Jan. 16, 2011 Matthew 2:1-12 C & Z “Let’s Go to the Dump”
Well here we are again starting out a new year. It seems to me that I just got used to writing 2010 and now I have to start writing 2011. This is a time of year when we look back at all the blessings that we had this past year. I realize that there are some of you who have had a rather hard time this past year. Try to remember that we can find something good in most any situation. Sometimes it takes us awhile, but I’m sure that we can find something. But we not only look back but we also look forward. Experts tell us that we shouldn’t make New Year’s resolutions because we might fail. I disagree. I think everyone should make resolutions. Then look at them during the year and see how you are doing. You can always make adjustments. The one thing that will almost always happen is that you will fail to achieve at least one of your resolutions and sometimes you will fail them all. This is ok. We are not perfect beings. We will fail. I have been making resolutions for years and I fail every year on many of them. One that always comes to mind is that I will lose 10 lbs. this year. Look at me. Does it look like I have lost 10 lbs? I fail but I will put that back on my list again for this year. Who knows? This just might be the year that it becomes important enough for me to actually do it. Anyway, this is the time of year of new beginnings. In our Scripture this morning we also have a new beginning. The Magi come to find the new born King of the World. Let’s see if they can help us to find our own new beginnings.
As we begin, I want us to remember that in those early days it was a man’s world. I have heard this story many times, in different variations and it asks the question, “What would have happened if the wise men were actually women?” Well, first of all, if they had been women, they wouldn’t have arrived many months after Jesus was born because they would have stopped to ask for directions. They would have been there on time and they would have cleaned up the place so Jesus wouldn’t have to be born in a barn. And finally, they would have brought more practical gifts which would have included a casserole so the family would have something to eat. Seriously, we really don’t know very much about these wise men.
We don’t even know if there were three or not. We only assume that there were three because they brought three gifts. I have done a little reading on this and we basically only know what was written in our text. We don’t know how far they traveled. We don’t know where they came from. We don’t know exactly when they arrived. We don’t even know if they were kings or sages or scientists, or race car drivers. We don’t know a thing about them.
About all we do know about them is that they brought some pretty fancy gifts. They brought gifts that were fit for a king. First of all they brought gold. I really don’t need to say much about this because we all know about gold. It is fitting for a king. They also brought him frankincense which was an expensive incense used in worship services. So they brought Him a gift worthy of a priest, a high priest. They also brought Him myrrh which was a nice, strong, expensive fragrance used in the burial process. It would be like an embalming fluid of sorts. What a strange gift to bring for a little baby!
Whoever these people were and wherever they came from, they came in faith. They were some of the most faithful people we read about in the Bible. No one knows anything about them although there is a lot of speculation. They came and brought expensive gifts. Then they left without a trace. They vanished and no one hears from them again. God had to be in charge of these guys, because they had the faith that Abraham had. Do you remember that story? God told Abraham to leave his home and travel far away to a land that he knew nothing about. This is exactly what he did and God blessed him richly for obeying Him.
Even a better example of faith is the story of Noah. I mean, here was a guy who was just a regular type of guy and God comes to him and tells him to build this boat that is the size of a football field. You can talk of people of faith all you want but Noah ranks right up there with the most faithful.
We can even see faith in the disciples. Some of these guys were fishermen. They knew nothing else. A stranger comes to them and says follow me and that is exactly what they did. They followed. They left behind their livelihood. They left behind their family and friends. They left it all and followed God.
Even Sharon and I have some faith although it doesn’t compare to any of these people. Did you know that if I had stayed at the Post Office, I would be able to retire next month? I would be miserable and unhappy, but retired. Instead we followed God and we have been blessed beyond anything we could ever imagine. God has been so good to us.
Now comes the time when I am going to turn the question back on you. Are you faithful? Are you doing what God wants you to be doing? I have a feeling that there are many of us, and I include myself in this, who could be doing more by listening a little better. I don’t expect you people to stand up here and be pastors. But I think that God does expect that you go to your neighbors and help. He expects you to invite people to hear His word. He expects you to be here every Sunday, bringing in new people.
However, I really don’t think that God is that interested in our church and here is what I mean. He is more interested in all the neighbors we have who don’t know Him. He is more interested in all the people around us who are being told false doctrine about Him. He is concerned that the children in our schools will have no God to turn to so they end up in the wrong place. It is up to us to spread the Good News in our neighborhoods. We do this by using our gifts. If we can’t speak in public that good then we need to demonstrate the love of Jesus. And no matter what we do, we should be praising Jesus. This includes and should be mandatory when we are in public. You all know that I am a firm believer in public prayer. People will never know what they are missing unless we show them our faith. Let’s see if we can have some of the faith of these wise men.
