"What Are You Looking For?"

Dear Friends in Christ,         

   A few weeks ago we found ourselves in the midst of that special season of the year that finds many of us men stepping into unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory.  That territory is called a shopping mall or a retail store.  And because most of us men spend most of our time in that unfamiliar territory walking around with that dazed and glazed look in our eyes, it’s not unusual for some kind store clerk to notice us, approach us, and ask that one question that most of the time we really don’t want to be asked.  That question is: “May I help you?”  And since we’d much rather be left alone and do what we’ve come to do without some store clerk looking over our shoulder, what is the typical response we give?  “No thank you, I’m just looking.”

   May I ask you, my friends, what exactly are you looking for these days, and not just in some retail store or shopping mall, but what are you looking for in life?  And once you find it, what will you have?  Have you ever had the experience where you wanted something really bad, only to discover that once you had it, it wasn’t all you were expecting it to be?  That happened to me a few years ago on Christmas Eve.  My family and I had tried to have several indoor dogs following the death of our most favorite dog of all time, a miniature dachshund named Kibbles.  We tried a pug named Snuggles.  We tried a mutt named Tiny.  We tried a rat terrier named Gracie because I’d read on the Internet that they were among the brightest dogs there were and the most easily trained.  But for a variety of reasons, most of which had to do with housebreaking, none of those dogs worked out.  So on that Christmas Eve a few years ago, my dear, sweet, precious wife decided to surprise me with another puppy.  But not just any old puppy.  No, this was another miniature dachshund.  I guess she figured that since we had such good luck with Kibbles, we would have equally good luck with this one that we named Reesie.  And I’ve got to tell you, I was ecstatic.  I was elated.  I was excited.  But that feeling lasted, oh, about 16 hours when we found ourselves the next day at Marilyn’s sister’s house in Willisville, IL and I found myself having to take Reesie outside in the cold and snow about every 15 minutes because she had yet to go to the bathroom since I’d unwrapped her the night before.  Well, she finally did go – right on my sister-in-law’s carpet!  And so began a battle of the wills between man and beast, between pastor and puppy, between the Reverend and Reesie, a battle that that little whippersnapper of a dog consistently won until finally, after months of trying to housebreak her with little or no success, I couldn’t take it anymore.  I gave up.  I threw in the towel. And we sold her to a very nice family, vowing to never own an indoor dog again, a promise that you’ll be happy to know we have managed to keep since then.

   So sometimes what we want, what we’re looking for, just doesn’t turn out quite the way we expected it would once we have it.  But then there are those other times when it far exceeds our wildest dreams and imaginations, just as it did for the men who take center stage in our text for today.  They’re called the Magi, though we know them better as the Wise Men.  Let’s unpack this familiar story this morning and see what meaning it has for our lives today.

    Now Matthew obviously considered this story to be very important because he gives more square inches to the visit of the Wise Men than he does to Joseph and Mary.  Interestingly, Matthew also doesn’t mention the shepherds.  Nor does he say anything of the manger or the unusual circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth.  But he sure doesn’t want us to miss the star and the seekers who followed that star.  And I wonder if part of the reason for that might be because of the first point that I want to address in this sermon, namely, God’s invitation.  You see, we’ve made heroes out of these Wise Men, but to the Jews they were anything but heroes because for one thing they were outsiders.  They were Gentiles who hailed from a distant land, most likely the far eastern country of Persia.  Why would God invite foreigners like that to the first Christmas party?  And if that wasn’t bad enough, these men were astrologers.  They read stars for a living, something that God had strictly forbidden the Jewish people to do in the law of Moses.  So why would God allow men like that to throw the first baby shower for the King of kings?

   But that’s precisely the point I believe Matthew was trying to make by mentioning them.  In fact, surprises like this were not at all uncommon in his Gospel where everything gets kind of flip-flopped.  For example, in his Gospel simple dockworkers become devoted disciples.  Tax collectors like Matthew become Gospel writers.  Foreign females adorn the family tree of Jesus.  Food for 5000 comes from a little child.    And the people who you would expect to be there to welcome the Messiah, namely, the Jewish religious leaders, are not there.  And the ones you would least expect to be there, namely, Gentile astrologers, are.

   What’s my point?  Well, what Matthew seems to be doing here is giving us a picture of the width and breadth of God’s grace and mercy.  Wide enough to welcome Gentile travelers from a distant land.  Broad enough to extend a celestial invitation to pagan stargazers to come and meet the Maker of the stars.  From the Wise Men then we learn that hose who come to Christ don’t need to have the right passport or the right pedigree or the right credentials.  They simply need to do what the Wise Men did.  And that is to accept the invitation that is open to all and they are welcome to meet this one who was sent to our world to save the world from its sins.

