A Christmas Present - Advent Day 8

The Mystery of the Magi

Deuteronomy 4:29-31   ²⁹ But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him. ³¹ For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.

Matthew 2:1-12    ¹After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ²and 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."  ³When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.  ⁴When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.  ⁵"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:  ⁶" '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.'"  ⁷Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.  ⁸He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and 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."  ⁹After 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.  ¹⁰When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  ¹¹On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.  ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Matthew may have had many reasons for including the story of the Magi in the birth and early life of Jesus, but two reasons are most obvious.  The first is Magi are heathen Gentiles in search of Jesus.  They are in search to learn of Him and to worship Him, in sharp contrast to Herod who wants to kill Him, and the holy men of Israel who could not care less.  Though the Magi may have been aware of an obscure reference in Numbers 24:17b, “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel,” their search for Jesus was prompted more by superstition in the stars than the promise of scripture. 

And that is the point.  A little off track in their goal, motivated by only partial information at best, they search.  They search in contrast to the dullness and complacency of the educated, the informed, the religious elite who know of the prophecy of the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem, but dismiss the whole matter as insignificant and unimportant.  It was for people like the Magi that Jesus later prayed, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” (Matthew 11:25 NKJV)  For in their understanding of God, the Magi were babes indeed. 

The Magi are still among us.  They are those who with little knowledge search for Him who was born King of the Jews, and for whatever reason and in whatever manner, have not given up the search.  It may be a driving force, a genuine desire, a flaming light, or a smoldering coal, but the search is still alive.  

The second thing we know about the Magi is that they found the One they were looking for. Our search is not an endless search or a futile search.   “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”  Our search is one in which we discover ever anew the truth of Him that is born in Bethlehem.  The Magi found the Child because they searched for Him with all their heart, and as God has promised, “you shall find me”, (Matthew 7:7).  Their whole-hearted, determined search took them past the barriers of race and prejudice.  It took them past the deceit and hostility of Herod, the yawning complacency of the priests, past over whelming odds.  And the Magi found the Child.

When weary from all we are doing to make it a good Christmas, the basic, most fundamental question of Christmas and of life remains:  Have we taken our lives in our own hands, or have we placed them in God’s hand to live moment by moment, day by day, seeking and following in an attitude of trust?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 7

Where is Jesus to be Found? 

Colossians 3:1-3   ¹Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  ³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 

To all of us who feel that the Christmas season is sometimes too much, I bring you good news of some consolation – we are not far from remembering what Christmas is all about.

We live in a world ruled by the power of advertising and publicity where the best selling, the most popular, the biggest of all time, the new thing is what we are told to seek.  And the publicity mind-set sometimes spills over into our religious outlook as well, and people wonder, “If God really exists, why doesn’t He make His omnipotence more visible in this chaotic world?”

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, it is important to remember the hiddenness of His life. At birth, He entered this world without much fanfare, except for the angelic announcement to some insignificant shepherds on the hillside.  He was born away from the glitter and glamour of Rome or the pomp and ceremony of Jerusalem, in a stable on the outskirts of a small obscure village.  He lived his life in relative obscurity.  Even His miracles were often companied by the command to avoid publicity.  His entrance to Jerusalem drew a crowd, but His death drew only a few of His despondent disciples.

His Resurrection was relatively obscure.  There was no angelic host.  Just a single angelic being with the simple announcement, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:6 NIV).  While He made himself widely known to His disciples, there was no widespread publicity of His resurrection. 

So into our age of much noise and very little light, Jesus silently and secretly enters into our world.

The hiddenness of His birth, His life, and His resurrection are signals that we are to have hope in the hiddenness of His life.  It means that God steals silently down to be born in us today.  It means that His hidden presence is coursing through the day to day events of our lives to maintain a home, to raise our children, to earn a living, to get along with others, and to survive the hectic times of the Christmas season.

