This morning I want to continue our series on Waiting and Hope.
Over the course of the last couple of weeks, we've been
journeying through different portions of the Christmas Story,
looking at this question of what do we do in the liminal space?
What do we do when we're hoping for something, longing for
something, dreaming for something, and it hasn't yet
arrived? This, of course, is is core to
what Advent is all about, that the seizing in which we're
anticipating the arrival of Jesus.
And this morning I am excited to continue that story.
We're going to look at a specific story, that of the
Magi, these kings who traveled from the East and look at the
question while we wait, are we paying attention to what God is
doing? Because I want to suggest to you
this morning that it is possible to be in the right place, to be
there at the right time and still to miss what God's doing
today. We're going to sit with this
story and I, I hope that it will speak to you about what it means
to pay attention. One of my friends like to say,
likes to say that that we quote, UN quote, pay attention because
to pay attention costs us something.
There's a there's a, a cost to attention.
Attention is a finite resource. We only have so much of it to go
around. You can't pay attention to
everything. So what will you pay attention
to? I don't know about you, but for
me, my attention is pretty stretched this time of year.
I feel like there is a lot going on.
There are gifts to buy and cards to write, holiday parties to
attend, travel plans, family dynamics.
There's so much going on and honestly, sometimes I just lose
track of things. A few weeks ago, some of my
friends were having a get together for some dads in the
neighborhood and of course I was part of this friend group.
They invited me and it it looked pretty cool.
And at the same time I did what often maybe some of you have
found yourself doing. I was like, I'm interested, but
let me see what else materializes and how my time
looks and I'll get back to you at the last minute.
I wasn't quite sure about my schedule.
I had some questions that were still lingering and so I just
kind of put it off. Well, here we go.
The day approaches and of course all of my friends on this thread
are texting each other and interacting.
Pumped to see you tonight. I'm going to bring this.
What's the plans? Locking in details and I wasn't
on the thread because I, I never RSVP DI never let anyone know
that I was available. The day of the party came and
went and I didn't even realize it.
The next day, of course, I open up my phone and there's all
these texts, there's these pictures, there's laughter,
there's joy, there's the connection, there's people we
haven't seen in a while. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I
can't believe I totally spaced that this was last night.
I hadn't been paying attention. Somehow in the moment, I, I, I
had assumed, you know, like these are my guys, right?
Like I'm part of this group. If something is happening, I can
kind of, I can kind of just do my thing and, and I'll still get
the information. I'll still show up, I'll still
be able to participate at the last minute.
But it didn't work out that way. I wasn't pay attention and I
missed it. This admittedly is a low stakes
example, but it occurred to me as I was preparing to talk to us
this morning about this story because I think it raises an
important question. It is possible to be surrounded
by the things of God, Christian friends, worship, sermons,
church, and still miss what God is doing right in front of us.
Are we attentive to what is necessary so that we can quote
UN quote, be in the room when it happens, especially in a season
like December when the whole Make Christmas Magical thing is
in full swing? There's so much going on.
What are we paying attention to? We are people who wait, but
we're not always people who notice.
Matthew gives us this account here in Matthew Chapter 2, the
story of the Magi, which is familiar to many of us.
If you've been around CVS and seen a Christmas card aisle, you
know, if you've got the camels traveling around with the blue
background and stars and the sand dunes, right?
It's part of like, the nostalgia and the imagination and the
assumptions about like what the Christmas story is.
But in that familiarity, I think there's something that we miss.
Like we miss how weird this story is, how not fitting it is,
how controversial and shocking and and honestly even
inflammatory this story would have been to its original
audience. Matthew here in the Christmas
story is saying the same thing that Jesus later tells the
religious authorities to their face in Matthew chapter 21 and
30 and chapter 21 and verse 31. He says the criminals and sex
workers are coming into the Kingdom of heaven before you.
Essentially this is what's going on in this story.
It is a shocking about face. It poses us with a paradox of
who gets invited to the baby shower of Jesus?
Who is in the room when it happens.
Imagine you are a 1st century Jewish person on the street in
Bethlehem and somebody sticks a microphone in your face.
You know, one of these social media interviews and they ask,
hey, when the when the Messiah comes, how do you think he will
be received? Like what's your expectations?
What's your anticipation of how this is going to go down?
Well, you might say something like when the Messiah comes,
it's going to be the biggest celebration that our people have
ever seen, like the wisest scribes and the Pharisees will
of course, the, the people who who dig deeply in the scripture,
they'll be the first to discern this.
They're going to understand it because on the prophecies,
they'll put things together like a puzzle.
And then, and then once they announce that the Messiah is
here, the news will spread like a wildfire.
It'll, it'll go out into the countryside.
I'm sure the chief priests will gather a delegation of all of
the most honorable political officials, all of the most
celebrated religious authorities.
They'll have a band, they'll have soldiers and, and they will
March to receive the king wherever he is at.
They'll bring him back here to the temple at Jerusalem.
And, and as the word goes out, the people will stream in.
