First Sunday of Christmas - December 28, 2025

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew, chapter

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

2. 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 fulfill

what he 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 wise

men, 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 wise men. Then

was fulfilled what had been spoken through the

prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah,

wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping

for her children, because they are no more. When

Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared

in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, Get up,

take the child and his mother, and go to the

land of Israel. for those who were seeking the

child's life are dead. Then Joseph got up, took

the child and his mother, and went to the land

of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was

ruling over Judea in a place of his father Herod,

he was afraid to go there. And after being warned

in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee.

There he made his home in a town called Nazareth,

so that what had been spoken through the prophets

might be fulfilled. he will be called a Nazarene.

This is the gospel of the Lord. Grace and peace

to you from the one who has died for us all,

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. There's a true story

about a village and how goodness happened there.

The story takes place during the most terrible

years of World War II, where whole ethnicities

of people, especially Jews, were singled out,

hunted down, taken to concentration camps, and

murdered. In the midst of this violence, a miraculous

event took place in a small Protestant town in

southern France called Le Chambon. There, quietly,

peacefully, in full view of a government determined

to exterminate human beings, including children,

Le Chambon's villagers and their clergy organized

to save thousands of Jewish children and adults

from certain death. This profound story is found

in the book called Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed,

written by Philip Halley. It is well worth the

read, but what I want to share with you is in

the introduction of the book, where the author

writes about a lecture and discussion that took

place a few years after it was published. He

was speaking to a group of women in Minneapolis

who were all leading fundraisers for the United

Jewish Appeal. When his lecture was over, he

asked for questions or comments. A woman in the

back of the room stood up and asked him if the

village of Les Chambord was in the department

of Haute -Loire in south -central Florence, where

the great Loire River has its origin. Philip

confirmed that it was the village that he was

talking about. He writes, She stood there silent

for what seemed to be a long time, and then she

said, Well, You have been speaking about the

village that saved the lives of all three of

my children. She came to the front of the room,

turned to face the audience and said, the Holocaust

was storm, lightning, thunder, wind, rain, yes.

And Les Chambas was the rainbow. Perhaps the

rainbow in our gospel reading for the first Sunday

after Christmas is the dream God gave Joseph

that saved the Christ child. Get up, take the

child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and remain

there until I tell you, for Herod is about to

search for the child to destroy him. Joseph gets

up, takes the child and his mother by night,

goes to Egypt, and remains there until the death

of Herod. In this story, the infant Jesus is

spared, but a cruel foreshadowing looms. He will

not be spared on the cross. Jesus is saved here

from certain death in order that he might save

the whole world. But there were many others who

were not saved that day. All the infants and

toddlers under the age of two in and around Bethlehem

were murdered. Is there anything we can imagine

that is worse than infants being ripped from

their parents' arms and slaughtered? This is

the part of the Christmas story we don't want

to hear or face. Jesus is born into a world where

innocents die. Within a few short days, we go

from the angels' joyful Hallelujah and peace

on earth to unconsolable weeping. Verse 18 in

the Gospel of Matthew quotes Jeremiah chapter

Jeremiah 31:15

31 verse 15. 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. The context of this verse in

Jeremiah rises up out of the exile of the Jewish

people to Babylon. Ramah was a gathering place

for people of Judah who were being deported to

Babylon after Jerusalem was conquered. Rachel

weeps for all of her people who live under the

boot of the powerful. If Jacob is the father

of Israel, then Rachel is its mother and matriarch.

Rachel weeps again for the babies and toddlers

whose lives were cut short because of a power

-hungry puppet king. When I spoke to my 10 -year

-old about this story, he paused for a long moment

and said, Herod killed all those babies and didn't

get anything out of it. He dies anyway. And isn't

this the leveling we all need to face? Death

itself. In the end, even God's Son is not spared

from death. Pastor Roger Nelson, in the most

recent issue of the Christian Century magazine,

writes this, The outlandish claim of the Gospels

is that God became flesh, not in the world of

nativity snow globes, shiny happy people, and

naive spirituality, but in the world where tyrants

kill babies and parents can't be consoled. If

the Incarnation has any meaning at all, then

God came into the darkest realities of this world.

Many theologians believe that the saving act

of God is the incarnation, the birth of Christ

into the world. For in being born, he will surely

die. And this is the good news for each of us

and for the world. Jesus brings deliverance when

everything seems bleak. We live in a world where

death, violence, and war happen because people

love power and wealth more than God and neighbor,

where the Herods are not held accountable. Jesus

shows us a different way of being in the world.

