What Brings us to Our Knees,
Prompts Us to Give, and Helps us Return
to our Work
A sermon by Rev. Larry Fry, Based on Matthew 12:1-12
College Avenue United Methodist Church • January 5, 2014
Christmas is an invitation to set aside our regular tasks in
order to go and see what God has done in the birth of Jesus Christ. To celebrate the birth, many events
take place. There are programs and
concerts and a community meal on Christmas Day. For many of us Christmas includes worship, family
gatherings, time with friends, prayer, and eating together. It is a time of wonder and joy and
fellowship. Pondering what God
does brings me to my knees as a prayer of gratitude. Christmas is the announcement of a birth. Epiphany is the baby shower!
Prompted by light and
angels, the shepherds set aside their regular tasks in the fields and made
their way to the manger to see this thing that had come to pass. They found the Christ Child, and they
were on their knees. After their
visit, they returned to their lives changed, recharged. Prompted by a star and
angels, the Magi came to the
Christ Child to celebrate this amazing new gift to the world in Jesus. They brought gifts to represent Jesus’
royalty, his life of prayer, and his death for our salvation. The Magi had, in the giving of gifts,
been given a greater spiritual gift that brought them to their knees. They knew
who Jesus was. This is not a child
who will steal Herod’s throne and crown.
This is not a person who will take advantage of people for his own
benefit. In the manger is the One
upon whom God’s Spirit rests.
After their visit, they returned to their lives by another way because
they knew that King Herod, or any king, did want to go worship another
king. Herod had other evil
plans. They found what brought
them to their knees and it prompted them to give generously, and they returned
to their regular jobs praising God.
What do we take away
from Christmas? Hopefully we
are renewed, having gone to Bethlehem in our hearts to visit the One who brings
us to our knees. What new loving
purpose came into focus that would prompt you to give generously? What did Christmas change in you that
helped you go to your regular life in a better, stronger way?
For many, with children out of school, it was a time for
celebrating family: some sledding, some time with grandparents which gave the
parents a break, time with relatives you do not see very often. For others, it was a time to read a new
book, time to play with something you bought for yourself for Christmas, time
to do a bit a travel, time to go to a bowl game, and to watch some traditional
Christmas movies.
Epiphany is the transition time, as we look to a new year,
getting back into gear. Epiphany
is a time of resolutions, new goals, and new classes. Our Church life begins a new year with new church officers
and a new church treasurer. Our
Early Learning Center has been redesigned to make it possible for us to care
for more children and help our budget.
Our building committee is active again revising the designs for new
addition and remodeling.
In our family, we put a new wall calendar in the kitchen,
with all the family birthdays and anniversaries joyfully transferred from last
year’s calendar. Our calendar is
one provided by our daughter-in-law, Leena, and every month has a picture that
includes our new grandson. In a
yearly transition we shredded a whole bunch old records and we had one of those
little tiny shredders that you are supposed put in one paper every three months
for it to keep running. We wore it
out completely. So it is time to
start the New Year with a new shredder.
Epiphany is proof that with God, energy and purpose for a
new year grow into ever-greater goodness.
Did you notice that the Good News starts with God? Mary says yes to God’s good news that
she is pregnant and then Joseph, then the shepherds, then the whole world knows
through the Magi. Great news for us
and the world spreads in ever widening circles. Each part of the story expands the goodness into more
lives. And the reason that you and
I are here today is that the good news came to us. And we are to spread it.
Kaitlyn is a new person in our church family. She has been involved in our New
Adult Class. Having enjoyed
the church, she arrived last Sunday bringing her whole family. You see Good News is something you go
and tell about. That is why we
send out Christmas cards. The one
thing that is certain: when all the Christmas decorations are put away, we do
not put away Christmas in our hearts or minds or souls. It is something that
spreads to the world around.
This is a great story….these royal scientists have to go
check it out. They go for the hard
evidence. And the amazing thing of
it is that they discover something that brings them to their knees. That is reason for many of our life
journeys. We are seeking
something that will bring us to our knees. They discovered that the God’s love, large enough for the
universe of stars and planets, was close enough to include them and you and
me. That is what happens at
Christmas: we find again and again, something of God that brings us to our
knees.
This story also reminds me that the Christmas story
eliminates the possibility of our thinking that the Good News is for one
country, our country alone. It
cannot be for one group of people over another, one time over another. This is “forever” good news. Epiphany
is a great celebration of light because God offers divine love and guidance
through the Holy Spirit to all people, in all places, at all times. Light goes out in all
directions. And that expansion of
the Good News extended to you and me and then asks us to reflect that light somewhere
else. Students and faculty and
staff, scientists and artists, farmers and town people, rich and poor are all
included.
When God created you and called you good….that did not mean
that it was for good. When God
created you, that did not end God’s activity in your life. God does not sign off until you get to
heaven. We get to be God’s project
all of our lives and beyond.
Rosemary Carroll fell recently and has had quite a struggle. I told her that when I fell off my
front porch and broke my ankle, that the pain of the broken bones, was not as
great as the pain of my kicking myself for falling. She agreed.
There are moments when we have a hard time seeing that we are part of
God’s work. In painful we might
forget that we are God’s creation.
And with the help of the Holy Spirit we get to be some new manifestation
of God Epiphany….a new appearance of God’s light.
One church I know of turns every Epiphany into a baby shower
for the Christ child. They bring baby
gifts which are taken to a local emergency shelter. They send out notices before the their Epiphany service that
are invitations to a baby shower.
The bulletin that Sunday has a few silly baby games, the entrance is
decorated with baby shower things, and after worship there is punch and cookies. It is similar to what we are doing with
the tree of warmth for the students of our public schools in transition and Odgen
Friendship House.
God comes with new beginnings in the midst of difficult
times and our world is often a fearful place at times. Herod, with the cooperation of some of
the religious people, will soon figure out how to get rid of Jesus. They do not succeed this time. Jesus was born into a world of fear and
hatred and war.
What does fear to do to us? More gates, more guns, more wars, and more prisons. This is not what God has in mind. We live in a world full of fear; Jesus
came into a world of fear. Jesus
is God’s promise that God chooses again and again to enter into our lives. He chose to become like us, to live and
die for us, as we are. And he
chose to give us the Holy Spirit which helps become all we can become. And some day God’s purposes will be
fulfilled in this world.
Some of you return to difficult jobs caring for a family member.
Some of your return to work knowing that you face very
difficult projects.
Some of you are facing surgery soon.
So let’s begin in prayer as we transition back to a new year
of work, bringing our talents and gifts and interests and skills to join God’s
promise that fear will not win.
Let’s follow the light of God’s love and purpose with extravagant
generosity.
