Sunday Sermon: What Happens After the Miracle?, Christmas 1 – December 28, 2025
The Shadow After the Song
We often want the "days after" Christmas to be filled with the lingering smell of incense and the soft glow of the manger. But today's Gospel from Matthew shatters that peace. We are confronted with a terrifying reality: the miracle of the Incarnation is immediately followed by a shadow. While we were singing carols, a tyrant was trembling in his palace, and his fear led to the unthinkable—the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem.
Matthew tells us of the weeping of Rachel, a voice heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation. This is the "day after" for many in our world. It is the realization that God coming into the world does not immediately erase human cruelty or the existence of deep, piercing grief. Joseph wakes up to a nightmare, forced to take his young family and flee as refugees into Egypt to escape Herod’s sword.
Why do we include this dark chapter in our Christmas celebration? Because the Bible is honest about the world we actually live in. It tells us that God did not choose to enter a sanitized, perfect world, but a world where children are at risk, where families are forced to flee, and where mothers weep for those who "are no more."
It's a great question to ask: What happened after the big events of the Bible? After the miracle of the Ark, Noah stepped out into a world of mud and loss. After Lazarus was raised, he still lived in a land occupied by Rome. The people of the Bible had to contend with the fact that even though God had broken into their lives, the struggle of human existence continued. They had to pick up the pieces and keep going, carrying the memory of the miracle through the valley of the shadow.
If you are here today feeling like the "holiday cheer" doesn't match the weight in your heart, you are in the right place. You are standing with Rachel; you are walking with the Holy Family on the road to Egypt. The hunger to know "what happens next" is what drives us to seek God even when the angels have stopped singing. We seek the One who, as Hebrews says, "shared our flesh and blood" so that he might destroy the power of death and free those held in slavery by fear.
The greatest hope in the days after the slaughter and the flight to Egypt is that the story does not end in the shadow. God’s presence saved them then, and His presence is here now. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us—not just for the peaceful nights, but for the terrifying ones too.
Praise God for the courage to show up today. We know that the story is still being written, and we know that no matter how dark the shadow, the Light of the world cannot be overcome.
May this sermon bless and inspire you today!
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