Unexpected seekers
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Here we are at the end of 2023. The new year starts tomorrow. Now is the time people like to make predictions. What will we be eating in 2024? What will the word of the year be? What will the invention of the year be? What trends will emerge?
I’m hesitant to make any predictions myself but I’ll venture that there’ll be more stories about declining church attendance, of fewer people ticking the box to say they identify as Christian, of another increase in the ‘nones’, of more and more young people only knowing Jesus as a swear word.
Today we’re looking once again at the Christmas story - specifically the arrival of the wise men or Magi. A story that nearly all of us, no matter how young or old, probably know backwards. We’re so familiar with Herod, the star, the gold, frankinsence and myrrh. I know some of us will be thinking, is there anything worth examining again? Especially now in on NYE - who wants a Christmas story now?
But maybe more concerning, and more to the point of my predictions for this year, perhaps we might also wonder, is anyone still paying attention? Not just to the Christmas story, but to the Christian story, to the gospel. Is anyone out there the least bit interested in Jesus? In knowing the God of bible?
Well, apart from the fact that there are 12 days of Christmas and they’re not up yet (so for goodness sake please hold off on the hot cross buns!), today’s Gospel reading is particularly relevant for us in moments when we may be tempted to despair that the tide has gone out on Christian faith. But more than that, today’s Gospel reading is relevant to all of us as it reminds us that God is still speaking through his word and calling us to seek him in it.
The Outsiders seeking
The Outsiders seeking
The first thing to notice about this passage is that when God is speaking, the most unlikely people respond and begin seeking.
Show:
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”
Of course, tradition has it that there were three wise men and that they were kings. But Matthew says that they were Magi - which is where we get our word Magician. And it means these people - and it’s certainly possible that there were women with them - were Zoroastrian astrologers from Persia. Magi were experts in the scientific, diplomatic and religious disciplines of their day but the question is what were they doing 1500 km away from home? Remember this is a 1500 km journey on horseback
It seems that they’d been listening to the Jewish community in Babylon - they expect to find a king of the Jews. But their own observation of the stars told them when and roughly where he’d be arriving. God was speaking to them in a language that they could understand.
And here’s the important point for us is - here we have total outsiders, with a different culture, a different religion, a different world view, different morals, and different values being drawn in by God to encounter Jesus. Drawn in to encounter the Messiah.
I’m not sure who you think is the most unlikely person to become a Christian these days, but in Jesus’ day, these guys are right up there. And yet, God speaks and they seek.
Illustrate
A few years ago I watched a movie called The Two Popes. It’s about the relationship between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis and its based on actual events. As the movie progresses we see two very different and initially hostile characters begin to respect, and then embrace one another. But what struck me about the film was that this was one of the highest rated and more popular films on Netflix. It’s a film that wants us to like both popes - the conservative Benedict, and the more progressive Francis - it wants us to like the church. But mostly, it’s a film that is drawn to the person of Jesus. Even now, in post-Christian Australia, there’s still a curiosity about Christianity - about what it means to orient one’s life to Jesus.
I’m not sure if the director is a catholic, or religious in any way. But it’s clear that despite all of the talk of people losing faith, of people rejecting Christianity, of embracing secularism and even atheism, many people are still drawn to the gospel - the news that God has come to us, as one of us, to take on the sins of the world and die for us, and to rise again and share God’s everlasting life with us.
Apply
God is not done with the world. God is not done with the West or with Australia. No matter what the surveys say or the pollsters predict. No matter what the government or the media might conclude. God is still speaking and outsiders are still seeking. In Canberra. In West Belconnen for that matter. The other day I was getting a haircut Kippax. And when my Arabic/Italian Muslim barber found out that I am a minister he could not stop asking me about my faith. And I’ve had the same experience standing on the sidelines at Hawker playing fields during the soccer season.
God is speaking to the outsiders in our community. And they are seeking him. We need to be ready to welcome them. To expect them to turn up at church and be ready to introduce ourselves. To expect them to have questions and be ready to listen. To be ready to invite them to Alpha - which we will be running in 2024. To expect them to be drawn to Jesus and to listen to them.
The Magi remind us that God draws unlikely outsiders to seek him. Both 2000 years ago, and today.
But that doesn’t mean that there are no obstacles.
But as people come to God, the powerful push back.
The Powerful freaking
The Powerful freaking
As much as God speaking is often welcomed by outsiders, those in power often find his voice confronting and try to oppose him.
Look at Herod’s reaction
When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;
Herod was essentially a puppet king installed in Judea by the Romans. He was not a faithful worshiper of God and towards the end of his reign became paranoid and bloodthirsty. And when he hears news of a new king he recognises the threat to his power, he is prepared to go on a murderous rampage to hold on to his rule - ordering all boys 2 years and under to be killed.
He is cunning and devious - pretending to be interested in paying homage to Jesus when he plans to kill him.
It was only recently brought to my attention that while we call the Magi wise men, they don’t exactly have much street smarts. I mean, think about it, they go to Herod and say ‘tell us where the new king is’. Ok, so perhaps they assume Herod has had a son. But when it’s clear that he hasn’t, they just naively accept his words ‘tell me when you find him because I want to worship him’. Yeah right. What king anywhere ever just accepts a rival like that? Herod was famous for his brutality - even to his own family. The saying was that it was safer to be Herod’s pig, than his son. They might have book learning, but the Magi are pretty politically thick.
But God will not let his plan succeed - and the Magi are warned in a dream not to tell Herod they have found the new king.
And this is part of why God’s speaking draws the outsider and the overlooked to seek him.
