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Cookling This Friday!

6:30

90 seconds

Sermon

The tree lighting was a wonderful event.

And how about our own Dickens Hepdectet?

(Yes, I looked that up)

It was fun to watch the way kids and adults alike responded to the voices and the costumes.

Costumes sure have an impact.

Look at the way kids and even grown ups respond to a santa suit

One costume that I did not know would be there was the grinch.

To my knowledge, I don’t know that was planned by any of the Main Street Team.

It was fun though.

I grew up every year watching the original Dr Seuss special, seeing the Grinch attempt to steal Christmas from the Whos down in Whoville.

And of course the most vivid memory of that show was the voice of the narrator, Thurl Ravenscroft singing: You’re a mean one, Mr Grinch.

You can hear it too, right?

It’s iconic.

Of course the Grinch thinks by stealing all the presents and decoration, that he can stop Christmas, until he finds out its about a little bit more...

Last week we started pulling on the loose threads, the lives of different characters in the Christmas story.

Started with all those unnamed folks without room for Mary and Joseph.

today, we’re going to pull on the thread of the original Grinch.

The man who made the first and most aggressive attempt to steal Christmas...

Matthew 2:1-8 “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah would be born.

“In Bethlehem of Judea,” they told him, “because this is what was written by the prophet: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah: Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”

Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time the star appeared.

He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child.

When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him.””

These wise men from the East come and worship and God warns them to go home a different way

Matthew 2:13-18 “After they were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up!

Take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.

For Herod is about to search for the child to kill him.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and escaped to Egypt.

He stayed there until Herod’s death, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: Out of Egypt I called my Son.

Then Herod, when he realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a rage.

He gave orders to massacre all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, in keeping with the time he had learned from the wise men.

Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

There are two Herods in the story of the life of Jesus.

One we talk about around the crucifixion, Herod the Tetrarch, and his dad we talk about in the Christmas story, Herod the Great.

The.

Great.

That’s a big title.

On a whim, I looked up how many other rulers were given that honorific, and it’s a pretty long list, but with some notable names

Alexander the great, Catherine the Great, Nebuchadnezzar, Oz the great and pow…never mind.

As I went down that little rabbit hole, I noticed something.

None of them were Great family therapists.

None were known for their musical talent.

They didn’t get the title for being great parents

The common link in the chain seemed to be that they were great at destroying their enemies.

And anyone who might be interested in becoming and enemy.

Or anyone they had a dream about where they were an enemy…

Herod fits the title under these conditions.

Married to ten women, he killed several of them, and MANY of his own sons whom he thought might try to rise up and take his throne.

One Roman leader noted that it was safer to be one Herod’s pigs than one of his sons.

He did whatever it took to keep his throne...

His paranoia was extreme, funny enough, at the point where we meet him, he was already suffering from the disease that would kill him.

He was going to lose his throne one way or another.

Somehow they had come to believe that they were the only one who could lead as was needed.

Or that power was their birth right, or that they had earned it.

Anyone else who had eyes on their throne was a threat to deal with.

In a word, it is pride.

Pride and fear are close friends.

A sense of “it has to be me”.

I have to protect what is mine.

Despite the fact that Herod, wasn’t even Jewish…he was married to one…when he heard about a new born “king of the Jews” His pride forced a fear reaction.

Now the odds are against any of us becoming a regional ruler in a Roman territory.

I doubt any of you or I will be put in a position where we believe we need to kill off a generation in a small town to protect our jobs.

Because the primary difference between Herod and you or I isn’t in action, it’s in opportunity.

Truth be told, we don’t know what we would do in the same situation.

So the question we have to ask, is how can we be like him?

In the scope of our lives, our circumstances, our influence, how can we allow pride to cause harm?

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And more importantly, how is Jesus Greatness different?

And how does that make us different?

How can we pursue Humble Greatness?

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Humble Greatness

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Serve or be Served

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There was a point in Jesus’ ministry when the mom of two of his disciples came and asked for them to have the top spots in the kingdom.

This generated some…fear, anger, pride in the others.

They were “indignant”

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Jesus makes a statement that draws a contrast between their attitudes (which bore resemblance to Herods) and His kingdom

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Matthew 20:25-28 “Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them.

It must not be like that among you.

On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

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The kind of greatness Jesus demonstrated and calls his disciples to practice begins with a different motive.

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If pride starts with “it has to be me”, “I deserve”, or “me first”,

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humble greatness begins when we lay our pride down.

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When we say, what is for them, what will bless, what will add to others?

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Soak in this verse,

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On the contrary…in other words, it should look different for you to have power than it does for the world.

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If you are a boss, do you serve? or do you protect your position?

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Not shockingly AT ALL, so much business research shows that leaders that serve are stronger leaders who actually see success at much higher rates.

If that’s an area you want to grow, I can recommend good books to help.

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But what if you’re not the boss?

Guess what, it still applies.