The hiddenness of His birth means that in all of these events we are upheld by a mystery we cannot see, we are sustained by a power we cannot measure, we are redeemed of mistakes by a mercy that is always a surprise, and that when we die, we die not into nothingness, but as Paul said in Colossians 3:3 we die into a life hidden with Christ in God.  The hiddenness of His birth means God lives in us even when we are not aware of His presence, and we can reflect the life of Jesus, working miracles and changing the face of the earth, not with noise and publicity, but with quietness and calm as we seek to know the Jesus hidden at the center of our lives.  And as we seek to imitate Christ, we can never be totally certain of what His life in us will mean for the undoing and redoing of our life, the lives of those around us, and of our world.  

From as sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 6

Power Comes in Small Bundles

Matthew 2:1-6, 16-18 (New American Standard)  ¹Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,  ²"Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."  ³When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.  ⁵They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:  ⁶'AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.'"  ¹⁶Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. ¹⁷Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:  ¹⁸"A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN; AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE."

John 14:1-4     ¹"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.  ²In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going."

 “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled.”  In some ways Herod was more perceptive in his reaction to the birth of Jesus than the Wisemen or the Shepherds. He was troubled because he could not bear even a hint of a rival to the throne.  Four years earlier he had had his two sons, Alexander and Aristobulos, put to death because he viewed them as a threat.   “And all Jerusalem was troubled with him.”  They were troubled because they knew that whatever troubled Herod could cause trouble for them.  And it did, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.”  So Herod adds one more massacre to a long list of atrocities and cruelty.

But Herod had reason to be troubled by this baby born in Bethlehem, because He was born to rule.  And, He is as much a threat to our self-will as He was to Herod.  Babies always are.  This is the first shock wave that parents receive.  Their lives become centered around the needs and the demands of that bundle in the bassinet.

The baby born in Bethlehem is a revelation, a pledge and promise of God’s rule.  He is also a sign of the way God intends to overturn our self-will.  His rule comes to us in the vulnerability and power of the new born child.  He comes, not with the threat of harm, but with a love that demands a primary place in our life.  The baby in Bethlehem shows us the kind of power God uses to overturn our self-will, and shows what God intends to accomplish through His rule.

The first thing God intends to accomplish is to create in us a child-like trust in the heavenly Father.  He brings to life a certainty and confidence in God, a belief that God knows what is good and best for our life, and that God is active in all the events of life to accomplish His purpose for us.

He comes to give our eyes new sight that delight in the surprises of God’s intervention and a new heart that rejoices unashamedly at the work of the Father.

The first thing the baby in Bethlehem seeks to accomplish in us is this child like trust.  This trust is not some sacred treasure to be kept under protective glass.  It is a trust to be lived out in the world, where the Herods still rule.  Do what love requires, based on trust in God.  Whenever we are under the gun, whenever problems are popping up at every turn, whenever we feel we are helpless, listen for the quiet voice of the baby Jesus and you will hear him say, “Trust me.”   

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 5

If God Is With You

John 4:4-26     ⁴Now he had to go through Samaria.  ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.  It was about the sixth hour.  ⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"  ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)  ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)  ¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  ¹¹"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.  Where can you get this living water?  ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"  ¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  ¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."  ¹⁶He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."  ¹⁷"I have no husband," she replied.  Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.  What you have just said is quite true."  ¹⁹"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet.  ²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."  ²¹Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."  ²⁵The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us."  ²⁶Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

Emmanuel, “God with us.”  In times past God had spoken of His love through Moses and the prophets.  He had demonstrated His love in acts of mercy and kindness.  But now He declares His love most clearly and most convincingly because He came.  He came to us in His Son, Jesus, the Christ.  He came to seek us out in our sinfulness, harboring no false illusions of our genuine effort to do good and our failure to do so, of our belief in peace while causing conflict.  We often live with the hidden secrets of our defeats, failures, and flaws, and hope that no one will notice.  And the more we succeed, the harder the varnish of our life becomes.

Emmanuel means God is seeking us out in our sinfulness.  It also means He is seeking to bring out our saintliness. He is with us in an endless, patient, personal pursuit of our life.

