133. Christ the Refugee

Matt 2:14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt.

While there is good reason to be skeptical of the story of Herod slaughtering all boys in Bethlehem under the age of two; the threat would have been very real. Herod was a man who killed three of his own sons in order to protect his reign. He would not have been pleased that a “King of the Jews” had been born. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, getting out of town would have been very prudent. If we digress into the discussion as to the historical accuracy, I think we miss the point.

          There is a natural tendency to draw a correlation between worshipping Christ and receiving refugees. As well, there is an intriguing commentary on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah that places the emphasis on how foreigners were received - a much more challenging perspective for most Christians.  If we focus on the sexual aspects of the story of Sodom, for most of us it remains safe. It is in understanding that these ‘visitors’ were poorly greeted, it becomes a much more convicting story for us. Later in his teachings, Christ taught, “Even foxes have holes and the birds have their nests, the son of man has no place to lay his head.” Matt 8:20 DJMV)

          As I write this, there are more refugees in the world than there are people in Canada. Add to that our own population of people displaced by mental illness, addiction, and poverty. The impulse to care for such is a human, not just Christian, instinct.  Thus, there is good reason to consider our attitudes about those refugees, foreign and domestic.

But I am more interested in another aspect of the story.

My friend and pastor refers to this as the side of Christmas that no one talks about. We want to sanitize a faith that has as its core the mess that us humans can be.  I think the messiness of it amplifies the glory of God, and stops us from sliding spirituality into convenient slots.  I believe that Christianity was never intended to be convenient, sanitized, or safe. 

          In the nativity story, dark and otherwise, there is so much that seems upside down, or ass-backwards.  The flight into Egypt is one of those. Jesus, the child-king is in peril.  The response is not to call in a strategic airstrike of angels to take Herod out.  It is to flee until the threat has passed naturally.  It reveals a deeper agenda and a unique way of addressing conflict.  And, no it is not simply to avoid it.

          I have written about our binary view of the world.  The us or them, only one person can win, and there are only winners and losers perspective on life. In this story we are taught in no small means that are other ways.

          Herod was going to do what Herod was going to do.  It is a difficult part of the story. Would interfering in the actions of this tyrant have an adverse outcome?  It is an important question to ask.  There is much that happens in this world that is vile, evil and corrupt.  Is it God’s role to intervene?  I take great exception to those that would suggest that such events fulfill God’s purpose.  There is significant difference between using whatever event to his purpose and creating events for his purpose.  The puppet master God must be beyond callous in a world where events such as genocides are created by him to glorify him.

          The flight into Egypt, the point of this wandering post, is an example of how to manage conflict.  And lessons in managing conflict would come in useful these days.  We are currently back in an arms race on a global level.  It might be going on unnoticed, but it is going on.  The morality of any arms race, is one of there can only be one victor. The reality, is that in any conflict, there really is no victor.  For the moment we enter into conflict, we have both lost.

So how do we live out this morality in a polarized world?  As always, the answer comes to how do we live our lives out? 

On a personal level, we are called, I am called, to shift away from the binaries of which I wrote awhile ago.  We are called to recognize that there is no “us vs them.” That we are all part of this together.  It is my hope that in our maturity, we realize that there are really no winners if there are those that are oppressed.  We are also encouraged to understand that often the correct course of action is to wait for a more opportune time.