For the next 4 Sundays we are going to be spending our time preparing for Christmas by becoming familiar with those people God invited to be at his son’s birth. When God decided the time was right, he birthed his son in the flesh to be Immanuel - "God with us" and when he did he sent out some Birth announcements - because God wanted and desired.
Particular types of people to be the first to see the Christ-child.
But unlike the typical recipients of such announcements -
Grandma’s/Grandpa’s
Aunts/Uncles
Co-workers
Neighbors and friends
God invited and encouraged a Wild Card Prophet, some Star-loving spiritually sensitive Magi, some dirty-night shift working shepherds and a humble quiet girl named Mary.
As I began to plan out these next 4 weeks about 6 weeks ago - the fact that God notified,
John the Baptist
The Magi or Wise Men
The Shepherds
And Mary to be present when Jesus became flesh began to cause my mind to turn.
Would I have invited such a cast to the Skagit Valley Hospital Maternity Ward? "Hey Deb - now that you’ve just spent 6 hours birthing Luke, Ben and Emma - I rounded up some people to come and see our newborn child."
Deb - this camel hair wearing, locust and honey eating man is John the Baptist.
And Honey - the robed wearing, jewel encrusted men whose camels you hear outside are wise men - we need some wisdom right now.
Sweet Pea - stick with me now. There are some shepherds in the hallway that I’ve invited. Once you get past their looks and their smell - you’ll be glad they’re here.
And my love - "I also have a teenaged girl in the hallway Mary - I wanted her to see our child."
If these 4 people or groups of people would have joined our celebrations at the hospital having been invited by me - you can be sure that I would have heard about it from Deb and our anxious grandparents.
When you think about.
As you imagine your own nativity scene at home isn’t it odd that these people were not just present but invited and pursued by our God to be the first to see his Son.
God was intentional in getting the news to them.
God was selective in who heard and how they heard.
God wanted
Had a plan.
Had a reason for these people.
To be present at the birth of his son Jesus.
Some of you right now are wanting to correct me on my Bible right now but I realize that John the Baptist wasn’t in Bethlehem at the birthing of Christ - I’m not trying to write that into our Bibles, but I have chosen to clump him in with the Wise Men
Shepherds and
Mary because he was the first one to confirm to both his mom Elizabeth and to Mary that the baby within her was indeed as Gabriel said.
John in a sense was awaiting and affirmed the birth of Jesus just as the other 3 did.
These 4 - John
The Magi
The Shepherds
And Mary along with some others formed a community of people.
A Christmas community or as our 4 week message series is called - A Christmas Presence for the baby Jesus.
They were a presence.
A group of adoring eyes.
A group of loving hearts and receptive hands to the miracle of the Christ-child being given to us.
They were a presence and each of them in their own unique way brought to the baby Jesus a gift/a present. This is what we will be exploring together in the weeks to come.
As I have had time to ponder each of these people present in Bethlehem, I believe they can represent something inside of each of us.
We’d like to tell people how it is.
There’s a lot of John in many of us.
Most of us here have a wild card side.
Most of here - would call ourselves religious or spiritual and see our faith as a long journey - following God’s lead - like the Wise Men.
Each of us here - have felt at time like we don’t really belong here. We can identify with the Shepherds. We’ve stayed away from here perhaps because we felt like we weren’t
Good enough
Humble enough
Or loving enough.
We have been so full of shame over
Divorce
Debt
Cussing out our spouse
Or cheating on our taxes that we feel like we aren’t worthy to be invited. Any shepherds here?
And every once in a while we may feel like a Mary - completely caught off guard by our God who has communicated to us that we are favored
Chosen
Loved very dearly.
It is my belief that the 4 - that God himself invited to be the Christmas Presence for his son Jesus are alive and well within each of us and so like them I invite you to journey with them to Bethlehem - You’ve been invited. You as you are. No matter your beliefs, behavior, past, present, no matter what - you are invited. But also I want to tell you right now so are your friends.
You friends and my friends need to hear this story. They need to realize that God the Father invites wild outsiders, humble teenagers, spiritual seekers and night shift working people to come.
God must not be concerned with germs or protocol for the Bible makes it clear that all - each of us - each one of our friends is invited to be part of the Christmas Presence welcoming Jesus into the world.
So with that, let’s jump in by looking at John the Baptist.
The Bible tells us quite a bit about John. He had a dad named Zechariah and mom named Elizabeth. Each were from prominent religious families. Zechariah being in the top third of the priestly orders to serve in the temple and Elizabeth’s family ancestry traceable all the way to the greatest Priest in Israel’s history, Aaron.
John grew up in this environment. Privileged. Educated. Clothed. House. Fed. Part of a quite honorable family and yet he himself was almost never born. His parents couldn’t conceive. They were infertile. They were old. Yet God heard Zechariah’s and Elizabeth’s prayer and they gave birth to John.
The texts tell us that John left his privilege life. His comfortable setting. He turned his back on it and walked into the wild. He left.
