First Sunday of Advent
November 30, 2008
 
 
  Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 21, 2008
 

First Sunday After Christmas
December 28, 2008
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Instructions for Advent Monologues
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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January 4, 2009—Second Sunday after Christmas

Lectionary Texts: Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 147:12-20; Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:1-18

Sermon Text: Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-11

Jesus Has Come!

When I was a young child, we lived in Cadillac, Mich., which was about five hours from my grandparents, who lived in Chicago. Five hours now, as an adult, doesn’t seem like a long distance to travel, but for a five-year-old, it seemed like the other side of the world. That made their arrival that much more special. Just knowing they were coming would have me glued to our front window watching anxiously for their 1961 mint green Oldsmobile 98. We lived down the end of a country road, with not many living farther out than us, so any activity would raise my level of excitement, until the right car finally arrived.

My mom would try to help by telling me they were still miles away, and that if I went to play she would call me when the time of their arrival was closer. There wasn’t much she could do, however, to drag me away from that window.

Have you ever anticipated the arrival of anyone like that? We’ve just come through a time of the Church year when we have anticipated, and celebrated, the coming of our Lord. Christmas has come and gone, what happens now that the hype is over?

I am not sure about your family’s traditions, but around our home New Year’s Day marks the time for all of our Christmas décor to come down. The tree, lights, nativity set, everything that marked the expectant arrival of Christmas and the Christ disappeared in a four hour period of frenzy. As much fun as the decorations were to put up, it just wasn’t nearly as much fun taking them down and repacking them for their long 11 months of hibernation. “See you next Thanksgiving,” was our cry as we put the boxes away and settled into another cold January. So for most of us, our decorations are down, school has started or will begin soon, vacations are over, and we sit in anticipation of the bills from our excessive spending during the holiday celebrations. Here comes life.

It’s in the midst of this that we can be reminded again, that the Christ has come for us. He hasn’t come to us just during the celebration of the holidays, but He is here for the normal, everyday, routine of our lives. It’s into that kind of world that we land in our text for today.

Read Matthew 2:1-12

Tradition has it that the story found in Matthew 2:1-11 happened as long as two years after the birth of Jesus. Just like the time of year we now find ourselves, the hype was gone. Jesus is most likely a toddler, tearing things up around the house like any other two-year-old would do. Anything breakable has been raised beyond the reach of this growing child. Mary and Joseph are beginning to live with the reality of raising the Son of God, Savior of the world. Maybe Mary is pregnant with number two. Who knows for sure? What we do know, is that day-in, day-out living for the parents of Jesus had begun. The reality of raising a child was in full-swing. Normalcy has set into the home of Mary and Joseph. It’s to this picture--this normal home with a toddler and regular parents--that these strange figures, star gazer, astrologers, show up. Nothing for them had been normal as they made their western sojourn.

These are people who are waiting for a new word. Like we find in Isaiah 60:2, darkness is dominating the world, but the light has come, and if it’s here, they want a piece of it. The calling for the people to rise and shine, recognizing that their light has come, is the new word everyone has been waiting for. But what exactly does that mean?

This is the continuing story of a God who is initiating a relationship with us. We’ve seen throughout the Christmas narrative in both Luke and Matthew that God is seeking to make himself known. Let’s review briefly today how this story of Christmas unfolds in some dramatic ways.

God approaches a teenage girl, whom scholars say is no older than 14. God then approaches a man, engaged to marry a woman now pregnant with the “Son of God.” That’s a new one. He proceeds to approach a group of frightened, lonely shepherds, who will serve as the first group of witnesses to the birth of this new King. Odd to choose a set of people who’s character is so questionable that their testimony isn’t even credible in court. Yet, that’s how God works, is it not?

And yet, these people are blind. Jesus would later call them “sheep without a shepherd.” They weren’t finding help within the religious system, there was no hope among politicians, and their oppression continued as it had for the past 450 years. It’s into this ordinary, normal world that God steps in and journeys with humanity. It’s into this ordinary, normal world that an ordinary, normal home houses the King of Kings. It’s into this ordinary, normal home that scholars from afar are drawn.

It appears that they are seeking Him, doesn’t it? In reality, it’s just another example of Him seeking out us. God is again initiating the relationship with us. He places parents in a stable, a baby in a manger, angel choirs on the hillsides, and a star in the sky. He makes donkeys talk, axe heads float, bushes burn, lamps that don’t consume oil, puts flesh on dry bones, lights a star that lead for over a year, and saves His best work for restoring things that are broken.

We call this grace. In our tradition, we call it prevenient grace: God making the first move. That’s an epiphany if I’ve ever seen one! That’s a sight that we can see and experience.

This move that God makes toward us not only calls for a response, but requires a response: we can’t help but respond. It’s a move we can’t get away from. We see this lived out in the three groups in this text.

First there’s Herod, the wimp. He is so afraid of a child he has an entire region of male toddlers slaughtered. He was concerned with what this child would do to his life--too much interference. He might lose his position, his seat of power. If that happens, he also loses his ability to influence, because power and control is how we influence others, right? He liked throwing his weight around, and no child on his watch was going to ruin that for him and his sons. Know anyone who’s more concerned with position and placement than they are sacrifice and denial?

Take a look at the group of religious men surrounding Herod, the “chief priests and teachers of the Law.” This is the church board of the day. They couldn’t care less. Their response is complete indifference. They were so wrapped up on their Temple duty, their allegiance to the task at hand, that they didn’t have time to deal with this child from Bethlehem, or wherever he is from. They are so consumed with their own affairs, their own sense of importance, that they don’t give the time of day to Jesus. He means nothing to them.

Then there is the last group in this story, the wise men. It’s no wonder we still talk about them; they are the first true “spiritual seekers.” They have a choice: stay home or journey after this sign. A journey like this couldn’t make any sense then or now. There are always roadblocks along the way made up of doubters, the powerful, and the indifferent. In the end, like the wise men found, journeys like this always lead to life and worship.

This passage gives a new message of hope. It shows a God who makes the first move, always in our direction. And it demands a response, one way or the other. There is no middle ground on this one. We either journey, work to stop others who are journeying, or just don’t give a rip. Either way, a choice is made.

Just like them, it demands a response from us as well. This is a God who isn’t just about engaging our lives during the “holidays,” but wants to walk through life with us in the routine, the struggles, the not so good days, the Januarys of life.

Where do we find ourselves today? Too concerned about what this baby might cost us? Indifferent to the life this child can enable us to live? Or genuinely seeking to know Him more and worship Him. God still calls, how will we respond?