2024-01-02
Brooke Strong
Sermon Text...
Sermon December 31, 2023 – First Sunday in Christmas
Federated Church UCC
Matthew 2:1-12
Rev. Betsy C Wooster
Matthew 2:1-12
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men* from the East came to Jerusalem, 2asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising,* and have come to pay him homage.’ 3When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah* was to be born. 5They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
6 “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd* my people Israel.” ’
7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men* and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ 9When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising,* until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw that the star had stopped,* they were overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
Let us pray:
Gracious God, as we gather together to worship you on the cusp of a new year, may your word be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Amen.
“For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.” These are the words that the Magi use to describe what has drawn them to Judea, to the town of Bethlehem. “His star,” they say. A star of Jesus twinkling in the deep night sky so brilliantly that these three travelers saw it shining in Persia, and knew what they had found when they saw it. They knew this was the star to follow, so as the astronomers that they were, they followed the star as their only map, trusting that it would bring them to the baby king. It was this particular sign they had been watching for and they had traveled a very long way to reach the culmination of their journey:
The star stopped over the place where Jesus lay, a newly born baby, in a manger, with his weary, yet joyful parents by his side. The story of the Magi traveling to meet the baby Jesus offers vivid images that bring it to life. In fact, I think that all art, whether paintings, like the one on our screen now, or music, or poetry can change the way that we see and experience the world. Because of the story, or the song, or the poem, or the painting, we look out upon the world we see every day and find something extraordinary that we missed before. On our recent anniversary trip, Matt and I bought a painting that drew us in. The painter’s gift of showing the bright light of snow surrounding a stream running through the woods stopped me in my tracks.
It looked just like the woods our family used to hike through in winter when we were kids. But it wasn’t just that it looked like such a familiar scene. It was the painter’s way of creating the light that shone through everything else. We were literally drawn into the light. We had it shipped from Canada, and after we’d traveled home, we waited somewhat impatiently until it finally arrived. One day, a week or two after we hung it on our wall, I was looking out our living room window and suddenly began to see the bright blue shadows created on the snow in our front yard.
Suddenly I was seeing the same light, trees, and snow of the painting. It caught my breath. I even turned around to look at the painting to make sure I wasn’t making it up. But no, it was real. The painting I was looking at was a rendering of the miracle of nature in my front yard. Now, I have looked upon snow all of my life, and always loved it. But this was different. This was beauty I had never taken in before. I was seeing the light in a way that I might not have if the artist of that painting had not noticed sunlight shining through trees onto snow and rendered it so well on canvas.
There are signs in the world that are drawing you toward God, just as that bright star drew the magi. I hope that their story of following the star, rendered so well in scripture, will help us to see the signs that God gives to each of us, inviting us and drawing us closer to God. The gospel of Matthew contains the only account of the visit by the Magi, and in the twelve verses of this account there’s actually very little about the infant Jesus and the gifts that they give to him. Most of the account is about Herod, who was the King appointed by the Roman Empire to rule over the southern region of Israel, including Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
His rule is questioned, however, when these magi arrive in Jerusalem asking about a newborn king of the Jews. King Herod views this question as a threat. Herod is king of the Jews. So how can there be a question about a newborn king of the Jews? Right away, the life of Jesus calls into question the powers that seek to rule our lives. What does that look like in our lives? What kinds of powers, what kinds of shiny objects, hold sway over our lives, influencing our choices, demanding our attention, bending us to their own ends? Whatever those powers are, it is Jesus who is named king who will dismantle their claims over us, and the powers are right to realize that.
King Herod was the power of his day. What are the powers that bend our lives? What forces drive us to our achievements and successes? What do we follow just because it shines brightly and grabs our attention, but in the end doesn’t take us anywhere?
How often are we acting from a place of insecurity, a deep fear that we may not actually be lovable, or that we may not actually be worthy of the blessings of these lives that we lead? We may seek to prove that we are lovable, and in the place of love we take instead a job title and salary, or attention on social media, or we collect stories and photographs of where we’ve been and what we’ve seen. And, of course, none of those things are inherently wrong.
It is wonderful to explore places and experience wonder and joy, and it is wonderful to do good work and to do it well, and it is a gift to have rich interpersonal relationships that use social media to keep in touch, and it is a joy to gather our family photos and stories, when all of these come from a foundation of God’s love.
When we begin with the reign of Jesus over our lives, knowing ourselves to be loved without condition, then no other power will control us. But when we give power to anything else, when our commitments to other schedules or ambitions or enjoyments become more demanding on us than the love of God, then we have a rival king.
Pope Francis once preached on Epiphany Sunday about rival stars instead of rival kings. He said that "Some stars may be bright, but do not point the way. So it is with success, money, career, honors and pleasures, when these become our lives."
At the beginning of a new year, I can tell you that the way to break the power of a rival star or a rival source of power is not by the exertion of your own will-power. The way to break it is to go and visit Jesus. The Magi go to Jesus. They follow the light, and then the Spirit of God takes it from there. They are warned in a dream not to return to King Herod, and so they go home by another way. Once you have gone to Jesus, you can trust the Spirit to lead you along a different way.
Once you have gone to Jesus, once Jesus has raised us in the love and grace of God which is unconditional, once Jesus has raised us from the graves we dig for ourselves, once Jesus has raised us out of the patterns and habits that are just skimming the surface of what is real and meaningful, then it won’t be hard to go a different way; God will lead you. It is God, the master painter, who creates the light that shines through everything else. Jesus grew up and had disciples, and he said to them, “come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
So, Come, all who are weary of the pressures that hold power,
weary of the old hurts that hold power, weary of the insecurity that holds power. Come to Jesus, and go on in your life by a different way. For most people, it doesn’t happen in one instance. Most of us don’t have a single come-to-Jesus moment. The process of following a different way is gradual, it happens over weeks and years, and over these years we keep coming back to Jesus to center our lives.
Let’s you and I make this a year of going to Jesus and discovering with prayer and openness of heart how it is that being loved by Jesus makes our lives different. Amen.