Adore and Reveal for the Light has Come

This is the sermon for Trinity Church of the Nazarene for January 4, 2009 from Matthew 2, “Adore and Reveal for the Light has Come." The picture is from "Art in the Christian Tradition."

Last Sunday Connie (one of our board members) recommended a Hallmark movie to me called “The Christmas Choir.” Has anyone seen this movie? It is an amazing, powerful movie.

I happened to be flipping through the channels this week, searching for something to make me happy… when I saw the first scene Connie so eloquently described last week.

The movie begins with a rich, wealthy accountant named Peter Brockman, sitting at a bar lamenting and crying about the loss of his fiancée.

Peter is sad. He does not feel like his life has meaning, and he is hungry- starving even, to feel like he has value.

A man (named Bob) sits next to him and invites him to his house. Bob claims it is the holidays and no one should be left alone feeling so valueless.

Peter agrees.

As they walk into Bob’s house, Peter is shocked.

This home of Bob’s is… a homeless shelter.

He says to Bob, “I thought you said you were taking me to your family.” And Bob replies, “I did. This is my family.”

Peter sits down and eats a meal with the men. He feels slightly uncomfortable with the way he is dressed and how different the homeless men are. He stares at the nun who dishes out food.

He glances around feeling nervous and tight.

As the men all go to bed a nun (a little bit crazy nun; like no ladies of the cloth we ever knew) sits down to talk with Peter. She says, “What’s the purpose of life?” Peter says something intelligent like, “I don’t know, to be happy.” Sister Agatha replies, “No. To be useful. To make a difference with your life.”

Wow.

Our passage today is about a group of men who want more than to be “happy” who are the first to reveal the Christ child to the world, reveal the Word of God incarnate (in the flesh) to the world.

Our passage today is about three men who worship and reveal the Christ, being more useful, and making more of a difference with their lives than they ever imagined.


Quick Epiphany Lesson:

Epiphany Sunday happens 12 days after Christmas (or the Sunday closest to Jan 6) and is the day we celebrate the wise men bowing down at the feet of the Christ child, worshiping and adoring.

Epiphany Sunday is the day we rejoice in the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles; a revelation of God to wise men (who are not Jews). This is the day we celebrate that even we (those who are Gentiles) can worship and adore the Christ child.

Epiphany Sunday is the day we celebrate and remember the wise men kneeling at the feet of the Messiah and we rejoice that these 3 men were the first to reveal the Christ child to the world beyond the Jews.

Epiphany means “to make known” or “to reveal.” The wise men show us and reveal the good news that God is for all people everywhere; Jew or Gentile. Slave or free. Man or woman.

When we hear the word “Epiphany” we know it is a smack in the face realization (like when you are 7 and realize a small little stork probably did not carry the 8 pound baby).

And Epiphany Sunday is much like this. It is the “Woah, Jesus! You came in the flesh for me?!” realization.

It is a smack in the face. It gives us an extreme sense of value, of worth.

God came in the flesh and thinks you have value.

Epiphany is about sensing God’s value of us as we encounter the Christ child AND the wise men show us it is more too. It is wide-eyes in adoration of the Christ and then in the spirit of those three wise men, revealing the incarnate Christ.

Adoration and revelation. Those are powerful things to learn from the wise men. No wonder they are called wise.

Helping Epiphany Become Real:

The story of “The Christmas Choir” continues. Peter, the wealthy accountant, who was once starving for value, hungry for his fiancée to love him, suddenly has an epiphany one day- that he could direct a choir of homeless men to give them value.

The man who is starving and hungry for value… could help the men literally starving and hungry.

Deep irony.

This epiphany smacks him in the face with the realization he could do something to help these

men; that he, the most desperate of all can help another feel value.

So he speaks to Sister Agatha, the nun, who thinks a choir of homeless men is a crazy idea but agrees; warning him it will most certainly fail.

Suddenly Peter, the lonely, sad man; the hungry starving man… is filled with inspiration.
The one who sought to find value in his work, in the eyes of others… is whistling in his office.

He is singing because he found a way to become more than a person searching for value, more than a person yearning for a “fix” or a “high” to feel value.

He is singing because he discovered a new way to be someone who went from hungry for his own sense of value to nourishing others need for value.

He is singing because he transitioned from a search for value and significance to finding that worth (he so desperately needs)… in the investment of others.

Just like the wise men in our passage, Peter discovered life is more than just seeking to be happy, or collecting cool crowns we see in all the nativities, sparkling in the golden capes we see the wise men dressed in our mind’s eye.

Life is more than just a search to feel happy and feel better. Life is more than an attempt to be massaged in all the right places and feel “happy.”

Sister Agatha asks, “What is the meaning of life?” And in Peter’s life we see and example, to pour that happiness back out into the life of others. That is when you are truly happy.

Peter reprioritizes his life. Phone calls have a different place. Meetings have a different place. Everything he once held high gets put a little lower… in order to care about a group of men.

And before he knows it, those men are giving him more than he could ever offer to them.

Peter discovers what the wise men discovered, long-long ago when they encountered the Christ child, when they knelt at his bedside and worshiped and adored the Messiah: Being happy is more than just a list of things to do… from phone calls to fulfilling responsibilities.

Being happy is about kneeling before the Christ child in adoration and letting that spill out to the rest of life for you to reveal Christ by making more of a difference than you could ever imagine.

To let your adoration for the Christ child spill over so much into the rest of your life… crazy things happen. Like… getting added to the manger scene next to the shepherds because your life was revelation in action.

