A Sermon from First Church…. 

A sermon offered by the Rev. Ian F. “Jack” Steeves in the public worship of the First Congregational Church of Scarborough, Maine on Sunday, January 6, 2008 (Epiphany).  The principal reading was Matthew 2:1-12. 
 

“Returning: Going Back, Moving On!” 

“Being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod,

they returned to their country by another route” (Matthew 2:12). 

Returning home is important, for what would have happened to the Three Priests from the East had they not “returned to their country by another route”?   

During Advent we journeyed toward Bethlehem.  On Christmas Eve, we celebrated the birth of our Savior twice, once at 7:00 and again at 11:00 p.m.  Some 314 family members, friends and strangers worshiped with us.  Annually, thank God, we have a time to lay down our routines, our worries and our duties and run or walk to Bethlehem “to see this thing that has come to pass.”  We have a time to follow a star in the night sky and search for “one who has been born king....”  We have a time to “go, tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born.” 

(With apologies to our teachers and students, I am jumping the gun.  Our celebration of Christmas will truly end later today after the Sunday school pageant at 4:00 p.m.) 

For weeks, all thoughts, hymns, carols and sermons led to Bethlehem.  There was joyful anticipation and hope.  A mysterious angel announced a miraculous birth.  A famous couple made their uncomfortable pilgrimage to a stable.  The whole sky opened up at the sound of an angelic chorus.  Curious shepherds made their way to the site.  A mysterious star led three worldly wise men to the place.  Bethlehem was the end of the road for all of them and us. 
 

Today the movement changes: not, go to Bethlehem, but leave Bethlehem.  And that can be a bit scary.  No star to guide you, no angels announcing news of hope and new birth, but instead a warning to get out of town. 

What happens when you move beyond Bethlehem and Christmas? 

We do it every year of course.  By the quirk of the civil calendar, we turn from Christmas to the New Year.  Like the road taken by the Magi, the New Year now stretches out ahead of us. 

Will the New Year any different from the old year?  Perhaps it is recent history or the winter weather or the current political clamor that suggest to us the improbability of any high level of expectation.  The world has not changed and the duties that we have avoided or only put off since December or just for the weekend now await us. 

We are called to return and to take up where we left off and yet to make a new beginning. By God’s grace we will be open to God’s most remarkable love and surprise in our lives in 2008. 

There will be all the problems.  The personal issues will still be there, of course, as they were for the shepherds the morning after the angels’ chorus.  Sickness, perhaps, or unemployment, or a couple trying to find out who each really is, or a parent and a child struggling through a time of mutual stress.  And death, for some of us, perhaps, or for those close to us.  The world – with or without the promises of the politicians – will still be bringing its tough problems and tragedies to us, as it did for the wise men on the road out of Bethlehem. 

Neither life nor the world will change until and unless we change.  The spirit of Christ child cannot flourish in the cold January air unless we are first blossomed by it.  We may, we must return but we need not return as tired, worried creatures, care-worn and spirit lost.  We have seen and sung, heard and done wonderful things that came to pass this Christmas, strange and mighty sights that will never let us look at worship or the world in quite the same manner as before. 

Birth is always a struggle.  When something new is born, – whether it is the birth of a child, or the birth of a new idea, or the birth of God – the old does not give up without a fight. 

That’s tough.  We do not have to make it tougher than it is.  We chirp piously of the coming of the Prince of Peace as if, only we prayed harder and took Christmas more seriously, we would have peace on earth, and have it now.  Even God on earth in Christ could not bring peace on earth in one lifetime. 

Christ’s presence has hallowed all that we are and every place that we are, and by his grace the world and we can never be quite the same again.  Therefore, we begin again, that in leaving the manger we may embrace the world and the future for Christ’s sake and for ours, too. 

Think about this: Christmas and creation are part of the same process of God.  They have everything to do with one another; they speak of loving purpose and renewed hope.  The Gospel is a gospel of second chances, new opportunities to claim the love of God, to share and express that love around the world, and to discover who we are and what we can still become in Christ. 

Post-Sermon Prayer… 

      O God, our Heavenly Parent, who has visited and redeemed your people, and has called us to be redemptive forces in your world: help us, we pray, that the visions and hopes of the Christmas season will not fade at the close of the Twelfth day, nor the plodding, indulgent, and cruel realities take over again, unchallenged by angels’ song and the child’s faith.  May they call up in us new determination to live by our vision and persevere by our faith.  In the Child’s name, we pray.  Amen.