Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, based on Matthew 2:13-15,19-23
At Christmas, I came across a game called ‘Don’t tip the waiter.’
Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with stiffing the help...
It’s centered around a delightful carved wooden waiter, who's posed as if he’s walking to a table, black bow tie, tails, and a white shirt - and the object is to stack plates and glasses and bowls on his hands without tipping him over.
How many plates can he hold?
How many bowls can he balance?
How many different things can be put into his hands before he finally falls over and drops them all as he hits the ground?
And for many of us gathered here this morning, this is what a second winter of COVID feels like.
It’s a huge, uncomfortable, unsettling, precarious, balancing act.
How do I handle yet another commitment?
Where can I squeeze in that new activity?
Am I staying safe enough not to get COVID?
Why do I have to put off that trip for another year?
What if kids have to go virtual school again?
What if I can’t make yet another graduation?
How do I handle the distance created between myself and unvaccinated loved ones?
How many more hassles do I have to put up with before I tip over and break everything?
Ya, a lot of us are at that tipping point.
Only it’s not a game,
It’s our lives.
And if you made it to church this morning holding on by just a string - thank you.
If you are feeling like you're clinging to hope with just the tips of your fingernails - thank you.
If you overcame the temptation to stay in bed, isolate, and just go it on your own, to be here this morning - in-person or virtually - thank you.
Because our message today is something you need to hear - that you can make it.
Old man Joseph - St. Joseph - Courageous Joseph - yes, I have a thing for older dads…
This morning he gets the Word from on high that trouble’s coming -
That the Almighty King Herod is coming after his boy - His precious boy -
But Joseph knows what to do -
He’s heard the Word - his heart has guided him -
And he doesn’t hesitate, he does what he needs to do.
And in doing so, Matthew, who is famous for quoting Old Testament verses and how they’re fulfilled in Jesus - brings up this quote, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’ - this, of course, alluding to the work of God in bringing the Israelites, unharmed, out of Egypt.
We all know the story:
After generations of oppression, God heard the cries of the suffering Israelites, who were slaves in Egypt, and sent Moses - who performed several ‘miracles’ to finally free his people.
Matthew is trying to remind us that God has come through for God’s people before - so God can do it again.
Your people have been enslaved before, and God has set you free.
Your people have been desperate and felt forgotten, and God pulled them through.
Your people have hit rock bottom before, and God has lifted them up.
So, let’s think about us - and how God has gotten us through things.
You went through that terrible break up with someone you thought you might marry.
Your world had collapsed around you.
You wandered through the valley of darkness and despair.
But you’re here.
God got you through.
You went through that addiction thing.
It was all you could think about.
It was your entire world -
Before it collapsed around you.
And God got you through.
How about that time you went bankrupt - or came close.
There was not enough money.
There was no one from whom to borrow.
You couldn’t pay, and so you sold your stuff, or someone came and took your stuff from you.
But you got through it -
God got you through it.
How about that divorce?
Things were tough weren’t they?
Didn’t know where you’d live -
Didn’t know if you could trust again.
Didn’t know things would ever improve.
Yet you got through it.
God got you through.
Oh, and what about that illness?
You were down for the count -
You didn’t know what hit you - where it came from - or where it was going to go,
But you made it this far.
God has gotten you this far.
We’ve made it before.
We can make it again.
We’ve come this far.
We can go farther.
This was God’s word to Joseph as he took the Holy Family to a foreign country, seeking refuge from Herod.
And when Joseph and Mary took the infant Jesus to safety, I’m going to guess it was not that easy.
Who did they know in Egypt?
Where would they live?
What would they wear?
What would they eat?
Where would they work?
Yet, they got through.
God got them though.
Today many of us are feeling as uneasy and uncertain about our lives as Joseph and Mary were about theirs.
We don’t know where the economy’s going.
We don’t know where our politics is going.
We don’t know where our health is going.
We’re uneasy - we’re on edge - we’re angry, frustrated, and scared.
So, what’s the answer?
How are we going to make it through?
Where’s the road?
What’s the path?
Do we have a choice?
My first sermon of the New Year is about that choice.
It’s about the choice most all of us have.
It’s about the conscious decision to make a choice.
And I hope you will join me in choosing gratitude.
If you’re like me, there are many, many days in which I do not feel grateful.
I am anxious and angry and stressed and confused.
I feel alone and don’t understand what’s happening with my neighbors or the world.
I look at the news, it’s bleak and uncertain.
So, I struggle to feel grateful.
But this year - 2022 - I am going to attempt to choose gratitude.
I choose to accept life as a gift from God - as a gift from the unfolding work of creation.
I choose to be grateful for the earth from which our food comes -
And the land, now under my care, but first settled by others — so I choose to grateful for the people who first lived there-
For the water that brings life -
For the air we all breath.
I choose to be thankful for my ancestors - for those who made me who I am -
Grateful for their stories and how they endured struggles -
Grateful for their wisdom and example that continues today.
I choose to see my family and friends with new eyes - to appreciate and accept them for who they are, I choose to be thankful for my home, whether humble or grand.
I choose to be grateful for my neighbors - no matter how they voted, or whatever our differences, or how much I feel hurt or misunderstood by them.
I choose gratitude because it’s good for me.
I know that being grateful will make me happier and healthier.
Gratitude will make me easier to be around.
Gratitude will help me endure challenges more effectively.
Gratitude will make me live longer.
The power of Gratitude will make me better - make my family better - and make the world better.
In this New Year, join me in not giving thanks - but choosing thanks.
Choosing gratitude with courageous hearts -
Knowing it is humbling to say ’thank you.’
Choosing to see that we are all guests at a hospitable table around which gifts are passed and received.
Let us not allow anything opposed to love to take over this table.
Instead, we choose grace and forgiveness, the blessed relatives of gratitude - to help us live through the storms in which we are all now dead center.
So let us pledge together - to choose thanks - to choose gratefulness - to choose gratitude - around the tables of our homes - our communities - the nation - and the world.
I am so thankful to be a part of this, our St. David’s community, which has always been for me a source of thankfulness and gratefulness - because I think we all know how thankful and grateful you all are. And I join St. Paul in saying, that "I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers…”
May our year of Gratitude further us in our journey to become the people we are: a people of worship, outreach, and love for all.
Amen.