Piece of Christmas

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

 Sunday, December 17, 2006

 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Magi. Wisemen. You know, they’re as much a part of the Christmas story as Mary and Joseph. They’re as much a part as the shepherds or King Herod or Caesar Augustus and all of them have one thing in common. We just don’t know that much about them. We just don’t have a whole lot of information about anyone except Jesus and I suppose that’s appropriate, but we really don’t know that much about Mary and Joseph. We don’t know anything about the shepherds. We have a little bit of a historical fact about Caesar Augustus, I suppose. Maybe we know a little bit about Herod, the so-called great. But, in essence, we just don’t know that much.

We really don’t know much about the wisemen or the Magi as they’re called probably more accurately. You know, tradition says there are three of them but that’s probably because scripture mentions three gifts. There could have been 30. There could have been a dozen. Maybe there were only three. But scripture really doesn’t say how many there were. Scripture doesn’t tell us where they came from. It said they came from the east. Well, that could be a lot of places but somewhere in a distant land, they traveled over. We don’t really know about the religious background other than the fact that they weren’t Jews. They weren’t Israelites so they weren’t the followers of the one true God. Some traditions in history say maybe they were priests of their own religious clan. Don’t really know.

All we really know is they traveled a great distance, they must have had some knowledge of the prophecies, and they must have been astrologers because they were watching the stars and they saw the sign that was up in the heavens. And the one other thing I believe we can deduce about them is they were men of hope. They had hope. They hoped they would find a newborn king. They hoped they would witness a history-changing event. The dictionary describes hope as an emotional belief and a positive outcome. Well, the wisemen had to have that. It was more than just an intellectual belief, but it had to go deeper into an emotional belief they would actually see this newborn king. If they didn’t have a hope, why would they traverse such a great distance. Why would they go through the hot days and the cold nights? Why would they leave their home and travel so far away and come into a foreign land unless they had hope in their hearts, an emotional belief they would find and discover this newborn they called King of the Jews.

Maybe that’s why scripture includes the story of the Magi for us. Because Christmas is surrounded by hope, isn’t it? The weeks that lead up to Christmas, isn’t it surrounded by all kinds of hope? You have kids that are hoping they’re going to get the latest Nintendo. I can’t even pronounce it, what do they call it, a Wii? What is that? So when the controller goes through the TV when you throw it, whee, and it cracks, I don’t know. Why do they call it that? Maybe there’s hope for that. Or there’s hope for some other toy or maybe there’s hope for a gift they’ve been waiting for. You have all kinds of hope. You have young men hoping their young ladies will say yes. You have young ladies hoping their young men will ask.

You have other kind of hope, too. You have people in the hospital hoping they’ll be home by Christmas. People who are sick hoping they’ll feel better by the time the family arrives. You have those who are hoping they can just make it through the holiday season because they’re facing it without someone they love.

There are all kinds of hope that surround Christmas and hope is a part of the message of Christmas because God wants to give us hope, more than just an intellectual belief but an emotional belief that God is still with us, God is still among us, God is still guiding and directing our lives.

So maybe we can learn from the wisemen, the Magi. How is it that they hung on to that hope? I think what we discover from the wisemen are two important things. First of all, they paid attention to the signs God provided. Second of all, they paid attention to the scriptures God has given to us. And that resulted in the fact they paid homage to the king. That is, they worshiped the newborn king.

