reason of things; or maybe we re trying to learn how we lost the joy that we remember

Transcription

1 Matthew 2:1-12 Christmas Journey It s a wonderful story, and we delight in telling it, but it doesn t answer all our questions. We have so many questions. Some of them may be personal: as we try to understand the reason of things; or maybe we re trying to learn how we lost the joy that we remember this season is supposed to bring. There is a lot of loneliness in the world. And maybe we question why the world tries so hard to get it right on this day- on Christmas Day- while the rest of the year it seems that hope and truth and peace on earth barely matter. For example, you may have heard of the famous Christmas Truce of 1914, exactly a hundred years ago when Allied and German troops spontaneously climbed out of their trenches and came together, sang hymns and exchanged gifts, and posed for pictures. But the next day they were back at it, shooting and gassing and killing. Deep questions. And some questions are curiosities- though if we knew more we might discover that they are really important questions. We assume that Jesus lived in poverty all his life, but if that is true, what happened to the gifts of the wise men? Frankincense and myrrh, rare and expensive commodities, used to make perfumes and healing unguents. And gold; if they were bringing gold to a king, it wouldn t have been a couple of coins, but more like a treasure chest full. What happened to it? Did Joseph use it pay for safe passage to Egypt? And why Egypt? Immediately after this reading, Joseph is told in a

2 dream to go into hiding down south. The family had to flee Herod s pogrom, the murder of all the two-year-old baby boys in the land, but was flight along the Egyptian superhighway the safest route? Spies would be watching that road, you d think. Wouldn t back roads in another direction have been the way to go? It turned out ok, but still there is something we don t know- why Egypt? And what is this star the wise men followed? Just as today we might celebrate a special event with fireworks exploding and flashing across the sky, could the sign in the heavens have been a prolonged or a truly impressive meteor shower? Perhaps it was a comet, an alignment of planets, a supernova; some claim it was a space ship! How could this thing move, and stop, move again, and then rest directly over the Joseph and Mary house? So many questions. Sometimes scripture simply gives us a bare-bones account, and we are challenged to read between the lines. But for its brevity, the Bible is never afraid to put evil and good side by side: here, the story of the Magi set against the intrigue and brutality of King Herod. So quickly the story transforms from the great joy of these astronomers- or astrologers- on a Christmas pilgrimage and the worship of these learned ones in verses 10-11, to the warning about Herod in verse 12; from Mary and baby Jesus at rest in the house in verse 11 to verse 14, and the speedy retreat to Egypt in the night.

3 What does Matthew mean when he tells us that Herod was troubled at the news of another king? Well, that he felt threatened, of course, and was already plotting to defeat any claimant to his throne. But why was all of Jerusalem troubled with him? Did the people know it meant trouble for them? Was there some oppressive sense of foreboding, a feeling of being on the edge of doom? You know that feeling, don t you, a heaviness you can t shake off? (It s really one of the personal questions about the hurt and fear we face, and why it is so.) And sure enough, soon would come Herod s troopers kicking in the doors, their blades would flicker and slash, and the children would cry and bleed. Quite different from the humble worship of the far-travelers, or the angelic hymns of peace and joy, or the piety of the shepherds who would come to adore the baby King. Again and again, scripture holds the truth and beauty hidden in humility and poverty along side cruelty and pride and lust for power. And sometimes in this world, the emptiness and the bewilderment of the pain and the sorrow make it hard to know which side is winning. These are all part of the Christmas story. We may wonder why Matthew goes to such lengths to verify Jesus lineage in the first 17 verses of the gospel, all these Israelites begetting one son and then begetting the next, generation after generation. And why he is so concerned that the birth of this son fulfills the words of the Hebrew prophets, while the first ones who come to worship him

4 are Gentile astronomers, and the Messiah s own people are ignorant of his birth. Matthew, the Jewish gospel, yet it begins with the travelers coming from far away and ends in chapter 28 with the Lord s command to travel out to all the nations telling the story and helping people to live the kind of life he taught. Perhaps Matthew s intent is less about celebrating generations of a chosen people or celebrating a new and different chosen people, or elevating any particular race; and more about the unity of those who come to worship; more about those who have learned to entrust their lives to God, and who discipline themselves to be humble servants of others- without regard to race; less about conversion and more about living our lives as Jesus lived his life. So many questions. What would make these strangers embark on this long Christmas journey? And how was it that these scientists could read the signs that the king was born, but the religious leaders and biblical scholars had no idea? Verse 5 assures us that they knew the prophecy, but they didn t know how to find him. So maybe this is the great question of Christmas, do we know how to find him? We may know all the relevant scriptures, and can remember every word of the popular hymns and carols, but are we like the people of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, with the star shining - or whatever it was- that beacon in the sky, but somehow we still can t see where he lives? Are the people in our churches so concerned with what we think religion should be, or

5 what we want it to be- or complacent, even, in our practice of it- that we cannot see God s children under our noses? They are part of the Christmas story, too- all of them: the baby Messiah, and every child of God born in our times, they are right here; babies and children and children grown into men and women, they are all around us; and loving and caring for them is the true worship of the heavenly King. You may have noticed in various sermons that I like to use the journey as a metaphor for our lives, for our Christian life, because it symbolizes the quest, symbolizes those seeking answers to the great questions. And in this story, here are the Magi searching and asking, while perhaps the hometown Judeans in Bethlehem and Jerusalem were not looking, seemingly satisfied with the same old answers they already had. Both are examples of the simple fact that we don t advance as a religion, or as a civilization unless we seek out answers and confront the problems (What would have happened if the wise men had not come to worship him?); still in the dark ages unless we ask why and what and how. Not that it s all questions; we still have much to figure out, but the story is not an uncertain one: the Christmas story in our Bibles provides answers, too, which can become a starting point for our modern day quest. Like this. Here in the opening chapters of Matthew, the angel tells Joseph that this baby will be called Emmanuel,

6 which means God is with us ; tells Joseph to name him Jesus, which means Deliverer. The wise men come and call him King ; Herod asks his scholars where the Messiah would be born; and the prophecy they quote calls him ruler and shepherd of all the people. These are names and titles of hopefulness, even in our hurts; of God s presence, even in our questioning. And they give us a positive framework as we start out on the quest of finding our way as the Lord s people. In this way we can begin our own Christmas journey, not just a trip back home for a comfortable Christmas holiday, but for every day of the year, and for the rest of our lives; these names of our Lord are words of hope that help us to know him* when we come to worship, and help us to make sense of the world when we follow him out into it. * This is also the meaning behind the genealogy in chapter 1: helping us to understand Jesus as a Jew, another definition that helps us to know who he truly was.

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