Bridgewater,
Massachusetts, December 24, 2004
Christmas Eve
Audio
Sermon
Psalm
148 Praise the Lord
Praise
the Lord.
Praise
the Lord from the heavens,
praise
him in the heights above.
Praise him, all his angels, praise
him,
all
his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise
him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens
and
you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the
Lord,
for
he commanded and they were
created.
He set them in place forever and
ever;
he
gave a decree that will never pass
away.
Praise
the Lord from the earth,
you
great sea creatures and all ocean
depths,
lightning and hail, snow and
clouds,
stormy
winds that do his bidding,
you mountains and all hills,
fruit
trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle,
small
creatures and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all
nations,
you
princes and all rulers on earth,
young men and maidens,
old
men and children.
Let
them praise the name of the Lord,
for
his name alone is exalted;
his
splendor is above the earth and
the heavens.
He has raised up a horn [of
strength] for his people,
the
praise of all his saints,
of
Israel, the people close to his
heart.
Praise
the Lord.
Matthew
1:18-25 The birth of Jesus
Christ
Now
the birth of Jesus the Messiah
took place in this way: When his
mother Mary had been engaged to
Joseph, but before they came
together, she was found to be with
child from the Holy Spirit. Her
husband Joseph, being a righteous
man and unwilling to expose her to
public disgrace, planned to
dismiss her quietly.
But
just when he had resolved to do
this, an angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream and
said, "Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary as
your wife, for the child conceived
in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you are
to name him Jesus, for he will
save his people from their
sins."
All
this took place to fulfill what
had been spoken by the Lord
through the prophet: "Behold,
the virgin will conceive and bear
a son, and they will name him
Emmanuel," which means
"God with us."
When
Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as
the angel of the Lord commanded
him; he took her as his wife, but
had no union with her until she
had borne a son; and he named him
Jesus.
Matthew
2:1-12 The visit of the wise
men
After
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in
Judea, during the time of King
Herod, wise men from the east came
to Jerusalem and asked,
"Where is the one who has
been born king of the Jews? We saw
his star in the east and have come
to worship him."
When
King Herod heard this he was
disturbed, and all Jerusalem with
him. He called together all the
people’s chief priests and
teachers of the law, and asked
them where the Christ 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; for out of you
will come a ruler who will be the
shepherd of my people
Israel.’"
Herod
called the wise men secretly and
found out from them the exact time
the star had appeared. He sent
them to Bethlehem and said,
"Go, make a careful search
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 in the east 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 bowed down and
worshipped him. Then they opened
their treasures and presented him
with gifts of gold and
frankincense and myrrh. And having
been warned in a dream not to go
back to Herod, they returned to
their country by another way.
After
they had heard the king, they went
on their way, and the star they
had seen in the east went ahead of
them until it stopped over the
place where the child was (Matthew
2:9)
For
the wise men, the entire journey
began with a star. A tiny little
point of light in the sky.
At
least, we think of stars as tiny
little things. But they are not.
Each one of those "little
stars" is a sun. Our sun is
over a hundred times the diameter
of the earth. Over one million
earths could fit inside it. Those
"little stars" that we
see twinkling in our night sky are
actually vast balls of intensely
hot nuclear reactions reaching
temperatures of over twenty-five
million degrees at their core. If
we were to travel too close to of
those beautiful little dots of
light, we would first be burnt to
a crisp, and then vaporized.
We
see them as tiny points of light
only because we are so far away
from them. And that is good to
keep in mind as we contemplate,
with the wise men, the star that
led them to Jesus. The star that
we think of as tiny is, in fact,
far larger and far more intense
than anything our experience has
prepared us to imagine.
The
first thing the wise men had to do
in order to see the star was to
look up. None of the priests and
teachers of the law in Jerusalem
saw the star. Their eyes were too
focused on their books and their
laws and their church politics to
even notice the sign of the new
King’s birth. The wise men were
willing to look up . . .
and they saw a star in the east
that would lead them on their
journey.
We,
too, must be willing to look up.
We must be willing to look beyond
our jobs and our books and our
families, and all the pressing
cares of this world. We must be
willing to clear our minds from
time to time of all those cares,
and lift the eyes of our minds
beyond the things of this world to
the deeper matters of spiritual
life. Otherwise, like our
four-footed friends, we will have
our gaze constantly fixed on the
grass and dirt in front of us . . .
and we will never notice or see
the far greater heavenly beauties
that await our wondering eyes.
And
the wise men were willing to do
something else--something that
made them not merely smart, but
truly wise. Once they had lifted
up their eyes and seen the star,
they were willing to follow it
wherever it led them. They were
willing to leave behind their
familiar surroundings, and travel
to a distant land, seeking the one
who was born king of the Jews. And
so they went on their journey,
taking weeks, months, perhaps even
a year or more to reach a
destination that was still
unknown.
We,
too, if we are to be wise, and not
merely smart, must be willing to
follow the star of spirit where it
will lead us. We must be willing
to pick ourselves up and leave
behind our old, familiar attitudes
and patterns of thinking and
feeling. We must be willing to
travel to a distant new land in
which we will think new thoughts,
feel new loves, live renewed
lives. We must be willing to
relinquish our own control to the
newborn King within us, journeying
not where we would prefer to go,
but toward the Bethlehem of our
inner Holy Land.
On
the way, we need to consult the
Bible and the teachings of the
church. The wise men did not find
the child on their own. Even the
star did not lead them directly to
Bethlehem. To reach their
destination, they had to consult
with King Herod and the priests
and teachers in Jerusalem. Yet in
the end, it didn’t matter
whether those leaders were holy or
corrupt. In the end, it doesn’t
matter whether the church is full
of hypocritical leaders and
imperfect people. What matters is
that the church, with its most
precious possession, the Word of
God, gives us the detailed
guidance we need to focus our
journey in the right place.
Renewed
in this knowledge--the knowledge
of who Jesus is and where he may
be found--we can once again see
the star of spiritual insight
guiding us right to the place
within us where we can encounter
the newborn Lord for ourselves.
For our meeting with the Lord
Jesus Christ is not something that
happens in the church, but in our
hearts.
With
joy, the wise men saw the renewed
and brightly gleaming star, and it
led them right to the house where
the child was. This was no
ordinary, earthly star, which
could never have rested over a
single house. It was a star seen
with their spiritual eyes.
We,
too, can see that star guiding us
to the Lord Jesus, if we are
willing to lift up our eyes to
deeper things, and journey from
our usual attitudes and habits
toward its light. And if we do, in
time we will find, not a tiny
little star, but a vast,
all-encompassing Sun of
Righteousness, rising in the
spiritual east our lives with
healing in its wings (Malachi
4:2). Amen.
Music is a
random selection three titles:
We Three Kings
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Star Java Script Courtesy of
Kurt's DHTML
Graphic of Magi is courtesy of
Broderbund Christian ClickArt
and
is royalty free for non-profit
usage
Web Graphics by Judy
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