Where is Christ Born
Matthew 2:1-12
After the New Year’s Eve parties have been cleaned up, after the new calendars have been hung on the wall, after the Missouri Tigers have played their last football game of the season, it is time to make New Year’s Resolutions.
People who study these kinds of things lump the resolutions we make into 10 general categories. I think we could probably sift these down to 3 or 4 categories, but Top Ten lists are more popular. These resolutions, when done with some integrity, reflect on our past behaviors with the purpose of living into a better or more preferred future. These resolutions signal changes we want to make in our lives in order to be more like the people we want to be.
Towards that end of getting better, of being better people, this is the Top Ten list.
- Lose Weight
- Get Organized
- Spend Less, Save More
- Enjoy Life to the Fullest
- Stay Fit and Healthy
- Learn Something Exciting
- Quit Smoking
- Help Others in Their Dreams
- Fall in Love
- Spend More Time with Family
It would easy to point out that you can accomplish most of these resolutions through your involvement in the church. It would be easy because we value families, discourage smoking and drinking, offer classes that teach amazing new things to learn, and we have lots of ways to help you help others because we are in love with God and our neighbors.
It would be unwise for me to point this out to you because the primary business of the church is not making people better. The primary business of the church is making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
One of the things that I do to make disciples beyond the reach of this church is posting hymn videos on YouTube – over 350 videos as of this past week, with over 2,100 subscribers, for my channel “The Sound of Perfect Love.” I have received comments on these hymns from people literally all around the world, though most of the subscribers are here in the United States. YouTube reports that most of my viewers are males between 16 and 34 years old.
So, towards the end of making more disciples for Jesus Christ, one year I thought I should resolve to make the hymn videos I post more like the videos that go viral. But then I got a new subscriber to my channel who made me question the need for this resolution.
When someone subscribes, the manager of the channel can click on their link to see what else they are interested in watching. Usually, my subscribers indicate an interest in church music, church youth groups, and church activities. But this new person was a bit different. Immediately before joining my channel, this person joined a channel dedicated to Lady Gaga. This person wasn’t looking for someone else who sounded like Lady Gaga. They wanted their hymns to sound like hymns, and the message to be about Jesus. It reminded me that it was not my job to offer the world pop culture. It was my job to offer the world Jesus Christ.
The gospel writer Matthew also saw it as his mission to offer Christ to the world. His gospel begins with people from other lands looking for the Christ Child, and it ends with Jesus sending the apostles to tell the people of other lands the good news. These book-end references should make it clear that the messiah was not good news for the Chosen People alone. The coming of Jesus is good news for all people. And since the good news is for all people, all people will ask the same question the wise men asked: “Where is the Child born today? Where can I find Jesus?”
The journey of the wise men was very similar to the journey many people take today. We might not travel by camels, but we traverse from a worldly culture to look for God in places where we think God ought to be, instead of where God is actually revealed. Like many people today, the wise men followed signs, they acted on hunches, they asked questions, and they needed help to reach their destination.
All that the magi did on their own got them as close as Jerusalem in looking for Jesus. They went as far as the signs and their assumptions about God could take them. They got to Jerusalem, but were still six miles away from the physical place where Jesus could be found. It might as well have been six thousand miles away, if they were still trying to figure it out by themselves.
The area between Jerusalem and Herodian, the palace of King Herod, would have been considered the equivalent of “fly-over country” – it was too insignificant and unimportant to even think about. The only point of interest on that path was the tomb of Rachel, located in a little village known as Bethlehem. And this was long before people put up those historical markers on the roadsides that indicated that something important happened here once long ago. If there was such a marker, it might also indicate that this is where Ruth and Boaz were married, or that this is where David once worked as a shepherd before he became king of Israel.
The magi followed the signs in the heavens, but it only gets them close. And if they only had the signs in the heavens, they would not have found Jesus. Even after reading the signs, and making the journey, they still needed God’s help to find Jesus. And their help came in the reading of the scripture, and in the God-sent star still guiding them.
Many people today only get close when it comes to finding Jesus. They read the signs of culture about what is good. They interpret the signs with sociology, anthropology, and psychology, and they get close to what it means to be a Christian. But close might as well be clueless, for it is the difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing them.