   So, this story speaks volumes to you if anyone has ever told you that you are too sinful, too wrong, too young, too old, too rich, too poor, the wrong color, the wrong race, the wrong social status to meet Jesus.  The Wise Men prove that the door of God’s mercy is open wide to anyone who is in need of what this infant-King came to offer to a sinful world.  And that would, of course, include all of us.

   But they equally demonstrate something else.  First, God’s invitation, and then secondly, God’s revelation.  That revelation came in the form of a brilliant star that naturally captured the attention of these Persian astrologers because that’s what they did for a living.  And it was that star that guided them to the very place where Jesus was.

   Do you ever feel the need for guidance in your life, my friends?  Boy, I sure do.  And I’m not just talking about spiritual guidance here.  I’m talking about geographical guidance, the type of guidance that Marilyn and I needed on a hike we took when we were in the Smokies a few years ago.  One afternoon we decided to hike a trail that was actually 3 trails that formed one big loop.  The first part of the trail consisted of 2.3 miles of straight walking alongside a beautiful mountain stream.  The trail was canopied by tall trees and since it was the Fall of the year the leaves were gently falling to the ground all around us.  It was nothing short of an autumn wonderland.  And I don’t know if it was because we were so mesmerized by the sheer beauty that we found ourselves immersed in or if we just got distracted, but somehow we missed the sign that told us where to turn right so that we could complete the loop.  And farther on up the trail we came to a sign that seemed to indicate we should have turned 4/10 of a mile back.  But since we didn’t see that original sign, we thought we’d keep going a bit farther because the trail just ahead of us appeared to be veering to the right, just like we thought it should.  Thankfully though by God’s grace we ran into some professional looking hikers who were coming from that direction and who actually had a map.  So we asked them where the trail led.  And they said that if we kept going on it, we would end up way out in the wilderness and that the place where we should have turned was, according to the map, 4/10 of a mile behind us.

   The point I’m getting at here is that even though we thought we were right, even though everything felt just right, the sign we missed and the sign we saw 4/10 of a mile up the trail said something else.  Likewise, there are times in life when we feel like we’re doing the right thing, but God’s Word says something else.  There are times in life when we think to ourselves, “How could something that feels so right be so wrong?”  And in those situations, God says: “You know what?  My Word trumps your feelings every single time.”  And those who follow Christ understand this.  Those who follow Christ are those who submit themselves to the authority of God’s Word rather than the authority of popular opinion or personal feelings.  Now granted, that’s not always easy to do, to swim upstream against our highly secularized culture.  But I guarantee you that it is always in our best interests.  Just think back over your own life to the times when you knowingly or unknowingly violated God’s will, only to regret it later on because you suffered some pretty heavy-duty consequences?  So follow the revelation of God’s Word.  Let that be your guiding light in life.  And it will always lead you in the right direction for it will always lead you to Christ, just like the star did for the Wise Men. 

   So thus far we’ve talked about God’s invitation and God’s revelation.  Now we want to wrap things up by taking a look at God’s transformation.  When the Wise Men finally found the baby Jesus, we’re told in our text: “They bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”  Please note the 3 signs of transformation that they demonstrated there.  First of all, humility.  They bowed before the Child.  Imagine that.  Though these men were not kings as we sing in the familiar carol “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” they were no doubt men of high degree, men of wealth, men of position and prominence.  But without really even knowing all that there was to know about this special child, they humbled themselves before him and knelt beside the place where he was. 

   Then came the second sign of transformation: worship.  “They bowed down and worshiped him.”  We’re not told exactly what that worship consisted of.  We don’t know if they sang a hymn of praise to the baby or if they offered prayers in his presence or if they were just silent before this King in a cradle.  All we’re told is that in some way they let it be known that they regarded this child to be better than they and greater than they.  For one never worships one who is inferior to oneself.

   And then came the final sign of transformation that God brought about in their hearts that day: offerings.  They opened their treasures and presented Jesus with some rather extravagant but also very interesting shower gifts that were quite prophetic in nature.  They gave him gold, a gift for a king; frankincense, a gift for a priest; and lastly, myrrh, a gift for burial.

   In the Wise Men, then, we see a great example of what happens to people when they come into contact with the living Christ.  A fundamental change takes place.  A metamorphosis occurs consisting of humility…worship…offering.  So my question for all of you here today as I draw this sermon to a close is this: Have you experienced that kind of change in your life?  Has Christ assumed his rightful place in your heart as the true Lord of your life?  Have you in the power of the Holy Spirit humbly surrendered yourself to him?  Is your worship of him a priority in your life or something that all too easily gets put on the back burner in your busy and hectic schedule?  Are you offering to Jesus the best of your time, talents, and treasures?  Great questions to ponder as we find ourselves only 8 days into a brand new year.  May the living Christ invade our hearts with his powerful presence so that we might respond as he desires to his invitation, his revelation, and his transformation.

Amen