God's Embrace
I have recently begun texting with a friend via Facebook messenger. Technology for all of the harm it can do also has its upside, and I reconnected with this person whom I knew as a child. We used to play together as children. It has only been in the past few weeks that somehow we reconnected via social media.
Recently one evening, as this friend and I are messaging on our phones, I asked, “Do you believe in God?” He responded authentically and without hesitation - “Not after all I have seen, not the biblically portrayed God.”
Which made my heart hurt because what I think he was saying, what I sense and even know deeply, is that it is not the biblically portrayed God that he rejects, but it is how this God has been portrayed by those proclaiming to speak for God. It is how some Christians have chosen to portray this God, as the God of the Bible, that he rejects.
Today our text begins with God so determined to proclaim the good news of great joy for all people that the story begins with wise men from the East, (some say Persia), who had observed the start in the East arrive to find this king. Along the way God directs them first by a star, then via a verse from Micah (Micah 5:2), and finally in their dreams. (We know this from the texts found in Matthew and Luke.)
The magi are important to consider for many reasons and I am sure we have all heard sermons on what each of the gifts - gold, frankincense, myrrh, represents. And while those things may or may not be true, I want us to consider the magi so that we can understand how far God reaches to ensure that all people - all people - receive the good news of Christ’s birth.
While Christian tradition holds that the Magi were kings (an interesting contrast between these kings’ response to Jesus’ birth and the way Herod, king of God’s people, responded), a more precise description might be that the Magi belonged to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism, which paid particular attention to the stars. This priestly caste gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science.
So these Wise Ones from the East were scientists and practiced other religions, and God used their faith and knowledge to bring them to the Christ. More ironic, God used scientists who practiced other religions to let King Herod and the chief priests and scribes of the people in on the news that their Messiah had been born.
God seems to do whatever it takes to reach out to and embrace all people. God announces the birth of the Messiah to shepherds through angels on Christmas, to Magi via a star on Epiphany, and to the political and religious authorities of God’s own people, through visitors from the East.
God’s reach, God’s embrace in Christ Jesus, gets bigger and bigger. Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners. Jesus touches people who are sick and people who live with disabilities.
No one is beyond God’s embrace.
The Magi did not come looking for Christ through preaching, liturgy, sacrament, the children’s program, the youth program, what the church was doing this week. The Magi came seeking Christ after studying the night skies.
How God chooses to embrace people, each of us individually is mystery. There is no set prescription for the right way or the way that God draws people. God works in his ways, in his time to all people. God’s ways are bigger than our understanding.
Which I find great comfort in. God is moving in the lives of people continually. He uses people, words of support, a song, a squirrel, a dream, a “coincidence”, a star. God speaks to each of us where we are. Our job is to be open to seeing. Too noticing how God may be speaking and drawing us to Himself. I have no doubt as God appeared to the magi in a star, that God will speak to my friend in whatever way he may be open to receive it. My prayer and hope for my friend is that he will continually be sensitive and aware of the way God is moving around him and I have confidence that the God I know who is portrayed in the Bible has him firmly in His hand.
The alternative, of course, is to join Herod in not seeing God’s ever-expanding embrace, or feeling threatened by it, and instead giving way to just plain fear. It is interesting that the Priests did not come to give their gifts - it was wise men from the East. And, “When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:3). When Herod heard of the Magi’s interest in finding “the child who was born King of the Jews”, he violently wanted to protect his place and preserve his power.
Sometimes, we to feel jealous when visitors show up seeking Christ due to experiences outside of our purview and control. Or maybe they are just new here - it is new and different to us and we are uncomfortable.
We have our own ways of reaching out, of doing things. We must be careful to not crush someone’s experiences of God’s grace for the sake of our patterns, practices, and perspectives.
We are beginning another liturgical year. A year of proclaiming Christ in this ever evolving world that is new and different to each of us each day.
As we enter this year together as the people of St. James - let’s look around us. Let us be aware of how God may be moving in the lives of people around us and in ways we have never reached out before as a congregation or as a people. Let’s remain open to movement. Even if the movement and sign comes in a way strange to us. Something maybe even as strange a star in the East. And may we be open to following it in search of the Christ child.
