Dark Christmas
Matthew 2:1-12
Well, like Christmas, this “perspective series” is coming to an end. I hope that won’t mean that you feel like you can put what you have heard away in a box, like decorations, until next Christmas.
The Christian point of view is just not that way. Christians see Christmas as the beginning of something that has not yet reached a conclusion.
The birth of Jesus the Christ is not a party that expires like eggnog or something that we get tired of like the neighbor that leaves up their decorations all year around. Christmas is something that we should live year around. It is not an event, it is a way of life, a life that lives knowing that God is with us.
Right now much of our culture has hit the bottom of the Christmas excitement. They feel a combination of relief and perhaps a little disappointment. Maybe we feel some of that too.
Our Christmas celebration should be a time of renewal of our faith. It is an event that holds a fond place in our lives. Every year we get a reminder that God demonstrated his love for creation in coming into our world.
As we celebrate Christmas we are reminded of Christ presence and he can be born and reborn in our hearts as we relive the story each Christmas season. This revival of sorts can change everything for us. It can change our perspective to understand how much God loves us.
When I think of perspective I am reminded of a conversation between a father and his young son. The boy was about 5-6 years old. One spring the boy had asked for a spot in the family garden to call his own. He turned the soil, broke the clumps, and planted his favorite vegetable—corn.
Toward the middle of July, The boy was concerned that his corn was not growing fast enough. The father tried to reassure him that the corn was doing just fine by quoting him a benchmark used by farmers, “knee high by the fourth of July.”
The boy thought for a moment and then ask: “My knees or yours?”
Perspectives are often variable and can be connected to something physical, emotional and spiritual.
Let’s read our scriptures this morning:
Matthew 2:1-12 (NIV)
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: "’But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’"
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
-- From what we read in Matthew, some period of time has passed. Weeks or months perhaps even up to 2 years has gone by since the birth of Jesus.
It seems that things are better for the couple and their child. There is the mention of a house.
This morning we will be looking at the perspective of the Magi.
The Magi are a pretty mysterious group. We don’t know a lot of facts about them although plenty of people have lots of guesses. They guess where they are from, their names, and any number of other traits. Most of what we hear about these foreign visitors falls into the category of educated guesses.
But, there are some things here that we can be sure of because of the scriptures. These men were Gentiles – that is they were not Jews.
These men were astronomers. They were scientist of a sort.
These men were from the East. An area known for soothsaying, and superstitions. Which loosely indicates that they were open to spiritual things and spiritual understanding.
As readers we make some basic assumptions based on the information in the Bible. For example, we normally connect the number of gifts – three to the number magi. We don’t really know how many showed up. If these men are as important as the text seems to indicate, they would have traveled in a caravan with servants and security. There could be more than 3 , we just don’t know for sure.
I have heard it said that we can be absolutely sure that it was only men because the gifts were totally inappropriate for a baby shower. As I think about it the gifts are equivalent of giving cash or a really nice gift card to the family instead of some kind of unique gift.
So they are from the East…We are not sure about where the East really is. The Persian Empire is to the East and because of their past interactions with the Israelites, the Babylonian the captivity these visitors may have a knowledge of the prophesied messiah.
It seems that they have come from far enough away that they can’t explain exactly where to folks that have probably never traveled more than 25 or 100 miles in their lives.
Like when I used to go to New York to work, the people would say “yous are from the South aren’t you?” Tenn, GA FL, did not really matter. My accent, my way of interacting with people was different enough that people just knew that I was not from around there. The South was a good enough description to modern people from NY and NJ.
In this passage these men are referred to as Magi – However the literal meaning of this word is Magician.
The Persian’s Magi were their philosophers and their priests; and nobody would become King unless they had first been to school with the Magi.
So, they were probably not the kind of magician that pulled a lamb out of their hat or did slight of hand tricks.
Their magic would be in knowledge of the stars, the weather, medicine and nature. They also would have accumulated histories from different cultures and probably knew many languages. They were librarians of knowledge and acted as the university and advisors for the leaders in their country.
For the magi the story begins with the appearance of a star, some say a comet, or a conjunction of planets …. What ever it was, it gets their attention and then actually leads them in their journey.
All we really can guess is that the “star” must have been something special. It suddenly appears and it was not expected like Hailey’s Comet. The appearance moves these men to take an extreme action.
Have ya’ll ever seen those big spotlight things that they have at car dealers or grand openings. They shine into the night sky and catch your attention.
When something like that caught your attention did you go and see what was going on?
Today it is normally only minutes out of the way to check it out. In their day it was a hassle to plan and gather the resources and they gifts for a king. This was a big undertaking.
-- I wonder what it would take for us to decide to go to all the trouble that these Wise Men went through?
-- With our resources and knowledge are we open to responding to something special from God?
I imagine the Magi, getting their caravan lined up and some of the merchants of the city come out to watch the excitement.
