CROSSING A BORDER
Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:13-18
“Rise, take the child and his mother and
flee to Egypt
and remain there until I tell you…”
God
and his glory cannot be separated. Glory is all over the nativity, the
miraculous birth of a child, the angels, and the visit of the wisemen. Glory is
the magnificence, splendor, majesty, grandeur, and great beauty of God’s will
fulfilled:
Arise, shine, for
your light has come,
And the glory of
the Lord has risen upon you.
After
the splendor of “God with us,” just where is God’s glory when Joseph is warned
in a dream to “rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt … for
Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him” (MT 2:13b)?
God’s
glory is in the warning. As odd as that sounds, let’s look more closely at the
action that God calls Joseph to take and then see what we can learn of God’s
glory for us.
We
have all read and heard—more times than we can count—the story of the holy
family’s emergency night flight from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape the brutality
of the insanely jealous king, Herod.
Reading
this story for the umpteenth time, however, I began to think about this escape to
Egypt
and its possible meaning for us today. I realized that this escape required crossing
a border.
This
border crossing was not like going from here into New Hampshire—maybe a five-minute walk. No,
this border crossing involved escaping under the cover of darkness to another country!
From Bethlehem to Egypt, we are
talking a distance of 300 to 400 miles.
That’s
like going from Chicago to Minneapolis
or from Boston to Philadelphia (the long way). The journey
would take between 5 to 7 hours to drive—depending on the traffic, of
course!—but what if we had to walk the entire way, like Joseph and
Mary did? Add in a royal pursuit to slaughter your child, and you’ve got a
recipe for thick darkness.
Most
of us have not been burdened in our lives with that kind of fear—when someone
is out to kill us.
The
Lost Boys of Sudan did know that immense fear. Driven out of their villages by
a brutal civil war…their parents murdered…their sisters enslaved, these boys
“walked
for days, then weeks, then months and finally for over a year. They walked
anywhere from 700 to 1,000 miles, first to Ethiopia, then back to Sudan, then
south to Kenya, looking for safety. Ten and eleven year olds were the elders.
Seven and eight year olds became each others' parents, binding one another's
wounds, sharing sips of muddy water (or urine), burying their dead.”[1]
One
“Lost Boy” named Abraham Yel Nhial, relocated to Chicago was asked about having carried his
Bible for years, through all his border crossings and his time in refugee
camps. He answered, “Yes, It is my life. I have been called a lost boy. But I’m
not lost from God.”[2]
In
both of these real-life stories, crossing borders was literally about saving
lives. In the United States
of America, we are immensely privileged and
relatively safe. What about in the church? Here we also have a call from God to
cross border and save lives, eternal lives.
One
of the new insights I received after going through this passage is that faith,
true faith, will require of the believer, at some point in time, crossing
a border.
There
are many instances of crossing a border in the Hebrew Bible.
- Adam and Eve were evicted from Eden and were never allowed to cross its border again.
- Abraham was called from his homeland to go to a place God would show him; Abraham went.
- The Israelites crossed Canaan’s borders to take possession of the land god had promised them.
There
are some impossible crossings that could not have happened without God’s help.
Some that come to mind is Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea (Ex
14:22); the Jordan River (Joshua 3:13, 15-17;
II Kings 2:8 and II Kings 2:14).
Jumping
to the New Testament we have the crossing of land and water borders—regions of Tyre and Sidon, Samaria and the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus
intercepted nature’s borders with the
- calming of the storm;
- turning water into wine;
- feeding 5000 with five loaves and two fishes;
- healing the sick and raising the dead and
- challenging the religious establishment and
- appearing transfigured on the mountain and
- washing the feet of his disciples and
- dying on the cross for the forgiveness of all our sins.
The
ultimate crossing of the ultimate border of our faith is the Resurrection.
Unless Christ has crossed the border from death to life, we would all be lost
boys, lost girls.
It
is the time of year for the making (and unfortunately, the breaking) of
resolutions. Perhaps we should think of resolutions in terms of border
crossings. Is there a relationship that needs mending? Is there a debt you need
to retire? Is there a goal that needs to be reached? Rise up, take what and who
you need, and cross that border this year.
As
your pastor, I challenge you to join me, to walk or run or flee with me, to
cross a border for Jesus this year. This crossing is about rising and shining;
this border is about crossing out of the thick darkness and into God’s great
light.
The
greatest border this church can cross is the one between our relationships with
each other and our relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s to cross from
same-old-same-old to rise and shine in God’s glory.
Sure,
there will be times of darkness, fear, and feeling incredibly lost. That is why
we must work together. We will cover more distance when we ALL pray together
and ask the Lord for help crossing this border.
- What is God’s plan for us: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1).
- How will Jesus teach us about crossing a border? “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men [and women]” (MT 4:19).
- And how will the Holy Spirit lead us? The Spirit of truth “will guide you into all the truth” (JN 16:14).
Resolve
with me to cross a great border this year: arise, shine, and give God the
glory, from which we need never be lost or separated again. We are never lost
from God.
May
God’s will be fulfilled in us this year. Amen.
January 4,
2015/First Parish Federated Church of
South Berwick, ME/The
Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