Luke 1:80 "The child grew and became strong in spirit and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly."
John long before he acquired the nickname the Baptizer - was pre-eminently one who sought to be with our God. He himself was growing into the faith of his parents. And his parents let him.
Luke 3 reads, "The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert." (v. 26)
Though away from the temple.
The tradition
The songs and prayers.
Though distant from the religious routine John grew in his faith in the wild and when the time was right re-emerged to engage the people of his day.
His message Matthew 3:2, "Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near."
Repent - turn
- turn away
- do a 1800 turn
- flee
Repent - because god’s Kingdom is near. And quite surprisingly people did. Verse 5 of Matthew tells us, "People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins. They were baptized by him in the Jordan River."
His message v. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
John was being used by God to prepare a people ready to receive their King. John was tilling the ground. Making people aware.
Waking people up to the reality that they had to prepare themselves for the one coming after him.
I see John doing 3 things.
First he called the people out.
Where was John? In the desert.
In the wilderness.
He was away from town.
Away from the city.
He had removed himself from all those distractions and it was from there - out in the wild that he spoke. And people went out to him. They went to hear him.
John prepared people for Jesus’ arrival by first calling them out and away from their routine. Their familiar. He called them into the wild.
This wasn’t new. In fact this isn’t new. When you and I get away from the phone.
The computer.
The house chores.
The projects.
Our jobs.
Our routines.
We become sensitive to what has been present and available to us all along. We become familiar anew with the One who longs to be with us.
When we get away.
Go out.
Remove ourselves from our normal - we often feel God.
Hear God
Or in the least become sensitive to Him. But often it takes getting out.
Going out.
John the Baptist can help us to prepare for Jesus arrival - if we take the time to push ourselves away from the TV specials.
The shopping malls
Even the Christmas concerts.
These may tell the story or help you celebrate it, but if you want to encounter the One about whom these centers on - get out.
Go and sit in your yard.
Get lost in the woods.
Unplug the phone, TV, radio for the day.
And hear John saying - come out.
John’s second role with the people was to invite them to get in - come in - get in.
John’s ministry took place in the Jordan River. Asking people to repent of their wrongdoing.
Their attempts to live life on their own.
John said, "Come - Get in this water - confess your sins." His baptism was a "baptism of repentance." (Mark 1:4) An act of getting into the waters-immersing oneself in them as an action of being cleansed.
An act of renewal.
It was an act not done after promising to God that they would be better next time.
It was an act not entered into because the people now knew how they should live after hearing John’s preaching.
No - this wasn’t an act.
It wasn’t an action about promising God the future.
It was an act giving oneself to God in the now, in the present - thereby making oneself open and available to God for the future.
When John invited people to get in the Jordan River, to be immersed and washed over by it- their past was no longer their primary identity - they had been made new.
Many of us at Christmas live unduly influenced by the past. We seek to bring our past or re-make an unpleasant past into something grand at Christmas time.
Traditions can be great.
Traditions can be quite important.
But we are not to immerse ourselves in these. John speaking to his religious audience says
Immerse yourself.
Surrender yourself into the now.
You are forgiven.
You are clean of the past.
You are free to live anew.
How much more free.
How much more alive would each of us become if we heard God’s invitation to be free from all that weighs us down.
The sin that so easily entangles
The temptations that trip us up.
How much more receptive would we be for the One who is coming if we would hear John’s invitation to live in God’s grace.
God’s grace.
Live knowing God’s favor.
Living within God’s gift - his free gift.
His no strings attached gift of his love.
What if we took John’s invitation to get in seriously enough to begin to believe all the things God says about us rather than those things that others have said. What if?
Jump in. Jump in.
John does one final thing to prepare the people for Jesus’ arrival. Or if it wasn’t John, it was reality. After John invited the people to Get Out and Away from and then to Get in - immersed in the goodness of God. They all had to Go Back to reality.
Go back to live - in their homes.
Among their friends.
Surrounded by their bills, jobs, etc.
And yet they went back as changed people. As prepared people. Ready to receive their King. How do I know? Well by the 34th verse of Mark 1 - "the whole town is at the door" waiting for Jesus. By Matthew 4:25, "Large crowds from Galilee, The Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan followed him."
By Luke 4:36, "All the people were amazed." And by John 4:39, "Mary of the Samaritans believed."
John had been used by God to prepare a people ready to receive their King.
Will you allow him to do the same for you?
Hear John’s invitation - come out - come in - go back.
Get out.
Get in.
And then go back.
Get out of your routine.
Leave for an hour.
Hide your to do list.
Get away from it.
Get in - Get into becoming present/alive/made and re-made anew as a child of God.
Friends our sins are forgiven.
Get into that.
Get that in your mind.
And then God Back - Go back to your house, job, spouse, kids ready to celebrate Christ. Joining with John, the Magi, the Shepherds and Mary in Becoming a Christmas Presence for our newborn King.
Story of cello at the Orchestra Concert.
Amen.