That is why the woman at the well wanted everyone in her village to come and meet this man who knew everything about her.  Given her reputation in town, what would motivate her to bring people to see this man, unless He had seen and brought to light some things about her that even she did not know.  Whatever those things were, to her they felt like good news, in fact, the best news she had ever heard.

Emmanuel means God is with us that we might find our way to become something like Him.  And these shall be signs to us, wherever we see guilt overcome by grace, greed overcome by gratitude, self-centeredness overcome by a reckless reaching out to others, hostility overcome by graciousness, and narrow-mindedness overcome by great-heartedness, there we will see Jesus Christ, our Emmanuel.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 4

Born of the Virgin Mary

Isaiah 7:10-17    ¹⁰Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, ¹¹"Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."  ¹²But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test."  ¹³Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David!  Is it not enough to try the patience of men?  Will you try the patience of my God also?  ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:  The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.  ¹⁵He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.  ¹⁶But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.  ¹⁷The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria."

Matthew 1:18-24    ¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about:  His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.  ¹⁹Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.  ²⁰But after he had considered 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 home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."  ²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  ²³"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."  ²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

Do you believe in the Virgin Birth?  There was a time when this question was considered the litmus test for 100% proof orthodox Christian faith.  As such, it is a good test of our orthodoxy, for the word literally means straight praise.  But, the Virgin Birth is not so much a doctrine that demands agreement as it is an event that evokes praise, wonder and awe. 

The Virgin Birth calls us to praise God because it was the act of God keeping His promise.  “All this took place,” Matthew says, “to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son …’”

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child…” (NASB)  Here is the assertion that the birth of Jesus came about by God’s initiative and not by any human thought or effort.  Here is the claim that what the mind could not conceive and the heart could not grasp, God caused to happen.  Here also is God taking Christmas out of our control. 

For people who like to be in control of things such a realization can be a little scary at first.  But fear melts to wonder and awe as we recognize that the Virgin Birth is overcoming all impossibilities to get to us, to reach us, to draw us into the closest possible relationship of love.  Even if we cannot accept it, if it is stretching our minds too far to believe it, we do not change the event, only cut ourselves off from one avenue of grace with which God seeks to reach us.

So the proclamation of the Virgin Birth is once again dropped into our lives as a kind of stop sign.  “Stop,” it says, “stop all this feverish activity to save yourselves from real and imagined woes.  Your efforts are futile and self-defeating.  Stop and hear the good news, ‘She will give birth to a son...he will save his people from their sins.’” 

While the Virgin Birth is a stop sign to all the scurrying activity to save ourselves it is a go sign for us to cooperate with God’s saving activity in human life, just as He called to Mary to cooperate in her way, and to Joseph to cooperate in his way, not to divorce but to take Mary as his wife.

As we heed these signs we are drawn into that mystery of Christmas that takes hold of us, the words, the stories, the songs that stir up something in us, and the silence that whispers hope to our deepest desires and there is that awakening of birth in us that feels like love at the core of our being.  And behold, you shall conceive the very life of Christ in you.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell 

 

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 3

The Hidden Hope of Christmas

Luke 2:1-7      ¹In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  ²(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  ³And everyone went to his own town to register.  ⁴So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  ⁵He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  ⁶While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.  She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Titus 1:1-2      ¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— ^2a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time

Luke sets the surface scene for the birth of Jesus by saying “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus…”  Immediately we know a lot about those days, even 2000 years later, because Caesar Augustus is one on the most famous personalities in history.  His life and his time have been thoroughly studied and well documented.  On the surface was the famed “Pax Romana”, the Roman peace.  Caesar Augustus had established a world peace unparalleled in the history of humanity.  

We also know that beneath the surface peace there was restlessness and emptiness among the people.  Caesar Augustus had tried to calm the restlessness by restoring the glory of gladiatorial combat as a means of venting anger, allowing fertility cults to flourish…something to take the edge off their life.  