Think about it for a moment. The only one to pay attention to the signs God provided were men from a distant land who didn’t have all the scriptures at hand who really only were looking at the stars and had a clouded idea of the Messiah that was to come. The only ones to pay attention to the signs God had were Magi from the east. I find that strange. I find that hard to believe, that these men would pay attention but yet God’s own people and even the religious leaders of the day paid no attention to the signs God had provided for them. After all, they had all of the prophecies that were written out. They had all of it described as far as the signs of when the coming Messiah would be there. And obviously, they were acquainted with it. When Herod asked the chief priests and the religious leaders, “So where’s the Messiah supposed to come from?” they don’t hesitate. It doesn’t take them a second. They don’t have to do a lot of research. “Well, Bethlehem, of course.” There it is, the prophet, Micah. He’s going to be from the line of David so I guess it makes sense He’s going to come from the City of David, so that’s the place where He’s going to be born. They had all of the information. They had all of the knowledge God has provided throughout history. All of the signs were there. And yet the only ones who paid attention to the signs were the Magi. The only ones that made the seven-mile trek down to Bethlehem were the Magi. Wouldn’t you think even idle curiosity would have gotten the religious leaders in Jerusalem? You have this whole entourage that came in of these men of the east and they’re looking for this newborn king of the Jews, which they identify as the Messiah. They say it’s in Bethlehem. Wouldn’t you think at least idle curiosity, the chief priests, the religious leaders would make a seven-mile trek down to Bethlehem to see what was going on? But they didn’t. They ignored the signs God had put in front of them.

It’s hard for me to understand unless, of course, I look at it this way. For centuries, they had been reading the prophecies of God. Countless generation after generation, they’d been reading about the coming Messiah but the Messiah never came. Could it be that even the religious leaders of the day had become hopeless. They’d lost all hope the Messiah was coming and so they missed the signs.

You and I need to pay attention to the signs. You see, I believe God still gives signs to us every day. He gives signs that He’s still active in our lives, that He’s still a part of our world. You can see it in every day life and you can see it in the lives of other people. I could contend during this time of year, you’d see it more than any other time of year. You can see God active in our world in strange and miraculous ways, as far as I’m concerned. We’ve labeled it “The Christmas Spirit.” But think about the Christmas Spirit. What happens every year, each and every year, right around December and going through to the first of the year? People take on new personalities. People are more generous during this time of year than any other time of year. They’re more caring. They’re more compassionate. Relationships are joined back together and that’s for Christians and non-Christians. That’s for Americans around the world. There’s something different about our world during this time of year. I’m not saying there’s still not evil, there’s still not bad things that happen. We always have that, but you and I have both witnessed there is a difference in the world. They have a choice. The choice is you can just pass it off to sentimentality and let it go at that. You can get cynical about it and say, “Yeah, well, it’s too bad people aren’t like that the other 11 months out of the year,” or you can open your eyes and see it. And see it as God just interacting with our world in a rather dramatic way, God is still involved in our lives, God still gives us a reason to have hope.

You see, now more than ever during this time of year, there is this feeling of generosity and compassion but also there’s a feeling of hopelessness for many people. Open up the eyes and see God still caring about His people, God still active in the lives of this world, God still active in your lives. That gives you hope. Because if God is still involved in our world, then we still have hope. We know there is that positive outcome that we can have an emotional belief in.

Pay attention to the signs. It translates into hope. Pay attention to the scriptures, too. Once again, the only ones who paid attention to the scriptures were the Magi, strange fact as far as I’m concerned. They don’t even have all the scriptures. But when they come to Jerusalem and they find out from Herod and the religious leaders He’s going to be born in Bethlehem, immediately they load up on their camels and they head down to Bethlehem. There’s no hesitation on their part, but no one else goes with them. They had the scriptures. They had God’s Word but they had become immune to it. They had turned a deaf ear to what God was saying to them. But only the Magi go down. But what is the result of that? Because the Magi listened to God’s Word, paid attention to God’s Word, the hopes were realized. They had been hoping forever how many days, maybe months as they made their long journey, hoping, believing they would see this history-changing event, that they’d see this baby and yet they followed the scriptures. They come to Bethlehem. They find the house where Jesus and Mary are at and behold, the babe. Their hope realized because they paid attention to the scriptures.

There’s a temptation for us not to pay attention to the scriptures. Oh, we don’t think of it that way. But in reality, for those of us who have grown up in the church, for every year of our lives that we’ve celebrated Christmas, we’ve heard the Luken account of the birth of Jesus. We’ve heard about the wisemen from Matthew and we know about Joseph and the angel Gabriel. And year after year after year, we’ve heard the prophecies and we’ve read the scriptures and we’ve heard it so many times. Have we become immune to it? Has it lost its meaning? The greatest temptation is we hear the words and they just sort of pass on.

