Isaiah 60:1-6

Matthew 2:1-12                               SEEKING GOD

          I grew up in Richland, Michigan, population 212.  One of the best memories I have of my childhood was our family’s annual Christmas visit to Bronson Park in the big city of Kalamazoo.  It was a great place for a little kid.  One half of the park was decorated with huge candy canes and reindeer and Santa Claus.  And on the other side of the park was a Menorah and a life sized Nativity scene.  I remember walking through that Nativity scene, looking at the life-sized plaster statues of Mary, Joseph and Jesus nestled in the warm straw of a cozy barn.  You could walk right up to them and look baby Jesus in the eye.  The display also included everything else that was supposed to be there:  angels, shepherds, lots of sheep, some cows and birds…but probably most magnificent were the huge camels carrying the three wise men.  Everything was there together, wrapped in neat little package.

          It makes a nice image.  But that’s not the way it really happened. 

          The angels made the announcement of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds, and they came right away.  They probably didn’t bring their flocks with them, and they weren’t herding cattle, either.  The star appeared in the sky, and the wise men began their journey, but by the time they arrived in Bethlehem, Jesus and his parents were out of the manger and living in a house.  Scholars seem to agree that the Magi could have appeared as much as two years after the birth.  Long after the shepherds had gone…long after the angels had vanished…and long after the drafty barn had been replaced by something much more suitable.

          A colleague brought my attention to three groups of people in this story of the visit of the Magi to Jesus.  First, he reminded me of the shepherds.  These were uneducated people.  Shepherding was not a glamorous or well-paying occupation.  It was tough, dirty, exhausting work.  I’m sure that more than one Jewish mother scolded her son to “learn from the Rabbi…or you’ll end up tending sheep”.  It was not something to which people aspired.  But they were the first at the birth-bed of Jesus.  They were the first to kneel down…offering the gift of the story that the angels had given them.  They didn’t know the prophecies.  They didn’t study the stars.  But they heard the angels, and they responded in faith.  And in their seeking, they found the peace and wonder that God had prepared for them that night.

          The second group are the Magi…the wise men…the kings…from somewhere in the East.  We don’t know much about them, except that they were educated men who spent time studying the stars.  They saw a new star appear in the sky and interpreted that star as a sign that a great new king had been born.  They put together a caravan, went shopping for some gifts appropriate to give a new-born heir to the throne, and set out on a journey.  They let the star lead them…but then let their brains get in the way. 

          If he’s a king, he must be found in the capital city.  They went to Jerusalem.  They went to the palace.  But there was no new heir there.  Finally, armed with some new information, they continued on their journey and found the child they were seeking….in a humble house in a tiny village.  And they knelt down to worship him, offering him costly gifts and reminding people that God came in the form of a baby…not just to rescue the Jews, but to call strangers and foreigners back to God as well.

          Their learning got in the way.  But they were open to encountering something new.  They continued to let God guide their search.  And in spite of their intelligence…in spite of their learning…God was able to touch them.

          The most tragic of the three groups of people are the scribes.  These were the holy people of the nation of Israel.  They were people knew the scriptures backwards and forwards.  They had the revelation of God at their fingertips.  They spent their days feeling smug and superior because they had dedicated themselves to the teaching of God.  There they sat…with all of the scriptures…with all of the prophecies…with all of the advantages.  And they missed the whole thing.

          Even when magnificent strangers from far away lands came asking about the great new king that had been born…they missed it.

          Even when they surmised that the star might very well signal the birth of the Messiah…they missed it.

          Even after they searched the scriptures and came to a consensus that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and not in Jerusalem…they missed it.

          They sent other people on the quest…but they sat around and did nothing.  They didn’t go to Bethlehem.  They didn’t go shopping.  They didn’t pack their suitcases.  They just went on with their lives and ignored the thing God had spent centuries preparing them to recognize.

          I find myself looking way too much like the scribes.  How about you?  When is the last time we dropped everything to go running after some new thing that God was doing?  When is the last time we left our sheep in the field…setting aside the cares of the world long enough to let God step into our lives?  That what the shepherds did.  They discovered the wonder that Isaiah had promised centuries earlier. 

          I am a scribe.  I am surrounded by all sorts of God stuff:  beautiful buildings meant to inspire, yards and yards of books that talk about God’s movement and direction, music and art that is meant to stir my spirit, fellow Christians who challenge and encourage me, a family of faith who welcome me and love me and live out God’s love and grace every day.  And I am surrounded by people who need some of that love and grace and reconciliation.  We are all surrounded by those people.  And what do we do?  We sit in our comfortable pews, satisfied with the beauty that surrounds us, waiting for someone or something to entertain us or stir us or bless us.  But we don’t do anything.  We sit.

          Maybe we expect God to come and wait on us. 

          But perhaps it’s time for us to get up and go looking for God.

          Maybe we need to hunger and thirst for God’s presence. 

          Maybe we need to risk leaving our sheep…. Or journey someplace new…

Or simply pay attention to all of the goodness and blessing that God has already given to us and say “thank you”.

          Perhaps you can find God in the face of somebody hungry or homeless as you offer your abundance.  Maybe you can find God in a renewed commitment to generosity or study or prayer.  God is more often found when I ask, “What can I give?” instead of “what did I get?”

          Learn from the shepherds and the wise men to pay attention to God.   Respond when God calls.  And be ready to set aside your preconceived notions so that there is room in your life for God to work.

