"becoming Who We Are"

“Becoming Who We Are”

Matthew 2:1-12

What a journey it must have been for those who first followed that star.

For they had, no doubt, risked their fortunes and their reputations to travel so far --- only to have their purposes nearly foiled and their lives threatened by a paranoid ruler.

For they had traveled to see royalty and they were led to kneel before a young boy born of poor parents in a backwater town.

They must have thought about and talked about this particular journey for the rest of their lives.

They had bowed down and worshipped Jesus—the One True God.

Then, they had opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

And then there was the dream…

…they had been warned not to go back to Herod and so they went home by another route.

What if they had ignored the dream?

What if they had gone back to Herod anyway?

Sometimes I think about how often I ignore the warnings of God or even the callings of God.

I mean, when I am faced with a moral dilemma…

…When I am at a crossroads where I have to make a decision about what to do…

…do I do it Ken’s way or God’s way?

Do I take the selfish route…

…or the easy route?

Do I give in to temptation and sin even when I know there is a different way, a better way—God’s way?

Do I fail to reach out to those who could benefit from a loving reply, an empathetic ear, a box of food, some money…perhaps…

…because it is not convenient for me to help…

…do I cross over to the other side and keep going, so to speak, like the priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan?

Or do I take up my Cross and follow Christ into the uncomfortable, the difficult, the risky, the costly?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “The Cost of Discipleship” writes: “Costly grace is…

…costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.

It is costly because it costs a person their life, and it is grace because it gives a person the only true life.

It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.

Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son…and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.

Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us.

Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

The Incarnation of God, is, of course, God becoming One of Us.

God experiencing our sorrows, our difficulties, our temptations.

God going to the Cross and dying the death we deserve in order to save us.

That is costly grace—it Cost God Everything to save us…

…But God wouldn’t have had it any other way…

…for God so loved the world.

Is there anything more beautiful?

Is there anything that sparks more hope in our hearts than this?

Even though the past year was so dark, and even though we continue into 2021 in the same darkness…

…there is hope.

There is a reason to rejoice!

There is a reason to get up in the morning!

For God so loves you; for God so loves me!

And this reminds me of another quote from Bonhoeffer: “God loves human beings.

God loves the world.

Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world.

Those [we might] find repulsive….

…those [we might] shrink back from with pain and hostility...

…this is for God the ground of unfathomable love.”

And so, when we look upon other humans, no matter who they are, no matter what they are doing, no matter how obnoxious they may act…

…can we remember how much God loves them?

And if so, can we learn to love them as well?

And if we, perhaps, look upon ourselves and find things that are repulsive and disgusting and painful and hostile to God…

…can we learn to love ourselves despite these things…

…just because, God love us despite these things?

God’s grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.

And in following Jesus Christ we find life.

We find meaning.

We find love…

…love for God, love for self, love for others…

We find out who we are and Whose we are.

And we become Who we are ultimately meant to be.

And so, I find myself thinking of those wise men, those magi, who traveled nearly two years after they first saw the star, and I find myself wondering about what stirred in their hearts to cause them to risk so much…