Sunday, December 28, 2014 The Holy Innocents, Martyrs

Sunday, December 28, 2014
The Holy Innocents, Martyrs

The First Sunday After Christmas

The Fifth Day of Christmas

The Holy Family flees to Egypt to escape the viciousness of Herod the Great and thus Jesus escapes the sword in the gospel on this day. Yet his escape of death is only for the time being. Jesus has come into our world that he might fulfil the mission for which he was sent. He has come to die. He died has indeed died for us. He has died for the world, and he has died to put an end to the cycle of violence that continues to claim innocent victims. Rachel's lament, recorded in Jeremiah and echoed in Matthew, is not the last word. "There is hope for your future," says the Lord. The Feast of Holy Innocents remembers not only the children of Bethlehem who became innocently caught up in the violence and infanticide of Herod and his soldiers who sought to snuff out the Gospel which comes into our midst.

 

Later in the Gospel of Matthew in Chapter 11 Jesus recalls: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” The Good News of Jesus Christ, that is the Gospel, is to the despot and the powerful, in fact bad news, for it points us away from suppression and abuse of power and points us instead to the care for the least in the Kingdom with whom Jesus himself identifies. The miracle of the incarnation is that in God having assumed the form of a servant, having offered himself in humility, identifies with our plight and our weakness and through the cross subverts not only the power of the authorities of this age, but of evil, and death itself.

 

The Feast of Holy Innocents Martyrs reminds us of the price of the spread of the Gospel, and of the continued innocents who are destroyed amid the world’s culture of death, but it chiefly reminds us that violence and death have no dominion of God’s victory in Jesus Christ.  

 

Prayer of the Day

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem by order of King Herod. Receive into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims. By your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righ- ^| teousness' sake,*
for theirs is the king- ^| dom of heaven. Alleluia. (Matt. 5:10)

Readings

Jeremiah 31:15–17
Psalm 124
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler. (Ps. 124:7)
1 Peter 4:12–19
Matthew 2:13–18

First Reading

Jeremiah 31:15–17

Jeremiah is primarily concerned with Judah, yet these verses are a lament on the defeat and exile of the Northern Kingdom. The oldest tradition located the tomb of Rachel, mother of Joseph and Benjamin, in Ramah, north of Jerusalem. The later tradition followed by the author of Matthew placed it near Bethlehem.

¹⁵Thus says the LORD:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
¹⁶Thus says the LORD:
Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears;
for there is a reward for your work,
says the LORD:
they shall come back from the land of the enemy;
¹⁷there is hope for your future,
says the LORD:
your children shall come back to their own country.

Psalm (ELW)

Psalm 124

We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler. (Ps. 124:7)

¹If the LORD had not been ^| on our side,

     let Isra- ^| el now say;

²if the LORD had not been ^| on our side,

     when enemies rose ^| up against us,

³then would they have swallowed us ^| up alive

     in their fierce ^| anger toward us;

⁴then would the waters have ^| overwhelmed us

     and the torrent gone ^| over us;   R

⁵then would the ^| raging waters

     have gone right ^| over us.

⁶Blessed ^| be the LORD

     who has not given us over to be a prey ^| for their teeth.

⁷We have escaped like a bird from the snare ^| of the fowler;

     the snare is broken, and we ^| have escaped.

⁸Our help is in the name ^| of the LORD,

     the maker of heav- ^| en and earth.   R

Second Reading

1 Peter 4:12–19

In this letter the writer is encouraging early Christians who were facing persecution for their beliefs. Though life is sometimes hard for the faithful, they are advised to rejoice as they share Christ's sufferings.

¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you. ¹⁵But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. ¹⁶Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. ¹⁷For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
¹⁸And
"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?"
¹⁹Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God's will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.

Gospel

Matthew 2:13–18

Whether or not the slaughter of the Bethlehem children is a historical event, the story's inclusion in Matthew's gospel makes the point that Jesus was God's chosen leader of the Jewish people as well as of the Gentiles represented by the magi. Herod's fury over the birth underscores the claim.

¹³Now after they 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." ¹⁴Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, ¹⁵and 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."
¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
¹⁸"A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."