People who understand that differencestill ask, “Where is the Child born? Where can I find Jesus?” To help them, we can do what Herod did. Herod himself didn’t know, but he knew enough to consult with the priests, and to consult the scriptures.
Even if we talk with ministers and read the scriptures, it still might not happen very quickly for us. We sometimes forget that the magi followed a star for about two years. Even in a time when the main form of transportation was walking, it doesn’t take two years to travel from the likely home of the wise men in the eastern Diaspora to Jerusalem.
Their journey likely had many deliberate stops and starts. Their journey certainly would have had many opportunities for doubting and questioning just where they were going and what they were following. On a journey like this, being called “wise men” may have seemed more than a little ironic, because to the rest of the world it would look like a fool’s quest.
Before the magi started their journey, they had an understanding as to why it was important. They didn’t just wake up one morning and say, “Hey, that star looks interesting. Let’s drop everything, risk everything, and see where it leads us.” No, they made this journey based on an understanding that came because of their studies, and because of their experiences, and because of the desires that God placed within them to have it all make sense, that this journey would make a difference in their lives.
I think the wise men had a very humble faith before they left their homes to find where the Christ was born. It is a very humble faith to believe that in everything God is working for good for those who trust God. And when we are humble, we gain the confidence that the Holy Spirit will lead us where God would have us go.
God had been preparing the way for the magi to make this trip. God had given them a story to call them, a star to guide them, and a promise to fulfill them. God did all that before they knew anything at all about Bethlehem.
God does all of that for us, as well. We have a story to guide us, a story that has been written in the lives of our friends, our ancestors, our saints – astory of what it means to live faithfully with God. It is a story we receive that we had nothing to do with writing. This story is a gift, a prevenient grace of God.
We have signs to direct us to where we can meet with Emmanuel, God with us, the God before us. Jesus told us that when we serve the least of these, we are in the presence of God. Jesus told us that when two or three are together in the name of Jesus, we are in the presence of God. Jesus told us that there is no place that we can go in this world and God won’t be there waiting for us. These signs are a gift, a prevenient grace of God.
We have a promise placed in our hearts to be with God. Sometimes, that promise is clear and easy to understand. And sometimes, it has to be explored deliberately before it becomes clear to us. But this promise is not something we come up with by ourselves – this promise is a gift, a prevenient grace of God.
The world will tell you that it is not a good idea to pick up and travel to another land based on a hunch that maybe God wants you to do this. But it is the wisest thing you can do when God is leading you. It is not a good idea to risk everything you have and everything you are to bring gifts to a Middle Eastern baby living under oppression. But it is the wisest thing you can do if you trust that God holds your future. It is not a good idea to ignore the demands of those who are in power simply because you have a dream to go home another way. But it is the wisest thing you can do when you have confidence that the Holy Spirit will not lead you astray.
Where is the Child born? Where can we find Jesus today? We may not have to follow a star, but God will lead us to where our heart can be ready to receive Jesus. We may have more scriptures to read today than did the magi, but these new testaments help us focus on seeing Jesus where he may be found. And we still have a promise from God, that God will be with us through Jesus Christ. If we are open to this journey, and we commit to seeing this journey through, then we will be able to answer the question by affirming that Christ is born in our hearts.
If you want to make New Year’s resolutions, go ahead. A lot of people will be doing this, and this practice can make you a better person, at least until you give upthose resolutions for Lent. If your goal is to become better than you are now, then by all means make New Year’s resolutions.
But if your hope is to become more like Jesus Christ, I invite you to make a commitment to be a disciple, to have Jesus born in your heart, and to live your life in such a way that you reveal to others something of importance about Jesus, and about the Body of Christ, even as you are fully whom God has made you to be. Like the wise men, there may be times in this journey of faith when the destination is unclear, the purpose unfocused, and the promise unsure – there may be times when things may seem bleak. Yet it is precisely at those times when we can be most dependent on God, and most receptive to having Christ come into our hearts!
UMH 221 “In the Bleak Midwinter”