Life Can’t Wait

Last week I invited you to reflect on how God couldn’t wait for the right time or place or situation for Jesus to come. God refused to wait any longer to send His son. And I asked you to consider what you need to stop waiting for.

There’s a lot of things that require waiting: I waited on a new pole saw to arrive yesterday….still waiting even though guaranteed by 9pm!

But there are more important things in life that don’t require waiting even though we do wait for them. The things that Jesus came to remind us of: Peace, Joy, Love and Hope. These are things that we CAN practice every day. And, like God, we need to stop waiting on them and start living them.

In every relationship or situation we find ourselves, there is something we CAN DO to create peace, joy, love and hope. It often requires a change of perspective.

• You have to stop waiting for someone who wronged you to apologize, and you have to start working through your own feelings.
• You have to stop waiting for the right time and start doing the right thing.
• You have to stop saying “I’ll donate next time”, “I’ll volunteer next time”, “I’ll help out next time”, and you have to start saying “Yes” to this time.
• You have to stop procrastinating and start engaging.
• You have to stop over-eating or drinking and start a plan that says “one is enough.”
• You have to stop reacting and start reflecting.
• You have to stop telling people what you think they are doing (right or wrong) and start asking meaningful questions.
• If someone is angry, you acknowledge that you may have said or done something to hurt them, tell them you care about them, and ask them to help you figure out a way forward.

These are the kinds of ways that we can stop waiting for peace joy love and hope and start practicing them.

Which brings me to today: The Day of Lights and Stars and Wise Men and gifts. I hate to burst your bubble but those Magi were not at the manger with the shepherds on the night Jesus was born. As the story says this is after Jesus was born. Pretty far after in fact. Up to two years after as we will see as we continue to read. And this is why Christmas is a season and not a Day. It’s 12 days in fact. And Christmas ends with the celebration of Epiphany, the Festival of Lights where we remember the story of the wise men and the star.

This is a story in which God’s Light leads people from far off places to discover Jesus. Something we still work for today.

• We prepare food and delivery it each week that neighbors might see that food and our work as God’s light and come to discover Jesus.
• We open our doors to NA and Al Anon and the Harnett County Partnership for Children and Weight Watchers so that folks might see this building not as an insider place for us but as an outpost of God’s light for others in this community.
• We collect coats to shine God’s light.
• We donate funds through our Disciples Mission Fund and Week of Compassion to mission projects throughout our country and world – project that give a hand up to the hungry and homeless, the sick, the orphans, the widows and refugees.
• We volunteer at the Food Pantry.
• We always have something, however small, to help out the downtrodden of our local community.
• We tell stories at children’s parties and through productions on the front steps of this building.

All this to shine a light towards Jesus, to point people from every walk of life to the Christ Child. To say to the world, “Hey you are not alone. God loves you. We love you. Join the family!”

This is why the children bring these gifts of Food donation to the manger today. To remind us what God’s light is about – pointing the way to Jesus.

Well this story of lights and stars and Wise Men doesn’t end with the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. If it did we might be content to celebrate Christmas with toys and sweaters and new tools and new cars and material gifts for family and friends. So the story goes on and it’s not the most pleasant turn of events. Listen:

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. (Matthew 2:13-25, selected verses)

Let me paraphrase this:

Herod feels threatened by this newborn King. So Herod sets out to kill King Jesus – to prevent a future uprising, to assert his own strength and power, to ensure the Jews don’t sense the coming of their freedom and a dozen other reasons.

Jesus home becomes an executioner’s block, a war zone. If that sounds like a harsh description, then let me remind you that Herod ends up killing every child under 2 years old. (That’s how we know Jesus could have been up to two years old). Herod would leave nothing to chance. He enacted a mass genocide, child genocide. So actually my description is  too kind. Herod turned Jesus’ home into a slaughter house.

So Joseph, Mary, and Jesus must leave. They have to flee as refugees to another place, another country – somewhere willing to let him cross a border to safety. And Egypt – of all places – is that country. Egypt a place which hadn’t been too friendly to Jesus ancestors, the Hebrew people, Moses, Aaron, Miriam, and their descendants. Egypt persecuted them, oppressed them, enslaved the, tortured them, and always treating them as an enemy.

But I suppose Egypt must have changed. Years and years later, perhaps Egypt had learned a lesson. Rather than fear the Israelites and their growing numbers and their strength (as told in Exodus chapter 1), Egypt had a change of heart. It had apparently decided that it could and would be a place of refuge for those needing safety in the world.

Kinda ironic, if you ask me. But maybe that is the point. If Egypt could change form a country which feared the Hebrew people, enslaved them, and worked them to death, then perhaps even today we can change, too.

Perhaps, we can practice peace, joy, love and hope, too. Perhaps we can stop fearing what might happen, what people might do, how things might go wrong, how someone might take advantage of us. Perhaps we can stop waiting on our fears. Perhaps we can stop enslaving others and ourselves. Perhaps we can stop waiting on God to magically fix the world. Perhaps we can start grabbing hold of God’s hand and creating peace, joy hope and love. Perhaps we can starting letting people in – in to our lives, our hearts, our abundance. Perhaps we can start treating our neighbor as we want to be treated. Perhaps we can starting praying for our enemies and even loving them as Jesus commanded. Perhaps we can start having those difficult conversations with friends and loved ones, those hard too start conversations that we have been waiting on. Perhaps we can stop being frustrated and start focusing on gratitude. Perhaps we can stop talking so much and start listening more (you know the whole one mouth and two ears analogy). Perhaps we can stop waiting for problems to go away and start working through them together in collaborative and mutually beneficial ways. Perhaps we can stop focusing on our own will and start searching for God’s will through the common good of all God’s children across the globe.

Yes, perhaps we can change. If Egypt could, then we can, too. And you know what, a long time ago the survival of God’s Holy Son in the world depended on Egypt changing – that tyrannous, oppressive Egypt. Today, the future coming of Christ, the survival of Christ in this world today, depends on you and I changing as well. Whether its the big political issues of our day or the simple relationships of your daily life, Christi living in you and this world depends on you and me changing our hearts and living as Christ taught us to live.

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One big question about this change that I leave you with has to do with that Star over the manger – that great light which led the wise men to the Christ child so long ago. You see, that story is a great metaphor for you and I today. The story of the lights begs us to ask ourselves:

What light am I following?

Is it the light of Christ? Is it the way of Jesus? Is it the message of the cross? Is it the self sacrificing lesson that Jesus witnesses to through his life and death? Is it the resurrection? Is it the message of scripture? Is the light I am following God? Or is it something else…some dimmer light that the world is pushing you towards?

I offer this question to you today as the lights and starts around this room twinkle and shine: Will you follow the light of Christ this year and practice the peace, joy hope and love of the King we Christians say we follow?

Note: This message has not been edited for grammar or punctuation!