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The Rev. Dr. Dennis E. Morey, Pastor
Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12
Overwhelmed with Joy
Evidently the Gospel of Matthew’s original readers knew information that is not common to our times. He does not stop to explain why the so-called “wise men” should even be interested in finding the newborn King of the Jews. Perhaps in the day in which it was written their reason was common knowledge.
Scholars believe they were the descendents of Jews who were carried off to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem about 600 years before the time of Jesus. He took the best and brightest of the Jews to become part of his exotic human collection for his court. You will remember that the Old Testament character, Daniel, was among those carried off.
When Persia came to power, the new king allowed the Jews to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild. However not all the Jews returned to their homeland. Their descendants would have known about the Lord God and the promise of a Messiah who would rule like King David.
Were these men Jews who believed in God? Did they see the order of the created universe, by studying the stars? They understood that the stars have a particular formation and move in a certain pattern across the sky throughout the seasons and years.
They had been watching a particular bright light in the sky and believed they were seeing something they had never seen before. They thought it must mean that it was a sign from God signaling the birth of the long-awaited Messiah. They decided to pack up and follow that star. Bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, they set out to find the new King of the Jews.
Thinking the new King of the Jews would be the son of the present King of the Jews, the wise men went to the palace of Herod the Great. He knew nothing about a newborn King of the Jews but told the wise men that, when they found him, they should come back to the palace and let him know so he could go and worship the new King as well.
The star reappeared and led them to Bethlehem, where they found Jesus.
We can only imagine how glad they were to find Jesus. These men had heard for years about God’s promised Messiah. They had been on the journey for two years following the star to this place. Matthew tells us they were overwhelmed with joy.
Regardless of how or why they got there, Matthew gives us the message that the result of their journey was great joy.
They understood that all of Israel had been waiting for the birth of this child. Not just those within the small geographic nation, but all the Jews who were living all over the known world looked forward to the day when God would fulfill the ancient promise to send the Messiah.
God had arranged to come to earth in the form of a human at that time and pre-recorded that announcement in the arrangement of the stars. At the beginning of time when God hung the planets and started all on their paths across the universe, God chose to enter the human race and recorded it in the pattern of the stars.
It was no accident that those stars came together at that point. It was no accident that these men happened to be interested in studying the stars and discovered it. It was no accident that hundreds of miles away a baby was born. The wise men knew that God was in this and they had to go and meet the new King.
We know how excited a household can get and what joy there is when a new baby is born, but can anyone imagine what it would have been like for those wise men finally to meet Jesus?
They were overwhelmed with joy.
It is no accident that you and I are here in this place at this point in history. Long before we were born, God began lining up events and circumstances so that we could meet Jesus.
God gave us just the right parents and grandparents, inspiring some to immigrate to America and settle in this part of Iowa.
And all along the way, God had arranged for those people, our ancestors, to have the opportunity to find Jesus on their journey through life, giving them all the right circumstances and bringing about all the right events.
And so on, all the way back to the day the first wise men found the child Jesus and his family living in Bethlehem.
Since the birth of Christ, it has been the will of God that every person would have the opportunity to find him on the journey through life.
Even though we often make wrong choices and make wrong turns, still God’s love shines bright and beckons us to follow it. When we catch a glimpse of God’s love, it will always lead us to Christ.
It may seem like a long journey, and maybe we have really gotten off the road and lost our sense of direction. Still God’s love is there and when the night is the darkest, that light shines brightest compelling us to follow it.
It is not only God’s will for us to see that light and follow it to Christ, it is God’s will to use us to help someone else experience God’s love and begin that journey, or get back on the journey to find Christ.
While it is a powerful moment when we invite Christ into our lives, and turn from our sin, there is an even more powerful urge within us to talk about it. We have to tell someone.
It is so awesome to think that God loves us, and that God has come down to earth in the form of a baby, to become the payment for our sins, that we are overwhelmed with joy and that joy propels us to live differently, to be more merciful, to forgive those who have wronged us, and to look forward to what God has planned for us next.
Our religion becomes duty when we think that God demands our allegiance. We think we are obligated to live by the Ten Commandments, and attend Church, and support the Church so that God will take notice and let us go to heaven when we die.
Nothing could be further from what God intended. When will we learn that God loves us, period. There are no conditions added. “God loves us when we are good.” Then no one will ever know God’s love, because even our “good” is motivated by selfishness. “I am good to you so you must be good to me.”
Jesus taught that we do real “good” when evil has been done to us. Jesus taught us to love even in the face of hate. None of us can do that unless we are motivated by God’s love for us. And when we are able to do that, relying on God’s help, we experience the real joy of knowing God.
You and I are on a journey through life. One day follows another and, even if we don’t have a definite plan, God does. God is always leading us by the power of his love, to Christ. As the wise men followed light of a star, we are invited to follow the light of God’s love.
When we have found Christ, like the wise men we are overwhelmed with joy. It is that joy that becomes the motivation for the way we live. When we respond to the challenges of life using what Christ has taught, that joy increases and overflows into every facet of life. Christ is present in our homes, our jobs, our neighborhoods, and this part of Christ’s church.
What once was duty now becomes privilege. We no longer look first at defending and supporting and planning for ourselves, but for what God has planned for us to do for God’s Kingdom. The joy we have in knowing Christ invites us to forget ourselves and take up what God has for us to do and follow him.
Today we are going to distribute small yellow stars, as we have in other years to celebrate Epiphany. Take a star, the first one on top. On it is written a word. When you meditate on that word and ponder how God may be speaking to you through it, you will find that word is leading you to Christ.
During the coming months of this new year, let that word guide you. Keep it somewhere where you will see it often. I have noticed them on sun visors above the windshield, on refrigerator doors, used as Bible bookmarks, and many other places. Put yours where its light will lead you toward Christ and may the overwhelming joy of knowing him propel you into the life God has planned for you.
Amen.
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Matthew 2:1-12 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. (From the
New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible) |
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