"Leaving the Manger" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday January 4, 2025 – Epiphany
Scripture:  Matthew 2:1-12


If the story that we just heard sounds familiar, almost as if you have heard it somewhere recently, don’t worry – you’re not going crazy!  We read this same story here, just two weeks ago, as part of our Advent Series, “Will you come to the manger?”  Each Sunday during Advent, we looked at the story of a different person who journeyed to meet the baby Jesus; and on December 21, we heard from one of the magi.

All through Advent, we asked the question, why have you made the journey to the manger?  Why did you choose to re-visit the baby Jesus this year, and the story of that first Christmas?  What is it that draws you back to the manger year after year after year?  There are probably as many answers to this question as there are people here this morning!

I suspect that some people choose to celebrate Christmas here in the church out of tradition – this is just something that we do every year.  I suspect that there were some people in church on Christmas Eve out of obligation to their parents or grandparents, and no judgment on anyone who was here for that reason.  I suspect that some people choose to celebrate Christmas in awe and wonder of God choosing to become human flesh and blood.  I suspect that some people choose to celebrate Christmas to celebrate the unfolding of a new and transformed world.  Some time, I would love to hear your story – why do you choose to revisit the story and celebration of Christmas year after year?  Why did you choose to come to the manger this year?

But the thing about coming to the manger is that it isn’t enough to just come and stay at the manger.  We eventually have to leave the manger – we eventually have to put aside our nativity sets and ornaments, we have to tuck our stockings and Christmas music away for another year, we have to either compost our Christmas tree, or put it away in the basement until next December.  We eventually have to leave the manger and go back out into the world.

And I think that this second journey – our journey away from the manger and back into the world – is maybe even more important than our journey to the manger.  Because as we leave the manger, we have to ask ourselves, what are we going to do with the story that we have just re-enacted?  How are we going to be transformed by what we experienced at the manger?  How is our encounter with Emmanuel, God-With-Us, going to change our lives?

In the story we read on Christmas Eve, from the gospel of Luke, we read that the shepherds returned to their fields, glorifying and praising God for all that they heard and seen.  Their lives were transformed by encountering the newborn Messiah.  Mary’s body was literally transformed by his birth, and her life and Joseph's life, like the lives of all parents, will never be the same again.  And in today’s story, we read about the Magi, who had been instructed by King Herod to return and tell him where to find the newborn king, but instead decided to return home by a different route, one that bypassed Jerusalem completely.

My imagination wants to fill in the details – what did the dream that warned them look like?  Did all of the magi have the dream, or just one of them, and they had to convince the others?  How long did Herod wait for them before he realized that they weren’t coming back?

But no matter the details, the magi had their literal path through the world changed because of their encounter with Jesus.

These wise ones who had spent their lives studying the stars – studying them so closely that they noticed when a new star appeared in the sky where there had been no star before – these magi were wise enough to be able to acknowledge when they were wrong.  They were wise enough to recognize that going first to King Herod had been a mistake – an extremely costly and disastrous mistake if you were to read on to the story that comes next, and I can’t help but wonder how the story might have unfolded differently if the magi had gone directly to Bethlehem rather than taking that detour to King Herod’s palace.  But they were wise enough to recognize that going first to King Herod had been a mistake, and rather than stubbornly sticking with their original plan, they were willing to change course.

There is so much wisdom that we can glean from this story of the magi, but I think that maybe the most important one might be learning a willingness to be open to God, however we might encounter God, and a willingness to be changed by that encounter.

For it is God who was born as human flesh and blood at Christmas.  It is the Creator of All who lies as a helpless baby in the manger.  And because God has become human, we, in our humanity, have been made holy, and have been given the opportunity to participate in the divine dance of God.  The Holy Spirit is longing to transform all of us, more and more, into the image and likeness of Christ, just as the magi were transformed, just as the shepherds were transformed, just as Mary and Joseph were transformed, just as everyone who has ever encountered Jesus has been transformed.

And so my hope and my prayer for all of us, is that Christmas isn’t just a story that we re-visit once a year, but that the transformation of the world that began at Christmas might touch all of our hearts, and transform our lives, not just today but every day.

And may it be so.  Amen.

 

 

We received our Epiphany “Star Words” this week –

words to guide and lead us through the year ahead