A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus said to his disciples, be on your guard with respect to others. They will hail you into court. They will flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings to give witness before them and before the gentiles on my account.
When they hand you over, do not worry about what you will say or how you will say it. When that hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. You yourselves will not be the speakers. The spirit of your father will be speaking in you. Brother will hand over brother to death.
The father, his own child. Children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all on account of me. But whoever holds out until the end will escape death. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord.
Praise to you, lord Jesus Christ. The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. I'm willing to give anyone odds of about a million to one that you didn't find this quotation from Saint Matthew on any Christmas card you received or on a Christmas card that anybody received. We're so used to hearing these texts that, unfortunately, they cease to impress us.
Now you can't blame the church for it. It's not an accident or a coincidence that the church is puts this today. It didn't have to come today. In the chronological order, this doesn't come after the birth of Christ. This is comes way after the martyrdom of Saint Stephen.
Now we're going to have the martyrdom of the holy innocence. You didn't you don't see that on a Christmas card either. You see, we have, and we're still in it, this what we call Yuletide Christmas. And it's it's wonderful. I I there's nothing to be said against it.
And and and even it's commercialism, there's lots to be said for it. So we're not downgrading it. We're not ground downgrading or demeaning or taking a pejoric attitude towards the enthusiasm, the lights, the colors, the the the joy. Even if a lot of it is artificial, a lot of it isn't. There's a lot of outpouring of good, decent community spirit, and charity, and generosity, and love, and care, and sacrifice.
There's a lot of it. You only wish it could last a little longer for the rest of the year, or at least have a few little intermittent evidences of it, but it's good that we have it even once a year. After all, don't let the best be the enemy of the good, to quote my great and late friend Voltaire. But the church puts this she puts red vestments on us today. She gives us one of the most severe texts of the New Testament.
Because remember, this this is addressed to Jews, That kids will hand over their parents. Parents will hand over their children to the torturer. This is frightful stuff. And the text says, on account of me. I mean, this is fearful.
This is our lord speaking. As I said, there are plenty of instances of people being martyrs, but where do you where do you find anything comparable to this in cold blood? I don't know where it is. And our lord emphasizes that this is going to take place because on account of me, as this English translation translation says, on account of me just because you're my follower. Just remember our blessed lord said, I have come not to bring you peace, but the sword.
You didn't see that on a Christmas card either. You see, we have such a fictional romanticized view of Christ. You take that picture of Holman Hunt that I often refer to of Christ standing at the door knocking. It's a gorgeous picture. It's luminous.
It's beautiful. It's lovely. It exudes gore joy. The benevolent, the gracious, the waiting, the pursuing Christ in his beautiful robes, the and the immaculate white, and the gold. It's a marvelous picture, you know.
You know, Homer and Hunt belonged to that Rosetta period. But there's nothing of the cross there. There There's no blood streaming down. You don't see a back all torn up because of a scourge. You don't see a hideous figure hanging from nails on a cross.
And yet, that's Jesus Christ too. That is Jesus Christ too. And so the church is pushes this in here to say, look, don't be carried away. Don't make the fatal mistake that you're on a hayride, that this is all fun and games, that that to be a Christian is to have an a comfortable life. If there's anything that you can say about live Christianity, is that it is a not a narcotic, or as Marx called it, an opium of the people.
It's only that when it's dead and without Jesus Christ. It can happen, of course. Of course. You see, much of what goes on at Christmas could happen without any relevance to God. It could have relevance only to humanitarianism and philanthropy and the good will that we can build up, you know, it can it can have no it can have no relationship to Jesus Christ whatsoever.
So can anything in life. Just remember that. And so the church is putting these red vestments on its priest. It's putting these this fearful good news. Good news this is.
How in the world can you call it good news? And yet it is good news. It is good news. Because our blessed lord has come to save us, not to make life easy, but to save us. As CS Lewis points out, when you ask god and you say, God love me, you better be careful of what you're saying, because God actually loves you.
He actually loves you, and he wants your best interests. Interests. And sometimes, that's not what we want at all. Sometimes, it's what we least want. We're like the dog on the leash.
I've told you. Lewis develops this in several pages, as I recall. And so we come back. It isn't you see, Christianity is is not a pessimistic religion at all. It's realistic.
It views man as what he is, and it views god what god is. And god is our destiny. And that is no mean journey when you call upon human beings to pick up their cross and follow Jesus Christ. That is a most awesome invitation. And yet, our blessed lord said, if you accept it, if you take up your cross, if you follow him, Jesus Christ, you will find that cross light and its burden sweet.
That is a paradox. Believe me. May we accept it in faith and joy. In the name of the father and the son, holy spirit. Amen.