One asks, so where are ya’ll headed? West
Where in the west? We don’t know.
What are you going for? We are going to see the child that has been born King of the Jews.
How do you know about the child? We saw his star.
I wonder if this action looked foolish to the people of the day.
These “wise men” seem to be doing something rather foolish. They are headed off to a hostile land to offer a diplomatic relationship to a Child…if there is a child.
The journey of the Magi offers us a few things to consider.
First of all it seems that the directions for their trip only come in the evening. The star offers them a direction the head.
Sometimes it seems that we hear best from God when we are in darkness. Perhaps a situation that causes us to focus on our need for God perhaps we are searching for the meaning of something. Or maybe it is a time when worldly distractions are removed and we recognize the directions that God wants us to go.
I have been on spiritual retreats where the outside world was blocked for a time and my focus was devoted to spiritual things, worship, prayer, praise and quiet. In that environment I was able to discern the direction, the unexpected direction God had for my life.
Secondly, the Magi don’t need an exact destination to know that they are on the right track. They understand that they are on a journey and not just a trip.
Christians are also on a journey. We have to remember that our destination is about a relationship and not just a place. -- When we find Christ we are at the beginning of the journey and not the end.
The Magi probably did not have just an easy trip to make. If they came from the East there are mountains to climb and deserts to cross and that is on the good roads.
Christians can expect struggles and exhausting situations in our journey as well. I hate to tell you this, but we grow through struggle and
we mature in darkness.
There is something else that we need to notice about the Magi’s trip. People wanted to use them for their own advantage. Herod wanted them to do the dirty work of locating the special child. Herod wanted information so that he could take care of the competition. Even though he was already 70 years old.
As Christians we will face situations where people will pretend to want to join our quest. They will falsely inquire and question and even walk for a while, just to get things from us. Only God can tell who are genuine and who have other agenda. We can’t let potential misuse of our Christian nature keep us from continuing on our journey.
The perspective that I hope you will allow to influence you this morning is one that our journey to worship our king is one that is only possible with faith.
It is full of unanswered questions and situations. Too many people that you know the idea of a faith journey and depending on God for your direction will seem to make you look foolish.
Let me point out something interesting. The Magi DO NOT worship this star.
They see the sign as a sign. They see this thing that they can only attribute to the hand of some God, as a pointer to something great happening.
They follow the star to Worship a new king!
In our faith journey, what do we worship?
The pastor, heaven forbid.
The building, I hope not.
The music, the prayers or a service?
The perspective of every Christians should reserve worship for one and only Person. Worship belongs to God alone. The wise men worshiped God the son and were satisfied that their journey was worthwhile.
These wise and rich men find a peasant girl in her home with a baby. And hand over things of great value. Gold – a gift for a king, Frankincense – a tool of the priest and Myrrh – a material used for anointing the dead.
The resources were a provision for a family, for the family of the King.
Then they go home another way, responding to a dream. They don’t share with Herod what they had found. Not because they were unsure but because of what they learned from God…a new direction which would lead them home.
The last Christmas perspective that you will attempt to influence you is to realize how dark our culture views the world. They are jaded by our times. The news is bad; fires, assassinations, war and drought are on everyone’s mind.
Christmas was a temporary bright spot for many and now it is gone. So for our gentile population we are on the dark side of Christmas.
However, for Christians the light should not fade.
In fact it should be increased as we re-examine who we are because of this event.
When Immanuel came into the world he as announced to everyone by the light and at the same time he brought a new light into the world. I believe that in a way God is disappointed in the way most people celebrate the birth of Jesus….it is not meant to be a seasonal joy, it is meant to be a joy lasting through a whole journey.
It seems that most of our world are too busy theses days to watch for the signs that God places in the sky. The lights are too bright to see well and just watching the sky is boring compared to all the entertaining things we have.
I know that many people in out community are looking for something. People read fortune cookies in the Chinese restaurant sometimes really seeking meaning in messages. Some wear crystals or other things to attempt to draw on natural power. The book stores have big sections of books to help people find something spiritual in life.
But again, people want to be able to see and feel something. But they don’t know who or what to trust. They don’t know which star to follow. Some choose the people you can read about in the tabloid papers in the checkout line or TV personalities. It does not take long to realize that those lights have problems of their own.
So who should the follow?
I believe that God still sends light into our world to help people on their way to something new and special. But since Jesus came into the world he places his lights on the ground.
As Christians we have the light of God shining from us. It comes from allowing Jesus to live in our hearts. That light shows through us as we simply live with a Christmas perspective. When we let God direct us in our journey.
If we are living with the right perspective we will allow our light to shin for all to see. The good and bad, the rich and poor. The light is something we must be willing to give away because it does not belong to us.
It is a beacon meant to shine and light the way in a dark and confusing world.
The Magi don’t ask are we there yet, they ask where are we headed today?
I hope that can be our perspective today.
All Glory be to God!
Sing - This little light of mine
