Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

Well good morning and Happy New Year! Thank you for braving the cold and joining us. I know for me, at some point a little after New Year’s, I start to say to myself…I think I’m ready for spring. Even this New England boy has his limits.

Our Gospel this morning featured the Holy Family’s great flight into Egypt. Now I must confess that this is a story I don’t think about too often. During Christmastide, I prefer to think about warm, cozy manger scenes. Yet there is something gripping about this great flight into Egypt. The image of a newborn babe and parents with their firstborn child fleeing for their lives is hard to look away from. There’s just something about a new family being in danger that makes us pay attention.

Part of what makes us pay attention to the flight into Egypt is how stressful it is. It’s a stressful story fueled by an atmosphere of violence. The threat of King Herod murdering baby Jesus is dominating. Now it may be hard for us to imagine the mindset of someone in power not only feeling threatened by a baby, but also willing to kill that baby, but that was the world that Jesus was born into, a world swirling with stress, power, and violence.

Just try to imagine how Jospeh must have felt when the angel told him he had to flee with his family or else his newborn boy would be murdered. I mean after all the drama of Mary’s pregnancy, all the way to her giving birth on the road to a healthy baby boy, ten finger and ten toes, to then being told they had to get up and go right away or else his boy would be killed… the stress of it all must have been unbearable. I don’t know how they slept at night.

I hope no one here has been in the same position that Joseph was in, but I’m sure we can all relate to that feeling of stress. I’m sure we can all relate to that feeling of stressful days leading to sleepless nights. I know I can. Nights that feel like life has you by the throat. Nights that feel like your mind is running marathons. Nights that leave you exhausted in the morning.

We need to remember that level of stress and exhaustion because we all have our own flights into Egypt. We all have our own version of fleeing from something. We all have our own version of fleeing towards an unknown destination that is anywhere but here.

Six years ago this week, I hugged my parents goodbye and became a monk here at SSJE. I remember moving into my cozy cell and thinking to myself that I was home free. I had this belief that everything from that point forward was going to get better and easier in my life. Well, I was right about the first part, things got better but not necessarily easier.

One thing I have learned as a monk is that there is no such thing as an easy life. Certainly, some days are easier than others and certainly some people’s lives appear to be easier than others, yet I think deep down we all know that no one has it easy. We all have our problems, we all have our issues, we all have our demons, we all make mistakes that haunt us.

There may be no such thing as an easy life, but that does not mean that life is not worth living. The challenges we face in our life shape us. These challenges are rough, frustrating, and unrelenting. These challenges come at us faster than we can comprehend them. We will not always have the time or energy to make sense of it all. Yet, somewhere inside of us, there is that voice, that spark of hope, that says yes, this is all worthwhile. In some unbelievable and sometimes annoying way, that voice that whispers this is all good, this is all right, and this is all holy. It’s that same voice that says yes, we are going to get through this.

In our flight into Egypt, we must keep relying on that voice of God that keeps calling us forward. We must rely upon that voice of God not only to get us through the suffering we endure, but to somehow find meaning in the day-to-day circumstances of our life. We need that meaning to fill our lives.

A life filled with meaning through God means that no part of our life is untouched by God. That includes all the nasty parts of our life. Divorces, relapses, layoffs, breakdowns, arguments, confrontations and all the other nasty stuff we’d rather never deal with. That also includes all the good stuff – all the weddings, births, reconciliations, sober anniversaries, new jobs, and tearful expressions of love. We must keep coming back to God again and again with the ever changing circumstances of our life. In good news and bad news, we must form a foundation of faith in our relationship with God.

Now of course in our flight to Egypt there will be times of doubt. Times when we will doubt if we have done the right things, times when we will doubt the quality of our own selves, times when we will doubt our ability to find God in any of it, and times when we will doubt humanity at large. In these times of doubt, look to your fears. Ask yourself what fear is fueling your doubt? Do you fear that you are not good enough? Do you fear that you are not worthy of love? Do you fear that you have not done enough with your life?

These fears can drown in us doubt. These fears can make our lives impossible. These fears can paralyze our days. We need God’s help. We can admit it, we are not strong enough on our own, we need God’s help.

We need to bring to God our fears, our doubt, our stress and all the other things that keep us up at night. We need God’s help in our journey into Egypt. There is no shame in praying out of desperation and great need.

When we get to the other side of this thing we will be stronger, we will know ourselves better, and we will be closer to God. Our journey into Egypt may take a long time, but it is worth it. May God help us all, Amen.