01/06/2019

A scripture reading for today comes from Matthew Chapter 2 verses 1 through 12.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod Magi from the East came to Jerusalem and asked where is the one who has been born King of the Jews. We saw a star when it Rose and have come to worship Him. When King Herod heard this he was Disturbed and all Jerusalem with him when he had called together all the people's Chief priests and teachers of the law. He asked them where the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem in Judea. They replied for this is what the prophet has written, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah proud of you will come a ruler who will Shepherd My People Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said go and search carefully for the child as soon as you find him report to me so that I too may go and worship him after they had heard the king. They went on their way and the star they had seen when it Rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was when they saw the star they were Overjoyed on coming to the house. They saw the child with his mother Mary and they Bow Down and Worship Him then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold frankincense. And myrrh, and having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. They return to their country by another route the word of God for the people of God.

Let us prey. Lord may the meditation of our hearts and the words of my lips be pleasing in your sight. our Rock and Our Redeemer amen

so this morning

even talk about the Magi. the wise men And for understanding, let's just assume that there were some women among them. Okay, cuz I got to where they were going in relatively quick fashion and they found what they were looking for without too much assistance. that they came from the East which was probably at closest some we're kind of in Iraq and Iran modern-day and And they came on a long journey of likely over like a thousand miles. now A Thousand Miles before Electronics

There wasn't even like an old Walkman tape cassette player for their Journey. There was just feets one in front of the other and they didn't know how far they had to go when they started their Journey. They just knew that they were to follow the star. So I imagine they started. Maybe they started early one morning. Right? Like they saw the star of the night before and they're like, all right, we know which way we got to go. Let's get our stuff and let's get going cuz they had heard prophecy about the start. They've been taught about the store like 400 years before hand until the new hay in 400 in like 35 years were going to look and if that start up here as we got to follow it. Okay, so they've been told by my ancestors by ancestors my ancestors at the star was going to appear and then boom one day to pierce they get their stuff. They start on their Journey. They don't know how far they're going to go. To start off the maybe they crossed the first River and they're just looking over the next Hill and they're like, we're sure it'll be just over the next Hill and then it wasn't and then like they had to cross probably another River and I thought maybe it'll be over the next mountain range. And then it wasn't and then they had to go a little bit farther and they cross probably a plane and they thought all over this next little bit of sand will be there, but it wasn't and then eventually over the next River and over the next Hill and then over the next mountain range and then over the next River and then over the next Hill and maybe they saw some tents along the way and they thought that's where we're going to go. So they'd stop but it wouldn't be him. So I have to keep going and they keep going and they keep going to keep going until eventually they come to a city called Jerusalem. I like uh, we got a whole city. What are we going to do? There was a king in this city ending new. That they were looking for the king of the Jews Messiah and this was a Jewish City and there already was a Jewish King.

We got to go talk to the Jewish King about the new king. I wonder how this is going to go. Proceed there. There's something unless in case you haven't figured this out power corrupts people. Anne and King Herod had had power for over 37 years by this time. And historians are split whether he was good or whether he was horrible. But what is known is that he ruled for a long time? And any good ruler already has a plan for secession, right? Who's going to succeed them? Right? So I'm sure it had some people on the list and Jesus wasn't there and certainly some little baby wasn't going to Rule the Kingdom by the way heads up hair word. We say King Herod. He was like kind of like a little Mini King to Rome. So like he was powerful. Okay, but he's like mid-level management powerful. Okay. He was the guy always for the TPS reports. Okay, like not really all that smart, maybe even okay. He just knew how to have power knew how to control things and he wasn't going to give that power up. He actually spend a lot of money in the expansion of the second temple in Jerusalem, by the way, all that money 65 years later totally gone cuz the Romans destroyed it, but at that point in time, it was luxurious it it just completed. And hear the wise men were sharing with him. Let the new king had just been born. And so these Wiseman by the way, remember the journey there like 985 miles into the Thousand Mile Journey, right? And this guy this King Herod has the gall to tell them to be really diligent in their search like as if they hadn't already been diligent for all that long time. And so they go to Bethlehem and they find Jesus. And they have gifts the gold frankincense. And myrrh, right. So those three foreshadow Jesus is ministry, right? And so they give them these gifts and they worship Jesus. And then they're gone. Like their whole Thousand Mile Journey had one purpose and one purpose only.

