Dr. David D. Young
December 31, 2006
Matthew 2: 1-12
Ephesians 5: 8-14
"Bethlehem and Back"

Snoopy is laying on the ground. "So this is the last day of the year…" He gets up and starts walking towards his doghouse. "Another complete year gone by, and what have I accomplished this year that I haven’t accomplished every other year?" He stops. "Nothing!!" Now laying across the top of the doghouse. "How consistent can you get?"

Another year has come and gone, another Christmas celebrated and a new year is now upon us – and I wonder are we any different? Or are we remaining consistent and satisfied with the way things are? If we are willing to admit it, most of us are generally satisfied to keep things just the way they are.

The question we all hear and say at this time of year is: "Did you have a nice Christmas?" And if the conversation gets a little deeper you hear: "Did you experience the true meaning of Christmas?" We all have wondered at various times whether we truly experienced the meaning of Christmas and maybe we’ve asked ourselves that question within the last week.

This year I want to re-phrase the question in a way that is more helpful for me as we consider the story of the wise men. Did we go all the way to Bethlehem this year? Or did we stop the journey somewhere short of the manger? In the book, Serve Him with Mirth, Leslie B. Flynn recounts the following story:

"The day before Christmas was a hectic one. Father was worried with bundles and burdens. Mother’s nerves reached the breaking point more than once. The little girl seemed to be in the way wherever she went. Finally, she was hustled up to bed. As she knelt to pray, the feverish excitement so mixed her up that she said, 'Forgive us our Christmases, as we forgive those who Christmas against us.'"

As often as we think we’ve learned to stay open to the meaning of Christmas, we can easily miss the high moment at Christmas. Getting caught up in consumerism is a sure way to come up short of Bethlehem.

Another way to be stopped short of going all the way to Bethlehem is indifference. When we look at our scripture lesson we read:

"When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.’"

The chief priests and scribes could have gone to Bethlehem to see this thing which had happened – but they didn’t, they were too busy doing their own thing. There are still people, who, like the chief priests and scribes are so interested in their own affairs that Jesus Christ means nothing to them.

Did we go all the way to Bethlehem this year? Our text goes on to say in verses 7 and 8:

"Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared; and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.’"

We all know that Herod had no intention of ever going to worship this new king. What Herod didn’t realize was that this was a different kind of king altogether. Herod was jealous and full of hatred and hostility. And I dare say, that too can keep us from going all the way to Bethlehem.

There are still people today for whom the claims of Christ interfere with their lives – and they don’t like that. It is especially hard to go all the way to Bethlehem for the person who wants to do only what he or she wants to do. Or were we like the wise men – did we go all the way to Bethlehem to see the babe as if for the first time?

Have we realized the love of God in Jesus Christ? And if so, were we lost in the high moment of wonder, love, and praise – offering our utmost to the most high? We all know what high moments are like. Whether it’s some sporting event we’ve been to or New Years Eve celebration, singing the Messiah or the birth of a child.

I can remember being out on the lake up in Minnesota by myself in a canoe just as the sun was in its final stages of setting. The horizons were decked with beautiful rays of red and orange. The air was still and it was as if for a moment I was at one with the universe. But then the sun sank beneath the birch trees and everything around me turned a shadowy black.

I’m sure that each of you can think of high moments in your own life. And you know that there can be a real let down after such moments. You know that there can be sad feelings before and after a high moment.

And so it is with Christmas. There can be many mixed feelings at Christmas time – due to the loss of a loved one, the hardship of a great illness, the sorrow of a close friend. And those feelings are O.K.

Fortunately, Christmas brings good news to us – for in the midst of our pain and suffering God comes to be with us. Something new happened on Christmas day. And yet as the great German theologian Ernst Bloch reminds us:

"The new is never totally new. It is always preceded by a dream, a promise, an anticipation. He who does not expect the unexpected does not find it."

This is precisely true for he who is the light of the world and was looked for by the prophets. The 17th century philosopher/theologian Blaise Pascal put it this way:

"There is enough light for those who wish only to see, and enough obscurity for those of a contrary attitude."

A politician who had changed his views rather radically was congratulated by a colleague. "I’m glad you’ve seen the light," he said. "I didn’t see the light," came the terse reply. "I felt the heat."

It is my hope that this year we will see the light of Christ – not so much because we must - but because we will. Dag Hammarskjold once said:

"Each day the first day: each day a life. Each morning we must hold out the chalice of our being to receive, to carry, and give back. It must be held out empty."

Lucy and Charlie Brown are talking:

Lucy: Years are like swimming pools, Chuck…we jump in one end, and we splash around until we reach the other end. How was your year, Chuck?

Chuck: Somebody let all the water out!

It’s easy to feel that way especially after the high moments of Christmas subside. High moments never last forever. It may be because we’re always changing or more likely it’s because they simply refuse to hang around. Once the decorations and lights are put away at Christmas it will be easy to return to business as usual.

But Christmas is more than a high moment – though it is that – it is an attitude. And so if we went all the way to Bethlehem this year, we will come away a different person. Leslie D. Weatherhead, renowned 20th century preacher penned these lines:

"An experience of Christ, the experience which follows upon as complete an abandonment and dedication of oneself to him as possible, is the most powerful force that the human personality can ever know, and the greatest transforming energy that has ever existed."

When we go all the way to the manger – Christ can be born in us even as he was born in that crude, simple stable so many years ago. "It is then that we may do anything at all," says Paul Tournier in his book The Person Reborn, "provided it is done with Christ. He alone frees us both from passive conformity and from rebellious nonconformity. If we think of him in every circumstance of our lives; consult him on every point; seek him in every person we meet; and whenever we are faced with a decision, ask ourselves what he would do; ask ourselves in every affliction and every blessing what he is saying to us in that affliction or that blessing; then we shall be passionately interested in everything and everybody; we shall take everything seriously but nothing tragically; we shall unify our lives and our personalities, through giving them one single axis."

It is he who is the light of the world – who is our one single axis. The light that came into the world in Bethlehem is the light of people.

Bethlehem means "house of bread." How fitting it is that he who is the bread of life and the light of the world should come from Bethlehem.

"O Little town of Bethlehem how still we see thee lie. Above thy deep and dreamless streets the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."

And yet what happens now that the celebration of Christmas is past for another year. An unknown poet puts it this way when describing the wise men:

"After the star, the dim day. After the gifts, the empty hands. And now we take our secret way back to far lands. After the cave, the bleak plain. After the joy, the weary ride. But journey we, three new-made men side by side. After the star, a new light. After the new king, his law. Never shall we forget last night what we saw. Came we by old paths by the sands. Go we by new ones this new day, Homewards to rule our lives and lands by another way."

"Bethlehem and Back"

And so, if we too, like the wise men, went all the way to Bethlehem this year – it is now back to business, but not business as usual – but back to business as never before.

Amen!