We’ve
had a wonderful celebration of Christmas at the American
Church
in Paris. A number of persons have told me how special our
Christmas Eve Candle Light Services were for them this past Monday.
We
have sung the Christmas Carols, decorated the Christmas
trees, exchanged Christmas gifts, read the Christmas Cards
and
Christmas newsletters; and now we turn to Matthew 2 to
consider
what it all means. We’re going to pause this morning, after all of the
singing and celebrating, to ask ourselves how we are going to respond
to the birth of Christ.
Our opening hymn sets the stage because
it begins with a question. “What Child Is This?” The hymn was
written by Rev. William Dix. A beautiful and ancient English melody,
Greensleeves, was attached to the words. The tune dates back to
Shakespeare and even earlier.
“What Child is this who, laid to
rest, On Mary’s lap is sleeping? Most of the hymns begin, not with a
question, but with a declarative statement. “Joy to the world! The Lord
is come!” “O Come all ye faithful, Joyful and Triumphant!” “Hark the
Herald Angels Sing, 'Glory to the newborn King.’” “Angels we
have
heard on High! Sweetly Singing O’er the Plains,” “Oh Little town of
Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.”
All positive statements.
But William Dix asks a question -- “What Child is this who,
laid
to rest, On Mary’s lap is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems
sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping?” When you have a question it
is natural to pause, so that you can give an intelligent response.
The
carol goes on to ask why it was necessary for the child to suffer? Why
the nails, the spear, the cross? In a very beautiful way, Dix raises
this huge question. And it is such a huge question that we need time to
think it through. We need space between the question and answer.
We
often find these spaces -- these pauses -- in the Bible. They allow us
to think, to ponder, to decide. How often Jesus says, “He who has ears
to hear, let him hear.” Jesus wants us to really listen to his words,
to let them sink in, let them touch our inner being. When we have
understood, when we are ready, then, we are to give our answer, our
response.
Let’s get started by taking a few moments to look at
the 2nd chapter of Matthew, the narrative upon which William Dix based
his carol. Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience, anchors his account
of the birth of Jesus in Jewish history, and tells us that Jesus was
born during the time of Herod the King.
Herod was known as
Herod the Great. He ruled for 37 years, and during that time built
theaters, amphitheaters, monuments, pagan altars, fortresses-- like the
fortress of Masada next to the Dead Sea. His greatest work was the
rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, often referred to as Herod's
Temple. It took 88 years to build and was torn down in 70 AD when the
Romans under Titus completely destroyed Jerusalem. It was that temple
that Jesus referred to when he said, “Not one stone will be left on
another; everyone will be thrown down”-- 40 years after Jesus made that
prediction, it was fulfilled literally -- one stone ws not left on
another.
The text tells us that Wise Men came from the East,
asking “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews for we have
seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.” Some
say
that the star was the conjunctions of two planets, Jupiter and
Saturn. The wise men were probably astrologers, perhaps from
Persia or southern Arabia, and they had come to worship the King of the
Jews.
Some wonder: why did God guide the magi by a star? I
think it’s because God was leading them in accordance with their
religious understanding and experience. God works with people in terms
of where they are.
Please do not think that this story is
advising us to look to the heavens and find direction through
astrology. God does not want us to consult with the stars. God rules
over the stars. God’s invites us to consult directly with him. In
Jeremiah 33:3 -- some people refer to this as God's telephone number --
Jeremiah 33:3 -- He invites us to “Call to me and I will
answer
you and tell you great an unsearchable things you do not know.” There
is no need for Christians to seek ambivalent messages from the stars.
When
King Herod heard all of this, he was disturbed. Never mind that the
King of the Jews was only a baby, and that Herod was far too old to
worry about a baby growing up to take his throne. Herod was obsessively
suspicious, and ruthless in dealing with threats to his
kingdom.
He murdered his wife, his three sons, his mother-in-law,
uncle
and many others -- not to mention the babies in Bethlehem.
Not
knowing the Old Testament, Herod called together the chief priests and
teachers of the law. He wanted information about this new born King.
“Where is this child to be born?” he asked. The teachers of the Hebrew
Bible turned to the book of Micah, written 700 years before Christ. The
Prophet Micah could have pointed to any nation in the world, he pointed
to Palestine; he could have pointed to any one of the 12 tribes, he
pointed to Judah; it could have pointed to any one of the many towns
and villages in Judah, he pointed to Bethlehem and said, “There-- in
that little village, in the land of Judah, some day, “shall come a
ruler who will govern my people Israel.” Seven hundred years later it
happened, just as he said.
Why Bethlehem? Because David had
lived in Bethlehem, and the Jews believed that the Messiah would be in
David’s family line, as Joseph was. St. Luke tells us, Joseph was of
the house and lineage of David. And even though Jesus was not
the
physical son of Joseph, Jesus being the legal son of Joseph was
therefore a descendant of David.
Let’s summarize: the Wise men
-- led by a star -- came to Jerusalem looking for the King of the
Jews. The Hebrew Bible was opened. And only then was the
specific
location of the Christ child provided. Do you see the progression?
First God uses natural revelation, a star. And then he uses Biblical
revelation to tell the Wise Men that the child would be born in
Bethlehem. We need Biblical revelation--the Word of God -- to encourage
us, to correct us, to build us up, to guide us.
The amazing
thing is that when the scribes told the Wise Men where the Messiah was
to be born, no one other than the Wise men made the journey to
Bethlehem. It was only 5 or so miles away, -- 8 kilometers. Why didn’t
others go? Were they afraid of Herod? Probably so
Not that
anyone else was invited to the birthday party. When you have a baby you
don’t want hordes of people around. You want to hand-pick
your
visitors. To witness the birth of his Son, God selected humble
shepherds and non-Jewish dignitaries. These were the invited
guests. And when these wise men saw the child, they fell
before
the child-- the text is very Christocentric -- not the mother and child
-- but specifically, the text says they fell before the child. And made
a formal gesture of adoration. They worshipped him, and gave him, the
Christ child, their gifts: gold incense and myrrh.