That is what life was like “in those days when Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census be taken of all the inhabitants of the land.”  Those inhabitants included the blind and the lame who had resigned themselves to a career of begging.  It included tax collectors who had learned to play the game and get ahead even if it cost them their soul.  It included the working class, many of whom assumed there was no higher purpose in life than trying to survive as best you could.  

“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus…” and in those days “the time came for the baby to be born.” The Scripture says it in many different ways, “the days were complete, in the fullness of time, at the appointed time, in his own good time,” but every time they were saying the same thing.  They were saying that the time had come on God’s calendar of events to make visible that which had been hidden from human eyes.

When “the days were complete” we see beneath the surface scene of things.  We see that it was not the decree of Caesar Augustus that sent Mary and Joseph on their journey to Bethlehem, but the decree of God, who overrules the powers that be to accomplish the fulfillment of God’s plans and purposes for life.

When the days were complete, Christ was born, a new creation had begun, a new kingdom and a new kind of king entered our world.  When the days were complete, possibilities erupted leaving even the cynics surprised.  When the days were complete, the chains of the past were broken, and the hope for the future came alive.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 2

What Do You Really Want for Christmas? 

Revelation 21:2, 4a    2“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 4a…and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be mourning or crying or pain.” 

II Corinthians 11:2-3  2For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. 3But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 

Paul says to the church at Corinth, “I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ, that I might present you as a pure virgin.” In the here and now we are betrothed to God in Christ. The day will come when our knowledge of Him and our relationship to Him will be complete, but until then we may be left with a sense of longing that we can better understand by looking at the Hebrew customs of betrothal and marriage. 

When a man and woman were betrothed to each other, they made a public commitment to marry, usually within a year. Betrothal was not a time of trying out the relationship. It was a time for building it. The couple spent lots of time with each other. They shared their possessions and chores. They learned about one another, they grew closer, got to learn each other’s quirks and habits. The man and woman had a commitment to one another that was binding, but they still lived in separate homes, and they did not consummate the commitment until after the marriage ceremony. Betrothal described a relationship where there was commitment but not completion. 

Similarly, we are left with a longing for more than we have presently received from our relationship to God. Though this longing can be a friend to our faith, it can become a foe if we grow dissatisfied with our lack of fulfillment and seek our satisfaction elsewhere. 

Our longing for God is not to be played down or solved. Our longing need not make us uncomfortable. If anything, our longing is the mark of God’s touch. We long to know Him completely because we have known Him in part. We have been betrothed and we know that nothing will satisfy us except for the final completion that our marriage to Him will one day bring. Our longing for God can be the fuel for staying true to the simplicity and purity of our devotion to Christ, provided we remember the simplicity and purity of God’s devotion to us. That is the message of Christmas. We cannot have completion in our relationship to God, but we do have God’s complete commitment to us. 

Christmas is the visible expression of God’s invisible commitment to you and me. If we look around us, at the injustices and tragedies of life, if we look within us at the weaknesses that undermine us and the self-destructive habits that bind us, we may wonder about God’s commitment to us, or be tempted to dismiss God altogether. 

But when we look in the manger, at that small vulnerable baby, the life of His Son, given to our world, there can be no doubt of God’s commitment – a commitment that literally made the heavens sing and humans bow in awe. He placed His life in our hands, even as He calls us to place our life in His hands. 

In Jesus, God is with us in our living, and God is with us in our dying, not only in physical death but the dying that comes with any broken relationship, or disappointment of defeat. And, in Jesus, God is with us beyond our death in the life and completion that awaits us. “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. …and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be mourning or crying or pain.” There shall be only the marriage feast prepared for you and me from the beginning of time. 

Christmas celebrates God’s commitment to us in Jesus Christ, even as it calls us to look with longing for that day when our relationship to God will be complete. The word became flesh and lived among us. May Jesus be alive in your life, guiding your way, enlightening your mind and working miracles in your soul. 

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell