Sermons

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Moved to Worship
December 31, 2000
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

Matthew 2:1-12

Today is the Sunday before what the church calls “Epiphany.” Epiphany comes on January 6 every year, exactly twelve days after Christmas. This year it falls on this coming Saturday. Epiphany means “manifestation, or revelation.” It refers specifically to the “revealing” of God to the world in Jesus Christ, and particularly to “the world” as represented by the three wisemen or magi from the Christmas story. That story is found in Matthew 2:1-12.

I have to show you this morning a couple of my very most prized possessions. These are part of a nativity set from Mexico which my brother and sister-in-law gave me several years ago for Christmas. It’s the three wisemen, on their way to Bethlehem. Now you may not be able to see these very well from where you are sitting. These particular wisemen have, naturally, somewhat of a different look than you might be used to. If you are like me, you may have been raised with pictures of three Caucasian guys on camels…and undoubtedly all speaking English as they rode across the sands. They have three different colors skin. They are riding three different animals: a camel, a horse and this one, my favorite, is riding an elephant. They are dressed in the bright colors of Mexican art. I love these guys.

I think one reason I like this set is it reminds me that Epiphany has to do with the good news of God’s love in Christ going out to the WHOLE world…not just MY world. These three wisemen in some way represent that “whole world.” The Christmas story that we’ve listened to for the last month reminds us that Christ’s coming was of crucial significance for ALL people…not just a special “chosen” one.

Think of the cast of characters: Mary and Joseph, working class Jewish citizens. King Herod, with a very mixed genealogy as well as Roman connections to great wealth and power. Peasant shepherds. Learned scribes and religious leaders of the day. And then these somewhat mysterious wisemen. The truth is…there is more that we DON’T know about them than we DO know.

The story of the wisemen is found ONLY in the gospel of Matthew, in just these few verses. And it is church tradition, not the Bible, which leads us to believe there were three…probably because of the three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But it wasn’t always so. The early church sometimes depicted 12 wisemen, one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. We don’t know for sure where they came from, other than “The East.” Quite likely Persia (modern day Iran or Iraq), or perhaps even India. There are countless stories and fables which give them names, personalities and adventures…but the truth is, all we know for sure is what we read here in Matthew. Almost certainly they were not “kings.” The word used here is “magi,” or wisemen.

Given that they were following a star, they were probably men from the East trained in both astronomy (the study of the laws of the movement of stars) and astrology (the study of the meaning or message that the stars’ movements had for human life). In their own land, they were probably well-respected men of great learning. But they were no longer in their own land. And in Jerusalem they were heathen. First degree gentiles. Their profession was disdained as idolatry, lumped with sorcery and magic.

It is not so much the details of these magi that I want us to focus on today as it is the movement of the story. As I read this story, it seems to me there is a journey outlined which has great relevance for people who want to know more of God. I want you to notice four things with me this morning, and raise four questions for you.

The first thing we must notice is that God has grabbed the attention of these men. We have no idea, really, of their background, but God has used an unusually bright and significant star to catch their attention. The story begins, then, with God.

Our story, too, begins with God. Most of us like to think that our coming to know God in Jesus Christ was something that we did, a choice that we made. And to be sure, there was undoubtedly a moment when each one here who calls themselves a Christian had to say “Yes, I accept Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior of my life. Yes, I believe in Christ. Yes, I commit my life to the Lord.” Yet at the same time, in looking back…most of us would acknowledge that God was at work in our lives, using certain situations, putting just the right people in our path…long before we ever realized it or acknowledged it. God was going to great lengths…to get our attention.

C.S. Lewis talked about “the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet”…until finally, “I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed.” God was getting his attention. God continues to try and get our attention, long after we have begun to follow. I thought about the times in my life of profound spiritual growth…and I realized that God got my attention in many ways. Through a friend at school. Through the ending of a relationship. During a week spent in the mountains. What is happening in your life right now? What might God be using to try to get your attention?

The second thing which this story of the Magi brings out for me is that as God gets our attention…we are asked to TRUST God. Something compelled these men to jump on their camels…or elephant, perhaps!…and undertake an extremely long journey to a land where they would not necessarily be welcomed with open arms. They had to trust that gut instinct, that star, that voice that compelled them to move out. Frederick Buechner imagined the magi feeling like this:

“Why did we travel so far to be there when it happened? Why was it not enough just to know the secret without having to be there ourselves to behold it? To this, not even the stars had an answer. The star said simply that he would be born. It was another voice altogether that said to go -- a voice as deep within ourselves as the stars are deep within the sky.”

We are asked to TRUST.

