Rev. David Holwick ZM
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
November 29, 2015
Matthew 2:11-15
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I. It has been The Year of the Refugee.
A. People are on the move.
1) Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are swarming over borders.
a) Once they are inside Europe, they go to the richest
countries.
b) But many do not make it - think of the heartbreaking
images of toddlers washed up on beaches.
c) My own abandoned army housing development in Heidelberg
has been used to shelter hundreds of immigrants.
2) America has its own refugee crisis.
a) They tend to be economic refugees instead of political
ones, but there are many of them.
b) An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants are
living in the United States.
1> The are often called illegal aliens, but some
consider this a politically incorrect term.
2> Whatever you call them, they are all around us --
Mision Latina undoubtedly has quite a few.
B. What would God have us do with a refugee?
1) Would he have us show compassion to them, or exclude them?
a) Does it matter if they are fleeing oppression?
b) What if they have broken laws to get here? Or, have
broken laws AFTER they arrived here?
2) It is actually a major issue in the Bible.
a) And it also gives insight into what Christmas is
truly about.
b) Are you interested in God's perspective?
II. Outsiders have always been dangerous.
A. Just think of the word "alien."
1) It can be a foreigner in your country, or a human-eating
space creature.
2) It is not a very inviting word.
3) Throughout history it has been common to dehumanize them.
B. Outsiders can be bad news.
1) One group landed their boat in their new country, stumbled
upon grain that the locals had stored up for the winter,
and ate it all.
a) It was Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1620 and the refugees
are better known as the Pilgrims.
2) Thievery is not the biggest issue - violence is.
a) I have read that two of the perpetrators of the Paris
atrocity were processed as refugees in Greece.
b) One governor in the United States said he would not
let a Syrian refugee in his state even if he was
a 5-year-old orphan. [1]
C. It is an ancient issue and appears at the beginning of the Bible.
1) The Jews were refugees living in Egypt and the natives were
afraid as they saw the Jews multiply.
2) In Exodus 1:10 the Egyptians say,
"Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become
even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our
enemies, fight against us and leave the country."
Verse 12 adds,
"But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied
and spread; so the Egyptians came to DREAD the
Israelites."
3) The end result was the expulsion of all the Jews from Egypt.
a) This is actually what God wanted to happen.
b) Jews have identified themselves as outsiders ever since.
1> The "creed" of the Jews is found in Deuteronomy 26:5:
"My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down
into Egypt with a few people and lived there..."
III. Because of their experience, Jews treated aliens differently.
A. They had empathy for aliens.
1) Time and again, Jews were told to have sympathy on them
and to not take advantage of them or oppress them.
Exodus 23:9 --
"Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it
feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.
Leviticus 19:34 makes it even more positive --
"The alien living with you must be treated as one of your
native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens
in Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
2) Jews were to treat aliens kindly and generously.
Leviticus 25:35 says,
"If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to
support himself among you, help him as you would an
alien ... so he can continue to live among you."
B. Aliens were given equal treatment.
1) They were protected by the same laws Jews lived under.
Numbers 15:15 --
"The community is to have the same rules for you and for
the alien living among you; ...
You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD."
2) Aliens were allowed to participate in Jewish religious
rituals and holidays like Passover.
C. Strong distinctions were still made.
1) You weren't supposed to let them marry your sons and
daughters.
2) And when Israel became a strong kingdom, aliens were
used for heavy manual labor.
3) They were always a little less equal than others, and
had a little less power.
IV. It is significant that Jesus lived his life as an alien.
A. At his birth, his parents were traveling far from their homes.
1) Joseph's ancestors had lived in Bethlehem but he was from
the far north.
2) Nobody had room for them - except in the stable.
B. After he was born, the government tried to kill him.
1) The family escaped to Egypt to save their skins.
2) Note how it says they went "during the night."
C. Jesus kept this mentality throughout his ministry.
1) When one man asked to join the disciples, Jesus warned him,
"Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
2) Jesus never really belonged with everyone else.
a) He was always an outsider.
b) But instead of being the one who was looked down on,
he had the right to do this to us.
c) The earliest Christians understood that this world was
not Jesus' real home.
