Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:1-3)

Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior. Amen.
What would inspire you to travel by foot (or camel) across thousands of miles of rough terrain and desert? What fills you with ‘great joy’?
Over the centuries we have merged many of the details in Matthew and Luke into one account of Christ’s birth. Then we usually throw John’s version into the mix on Christmas Day and wax poetically about pre-eminence and pre-existence. On top of all that merging and waxing, we also mix in some musical ‘embellishments’ from beloved carols. That whole mix emerges as our Christmas story.
Unfortunately in all that mixing, the magi often wind up as tagalongs to the shepherds. When picturing a typical children’s pageant, the wise men usually look rather similar to the shepherds – just slightly nicer bathrobes, paper crowns, and tardy. Epiphany gets swept away in the Christmas clean-up and loses its proper place within the church year and the story of Christ’s manifestation in the world.
In reality, the shepherds and magi were about as different from one another as could be and the emphasis of the two Gospel versions of Christ’s birth very telling. Luke emphasizes the immediate arrival of the local shepherds. Matthew emphasizes the eventual arrival of foreign kings. Both visits are important to understanding Christ’s purpose in coming to earth. He came for those both far and near. He came for both the rich and the poor. Christ’s birth was for all – regardless of ethnicity or status.
The prophet Isaiah tried to highlight the great magnitude of the coming God’s Messiah. In an era where ‘gods’ were often associated with only one nation or ethnicity, the assertion that God’s Kingdom is all encompassing was novel. The idea of ‘one god’ was odd enough, but ‘one god’ for everybody – most likely laughable to many of Isaiah’s hearers. Yet Isaiah makes the assertion – there is one God and the Messiah will be for all the nations. No one gets exclusive rights to God.
The scope God’s Kingdom exceeds all space and time. The reach of God’s love demonstrated in Christ extends beyond all human constructs and limits. Paul writes to the congregation in Ephesus, “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19) Darkness surrounds us, yet the Light of Christ shines through.
The love of God “that surpasses all understanding” is stronger than the darkness. The love of God shown to us in Christ Jesus is greater than the hate and distrust in the world. Christ is your light. Christ is the light of the world. (And to wax poetically from John) “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it…9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:5,9) Jesus is that true light…and He is here. That light embodied in Christ shines in your life. That light shines in the world – to all nations and all people. Rejoice “exceedingly with great joy,” and worship Him, Christ the Lord!
The grace and peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

In Christ,
Pastor Carla

…and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. (Matthew 2:9b-11a)

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,

the desert shall rejoice and blossom;

like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,

and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the Lord,

the majesty of our God. (Isaiah 35:1-2)

Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior. Amen.

The promises made in Isaiah had been partially fulfilled. The exiles did return to Jerusalem (or at least their descendants did). They made that procession into the Holy City. They rebuilt. And they sinned again. They were conquered again.

As Christians, we hear the prophet Isaiah with a two-fold promise. We hear the original promise to those exiles. We also hear the promise to us in Christ Jesus. We hear the promise to all those who are living ‘in exile’ in lives plagued by sin, death, and evil. A time is coming, realized in its fullness in Christ, when suffering and sorrow of this ‘exile’ world ends. We hear the promise of an end to our ‘exile’ from God.

The coming of Christ alters reality. The promised Messiah not only comes to save the world, but in doing so transforms it. Reality in Christ is different from earthly reality. It heals the relationship between us and God. It ends our ‘exile’ from God.

Jesus does not follow traditional human standards. He does not enter this world draped by purple robes and jewels. Jesus does not receive a royal decree accompanied by resounding trumpets – not even any blue candy cigars. There was no huge family gathering, no baby shower, no birth announcements. For a modern analogy — Jesus’ birth does not even warrant a facebook post.

No, Jesus is born in a stable reserved for the animals of travelers, in a strange town, to a teenaged, unwed (albeit engaged), peasant girl, and wrapped in whatever cloth was available. He was born in poverty, a stranger, into uncertainty. He entered into our ‘exile.’  He was born into a world plagued by sin, death, and evil.

Other than Mary and Joseph, his first entourage consisted of the barn animals whose space He had invaded. His second ‘callers’ were shepherds who had most likely been out in the wilderness with their animals for months and most likely smelled worse than the actual barn animals. Yet they were the ones chosen to visit the Son of God first. God chose to reveal His Will to them before all the ‘more socially acceptable’ people and leaders in Israel.  The magi to the East followed a star to pay homage despite their vastly different racial, cultural, and religious background. God even revealed His Coming to foreign heathens before the ‘more socially acceptable’ Israelites.

Those ‘socially acceptable’ leaders were less than pleased when they finally did hear the news. In a move reminiscent of a pharaoh long ago, King Herod ordered the death of every baby boy born in Bethlehem around the time the star appeared. Joseph, warned in a dream, escaped to Egypt with the newborn Son of God and His mother. Later, the scribes and the Pharisees again issued a death sentence on the Messiah, this time temporarily succeeding. Content in their own ‘exile’ from God, the ‘more socially acceptable’ folks did not want Jesus altering their reality. In rejecting the new reality in Christ, they rejected God Himself.

Yet we prepare. We prepare and wait for the coming of the Lord. We wait with joyful expectation to march in the procession on the royal way at the second coming.

The grace and peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

In Christ,

Pastor Carla

 

and it shall be called the Holy Way; A highway shall be there,

the unclean shall not travel on it,

but it shall be for God’s people;

no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.

No lion shall be there,

nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;

they shall not be found there,

but the redeemed shall walk there. (Isaiah 35:8-9)