To let your adoration for the Christ child spill over so much into the rest of your life… that we pour our lives into others… BECAUSE we are the Church- because we are the kind of people whose life and love spill over.

We could be the kinds of people who accomplish a list of things to do because someone has to do it—but we may never really be happy… until we discover the new way of being a Christian; the beautiful way of being the Church.

To adore the Christ child—while simultaneously revealing the Christ child.

In the movie “The Christmas Choir” we hit this tragic moment where one of the homeless men Peter was helping took his money and spent it on alcohol. He shows up to a concert drunk and

Peter is mad. He says, “I’m trying to help you people.”

At some point in the story… the homeless men became HIS project, HIS duty, HIS phone calls, HIS agenda to get things done.

These 10 singing men became just like his work—unfulfilling and causing unhappiness.

These men became “you people,” instead of “us,” in this choir together—working together as a team.

For Peter, the choir became a: you-me thing.

For Peter, the choir became a: us and them thing.

And it tore apart the group. Peter quits being director. He gets depressed again.

His life is finding no meaning. He is not making a difference. He is not useful.

He just goes through the motions, doing this, doing that. Answering this call. Going to this meeting.

And Peter beautifully illustrates with his life—that projects once beginning as great inspirations… activities and dreams that once began as living examples of our community life… can become a list of things we do. Something we do it because we have to. Something we do it because there is no one else to do it.

Peter is so upset he goes out drinking again. He sleeps amongst trash bags. He drags his expensive jacket through the muddy water.

He feels like he did not make a difference and wants to quit trying.

When he goes back to the office and stares out the window hopelessly, the homeless men show up in the lobby of his office building and begin to sing. They refuse to leave until Peter comes to talk to them.

The homeless men all start to tell him what a difference Peter made. One old guy says- you changed my life. I feel like my life has value now. A younger guy says—you changed my life. I even have a part-time job now.

And although the people we help may never come together and say that, it is true.
If we actually ARE the Church of Jesus Christ…. If we worship and adore, and kneel before the cradle… If we discover the new way of being a Christian… If we embody the beautiful way of being the Church: To adore the Christ child—while simultaneously revealing the Christ child…

Then, we are making a difference. Our life has meaning.


The Other Character:

There’s another character in the Matthew passage; alongside these wise men. His name is Herod.

According to scripture, King Herod is on a death-hunt to kill the baby called the Messiah, King of the Jews.

There is deep and beautiful irony here:

1. Herod is “troubled” by the baby who came to redeem the troubled.

2. Herod planned and schemed to destroy the Messiah who came to redeem all that is destroyed.

Oh how I see so much of myself in Herod.

We are so desperate to feel happy; we are so desperate to feel anything, so desperate to be massaged in all the right places… that we are troubled.

We are so desperate to get out of our own destruction or the destruction of those around us… that we plan and scheme.

We are unhappy. We are troubled.

We are destroyed. We are schemers.

Oh how I see so much of us in Herod. How much I see of myself in Herod.

A Little of Both:

We can find a little of Herod and a little of the Wise Men in ourselves.

We might be unhappy, troubled, destructive, and schemers… but there is hope. There is always hope- when we find where we are like the wise men… and adore and reveal the God who came as a baby to redeem the troubled and all that is destroyed.

Herod lies about wanting to go worship the baby but in his heart he wants to slaughter the Messiah. His heart goes astray.

Just like Herod, our hearts go astray.

And the wise men live a little different from Herod. They live with integrity—living as ones who tell the truth as a way of life. When asked where they are going—they tell the truth.

The wise men LITERALLY go out seeking the way, the truth, and the life (in a person, a baby).

They are LIVING differently. They are living a new way. Their stray hearts are brought prostrate before the Messiah.

These men who knew nothing about Yahweh, Israel’s God, find themselves on their knees in adoration.

Herod lies. The wise men live the truth.

The wise men adore and reveal in their very life the God who came as a baby to redeem all the lies and all the stray hearts.

Herod also abuses his power and influence in order to do harm.

All too often we abuse our power. Whether it is power in the church, our homes, with our kids… we abuse our power in order to do harm.

Sometimes we find ourselves just like Herod; submitting our lives to the kingdom of the world—and the princes and powers that be. Using our power to harm others… and usually, in order to be happy.

We are so desperate to be happy (just like Herod) we harm others to be happy.

But the wise men… submit power to a baby who came to redeem power so influence might be used to redeem all that was destroyed.

There is a little bit of Herod in us and a little bit of the wise men in us too.

The wise men adore and reveal through their submission of power to the God who came as a baby to redeem all the lies and all the stray hearts; to redeem power and influence.

A key theme in the movie, “A Christmas Choir” is about being a part of something bigger than ourselves.

A young lady who collects tokens in the train station tells Peter she used to go ride trains and look at faces because, she says, “looking at faces makes me feel like I’m a part of something bigger than myself.”

And the story ends with Peter giving the young lady a gift for Christmas, one of the first tokens he ever bought… to remind her “we are a part of something bigger together.”

And being the Church… is about being a part of something bigger than ourselves.

The exciting thing about adoring and revealing the Christ child alongside the wise men… is we get to be a part of something.

We get to find ourselves enacting and being more than we could ever be alone.

We get to discover who we can be together, as a church—adoring and revealing the Christ child together.

*Communion with my people-- to come adore the Lord in the beauty of holiness together and look forward to revealing Christ to the world*