Be afraid

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 12/3/17

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^NRS Matthew 2:1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ² asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." ³ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ⁶ 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" ⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸ Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."…..¹⁶ When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷ Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ¹⁸ "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."

I love the Grinch stole Christmas. Today, similar to what Ellsworth Kalas would say, I feel a little like the Grinch and Scrooge wrapped together. As you came here today you probably are expecting a feel good Advent sermon and I hope not to entirely disappoint. But as with anything else in life, the easy button is missing and the cat bit into the electrical wires which burned down the tree. In case you are not familiar with the last it comes from a great Christmas movie. This scripture reminds us that Jesus is born into a very turbulent time. There is much that is not right with the world around Him at His birth. His world is a world of war, slavery, deceit, inhumanity and great taxation. Hmmm! Sounds a little like our world today.

We start with Herod. Now there are two Herod’s in the Bible and they are related. This is the Herod of the birth narrative. A charming fellow he is indeed. He has executed his wife, her mother, and three of his sons because he is an insecure, suspicious, paranoid and evil man. It is nothing to get on the wrong side of this guy and before you know it, your life is done. Herod rose to power with vindictiveness following the lead of the Romans who were a vicious foe to their enemies, often leaving no-one alive to tell the tale except the victor. Herod rules Israel with an iron hand, taxing the people beyond humanly possible and squelching any sign of rebellion or opposition to his rule. It is said in the years just before Jesus birth that he contracted gangrene and kidney failure leaving him in pain most of the time which only exasperated his already over the top evilness.

Into this world come the Magi. Now they are an interesting bunch of folk we have very little information about. But let us suffice it to say that they took prophecy, astrology and history to be very important. Imagine for a moment that you saw certain signs in the heavens which matched prophecy about a certain birth of a King and then spend the next several years in search of that King. That is the type of person we are talking about. They spend untold amounts of money on this venture giving up much to find Jesus. So they arrive in Jerusalem and reach a dead end. Sort of! They find themselves in the company of Herod, remember him, telling him they have come to see the King of the Jews who has been born. Imagine for a moment what fear and insecurity went through Herod’s mind. He would kill to know where this child is and then of course he would kill the child if he could. So his wisest of men tell him and the Magi of the prophecy that will lead them to Bethlehem. But he asks them to come back and tell him about this baby so that he may too go and, well, you can figure the next part out. So the Magi go to Bethlehem, see baby Jesus and then because of a dream go home a different way. We will talk more about their visit on another day. But the moment that Herod finds out that they went a different way, his insecurity reaches boiling point. He sends his soldiers into Bethlehem slaying every male child 2 and younger. This part fulfills part of the prophecy by the way of Jeremiah where there will be a wailing of despair among the mothers.

Kind of a sad and uncomfortable story about the birth of Christ don’t you think. But it gets more interesting from that point on. And I might add it gets more personable. You see the scripture tells us that all Jerusalem was frightened with Herod. Now why on earth would the whole of Jerusalem be frightened? I might ask, are you frightened about this news of the birth of Christ? Why not? I think maybe each and every one of us should be. I believe that they were all frightened for possibly one of two reasons. The first is they feared the reaction of Herod. What would he do? Aren’t we living in the fear of rulers today? What is the ruler of North Korea going to do? What about our own president? Whether you like him or not I suspect that you wish he would stop tweeting. When I did that as a kid my mother took away my whistle, problem solved. But don’t we all live in some kind of fear of what is going on the world and what the rulers of the world are doing? They don’t really care what you and I think.

But it is that second fear that I think we need to focus on. You see the prophecy said that Jesus is coming to rule the world. That Jesus is coming to judge. That Jesus is coming to shake things up. And He did and He still does. You see we might just fear Jesus birth because of what it is asking of us. Richard Rohr suggests that we as Christians are long for a way of following Jesus that has more to do with lifestyle than with belief. In other words, following Jesus means leaving your comfortable living behind for a challenge in the unknown. What it means is that to be a true follower of Jesus requires that we embrace His presence in our lives, allow ourselves to begin a transformation that leads to us becoming an imitation of Jesus in the world. Scary stuff! It means that to be a true Christian, one must become a disciple who desires to love one another regardless. It is more than just saying it; it is doing it day after day. I have to tell you that it is hard. I fail at it regularly but I know that Jesus lifts me up in my failures.

I believe the whole world is really scared of this birth because it means we have to stop being selfish, we have to stop focusing on our agenda and we have to set ourselves aside to focus on those who are marginalized, homeless and who are living lives without God in their hearts. It means that as John Wesley said to us, winning souls is our number one agenda, not gathering for a meal, not focusing on meetings without devotions and spiritual focus, but gathering with the intent of growing mature disciples. Nothing less is acceptable. I believe that concept scares the hearts of many of us day in and day out. So I have no doubt that when the word that Jesus had been born, it scared the world. Here was God incarnate come to judge whether or not we have love in our heart and most of the time we will be convicted. We all too often have our own ego’s, our own agendas, our own desires in front of what God wants. I see it every day in every place and the sad thing it is here in this church, right now, right here!

But here is the good news. Jesus birth reminds us that we have a second chance to be something greater than ourselves. We have a chance to learn how to love one another without regard to where we were born, what life we have led or how we got into this place today. When we embrace the birth of Jesus and invite Jesus into our hearts we can become one with Him, we can learn how to love like He did and we can become His imitation in the world.

Richard Rohr shared the teaching of the Zen Master and I want to share it with you. Imagine for a moment that you are sitting here preparing yourself to experience Holy Communion. But more than experiencing, you are preparing yourself to become Christ in the table. Please close your eyes and listen carefully to these words.

The Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh teaches this wisdom through the ceremony and meditation of tea:

You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea.
Only in the awareness of the present, can your hands feel the pleasant warmth of the cup.
Only in the present, can you savor the aroma, taste the sweetness, appreciate the delicacy.
If you are ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future, you will completely miss the experience of enjoying the cup of tea.
You will look down at the cup, and the tea will be gone.
Life is like that.
If you are not fully present, you will look around and it will be gone.
You will have missed the feel, the aroma, the delicacy and beauty of life.
It will seem to be speeding past you. The past is finished.
Learn from it and let it go.
The future is not even here yet. Plan for it, but do not waste your time worrying about it.
Worrying is worthless.
When you stop ruminating about what has already happened, when you stop worrying about what might never happen, then you will be in the present moment.
Then you will begin to experience joy in life. 

Imagine Christ before you being absorbed into you. It is then and only then that you will truly experience the risen Lord, the divine savior and the true essence of God’s love.

And in that moment feel your heart grow three sizes larger.

Let us pray….