All the stained-glass windows around the church are in double sets; with one Old Testament depiction and one New Testament depiction next to each other.  The windows on the left side of Trinity’s sanctuary are arraigned in an extraordinary manner.  

There is one window that is not really visible to most worshipers. What is strange is that that window is seated behind a door and is partially hidden by the staircase up to the organ and choir loft. This window shows the Genesis narrative of the fall into sin of Adam and Eve and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Its corresponding New Testament window is of the Nativity. The birth of the second Adam answers the sin of the first is the message.

Coming through the door, entering the sanctuary and heading up the left wall, the next set includes a scene of Simeon holding the blessed child and praying what has become for us the Nunc Dimittis. Which is always good for the first Sunday after Christmas

Moving to the next window we move to our reading for this the second Sunday of Christmas, the boy Jesus discussing the scriptures with the teachers of the Law in the Temple.

Therefore by the sequence of events of our windows, we move from Christmas through the first and second Sundays in Christmas. What is missing of course is any discussion of the wise men, or Herod’s slaughter of the Holy Innocents or of the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt and their return. I pondered this by remembering the cornerstone of this building was set in 1947. Perhaps, the builders had had a belly full of war as political maneuvering and the human devastation that it had brought. That is pure conjecture of course.

However Saint Luke does not ignore the sequence of the incarnation. It perhaps is easy to see how the narrative of the twelve year old Jesus in the Temple is a response to all the murder and mayhem that comes before it.

It hadn’t been an easy twelve years for Mary and her husband Joseph, especially the start. Rejected and shunned so that their first born son was born among the common animals. Then on the run from insane violence that has come seemingly out of nowhere and left in its wake the murder of innocents.  

Note this, they find Jesus where? In the Temple, The temple rebuilt by Herod, the very same Herod that threatened His life around ten years before and after him comes five Herodian children just as murderous as their father.

What’s the message of the boy Jesus to His parents? God is in control. You may have lost Jesus; but Jesus has not lost you.

Do not suppose that death has got the upper hand, nor that death will have the last word.  For out of Egypt God has called His Son — the same Son, Jesus Christ, who has come in the Flesh to bear your sins and be your Savior.  He has shed His Blood and died for you, and God has raised Him from the dead.  Therefore, death has no power over Him, and neither does it have any power over you, since you are baptized into Christ Jesus and belong to Him now and forever.

And yet, despite all that, it sure still looks and feels as though death were winning.  Examples abound on all sides, and you can hardly read or listen to the news without adding more on a daily basis.  Explosions, shootings, accidents, and illness.  And it strikes even closer to home too often.

“In the very midst of life, death has us surrounded.”  And the fear of death, under its many guises, enslaves and tyrannizes you, driving you to sin.  It is at the heart of all your selfishness and greed, your covetousness and idolatry, your deception and manipulation, and both your lazy negligence and your works-righteous legalism.  For death has come into the world on account of sin, and sin increases all the more in the fear of death.  It is a vicious cycle which erupts here and there, within and without, sometimes with cold calculation, and then again with aimless outbursts of violence.

Sometimes, like King Herod, you get angry and lose your temper, and you fight back and defend yourself with force — as though you were a god, with the power and authority of life and death.

At other times, like Rachel, you despair of any help or consolation — you weep and moan, refusing to be consoled or comforted — as though there were no God, no Savior, and no hope to be found.

Such fear of death, such anger, and such inconsolable grief are all sinful and unrighteous, because they are contrary to faith and to the love of God.

I tell you, then, repent of misplaced fear, of violent temper, and of hopeless despair.

Wait quietly and patiently upon the Lord, and rise up at His Word to do what He calls you to do.  No matter how daunting, difficult, or discouraging the task at hand may be, get up and go in the hope of His grace, mercy, and peace.  Live and work as St. Joseph of Nazareth has done in caring for his wife and for her Son, as he flees with them to Egypt and waits upon the Word of the Lord.

So, then, about that story set before us on this day: Once again it would seem that death has got the upper hand, and that everything is out of God’s control.  After all, the little Lord Jesus has to be rushed away to safety in the middle of the night, while the innocent baby boys of Bethlehem are slaughtered in His wake.  Where is the justice or the hope in such events as these?

To point out that everything actually unfolds according to the Scriptures seems, on the surface, only to make matters worse.  For why on earth would God permit such atrocities to happen?

Why, indeed, does God permit you to suffer?

And why does the Lord your God permit you to hurt and harm your neighbor?

Truth be told, God does respond to and deals with evil, with sin and death, with fear and anger and despair.  But He does not respond as you would do, nor does He act like either Herod or Rachel.  He does not react with force, nor retaliate with the raw unbridled power of a temper tantrum.  He has no need to get “defensive,” as though He were backed into a corner and desperate for some way out.  Nor does He panic and throw up His hands in frustration.  He does not give up the fight.

True enough, there is a day of reckoning, a day of judgment, when God vindicates His people and punishes the sons of disobedience.  He does get glory over against Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt who are drowned in the depths of the Red Sea.  Herod also dies and is judged by the Lord.

But the Lord God demonstrates His almighty power over sin, death, the devil, and hell, chiefly by showing mercy to sinners, and having compassion upon them, and forgiving them all their sins.  He is patient and long-suffering, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  He establishes His righteousness in the midst of the nations, not by punishment to start with, but by redemption.  Else we should all be lost, completely and forever, and then there really would be no hope at all.

You may have lost Jesus; but Jesus has not lost you.

As it is, the Lord our God is faithful in His mercy, and He is righteous in His forgiveness of sins.  So it is that Herod’s treachery does not triumph, because death does not get the last word.  Herod’s slaughter of the innocents is no less sinful and wicked on that account, but neither does it win.

It is not at Herod’s whim, but in fulfillment of God’s holy will, that Christ Jesus lays down His life in the hope of the Resurrection, trusting the Scriptures of the Prophets, the promise of His Father.

And now, behold, He is risen from the dead and lives forever in His own glorified Body!  For He is raised by God to life again, which is your justification, your righteousness and holiness before God in heaven.  Thus does the Son return to His own territory, to the Right Hand of His Father.

Beloved of the Lord, you now follow this Lamb, Jesus, wherever He goes, so that you are with Him where He is.  So it is by your Baptism into His death, and so too by the eating and drinking of His true Passover Feast, which is His Body given and His Blood poured out for you.

And so it is that you shall be with Him forever, alive with His Spirit in both body and soul, holy and righteous in the presence of His Father, residing in peace on the heavenly Mount Zion.

This is your future, and in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus it is your sure and certain hope. 

This Christmas you may have lost Jesus, but He has not lost you! A Merry Christmas to you,

In Jesus (+) Name