What star are you going to follow in 2011

What star are you going to follow in 2011

Epiphany 2010

Gospel Reading

Matt 2:1-12  1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:  6 “‘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 shepherd my people Israel.’[b]”  7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”  9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 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, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. [New International Version]

Today we have a look at what's out translation calls: the Magi. The Good News Version calls them “men from the East who studied the stars”; the King James Version calls them wise men;  and the New Living Translation calls than astrologers.

What exactly do we know about these men and what can we learn from them?

Well, Matthew is the only gospel writer to tell us anything about them, so everything there is to know about them is before us in our reading.

I think the first thing we can lift is that they were obviously forward looking. I say this because they could have stayed in the East studying the stars, studying everything that has been recorded in the past about new stars; they could have stayed where they were and come to some conclusions about this new star, or……. they could set out and decide to follow this star which seemed to be moving across the heavens in a way that the other stars didn't. They decided to follow the star and they had been doing so for quite some time; verse 16 which wasn't part of our reading tells us that this star had first appeared two years before. They have been journeying for two years! This is why Herod will later kill everyone two years or younger, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

How many of these wise men, these Magi, were there? We have absolutely no idea….. Scripture doesn't tell us.

We do know that they eventually reached Jesus and his parents in Bethlehem, some time after his birth, certainly not on the night he was born, because Matthew points out in verse 11 that Mary and Joseph and Jesus were now living in a house (and were no longer in the stable). For this reason, and other good reasons that we can't go into now, many scholars believe that the star appeared on the night Jesus was born and that the wise men arrived two years later. As I said earlier, this far better explains why Herod would kill all the boys two years and younger.

We also know that this group of men from the East gave gifts to Jesus. As our reading says: “… they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” Notice the picture that we have here….. opening their treasures. When they set out two years before they took sources for the trip. Gold to barter with on the way, spices to trade with and possibly to use in case any of them died on the journey.

Now they arrive and they recognise in Jesus a King and that they think to themselves……….Hmmmmm, what can we give to a king? Ahhhhh, let's open up our treasures and give them to him.

And then they went home, back to the east, and notice, they went back “by another road”.

What can we learn or lift from this story this Christmas season and as we look forward to 2011?

May I suggest three things?

Can I suggest, first of all, that from the moment we first hear about Jesus, or see some sign of him in the world,…….. and by signs I mean things as trivial perhaps as a cross somewhere, or a manger scene in a shop window, or a church, or perhaps something more grand like a miracle, or a vision……….. or perhaps just hearing a sermon, on the radio, on TV, or at a worship service like this if someone has dragged you along for whatever reason, against your will……… from that moment we are on a journey that has Christ at its centre.

I speak to believers and nonbelievers in this place this morning: you are on a journey, whether you know it or not, you are on a journey which has Jesus Christ at its centre.

We are either moving closer to him, or we are maintaining a set distance,(another word for a set distance would be keeping a safe distance….. being involved in the whole Jesus thing but not head over heels sold out to him), or we are moving away from him. Each one of us from the moment we hear of Jesus or “see his sign”…… each one of us consciously chooses one of those three. Every single one of us in this building right now has either made a conscious decision to move closer to Jesus, or to just keep things as they are, in other words to keep a safe distance, or we hear this story year after year after year and a total lack of interest in the story causes us in fact to put more and more distance between us and Jesus.

Such is the power of Jesus, and the name of Jesus, that there is absolutely no room for neutrality.

Those men saw the star and they couldn't ignore it, they couldn't pretend it wasn't there. It confronted them with a choice: follow it or pretend it isn't there. But as we all know, and this applies in many aspects of life, ignoring something or pretending it isn't there, never takes away the fact that it is there. Denial doesn’t work.

I think when Jesus later says that you and I as his followers are to be light and salt in the world, I think he means that our presence in the world as people who believe in and are living in the Kingdom of God, that presence is meant to be something that cannot be ignored by those around us. As someone has said: “We are sometimes the only gospel that other people read.”

The wise men journeyed for two years…….. this reminds us that the journey to Christ (as opposed to the journey with Christ) can be a long one. It doesn't have to be, but some of us choose to wait a long time before making a commitment to Christ. Recent research in the West indicates that in the last five years most people who have become Christians have said that they belonged to the church before they believed…. can you see how this is a complete reversal of the pattern which used to be that people came to believe and then looked for a church to belong to! To you in a sense are still travelling towards Jesus rather than with Jesus, I must say this: please remember that there is a difference between Christ and Christians and more often than we Christians like to admit, we don't always practice what we preach. Please don't judge God's holy ideals by my inability to meet them. Please don't judge Christ by those of us who imperfectly bear his name. And please also stop using us as an excuse regarding why you have not yet become a Christian…… you know what I mean, people who say something like: if that is what a Christian is like I don't want to have anything to do with Christianity.

To those of us who are Christians let me say this: “let us try harder and harder, using the mighty power which He supplies, to live lives that lead others to Christ.

The wise men were led by a star to Bethlehem to Jesus.

The second thing that I want a lift from this story is from verse 11: “opening their treasures, they offered him gifts.”

Here I want to lift a challenge for us all:

Do you give to Jesus from that which you treasure, or from that which you do not treasure, in other words from that with which you can actually do without? Is your giving to Christ, sacrificial, that means, somewhat painful and difficult? The wise men still had to make the return trip, with all the expense that that entailed, yet they gave sacrificially from their treasures. Do you give to Jesus from that which you treasure?

Finally, let's have a look at verse 12: “they returned to their country by another route”.

There is good news and terrifying news in that verse.

The good news is that when you eventually come to Jesus, when you arrive at that place where you worship him, where you see him as king, where you give to him from your treasure, the good news is that he then sends you back to where you came from.

Generally, God doesn't call us to leave our work, our home, our neighborhood, our school, when we come to him. The Jesus who says “come” also says “go back”………. But when he says “go” (and this can be the scary/terrifying bit)  he often wants us to go back on a different road, a different route. Same destination, different road.

Why…..?

There are a number of reasons but one of the more important ones is that there is danger on the old road!

In Northern Ireland during the troubles, they used to say to people in authority, use a different route every day, it will help avoid danger.

One of the reasons that you and I fall into the same temptations is often because we walk the same road, Satan knows our route from our high point with Christ every day out into the world and so he just has to set the same traps in the same places for us to keep on falling in the same way.

Avoid the routes that have lead you into sin before, they are dangerous, even after you've come to Christ,……… these routes are dangerous! If you can, avoid them.

What does it mean for you for me to go back on a different road today?

The wise men:

They remind us of the constant choice we face of moving towards or away from Jesus……. what direction do you want to move in from now into the rest of this year?

                        They encourage us to give from our treasure (and of course we're not just talking about money, but about what we are giving to God from the treasury that is our gifting, our talent, our time, etc.)

                        They show us the importance of going back a different way, making an effort to avoid the danger of sin.

As you and I look forward into a new year, may we learn from them.