In one of
Garrison Kellor’s Christmas programs, Garrison made fun of the gifts of
the Wise Men. He talked about how impractical they were. Aside from the
gold, who could use incense and myrrh? Garrison Kellor knows
how
to entertain an audience, but he was misinformed. The gifts
of
incense and myrrh were fragrances, and in the first century, fragrances
were as good as cash. So the gold and the fragrances together enabled
Joseph, Mary and the child to go to Egypt and to stay there until they
were told to return to Israel and then to Nazareth in Galilee.
Four
times in this Christmas Story, Joseph is addressed by angels, and each
time he does what they tell him to do. How different Joseph was from so
many who resist the voices of good angels.
Charles Dickens wrote
the great classic The Christmas Carol, about Ebenezer Scrooge, the
cold-hearted, tight-fisted, selfish man, who despised Christmas and all
things which make people happy. In that play, the Ghost of Christmas
Past takes Ebenezer on a terrifying journey. He sees himself as a young
man in his 20s. He is with his financee, Belle, who loved him and
wanted to marry him, but couldn’t get him to take that final step.
When
she came to his workplace to see him there was a pause-- and then
Scrooge heard himself say the most pathetic words; he heard himself say
“Don’t you know that I can’t take up personal matters at
work.”
His fiancee, Belle, realized that work and making money was his life.
And so she left him. Scrooge had made his choice, and his choice
resulted in his becoming a miserable man.
In Scrooge’s dream,
the Ghost of Christmas Future came along next, and showed Scrooge how
his life in the future was going to continue to be wretchedly unhappy.
One
final ghost came to him -- The Ghost of Christmas Present. This Ghost
gave Scrooge one final opportunity to change, to make a new decision, a
good decision, for the people around him - for Tiny Tim -- and his
family and all the other people whom Scrooge had abused through the
years. This time, Scrooge didn’t pause very long at all. He made the
right decision, and experienced happiness for the first time.
It’s such a beautiful story.
The Magi made the right decision
when they first set off on their long and arduous journey, and again
they made the right decision when they left Jerusalem and headed south
for Bethlehem. And God rewarded them by letting "the star they had seen
in the east go ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the
child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.” (Mt 2:9,10)
How
kind it was of God to do this for them-- to give them this reassurance.
God does this for us often. He (1) puts a desire in our
hearts;
and then (2) he gives us a promise or direction from his Word, and
before the promise is fulfilled he (3) reassures us in one way or
another that we are on the right track. The star reappeared, there it
was shining over the place where the child was -- they were on the
right track. It was like the Ghost of Christmas Present letting
Ebenezer know that he was finally on the right track.
But the
huge question of the Christmas Carol by William Dix remains with us --
“What child is this?” What will be our answer? What’s our
response? Are we going to stay put like the chief priests and the
teachers of the law. Are we going to avoid taking up personal matters
at work, just stay involved in our busy schedules, just carry on
without any interruptions?
There may be people, like
Herod, who would like to destroy the Christ child. But there is no way
that anyone can do that. The Carols cannot be silenced. Starting in
November, they sneak up on you in department stores, on the air waves,
in the novelty shops. There was no way that Herod or anyone else could
silence Jesus. He himself said, “No one takes my life from
me,
but I lay it down of my own accord.” (Jn 10:18)
So
there is this great pause, and we get to decide. Will we be
afraid of what others think, our peers, our co-workers, our
families. Will they say that we are becoming too religious?
Too
involved with church and the Bible and Christianity?
C. S.
Lewis, has a wonderful statement in the Chronicles of Narnia, the
Silver Chair that relates to all of this. Jill’s friend falls
over a cliff. And Jill sees the great Lion Aslan and she is frightened,
being on a cliff all alone in a strange place and seeing this great
Lion, and she cries and cries, and C. S. Lewis comes up with one of his
greatest lines: “Crying is all right in a way-- as long as it lasts --
but sooner or later you have to stop and then you have to decide what
to do.”
It’s true in so many ways:
- Playing soccer
is all right in a way-- as long as it lasts -- but sooner or later you
have to stop and then you have to decide what to do.”
- Grieving
is all right in a way -- as long as it lasts [you don’t want
to
tell a person to stop grieving] -- but sooner or later that person has
to stop and then decide what to do.
- “Touring Paris is all
right in a way -- as long as it lasts -- but sooner or later you have
to stop and then you have to decide what to do.”
- Going to school
is all right in a way -- as long as it lasts -- but sooner or later you
have to stop and then you have to decide what to do.
-
Singing Christmas Carols and reading the Christmas Story and hearing
sermons on the Christ Child is all right in a way -- as long as it
lasts -- but sooner or later you have to stop and decide what
to
do.”
“What child is this?” There are many answers
to the question. Here’s a surprising response from none other
than Napoleon Bonaparte. He said,
"I know men and I tell
you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every
other
person in the world there is no possible term of comparison.
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires.
But
on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon
force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this
hour millions of men would die for Him."
“What child is this?”
It is very important how you decide. Here’s how William Dix responds to
the question in the final stanza of his carol: “So bring Him incense,
gold and myrrh, Come peasant, king to own Him; The King of kings
salvation brings, Let loving hearts enthrone Him.”
We’ve taken a
pause so that you could think of your response. What's it going to
be? A loving heart? Worship? Will you enthrone Him?
Will
you let him rule your life? What's your response? Amen.
