As we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Savior, during this Advent season, we'd like to invite you to revisit a sermon from a few years ago. Pastor Colin Robeson preached on a part of the Christmas story that is often overlooked in Matthew 2:13-18. After the Magi visit Jesus, they go home by a different route. The Holy Family, warned in a dream, flee as refugees to Egypt, while Herod commands the slaughter of all boys in Bethlehem two years and under. Why does Matthew include this story?

Pastor Colin reminds us that we live in a broken world that needs a Savior. He says, "Herod is here in this scripture partly as a warning to all of us, no matter who we are, that even though we call ourselves people of the Gospel, we need to be aware of our brokenness and participation in the brutality of this world." He calls us to remember both the Christmas story and the cross. "At the beginning of the Gospel and at its conclusion, Matthew presents pictures of the depth of evil that Jesus came to redeem."

In our present day, refugees continue to leave their homes to flee from danger. Genocides like the slaughter of the innocents in this Matthew passage continue to occur. And in fear, even we "find ways to label others as a way of distancing ourselves from them," which ultimately dehumanizes them. How do we overcome this fear? Here is Pastor Colin's call to us:

"We need to remember that we are the people of God: people of the Incarnation, people of the Resurrection. We are the people of a God who conquered sin and that has to make us different. It has to make us different. The way we take part in ensuring that fear, hate, and evil don't win is by clinging to the power of the Gospel and letting that change our hearts. By not allowing the call of the Gospel to be subjugated by our political views, by our race, by our gender, or by our nationality. Instead we can be people who are known by our love, our courage, and by the Savior who sends us."

Watch Pastor Colin's sermon here:
Rev. Colin Robeson - Christmas Sermon