Matthew 2:1-12
The story we are about to read completes the reflections on the different journeys to Bethlehem, completing our nativity scene. This story about the Magi, who have become known as the wise men, is important to us as the Church, for it shows that the coming of Jesus was for all the children of God. These Magi are not Jews, but still they come to receive this gift of love from God. This part of the story is also hard to hear, for it shows what power is capable of when it feels threatened and fearful. Herod, the king, when he hears about the birth sends soldiers to kill any male child who may be about the age of this possible Messiah. We see the Holy Family, a few verses after we stop our reading becoming political refuges and fleeing to Egypt to be safe. It is a story for all who feel the power of repression in their lives. But as hard as it is to hear, it is still a story of compassion. Compassion means to understand another’s life so fully that you can feel it and experience it in your guts. God says, “I understand even this, for I have felt it and experienced it also.” This Jesus is truly a savior for all the children of God.

Read Matthew 2:1-12

Ephesians: 2:8-10
This passage we are about to read reminds us that salvation, the path to being in at-one-ment with God is God’s freely given gift to all people. As Paul says in the Book of Galatians chapter 3 verse 28, “There are no Jews or Greeks, slave nor free, male or female, for all are one in Christ Jesus.” Again, the reminder that God’s love knows no boundaries, no ethnic or gender barriers. This is a Savior for the world, a gift to all.

Today we journey to Bethlehem walking with the Magi following the heavenly star. We have all seen pictures of the Magi on Christmas Cards or bulletin covers. The star always looks like a mini-sun or the biggest comet you have ever seen. It dominates the sky. Yet, as we read the story in Matthew, the implication is only three men at best even noticed it, or at worst understood what it meant. The rest of the world seems clueless about this star. Why? Well biblical scholars seem to agree that Matthew, in his story, is referring to astrologers as the Magi, people who study the stars and heavens for signs from God. Maybe the star was not as pronounced in the heavens as our pictures today show for our Christmas cards. Maybe it was simply a subtle change in the night sky, a small sign that only they recognized in the heavens that started them on their journey. Maybe they were a part of a small group who even understood what to look for, let alone have the information to interpret it correctly. And even then they needed to get some direction from those who knew the teachings of God to seek the goal of their journey. So it was a combination of recognizing the signs seeking to lead them, plus someone knowing the scriptures, the teachings that ultimately brought them to their journey’s end. I wonder if it is any different for us today. If we do not recognize the signs that God gives us, maybe we stay oblivious to God’s initiatives to lead us and guide us in our life’s journey. And even if we become aware of the sign, if we do not know where to look or what to look for, how do we respond?

In my younger teen years, Jr. High and early Senior High, I was very active in the church. But as I got older, I followed the path of many and dropped away. I guess I had better things to do or my Saturday nights made it harder to get up on Sunday mornings. Consequently, as I grew into young adulthood, I had an understanding of life that pretty much conformed to what the world was telling me I needed to do to be happy and feel successful. I went to college and got my degree. I had a good entry level position at a large corporation. I was married and had two sons, and I had just bought a house. I was ready to now sit back and be happy. But I wasn’t. I felt empty inside, like something was missing, and it puzzled me. So then I began to ask myself why. Maybe I needed more education, or maybe I was not yet making enough money, or more than likely this was not going to be my last house, as soon as I could afford it, I was going to buy a much larger and more upscale house in the suburbs. That must be the reason I am not yet happy. I did not question the journey or the criteria, my premises for being happy. There must be some reason within the accepted values and goals that was keeping me from this important quest in my life.