This week I read a new book by Brennan Manning called “Ruthless Trust.” It resonated with me from the very beginning. Manning says he wrote the book after his spiritual director, someone who knew him very well, said this to him: “Brennan, you don’t need any more insights into the faith. You’ve got enough insights to last you three hundred years. The most urgent need in your life is to trust what you’ve received.”

Clearly, the Bible talks a great deal about trusting God. “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart,” the Proverbs say (3:5). Jesus said, “Put your trust in the light.” In Romans, Paul writes “The one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.”

This is an area which is very “live” for me personally right now. I don’t know about you…but it seems like when I think about trusting God, I immediately think about “trusting” that everything is going to go well for me, that things will work out, that my sick friend will recover. Most often, if I trust in God, it means trusting for things to work out for me…or at least that I will not get hurt.

Yet the facts of human life are that, Christian or non-Christian…difficult things happen in life. Things do NOT always work out the way we hope or wish. People do suffer catastrophic events in life; there ARE sad parts to life. If this is true, then what is it we trust? Henry Nouwen says, “The root choice is to trust at all times that God is with you and will give you what you most need” (“The Inner Voice of Love”). I like that very much. Surely a God who chose to give his very Son for my sake and yours…will give us what we most need, and will not abandon us. Learning to trust God is a process and a decision…a decision that we must make over and over and over again.

In this last week, I have found myself needing to go back to God again and again. As you know, starting next week we are having discussions about starting a third worship service. That’s very exciting…I think it’s what the Lord is leading us to do…but it will be a major undertaking. And then it’s budget time, as we think about the ministries of this community in the next year. In this last week, I have found myself getting antsy and anxious about these things, and a couple of difficult situations with people. And the question kept coming back: Am I willing to trust God? Can I trust that God is with me in them? Can I trust that God will give me what I most need? I want to leave the question with you as well. What situation are you in that you find yourself clutching tightly, or that is causing you great anxiety? What would it look like for you to trust God in that?

As we follow the magi to Bethlehem…we hit really the focal point of the entire story. “…and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.” They worshipped him. They sat down on some nearby straight-backed benches…took out their bulletins…found an ensemble, and started a service…during which they took an offering, and stopped exactly one hour later.

Maybe I’m reading into it. They worshipped, they literally fell down before a little child…they put themselves into a position which acknowledged the presence of One far greater than they. They did what Herod could never do.

Our tradition of worship doesn’t include too much falling on our faces…not even simple kneeling, anymore. I wish it did. There is still, I think, some remnant response inside of us which knows that for us to kneel down…is to acknowledge Someone greater than us. To proclaim our dependence on God. When we begin to trust God, and we taste the love He has for us, and we realize He is trustworthy, that we are loved and not alone, that he makes provision for our needs…then worship is a natural response.

“You come to a point,” someone once wrote, “where you kneel down in the dirty straw of a stable because you can’t stand up. For to stand would be to say “I am here, I am good!” And all around the air shouts out “He is here! He is good! He has come!” Trust leads us to worship.

So the question: What is it you are here for today…or any Sunday? Or any worship time? Do you come in a building, and hope the service has been planned well enough, or executed well enough to somehow move you? Do you come out of habit, or a sense of obligation? Or do you come to God, and allow yourself to fall at His feet? Do you come as an evaluator, to critique the music, or the sermon or the worship leader? Or do you come expectantly, to meet Almighty God? Dare you come kneeling before a God who may very well change you in the process?

That is the fourth thing which comes out of the story. Changed people. The magi finished their worship service, and had a dream which said “You need to do something different. Go home a different way.” God changed whatever plans they had.

Every Sunday, I pray for myself, and for all of us… “God, don’t let us leave this time as the same people who walked in. Meet us, touch us, change us.” I don’t EVER want to leave a time of worship and feel like “Boy, that worked just great. I think I have this worship service-thing down to a science.” I want to feel like I walked into God’s presence and was changed. And some of that may not necessarily be easy or comfortable. T.S. Eliot wrote a poem about these Magi, as though one of them was afterwards reflecting on what had happened. He says:

“…were we led all that way for Birth or Death?
There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here…”

“No longer at ease.” Changed. Different. Journeying with God always moves us. Being in a relationship with Jesus Christ means constantly being open to being changed. The more mature our faith is, perhaps, the more willing we are for God to have His way in our lives. Are you willing?

It really is a journey that this story tells us about. A journey that God took these magi on. A journey He takes us on as well. And the journey seems to cycle in an ever-deepening spiral. God somehow gets our attention. When He does, He calls us to trust more deeply than before. That moves us into His presence in worship…and we are changed…which grabs our attention in a new way, which calls us to trust more deeply…and onward…and onward. The journey continues. May God continue to call us forward in this new year. Amen.