The second thing I want to bring up about the wise men is that they came here to worship. This is probably the most important thing that we need to know about these guys. Nothing else matters except that they came from afar to worship a new born king. We don’t know how much God told them at the beginning of their journey. These wise men might have been Jewish people who had not come back from the exile. They might have been waiting for a lifetime to see the prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilled.
These fellows also made quite a sacrifice to come here. They didn’t just jump in a car or plane to get here. They came from a distance so it would have been a long walk or ride on an animal. They sacrificed a chunk of time in their lives to come here. The gifts that they brought cost a lot of money so they sacrificed money to come here. They also sacrificed being comfortable in their homes. They probably came by camel which probably wasn’t that comfortable. Hopefully, they had camels with two humps so they could ride between them as it would seem to be a little more comfortable than to ride atop one hump. Anyway, the point is that they sacrificed quite a bit to come here to worship.
If we take a look at our worship in the modern world, I think we might be surprised to find that, often times, there isn’t a lot of worship. In order to be truly worshipping, we need to give ourselves totally to God, 100%. I may be all wrong here and it would be nice if I was, but I think that many come to church for the sake of coming to church. Many people come and don’t have that relationship with Jesus yet and that is ok. They are working on it. But there are also many people who think that know Jesus and are only trying to earn their way to heaven. These are the people who don’t know how to worship because they cannot give themselves totally to God. These are the people who have wormed their way into leadership positions in the local and national churches who believe in things that aren’t in the Bible. These are the people who are leading many others down the wrong path. This is the path that will lead to destruction, eternal damnation.
Now I know that we have these kind people among us but that isn’t the really sad part. We, as a denomination, have these people and we always will have them. But we have forgotten others; those who have no religion. They don’t know any god. They come to our doors once or twice a year. They can only worship what they see. These are the ones who need worship, need God. I think we should be putting all our efforts into reaching these people. We should be able to invite someone at least once a month. If we start to do that then God will do the rest. And when God is working with us, great things will happen. They will happen because we will be like the wise men and we will fall down and worship God.
If we can just have the faith of these wise men and come together in true worship like we usually do, then the last thing that happens to the wise men will happen to us also. The wise men came and worshipped Jesus, gave Him their gifts and they left. Notice that they didn’t leave the way they came. Herod was out to destroy any person who would be king. He wanted to destroy Jesus so his problem of a new king could be eliminated. God had sent a dream to the wise men about this and they changed their route for the return trip. They saw Jesus and were changed. God took them back to where ever they came from by a safe route. These men had been faithful and God had taken care of them. He changed their lives.
This is what God is so good at. He changes our lives. Now I know that most of the people in this country don’t need to change their lives. After all, we have lots of money to take care of everything. Some people have power so they can do whatever they want. Some people are famous and need no help. As a whole this country is too rich to really appreciate what God has done and will do. The church grows the fastest in areas where there is not a lot of money. There are many who need change.
Then again, I look out at all you people. I see people who have been changed by God. I see people who raise crops or livestock or just work and know the value of loving God. And many of you also know that God doesn’t just change us when we first come to love Him. He changes us even after we have been following Him for years so that we can use different gifts for His glory. He changed me many years ago after I had been rolling along and following Jesus for some period of time. Then one day He said to me, “John, I want you to go out to Calvary and Zion and be their pastor.” I came to the manger with gifts and worship and He told me to take a different route home. He has blessed this old postal worker beyond what I can tell you. All I can say is that if He tells you to do something; then do it! If you don’t think you can, just go ahead and do it anyway because He will equip you. He will equip you and bless you richly.
Don’t ever be afraid to do what Jesus tells you. The wise men came and went due to what God told them. Marilyn Murphree tells the story of a group of people who followed Jesus right to the dump. There was a priest and his church located in a Texas border town. Right across the border in Mexico was a town where there was dire poverty and despair. The town had a huge dump and people lived in this dump. This is how they survived. They dug through this foul smelling stuff to find food and things to sell for money. The people of the church decided to help these very poor people so they began to bring them sack lunches at the dump. This ministry kept going for some time. Then they realized that it would take more than aid to help these people. Maybe our government should learn from this. So they decided to work alongside these people digging through the trash on appointed days. Soon they became like brothers and sisters to them. It was quite a sight. These people from the church had faith in Jesus and they gave up their safety as they were exposed to diseases like tuberculosis. They had to endure the stench of the dump. They had to suffer the indignity of being part of the “dump family.” But as they did this they found that slowly but surely these people were responding to their kindness and it wasn’t long before the people of the dump began to receive Jesus as the one who was really caring for them. The people who lived in the dump were changed and so were the ones who were ministering to them. This was a situation where everyone won.
Jesus wants everyone to win. He wants everyone to spend eternity with Him. Don’t be afraid to look around to see if you can find any people who live in a dump. When you do and you minister to them, they will also minister to you. Jesus loves all of us, even those we consider to be the least. Follow Him and you will be richly blessed. Praise the Lord. Let’s pray.