Sunday, August 13

Eph. 4:25-5:2, John 6:41-51                      SPEAKING IN LOVE

      James Mouw writes that in the mid-1600s, Puritans and the Quakers were engaged in angry theological debates.  Both groups were centered in Christ.  Both groups were “outsiders”, reacting against the established state Church of England.  But their writing about each other was vicious.  The great Puritan preacher Richard Baxter wrote a pamphlet in which he lumped the Quakers with "drunkards, swearers, whoremongers…sensual wretches" and other "miserable creatures." And then -- just in case he had not yet insulted them enough -- he insisted that Quakers are no better than "Papists.” 

The Quaker leader James Naylor announced that he was compelled "by the Spirit of Jesus Christ" to respond to these harsh accusations. He proceeded to characterize his Puritan opponent as a "Serpent," a "Liar," and "Child of the Devil," a "Cursed Hypocrite," and a "Dumb Dog."

Mouw goes on to observe that, “this is strong stuff. What makes it especially sad is that the angry talk often makes it difficult to get to the real issues. The debate between the Puritans and the Quakers was actually a rather interesting and helpful one. Both parties engaged in some serious biblical exposition [over the role of women and the role of the Holy Spirit] ; if the heavy rhetoric were removed, the discussion could easily appear to have been a friendly argument between Christians who had some important things to talk about. But I doubt that either group heard the helpful things the other side was saying. Too much angry rhetoric was in the air.

Things haven’t changed much in the following 350 years.  We still have a hard time disagreeing with one another when it comes to issues of faith.  Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq, Protestants and Catholics in northern Ireland, Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives, or “liberal” and “conservative” Presbyterians in the U. S. all believe that they are right and the other side is not just wrong…but led by the Devil himself. 

One problem is that the rhetoric gets in the way of conversation…and understanding…and in the way of God’s Spirit.

I think that God has something different in mind.   When the Apostle Paul writes some rules for Christians to live by in his letter to the Ephesians, he says, among other things, “So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.  Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil...let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.  Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.   Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

I think that often our words are not “fragrant offerings and sacrifices to God.”  Instead, they become weapons that separate us from one another and get in the way of God’s ability to work in our midst and in the world.  Instead of allowing for differences, instead of becoming avenues of grace, we use words as weapons to prove our own superiority, set ourselves apart or above, and inflict all sorts of hurt on those around us.

Sometimes that in unintentional.  Someone misunderstands us, hears what we say through a filter of language or culture or experience…and our words have the unintended consequence of causing hurt.  But at other times, most of us are guilty of purposefully trying to cause hurt and division, skewing the facts to our own advantage, and trying to annihilate our opponents.

But in the church, we aren’t…or we shouldn’t be…opponents.  We are all children of God… loved and saved by the same Jesus…who probably have some differences of opinion.  But are those differences enough to beat one another up in public?  What sort of witness does that give to the person and work of Jesus?  How does that sort of anger or divisiveness allow for the movement and work of God’s Spirit in our midst?

    In our passage from John’s gospel this morning,  people complained about Jesus.  They were ready to believe the worst.  They talked to each other instead of listening to him.  They focused on a few words that offended them, and missed the point entirely.  How often do we do that?  What are you going to talk about when you go home today?  The Scripture?  The presence of God?   Or are you going to focus on the typo in the bulletin?  The one wrong note on the piano?  Someone’s dress, or perfume or annoying  habit?

Jesus responded differently.  He didn’t try to destroy his detractors.  He didn’t try to incite his followers.  Instead, he simply observes that, “no one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me.”  Let’s just move on…and let God’s Spirit do the work.  Jesus had more important things to do than worry about destroying his enemies.  He knew that God would sort it all out in the end.  Instead, he offered a way of grace and peace.

What’s going to build people up?  What’s going to offer hope instead of pain?  How can our words heal instead of hurt?

It is said that “the average person spends one-fifth of his or her life talking? That's what the statistics say. If all of our words were put into print, the result would be this: a single day's words would fill a 50-page book, while in a year's time the average person's words would fill 132 books of 200 pages each! Among all those words there are bound to be some spoken in anger, carelessness, or haste.”

A challenge I read recently asked, “If someone paid you ten cents for every kind word you said about people, and collected five cents for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?”

Our words have a powerful effect on the lives of others.  I read the story of Mary this week.  She grew upknowing that she was different from the other kids, and she hated it. She was born with a cleft palate and had to bear the jokes and stares of cruel children who teased her non-stop about her misshaped lip, crooked nose, and garbled speech.

With all the teasing, Mary grew up hating the fact that she was "different". She was convinced that no one, outside her family, could ever love her ... until she entered Mrs. Leonard's class. Mrs. Leonard had a warm smile, a round face, and shiny brown hair. While everyone in her class liked her, Mary came to love Mrs. Leonard.

In the 1950's, it was common for teachers to give their children an annual hearing test. However, in Mary's case, in addition to her cleft palate, she was barely able to hear out of one ear. Determined not to let the other children have another "difference" to point out, she would cheat on the test each year. The "whisper test" was given by having a child walk to the classroom door, turn sideways, close one ear with a finger, and then repeat something which the teacher whispered.

Mary turned her bad ear towards her teacher and pretended to cover her good ear. She knew that teachers would often say things like, "The sky is blue," or "What color are your shoes?" But not on that day. Surely, God put seven words in Mrs. Leonard's mouth that changed Mary's life forever. When the "Whisper test" came, Mary heard the words: "I wish you were my little girl."

What sort of words do we speak?  Do we join with the throng that feared Jesus and his teaching, and so tried to turn his followers against him by murmuring about him in public?  Are we like the Quakers and Puritans calling each other names and poisoning the air with our words?  Or do our lives begin to heal as we lift up one another, encourage one another, and reach out in God’s love to those who hurt us…because they are hurting themselves?

Let your words be words of healing.  Let your words build up those around you.  Let your words bring the love of God to others as you offer grace and goodness.