Christmas. It was hard for me to understand why the martyrdom of St. Stephen was the day after Christmas. suffering of the innocents then and now Death and its brother, Trouble, don;t take holidays off. After all, the Savior saves us from a world of hurt.

 

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