1> In Ephesians 4:8-10 it talks about the ascension
of Jesus to heaven.
2> The implication is that ascension also suggests the
reverse, that he had once descended.
3> His real home is with his Father in heaven, but for
our sakes he came down to experience our level.
4> This is what Christmas is really about.
V. How do you see yourself?
A. A few years back, Colorado had a fight over bumper stickers.
1) Residents who were born there added "Native" stickers to
their cars, colored green and white like the license
plates.
2) It was a dig at all the new people flooding into the state.
3) Soon, other stickers popped up:
"Semi-Native"
"Native-ish"
And some cheeky residents put on stickers that said "Alien".
This would be a good one for Christians.
B. We don't really belong here.
1) Peter emphasized the alienness of followers of Jesus.
1 Peter 2:11 says --
"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the
world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war
against your soul."
2) The writer of Hebrews saw parallels with Christians and
the Old Testament heroes of faith:
Hebrews 11:13 --
"All these people were still living by faith when they
died.
They did not receive the things promised; they only saw
them and welcomed them from a distance.
And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers
on earth.”
3) It is not because of our birthplace, but our values.
a) We should live differently than the world does.
b) We should think differently.
1> Where others live in fear, Christians have faith.
A> All that a terrorist can do is kill you.
B> Being condemned by the Holy God is far worse.
2> Trouble for your body or trouble for your soul?
Secret Soviet police documents show that in Butovo, near Moscow,
44,000 people were shot in groups of 200 and buried secretly.
One night during the slaughter, Claudia Vasilevna opened her door
to a haggard woman who was supposed to be shot for her
Christian faith but managed to escape.
She begged Claudia to hide her.
Fearful, Claudia refused.
She closed the door and left the woman outside, sealing the woman's
death sentence.
For over fifty years, Claudia has struggled to forget the image of
that woman.
In contrast to Claudia's struggle, Romanian church members enjoyed
peace in their hearts by helping two Germans soldiers who had
escaped while being taken to a Russian jail.
They sought refuge in the church of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand.
At the end of World War II, Romania was ruled by harsh Nazi Germany.
As Germany was losing the war, the Russian army entered Romania and
began taking Germans as prisoners of war.
Hiding or helping a German was punishable by death.
The soldiers still wore the German uniforms and were candidates for
death.
The church families agreed to help protect them because it was not
their place to judge but to help every person in mortal danger.
They also reached out to German children during this time, knowing
that they were only doing what Christ would do in their place.
Christians often have to choose between trouble for their bodies
and trouble for their souls.
It's the difference between earthly trouble and eternal regret.
Even within our comparably ordinary circumstances we may face
decisions that require extraordinary courage.
Will we choose earthly security over eternal significance?
Will we take an earthly risk that may result in a spiritual gain?
#22074
In the light of this, would you decide to take in a 5-year-old
Syrian orphan?
C. Outsiders can become insiders.
1) The story of a German immigrant.
Johann Jacob Holben sailed from Germany to Philadelphia in
1742.
He belonged to minority faith - Calvinism - and his hometown
had experienced many religious wars.
However, he wasn't really coming because of persecution, but
to make a better living; land was cheaper in America.
When he arrived in Philadelphia, he went to the court house.
Even back then, there was a legal process for immigrants.
Holben renounced his old king and gave allegiance to a new
king, George II of England.
He then walked to Allentown and built his cabin.
35 years later, his four sons fought against the army of
George III in the American Revolution.
Johann Jacob Holben is my sixth-great grandfather.
2) Which king are you going to give allegiance to?
a) Jesus invites you to a kingdom you will never have to
flee.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] “Christie on refugees: Not even 5-year-old orphans,” Gregory Krieg,
CNN, November 17, 2015, <http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/17/politics/chris-christie-paris-attacks-refugee-orphans/>.
Chris Christie is the governor of my state, New Jersey.
#22074 “Trouble For Your Body Or Trouble For Your Soul?” Stacy L. Harp,
May 5, 2006; <http://www.persecutionblog.com/2006/05/trouble_for_you.html>.
Originally in Harp’s “Extreme Devotion.”
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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