CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Family Feud

After the wise men 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 had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

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 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 Nazorean."

- Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

The Herod family was dysfunctional to say the least. Even before the slaughter of the innocents, their vices had the makings of a grisly A&E mini-series. Regicide, patricide, fratricide, uxoricide, filicide and now infanticide--they did 'em all. Killing rivals, fathers, brothers, wives, children: it was all in a day’s work. And in between they were into double-barreled incest with Herodias and Salome covering up the crime by beheading John the Baptist. But all of this was merely par for the course in the days of Caligula and Tiberius.

What sets the Herodian clan apart was their serial betrayal of God and his chosen people. The self-proclaimed “King of the Jews” was, in fact, Rome’s lapdog. And worse, Herod was an eager and willing instrument of oppression and sacrilege. And to mask his powerless, puppet status, he went on a building binge of tombs and temples, fortresses and palaces--all supported by outrageous taxes that ground God’s people into the dust. That was the Herod family paradigm: power and pleasure at any cost. The chosen people of God were there to be used, abused, betrayed, whatever it took to get the next bauble, to feel the next thrill, to curry Rome’s favor.

And then there was The Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. And the contrast could not be greater: giving rather than taking, loving rather than lusting. The Blessed Mother Mary, whose soul magnified the Lord, gave herself to God as an instrument of our salvation. The righteous, faithful Joseph lived to serve. He gave God his unquestioning obedience in the face of danger and hardship. And finally, what greater contrast than Jesus Christ, fully God and fully human; he had it all and gave it all in loving obedience to the Father.

And so we have the example of two entirely different families in this week’s gospel. The family of Herod wants all of life’s goodies and they will do anything to get them and keep them.

Which family do we follow?

For most of us I suspect the answer is a hybrid. We profess the Holy Family as our ideal. But as a matter of expediency, at times there is more than a little Herod in our homes than we care to admit. That doesn’t mean patricide and all the rest, but it does come down to a question of priorities. Do we live to serve or be served? Are we givers or takers? Do we live to glorify God or satisfy the almighty me? In this pandemic, do we focus on protecting our neighbor by wearing masks outside the home, observing proper physical distancing, and washing/sanitizing our hands? Or do we carry on as if death and disease weren’t’ all around us because our personal freedom is more important than the health of other people? What is most important to us: Is it “I gotta be me” or is it walking in the Way of Love, striving to imitate the Holy Family?

These are questions for which God will hold each one of us individually responsible. But the answers do not spring up spontaneously from the void. They are shaped in the context of loving, Christian (and that means actively Christ-centered) families. They are a sacred legacy of family values held in trust to be passed down lovingly to successive generations. They are fostered in energized, missional parish families who live consciously and constantly in the love of Christ.

And so we pray on this second Sunday after Christmas Day that we will stand with Jesus, Mary and Joseph and that we will answer with Joshua: Choose you this day whom you will serve…. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

The Rev. Daniel Robayo is missioner for Latino/Hispanic ministries and the Rev. Canon David Sellery is canon for congregational mission.