When God speaks, he thwarts the pride and tyranny of the powerful. When God speaks, the outsider and the overlooked hear healing words, liberating words. And when God speaks, even in the voice of a little boy, all of the powers that oppress us are terrified.
Illustrate
There’s a scene in The Two Popes, when the future pope Francis is recounting his regrets about the way he responded to a military dictatorship in his home country of Argentina. When the other church leaders had opposed the regime, Francis had refused to denounce it and instead tried to gain favor with its leaders. Reflecting on this he says to Benedict - where was Christ when people were disappearing? Having cups of tea with admirals and generals? No, he was being tortured with the enemies of the regime.’
The magi’s gifts give us a clue as to what kind of a Messiah and king this Jesus is. He receives gold - a gift fit for a king. He receives frankincense - a spice used by priests. And he receives myrrh - a substance used to preserve bodies.
Jesus is a king who will lead people to God, who will plead their case, pray for them, but most importantly, this is a king who triumph over the powers - like Herod, like Ceasar, like Satan himself - not with greater power. But with weakness. Jesus conquers not by the sword, but by suffering. This is the distinctive thing about Christianity. No other religion or philosophy says this!
Jesus is the king who saves his people by suffering for them. And when God speaks to us, he draws us to seek this Jesus. This surprising, unexpected, upside down Jesus. This Jesus is what truly threatens tyrants.
Apply
What will draw people to God? What will reverse the apparent mass exodus from the church?
Should we try and make friends with political leaders? Should we be cutting deals with the powerful? What about cultural leaders and taste makers? Should we be praying for more celebrities to become Christians?
This passage shows us that what draws people to God is not the powerful - not the impressive people, not the influential, but the weak, the vulnerable, the unimpressive. The Magi are drawn to a baby. Herod is terrified of a toddler. But despite his opposition and despite the opposition of people in our own time, God will draw people to his Messiah.
So we shouldn’t be concerned if the church isn’t ‘cool’ right now. We shouldn’t be concerned if the church isn’t in power. Far from it, we should be expecting God to work in amazing ways at the very point when we feel weakest.
And if we feel weak right now as a church, then we ought to anticipate God’s arrival.
Right now we need to be prepared. We need to make sure that we are also seeking him.
Insiders not seeking
Insiders not seeking
Did you notice the reaction of the religious insiders?
You would expect Israel’s religious leaders to be excited and celebrating at the news of a new king. This is something that the prophets of the OT had anticipated and since then, everyone in Israel was holding out hope that God’s long promised messiah would finally arrive and restore them.
Yet, the guys who knew these scriptures better than anyone else can’t be bothered to travel 10km to see if there’s anything to the story. The Magi have traveled around 1500km! They heard rumours from Jews way over in Babylon, they applied the science of their day, they sacrificed a lot to find this new king. The outsiders hear God speaking and go on an epic journey seeking him.
These insiders essentially cover their ears.
And I think verse 3 gives us a clue as to why
When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;
See it wasn’t just Herod that thought Jesus was threatening. All Jerusalem - probably Matthew’s way of saying - all of the important people in Jerusalem - were frightened with him.
When God speaks, it reveals that these experts in the bible, these really religious people aren’t really interested in listening to him. They want to keep him at arms length. They don’t want him to disrupt their comfortable lives and their comfortable little deal with Herod. And Jesus will have a lot to say about the state of the religious leadership in his ministry.
And all this just highlights that there is a big difference between knowing facts about God, and really trying to understand him. There’s a difference between knowing about God, and seeking him. There’s a big difference between simply identifying as one of gods people - claiming a label, and seeking God as someone who loves him.
Illustrate
Over the last few years my brother has learnt the lyrics to Disney’s Frozen. Now I don’t think he’s that into Disney princesses, though I’m not judging. I think he’s bothered to learn the words because he wants to understand his daughters, he wants to know how they tick, what they like, he wants to understand their world and most of all because he loves them.
Apply
This is the challenge for those of us who have been Christians for a long time. We’ve read the bible. We’ve heard the Christmas story thousands of times. It can be easy to think we know enough of the facts about God that nothing will surprise us, and even that God has nothing more to say to us.
This is a challenge for me personally. As someone who spent 4 years studying the bible all day every day and as someone who is now paid to read the bible it can be tempting for me to stand over the bible like an “expert”.
The challenge for us is to open our ears again to hear God speaking. The challenge is for us to encounter, or rather, to be encoutered by God in a fresh way.
Where do we find him?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Just yesterday I read that 25% of non-Christians in Australia say they are very open, or somewhat open to changing their religious beliefs. That’s a 1 in 4 of the people you know who don’t currently follow Jesus, they are open, even seeking God.
I also learned that non-Christians have a very positive view of the Christians they know. When asked to describe them those surveyed said the Christians they knew were ‘compassionate, generous and kind’.
That’s pretty encouraging right? It’s the kind of thing that ought to give us a bit of optimism about telling people the good news of Jesus. It’s the kind of thing that gels with what Jesus says about the harvest being plentiful - the problem isn’t that no one is open to God, the problem is a shortage of people who will tell them.
But there’s an added good news story here for us too. For those of us who are feeling a bit like we’ve heard it all before, we’ve read the bible, we’ve been through the church calendar a thousand times - this is the great news for us. Because, ironically, the place for us to experience God at work is among those who don’t yet know him. We ought to expect God to call our mates, our neighbours, our collegues. They are seeking him, and he is sending us to them with the good news of Jesus. If we want to know where to seek God and find him, we ought to seek him where he is working - calling unexpected people. People in Hawker, in Weetangera, in Sculling, Page, Florey, and Whitlam.