And it wasn't for them. Their Journey wasn't for them. They traveled a thousand miles. So Mary and Joseph could have a surance that their child was going to be the Messiah. They traveled a thousand miles to open up the doors to the Gentiles in this faith in Jesus. Their Journey had very little to do with them except for the gifts that they brought to the king.

this story has a lot to tell us. This story tells us that our journey while it includes us isn't about us. It's not about what we benefit. It's about what we have to offer. And then here's the reality of what we have to offer. I don't know about you. I'll share a little bit. Nothing is quite as humbling is telling your mother that you want to be a pastor and have her saying Robbie. I don't think people like you can be pastors.

Real story but but it's the reality of our Brokenness, right? Like it's the reality of what we have to offer is never enough. We don't worship Jesus because we're perfect. We don't worship Jesus because we have it all together. We don't worship Jesus because we claim to know it all we worship Jesus because that's what we were created to do. And what we have to do is to offer something to the Christ child and that thing that we have to offer. Is a broken vessel? Is our Brokenness that Christ has loved us through and help to put us back together. It's all of our doubt. It's all of our insecurities. It's all of our foot before foot. Just putting one foot in front of the other on our Thousand Mile Journey. Sometimes not knowing where we're going.

No disrespect for the older people in the room, but I always thought like just trying to get by to get to the next thing was something like that. Elderly people. Did I always like no, I got this. I know where I'm going. I know what I'm doing and then I had a child. And I learned that sometimes we just pray to get through the day to survive for another day to try it all over again for another day. And the reality is that we all have this this journey in life that Christ is called us to that relies on our involvement but isn't with us as the focus. And that's completely counter to what the world has told us. I have Netflix. I have like four Netflix accounts, right like you got the one account, but then you got like the kid version and I got the V reversion right and I've got like okay. So like everybody that comes and hangs out at the house has it on Netflix cuz I don't want to mess up my Netflix cuz I have my most recently watched right everyone. Does this kinda same thing or I'm weird. But either way like the the individual lies notion of what our lives mean. We begin to buy into. But it's really about what I can get out of it and not what others will benefit from. And if if you think that this isn't true look at people's investment portfolios. Weather what we're investing in has long-term benefits for the world or short-term economic gains for ourselves. That's one way that we can look and we can see how how we begin to be tempted to buy into the individualization of our world when in reality. It's a shared economy. It's about all of us being on this journey together and and it's about inviting others to the journey. Don't even know if they feel welcome enough to come through the door. It's about inviting others to the journey. When we share what God has done in our life with them. It involves risk. It has to share with them how far God has brought us. And each of our stories include decisions or occurrences where we didn't know what we were going to do or we weren't proud of what we did. But God has brought us through.

So here's the thing. the wise men shared with King Herod Do they knew well enough to know he wasn't a safe place? He wasn't a safe place to share the story with. But they knew he deserved to hear the story. They knew that he also had an opportunity to worship the Savior and they were not going to deny. the king that opportunity So this morning as you think about what God has shown you in your life through your Epiphany who has that empowered you to share Christ story with that you would rather not. Who has Christ empowered you to share what God has done in your life. Do you think won't even listen and won't even care. Did you see when we do that that acknowledges that the story isn't about us? It's about God. It's not even about the people that we share our story with. And that's what we have to understand to get over the hurdle of evangelism. We have to understand that it's not about the rejection or the acceptance It's about God's story continuing to impact others and others and others.

And so this this story of the Wiseman is about their Journey their Thousand Mile Journey that didn't even matter for them in terms of it. Wasn't there their thing that they were doing for their benefit. But the thing that they were doing for God's glory. Amen. What are you willing to do? What is God called you to do for God's glory and not for your own. For God story and not just your own for the growing of the kingdom of God, not for the growing of our ego not for the growing of our comfort. Not even for the growing of our church. but for the growing of God's Kingdom

This is what Christ has called us to something that involves us but isn't just about us.

What are you willing?

to do to share

in honor

of the Messiah

when all we have to bring is our Broken Vessels.

What will you bring as a gift?

this epiphany

amen