The Gift of the Magi is a beautifully nuanced and poignant story of sacrificial love. First published in 1905, the story invites readers into the world of a newly married couple. It is Christmas Eve and the young couple have neither time nor money to buy presents for one another. Then, miraculously an answer is found. The young woman sells her flowing auburn hair to purchase a golden chain for her husband’s treasured pocket watch. Hurrying home from work, the young husband sells that very watch so he can purchase a beautiful set of ornamental combs for his wife’s hair. With comic irony the couple discovers that neither the combs nor the watch chain is now of any value or utility. Gone is the flowing auburn hair as is the treasured golden pocket watch. What remains is sacrificial love. A love so enduring and so authentic that it cannot be represented by simple material gifts. This week we celebrate another story of Magi. Magi from a foreign land bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh for a tiny babe in a manger. Gifts that symbolically identify the Christ Child as king, priest, and suffering servant. More significantly, it is the Magi who receive a great gift. The gift of God’s promises that will be fulfilled through sacrificial love. Now, that is genuinely Good News. Blessings, Pastor Tom
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘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 shepherd my people Israel.’ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On 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, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. The Gospel of Luke invites us to a night of wonder and miraculous angelic proclamations as the Christ child is born. It is the beautifully crafted narrative of heaven and earth touching in a way that defies all human logic. On that sacred night, a band of shepherds heard that the Messiah had been born. Neither kings nor emperors heard the message of God’s grace made incarnate. Lowly shepherds living in the fields surrounding Bethlehem tending their flocks were chosen to bear witness to the fulfillment of God’s ancient promises. Upon hearing the good news, the shepherds traveled to kneel before a tiny babe in a manger. Then they returned home. We hear nothing more about that band of shepherds. On that storied night, the lowly shepherds no doubt believed the world would be instantly radically transformed. Death and disease, then running rampant, would be stilled by the healing balm of God’s sovereignty . Oppression, exploitation, and war would cease and harmony among all people would no longer be a mere hope but a concrete reality of lived experience.
This weekend, we will travel to kneel before a tiny manger. We will be overcome with awe and wonder as the story of God with us is told in word and in song. In some way we are like those shepherds. Despite the brevity of the Christmas peace, we will somehow believe that the world is once again God’s good creation. Yet, when that final hymn is sung, the last decoration packed away, the closing prayer offered, life will return to normal. Those things that seemed irrelevant on Christmas will again rise in our hearts and minds. Like the shepherds, we simply return home. What if we did not just return home after Christmas ? What if we lived as though the miracle of Christmas was transformative in our lives ? Is it even possible to be people and communities of hope, peace, joy, and love? The true miracle of Christmas is that it is possible. That is the profound truth and undeniable opportunity of knowing that our God is with us in the most intimate and radically transforming way imaginable. As we walk from Christmas Eve services this year, let us truly return home. But let us return home to God. After all, we are now the witnesses of that angelic proclamation that Christ the Savior is born. Let us now see Christmas not as a day or a season, but as a call to a new way of living, serving, and continuing the work of God’s good creation. May the celebration of the Feast of Christmas be a time of joyful gratitude, loving fellowship, and deepening trust in God’s enduring grace. Blessings, Pastor Tom and Roxanne This week how many times did you use the word love? I used it frequently. I said that I loved a meal. I commented that I loved someone’s post on Facebook, and I did say that I loved my favorite football team. I am not alone. We have domesticated the word love. It is no longer the grace inspired way that God encounters and transforms the world. Love is now nothing more than a fleeting emotion. What if we had to decide what we loved. At first it might be easy. Do we love candy bars more than gum? Or chocolate more than peppermint ice cream? Do we love our spouse more than our children or our first born more than our second child? It gets progressively harder. But the good news is that God never has that problem. God’s love is unconditional . Now, that is genuinely Good News. Pastor Tom
Eighty years ago yesterday, December 7, 1941, American forces stationed at Pearl Harbor were attacked. When the bombardment ended 2008 Naval personnel, 109 Marines , 218 members of the Army and sixty-eight civilians lay dead. 20 Naval vessels were destroyed or damaged including eight battleships, and three hundred aircraft were hit by enemy bombs. It is ironic that this week the United States government suspended efforts to identify the bodies that remain under the now tranquil harbor waters. Amid the tumult and turbulence of modern life, it is easy to allow that day of infamy to become little more than a fading memory. Only roughly one hundred Pearl Harbor survivors are still alive. But, what of those never identified? They were husbands, sons, fathers, brothers, boyfriends, classmates, coworkers, and neighbors. No doubt families have accepted their fate. But we cannot. If we truly believe in peace, the scars of war must never be forgotten. Remembering the scars of war does not glorify war nor condemn nations once our enemy. In remembering we are committing ourselves to work for peace and harmony among all nations and among all peoples. May our remembering speak in unmistakable terms to the men who will never be identified. Though we may never know their names, may their legacy guide us each day to work for peace, and justice.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream! I sat down to write a nice reflection on peace. Full of those platitudes that we pastors treasure. Then in the background I heard the local news. Three students killed by a fellow student in a high school in Oxford Michigan. It is not a time for platitudes. The second Advent candle of peace is about far more than an end to hostilities. That is the secular definition of peace. Tonight, in a small town in Michigan there is no peace. Prayers will be raised. Memorials will be held. But, in the end, three young lives were tragically denied their futures. It is hard to think about peace in the context of such unjust realities. But we must. The peace we celebrate in Advent is about God’s peace. That unshakeable trust in the promises that God has already made. In a broken world of senseless violence, hate fueled actions, and socially acceptable prejudice, we all need to know God’s peace. God’s peace is simply and unequivocally knowing that we are in a grace inspired and grace filled relationship with God. A relationship that can lead us through the darkest night and rejoice with us on the days of endless sunlight. May the people of Oxford Michigan know that peace today. That is the Good News. Blessings, Pastor Tom
to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. |
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