Then, you may call it providence if you like, I asked myself a very important, and consequently life-changing question. “Was there ever a time in my life when I was really happy? When life and everything about it felt good and right?” And almost immediately I heard myself say, “Yes! It was when I was active in the church.” It was a time when I knew I was deeply cared about. My dad worked most weekends, so I had been walking to church. As soon as people became aware of this, every week after I would receive a couple of phone calls asking me if I needed a ride. “We just want you to know your presence is important to us,” was the message. I was an acolyte, and it felt good knowing I was the opening act of worship. It did not start until I brought that light down the aisle. One of my most profound memories is a Christmas Eve worship when, as the acolyte, the pastor and I were the servers of communion. No one else. Just us. I had been entrusted with the most sacred of times in God’s church. It is why I have a passion for making sure our children and youth have wonderful experiences and fond memories of their time in the church. Because of those memories I was in the pew the next week. This moment was one of the most profound experiences in my life of what John Wesley called Prevenient Grace. Prevenient means that which comes before grace. Wesley described it as a spark of the divine that God places within each and every one of us that will not allow us to feel comfortable, to feel complete until we turn to God. I was fortunate. I was hit over the head with God’s sign of prevenient grace. I had enough of an experience and knowledge that allowed me not only the ability to recognize the sign of grace, but experiences that allowed me to know what to do with them. But we have many in our world who feel the emptiness and are not sure why. They do not recognize it as God trying to reach out to them and to lead them to God’s gift of love.

I applaud Earl and Barbara Bolken who organized our Live Nativity, as well as all who participated. But I heard just a few stories from the nativity that make my heart soar. One night a woman came by and was so taken by the scene and hearing the story being played over the speakers that she went home and got her husband and brought him back to see the nativity and hear the story. Her words were, “Thank you for reminding us what this season truly is about.” The scene touched them at the core of their humanity as the spark of the divine was realized. Another story is about a family who came by. The child looked at the scene and then said to his parents, “I didn’t know this was a part of Christmas.” Can you imagine? A statement like that sounds totally alien to me. Talk about not knowing the teachings that lead us in the way.

Seminary professor George Hunter reminds us that the mission field of the church is directly outside our doors. He says, “There was a time that we, as the church, were called to reach out to the atheist and the agnostic, people who knew the good news story but did not believe the story or were not sure if they believed the story. “Today,” he continues, “we reach out to the ignostic, people who are ignorant of the story.” It is in ministries like our Live Nativity, in our outreach, in bringing the story to others that we, as the church, become the Bethlehem Star. It is we who are called to help people recognize that sign of prevenient grace, where God is seeking them and desiring them to come to the manger and see the Christ, and allow him to take birth in their life. Hopefully our star is like the one on the Christmas cards, a light that dominates the scenery.

This is what tonight, and tomorrow are about. Getting to the manger is part of the journey. Once we get there and the Christ takes birth into our lives, our journey ends with our saying yes to God’s gift of love, the gift of salvation in the manger. Wesley calls this justifying grace. It is that moment of knowing that God did indeed love the world so much, loves each and every one of us so much that God sent God’s son with this good news. Justifying grace is that moment we say yes to accepting God’s gift of love for us. Wesley describes it as a moment when he knew beyond any doubt that his sins, yes even his were forgiven and he was at-one with God.

It is why Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians says, “We are saved by grace through faith.” Grace is God’s unconditional, unmerited, unearned love. If it is free, then like the scripture says, it is a gift. The greatest of all gifts given and received at Christmas. And it is ours just waiting to be received. Just waiting for us to come to the manger and say yes. It is what allows us to be in a loving relationship with God. It is we who keep the relationship at a distance by not coming to the manger with our yes for God is always patiently waiting for us to come.

But, and there is a huge but here. Christmas is only the beginning of God’s grace, God’s unconditional love in our lives, and only the beginning of salvation. Starting next week, we enter into what Wesley calls sanctifying grace, our day in, day out walk with God which leads us to the fullness of life. Wesley said, “That God loves us so much that God will never leave us as God finds us.” Salvation, biblically, literally means being made whole, being healed and fully walking with God. The word salve is a part of salvation for a reason. And maybe it is here that we, as the church, become the star, the guiding light of God most fully. Jesus says we are a light set on a hill for all to see. Wesley says that salvation is found in striving toward perfection, which means to strive toward becoming the most loving people we can become. It is in becoming the gidt of grace to others in our own lives. And we need each other to help us wrestle, to encourage each other in this journey. The world teaches us a lot of things, as I shared earlier, that seem reasonable and challenge us to follow them seeking success and happiness. But real happiness, and the real fullness of life is found in following and living in the love of God.

Next week this is the journey we begin. May we not only follow this journey in our own lives, but may we be a light, a bright star to others who are seeking to understand God’s signs of prevenient grace, God’s seeking and desiring to give them new life in God’s grace.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on December 24, 2006.