1. Good Morning. Let’s pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: And so we begin another year! What would God want to say to us as we begin this New Year?
As I read the readings for today I found myself focusing on the Psalm refrain, “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.” It was also the Gospel story of the Magi that caught my attention. Let me explain what I believe these two pieces are telling us this morning. Before I begin I want to let you know that we will conclude with a short Youtube video about a bear so stay tuned!
If you would like you can open your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 beginning at the first verse.
In this pericopy St. Matthew recounts for us how the arrival of Jesus was revealed to the entire world. It turns out that three Magi were studiously watching the stars and noticed that they were signaling to the world that something stupendous was about to happen.
They have been referred to by tradition as “wise men” and that they were but their professions were Astronomy and Astrology. They studied the stars and sought to discover the impact they had on the lives of the creation below them. You see, they believed as many still do today that the stars affected their lives. But this time the stars weren’t affecting anything they were in fact being affected and the effect was the signaling that something much bigger than the stars was about to happen.
Listen to the first few verses of chapter 2:
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east – probably Iran or Syria – they arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”
Did anyone notice anything rather amazing in those few verses?
Yes, they knew what the stars were declaring and what was that? The King of the Jews had been born! And how did they know? They saw HIS star. The Creator of all creation had set apart one entire star to declare His Son’s arrival and then caused it to move in such a way to show these wise men where the newborn King was to be found.
I have no trouble in believing that our Magnificent God could do such a thing. If He can make all of this and zillions of other stars and Galaxies. If He can turn wine and bread into the Blood and Body of our Lord then I have absolutely no trouble in believing that He could spring a star loose to do His bidding!
But while this is a staggering spectacle the bigger reality for us is that this miracle told those experiencing it that this child was to be King not just of the Israelites but of all humanity.
Think about that just for a moment.
Because God FIRST revealed Jesus’ arrival NOT to His chosen people the Jews but to others – the Gentiles – the unclean ones – God was clearly saying loud and clear that Jesus was to be the Messiah of all!
Christianity is not just one religion among many.
Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
God the Father sent Christ His Son to save all of humanity – not just the Jews!
Let’s explore that a bit.
Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission to save all of humanity! ALL OF HUMANITY!
That means EVERYONE! From you and me to the Muslim terrorist to that obnoxious masochistic work associate of yours to Mother Theresa and Idi Amin!
Jesus came to save not only the good and righteous but also the murderer and rapists and child molester. He came to save you! He came to save me! He came to save us all!
Everyone!
But what does it mean that He came to SAVE us?
I don’t believe that just because you or I once said ‘I believe that Jesus is my Lord” that we’re automatically saved. If that were true then magic would be true.
Say the right words, cut off the chicken’s neck, spill the blood in a circle and smoke juju tobacco over it and you will get what you want – that’s voodoo!
So what does it mean to be saved?
We were saved from the penalty of sin when we trusted in Christ and believed in our hearts that He was Lord and Savior of our lives.
Now that we have been saved from the penalty of sin through the death of Christ, we are now being saved daily, hourly, and moment-by-moment from the power of sin through the intercessory work of the risen Christ and His indwelling Spirit and through our ongoing submission to His Lordship in our lives.
We shall also be saved from the presence of sin when we see Jesus face to face in glory, and we will most assuredly be fully conformed to His image.
But what are we saved from and for?
We’re saved from our natural tendency - because of the Fall - to try to play God in our lives and act as if God didn’t really exist! And so we’re saved from the insanity of trying to be like God.
It’s a crazy insane nightmare that too many of those around us are trapped in. It’s this nightmarish belief that isolates so many of us and sends us into frenetic workaholic like paroxysms trying to get enough money so that we can depend of nobody!
“Free at last, free at last . . . free to die alone with ourselves and nobody . . . nobody else to love and care for us!”
But what are we saved for? Ah! Intimacy with God! Jesus, God incarnate is our brother, the Holy Spirit is our Comforter and Helper and God the Father is our papa – our beloved Father. Saved for the peace and rest that comes when a creature rests humbly and happily in the Presence of His Creator.
We are saved for a growing relationship with our Triune God.
To try to explain this has been the job of theologians throughout the 2 millennia of the Christian faith. But at the end of the day it’s not about theology or doctrine it’s about the reality of our relationship with Christ! Do you know Him?
But there is one last terrible enemy of ours that we must never forget. This may sound peculiar to some of us but this needs to be said. There is a being, an extremely powerful and wickedly evil being known as Satan. Scripture reminds us in First Peter 5: 8 to . . .
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Satan hates God and he hates us. His desire is to incarcerate us in ourselves - in our self-pitying, our self-loathing, our bitterness, our anger, our unforgivenness, our addictions and ultimately in our insane choice to be as God to ourselves. Such a pathetic choice but one being made, it seems, by more and more today.
God wants to save us and all of humanity from this terrible pit.
You and I are saved so then let us share with courage the good news that there is a God and that He loves us with an infinite love that knows now bounds.
God wants to save all! The bums, the kings, the engineer, the housewife, the hooker, the well mannered urbanite, the winey lazy charity case! We all need God to save us and continue to save us until we are home with Him!
I have a short video that will act as a metaphor – a metaphor that will hopefully illustrate what we’re getting at here.
Please watch it now and see if you can see how perfectly it illustrates what we’ve been talking about.
Kevin please roll the video.
Did you see the parallels between that beautiful video and our situation here on earth?
We are that little largely defenseless bear and we wander all too easily away from the Presence and Protection of our God.
There are enemies out in the world who want to kill and eat us!
We run and we roar but it is the Roar of our Lord who scares the devil and his sycophants away!
And so it’s time for some of us to recommit our lives to God. Are you ready?
You can kneel on your kneeler or come out into the center isle and kneel or you and come and kneel before the Altar.
Would our musicians please come forward to give us some gentle music as we pray.
Let us pray . . .