Instead of grasping for power, Jesus empties

himself even to the point of death on a cross.

Instead of condemning sinners, he forgives. Instead

of ignoring the sick, he heals. Instead of hating

enemies, he pours out his love and dies. And

this is so different than Herod's fear -driven

life as Jesus ushers in to the kingdom of God

here on earth. The good news is not front and

center on this day in the season of Christmas

in which we observe the slaughter of the innocents.

It feels like a lot of law where human beings

literally get away with murder. This story leaves

us at the foot of the manger and also the cross

in need of a savior, God made flesh. We need

Jesus. This world God loves so much needs Christ.

What I've had to admit about this story is that

Herod needs a savior too. That the awful truth,

which is also the good news, is that Jesus was

born and died for Herod, just as he was born

and died for you and me, and certainly the children

who met their end far too soon in Bethlehem.

Pastor Nelson continues in the Christian Century

magazine. The mystery of Christmas is that Jesus

is born into the world as it stands. The world

to which we wake again and again. The world of

school shootings, terrorist states, rulers who

feel threatened, and parents who bury children.

The world in which Rachel weeps. God doesn't

rise above, whisk away, or shrug off this world.

From cradle to cross, God enters it. shares and

bears our pain. Our hope, even in the Nativity,

is that God in Christ is resurrecting monuments

of stone and overthrowing tyrants, and we are

not alone. It is true that Christ promises to

be with us always, and we also have one another.

I marvel at the story of Les Chambons, the people

who peacefully and steadfastly lived out the

kingdom of God, saving life after life. They

did not let the Herods of the world get away

with murder. They lived as if every life was

precious to God, even at the risk of their own.

I wonder what the Holy Family found in Egypt.

It is absolutely clear in the Gospel of Matthew

that Jesus and his parents were refugees, fleeing

to Egypt to escape death. I imagine This exile

shaped and formed our Lord in significant ways.

I wonder if he grew up learning that he was the

only child to survive a massacre. I wonder if

he brought to mind the children killed by Herod's

order when later in his ministry in Matthew chapter

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

19 he says, Let the little children come to me,

and do not stop them, for it is to such as these

that the kingdom of heaven belongs. I wonder

how Jesus' experience of being A refugee influenced

what he had to say in Matthew 25, where he says,

Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit

the kingdom. For I was hungry, you gave me food.

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was

naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick,

and you took care of me. I was in prison, and

you visited me. Jesus knew what it felt like

to flee with only the clothes on his back, to

watch his parents make a life for him in a new

place, in a new language. Were they welcomed

or turned away? Matthew chapter 2 reminds us

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

that the Christmas story does not only encompass

a star and a manger and angels singing, Mary

pondering, and shepherds and wise men worshiping,

but equally important is God's guidance through

dreams, Rachel's tears, Jesus' life threatened

before he could walk, and a ruthless king who

would even kill babies to hold onto his power.

Today the Church remembers the children Herod

slaughtered. December 28th is the day we commemorate

the Holy Innocents. Verse 6 in hymn number 430

in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship Book memorializes

the little ones who died. All praise for infant

martyrs, whom you with tenderest love received

from Herod's bloodshed, to share your home above.

O Rachel, cease your weeping. They rest. from

earthbound cares, nor grant us hearts as guileless

and crowns as bright as theirs. How strange it

is to read a story such as this in the Gospel

of Matthew on the first Sunday of Christmas,

but I for one am glad for it. Sorrow is not without

joy, and joy is not without sorrow. We can be

singing Christmas hymns and yet lament that all

our relationships are not reconciled. or that

this Christmas is the first without a loved one,

or that children go to bed hungry, or the gap

between the rich and the poor keeps widening,

or the political polarization keeps us from loving

our neighbors as we ought. It turns out we still

need a Savior. It turns out we need reminding

that God speaks to us through dreams, and God

makes a way where there seems to be none. It

turns out... Villages like Le Chambon truly exude

the kingdom of God in this world and make a difference

for many. Philip Halley concludes in his introduction

to the book, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed. The

rainbow reminds God and humankind that life is

precious to God, that God offers not only sentimental

hope, but a promise that living will have the

last word, not killing. Isn't this the good news,

dear people of God? That God has the last word,

and God's word is life for you and for the world.

In this season of Christmas, we celebrate Jesus

our light, the light no darkness can overcome.

And for this we say, thanks be to God.