One of the things I love about today at the 9:00 service and 10:30 is watching the kids. You know, they’ve only heard it for maybe two times, three times, four times and so they stand up here all nervous and the microphone is passed to them but when they start telling the story from Luke, their eyes get wide and there’s awe and amazement. You can hear it in the inflection in their voice because it’s new to them. “You mean, God would be born to Joseph and Mary and the shepherds would come and there’s a star in the sky and Magi would travel from the east.” They’re still taking it in. Can you recapture that? Recapture the awe and the wonder as scripture unfolds? Can you pay attention to the words? Pay attention to the words of Gabriel. He comes to Joseph and he says, “It’s okay, Joseph. You can take Mary home to be your wife and she’s going to have a child.” And then Gabriel says to Joseph, “And when she has that child, you’re to give Him the name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Did you hear those words? “Give Him the name Jesus because He’ll save His people,” that’s you and that’s me, “from their sin.” That’s all the things you regret, all the guilt you carry around with you, all of your shame, all of the deeds you wish you hadn’t done, the words you wish weren’t spoken, the thoughts you can’t get out of your head, all those things that when it comes time and you’re face to face with God that sometimes you shudder, He says He’s come to save us from that. This babe that’s born in Bethlehem is going to be the man on Calvary and when He dies there, He dies for all of us. And when He rises up again, it means new life for each one of us. That’s what Gabriel said. Did you hear the words of scripture? Pay attention to the words.

Pay attention to the prophecy and the fulfillment of prophecy and see that God keeps His Word. My Friends, that gives hope. If God is true to His Word, if He was true to His Word, time and time again that the prophecies were given and then the fulfillment of those prophecies come true, then you know you can count on God. You know all His words are true. You know Jesus is the one that’s going to save us from our sin. You know the words are true, that one day we’ll be with Him for an eternity in paradise. That gives us hope. It gives us a certainty, more than just an intellectual belief but an emotional belief that there’s a positive outcome to all of this, that God gives us hope in this world because we’re going to be with Him in the next world. Pay attention to the scriptures.

And then, My Friends, pay homage to the king. Worship the king of all kings. The Magi come to Bethlehem. They see the star appear before them again and scripture says they were overjoyed. Well, that doesn’t quite cut it. It says more than that. Scripture says, if you want to do it literally, they had exceedingly great joy. Now that’s probably not good English, but that’s what it says. They had exceedingly great joy. They weren’t just overjoyed. They were overcome with joy. They were overcome with joy because what they’d been hoping for, they knew they were going to realize, that what they believed in their heart was true, they were going to find this babe in Bethlehem. And when they come through the door, they see Mary and they see Joseph and they see Jesus in her arms, they fall to their knees and they worship Him. In an instant, they realize He’s not just King of the Jews but He’s their king, that Jesus didn’t come just for the Jews but He came for all mankind and He came for all people. And they fall to their knees and they worship Him and they present to Him their gifts as some sort of offering in recognition of what an incredible gift God has given.

Next week, you and I have the opportunity to do just that. There’s an opportunity to come here Sunday morning and Sunday night and pay homage to the king. May I suggest this week that you prepare your hearts for that? Could you take a moment each day, just a moment, and open your eyes to God’s activity, His activity in the world, His activity in your life, get some hope from that? Could you take just a moment a day and pay attention to His Word? If you haven’t already, pick up one of the Advent devotionals and at least for this week, just each day pay attention to God’s Word. So then when you come next week and through the revelation of scripture, you come face to face with the babe in His mother’s arms. In one sense, you’ll hit your knees and you’ll worship God. You’ll open up your mouth and praises will sing forth to God. You’ll open up your heart and you’ll pay homage to the king of all kings, and you’ll know He is the Savior, your Savior. You’ll recognize that God has given the greatest gift, not only the gift of forgiveness, the gift of eternal life, but the gift of hope. Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church