Scripture/Sermon of the Day.  December 28, 2025

Matthew 2:13-23

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

16 When Herod realized he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Reflection/Sermon:

I. Something you notice as you read the Bible is how much people move.  It’s like there’s a message telling us to not get too comfortable in one place because life changes and we must keep moving — physically, emotionally and spiritually.  The word Jesus used — REPENT — MEANS TO MOVE — from one way of thinking and being to another.

II. In today’s reading, an angel tells Joseph to migrate to Egypt because the King of Israel, Herod, wants to kill Jesus.  In the Bible, people migrate — they move from one country to another — often to save their lives.  The Jewish people moved to Egypt because there was a famine in their land.  Then they moved from Egypt when it became oppressive.  And now, today, Egypt has become again a place of refuge for Jesus, Mary and Joseph.   

III. LOOK AT THIS.  God entered our world as a person — because nothing else seemed to work.  God tried giving people laws — but people didn’t follow them.  Then God sent prophets — but most were killed.  Finally — God came IN PERSON.  But, as the Gospel of John tells us in chapter 1, God was rejected.

IV. God was barely born and already — people want to kill him. So God seeks refuge in another country!  God made the earth, but isn’t welcome there!

V. And now after two-thousand years since God walked the earth as Jesus of Nazareth — 

IT’S STILL NOT SAFE FOR JESUS, MARIA AND JOSE.                        

IN AMERICA THEY ARE STILL HIDING.                          

BECAUSE KING HEROD IS BACK!! 

WE LOCK JESUS INTO HOLDING CELLS,                     

AND PLACES LIKE ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ, 

AND DEPORTATION CAMPS WHERE JESUS AND JOSE AND MARIA ARE LOCKED UP — 

FAMILIES SEPARATED — CHILDREN SEPARATED.           

WAITING FOR DEPORTATION TO —?

Our great country has rejected God — EVICTS THOUSANDS OF IMAGES-OF-GOD a day who have sought this country FOR REFUGE  as Egypt was refuge for Jesus and Joseph and Mary.

VI. So God tells us today from the Bible — REPENT.  CHANGE COURSE —                                               

and                                                                                 

BECOME THE LOVE OF JESUS.  

Because for us, we who follow Jesus, there are no longer any foreigners in this world — only neighbors.                                                                

Everyone is our neighbor.

In Jesus, we are one family.