Amen.
I have recently begun texting with a friend via Facebook messenger. Technology for all of the harm it can do also has its upside, and I reconnected with this person whom I knew as a child. We used to play together as children. It has only been in the past few weeks that somehow we reconnected via social media.
Recently one evening, as this friend and I are messaging on our phones, I asked, “Do you believe in God?” He responded authentically and without hesitation - “Not after all I have seen, not the biblically portrayed God.”
Which made my heart hurt because what I think he was saying, what I sense and even know deeply, is that it is not the biblically portrayed God that he rejects, but it is how this God has been portrayed by those proclaiming to speak for God. It is how some Christians have chosen to portray this God, as the God of the Bible, that he rejects.
Today our text begins with God so determined to proclaim the good news of great joy for all people that the story begins with wise men from the East, (some say Persia), who had observed the start in the East arrive to find this king. Along the way God directs them first by a star, then via a verse from Micah (Micah 5:2), and finally in their dreams. (We know this from the texts found in Matthew and Luke.)
The magi are important to consider for many reasons and I am sure we have all heard sermons on what each of the gifts - gold, frankincense, myrrh, represents. And while those things may or may not be true, I want us to consider the magi so that we can understand how far God reaches to ensure that all people - all people - receive the good news of Christ’s birth.
While Christian tradition holds that the Magi were kings (an interesting contrast between these kings’ response to Jesus’ birth and the way Herod, king of God’s people, responded), a more precise description might be that the Magi belonged to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism, which paid particular attention to the stars. This priestly caste gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science.
So these Wise Ones from the East were scientists and practiced other religions, and God used their faith and knowledge to bring them to the Christ. More ironic, God used scientists who practiced other religions to let King Herod and the chief priests and scribes of the people in on the news that their Messiah had been born.
God seems to do whatever it takes to reach out to and embrace all people. God announces the birth of the Messiah to shepherds through angels on Christmas, to Magi via a star on Epiphany, and to the political and religious authorities of God’s own people, through visitors from the East.
God’s reach, God’s embrace in Christ Jesus, gets bigger and bigger. Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners. Jesus touches people who are sick and people who live with disabilities.
No one is beyond God’s embrace.
The Magi did not come looking for Christ through preaching, liturgy, sacrament, the children’s program, the youth program, what the church was doing this week. The Magi came seeking Christ after studying the night skies.
How God chooses to embrace people, each of us individually is mystery. There is no set prescription for the right way or the way that God draws people. God works in his ways, in his time to all people. God’s ways are bigger than our understanding.
Which I find great comfort in. God is moving in the lives of people continually. He uses people, words of support, a song, a squirrel, a dream, a “coincidence”, a star. God speaks to each of us where we are. Our job is to be open to seeing. Too noticing how God may be speaking and drawing us to Himself. I have no doubt as God appeared to the magi in a star, that God will speak to my friend in whatever way he may be open to receive it. My prayer and hope for my friend is that he will continually be sensitive and aware of the way God is moving around him and I have confidence that the God I know who is portrayed in the Bible has him firmly in His hand.
The alternative, of course, is to join Herod in not seeing God’s ever-expanding embrace, or feeling threatened by it, and instead giving way to just plain fear. It is interesting that the Priests did not come to give their gifts - it was wise men from the East. And, “When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:3). When Herod heard of the Magi’s interest in finding “the child who was born King of the Jews”, he violently wanted to protect his place and preserve his power.
Sometimes, we to feel jealous when visitors show up seeking Christ due to experiences outside of our purview and control. Or maybe they are just new here - it is new and different to us and we are uncomfortable.
We have our own ways of reaching out, of doing things. We must be careful to not crush someone’s experiences of God’s grace for the sake of our patterns, practices, and perspectives.
We are beginning another liturgical year. A year of proclaiming Christ in this ever evolving world that is new and different to each of us each day.
As we enter this year together as the people of St. James - let’s look around us. Let us be aware of how God may be moving in the lives of people around us and in ways we have never reached out before as a congregation or as a people. Let’s remain open to movement. Even if the movement and sign comes in a way strange to us. Something maybe even as strange a star in the East. And may we be open to following it in search of the Christ child.
Amen.