They're going to come in with gifts.
They're going to come in with music.
It's going to be a gigantic celebration as we welcome the
Holy 1, the Messiah who is finally here to save us.
Some of you know the story. That's not how it went, right?
Like this is not how it plays out.
But like if you were there, that's what we would have
assumed. Like this is what was supposed
to happen. This is how it was go supposed
to go down. And yet Matthew tells us when
King Herod heard the news from the Magi, he was disturbed and
all Jerusalem with him. See, the religious leaders, the
authorities, the people who were supposed to get it right, their
first reaction to the news of the Messiah's birth was not
celebration, it wasn't enthusiasm, it wasn't
expectancy. They were disturbed.
See, Herod's power was propped up by Roman legions.
He, he was an authoritarian who who made his money and his
status off of an oppressive government.
So for Herod, the news that there was a king of the Jews
that was born, this is not good news.
This is a threat to his power. This is a threat to his reign.
Herod is on the lookout. He is attentive, but not for
what God is doing. Herod is just paying attention
to threats, like he's vigilant for anything that could threaten
his status, his security, his safety, and maybe even worse.
We see in the following verses that he calls in the experts,
right? The chief priests that describes
the teachers of the law and these guys like these are like
our people, right? We're here in church.
They're the Bible scholars. They know the book, right?
There are experts in the law and and Herod asks a question.
He says, where is Messiah to be born?
And they don't hesitate. They don't stutter.
They know the answer right away. They they, they say in
Bethlehem, they even give chapter and verse.
They're like here the prophet Micah and this connects with
Isaiah and they had it unlocked. They knew exactly what was about
to go down. They get the answer right and
then they do nothing. That's it.
Nobody says like, maybe we should go check this out.
Like it's a Six Mile hike down the road.
Let's go see. Like, is anything happening down
the road in Bethlehem? Like there's no early warning
station that has been constructed there to, to find
out like, you know, when Messiah is born.
They, they just had the answer. And so they stopped there.
Their heads are full, but their feet don't move.
Their theology is sharp, but their hearts are numb.
Friends, the people who we would have expected to be at the
nativity, the people who are supposed to be there.
The insiders missed out, and it was instead the foreigners who
were there. I think this is a sobering
picture for us. And when I say us, I mean those
of us who are like the Christian insiders, those of us who go to
church every Sunday, those of us who who volunteer, who, who
contribute, who, you know, grew up in a Christian home.
Those of us who were baptized and read our Bibles and kind of
assume that like, if God's doing something, like we're going to
be the first to know about it. Like that's kind of our thing.
For us friends, I think the Christmas story, we don't read
it this way, right? But the Christmas story is a bit
of a warning. It's a warning that that says
that you can grow up in a Christian family, you can read
your Bible, sing the song, serve on a team, know the right
answer, and never actually walk the six miles to Bethlehem.
Christmas is a warning that we can be so familiar with the
story that we stop being surprised by the Savior when he
actually comes. But Matthew doesn't just give us
a warning, of course. He also gives us a surprise.
You're right. Magi came from the East to
Jerusalem asking where is the one who has been born king of
the Jews? Who are these guys?
Well, to a 1st century Jewish leader, as I've already
suggested, these are the last people who would have gotten an
invite to the baby shower. They're not supposed to be
there. The word Magi points to a group
of astrologer priests. OK, the, the we don't know
exactly where they were from. We just know East.
But most likely they were from Persia or Babylon, right?
These are the places where we know there were lots of kind of
Magi astrologer priests in that day.
They would have been scholars of the stars and spiritual advisors
in the Royal Courts. And generally, these are folks
who are not looked at with like positive vibes in Scripture.
In the story of Daniel, if you go back to the the prophet
Daniel, we read that the magicians, the sorcerer's
astrologers, all are at play. They're there in the King's
court, and they can't interpret the King's dream.
Like they don't actually know what's going on.
They're really kind of charlatans who are peddling
these kind of ambiguous prophecies.
And when the king like buckles down, it's only Daniel who has
authentic, supernatural, God-given wisdom who has the
ability to predict what will happen.
They're exposed as frauds. And the Torah elsewhere
explicitly prohibits divination and astrology.
Isaiah mocks those who quote, divide the heavens and and read
their fates in the stars. I'm sorry if you are really into
horoscopes. The Bible does not tend to like
this or take it very seriously. OK, but this was these guys,
right? They were.
They were from a foreign place. They had the wrong zip code.
They had the wrong faith system, they had the wrong background,
they were looking for signs of God's movement in the completely
wrong place. It should never have happened.
And yet here they are at the heart of the Christmas story.
They say we saw his star when it rose and it come to worship him.
Man I love what this tells us about God.
Like, God is so cool, guys. Like I, I, I love this because
for this one unrepeatable moment in history, the God who rules
the heavens chooses to meet these pagans right where they're
looking. They are looking in the
completely wrong place for evidence of God's movement.
But God's like, I got you. I'm going to put a star up there
for you. What does this tell us about
God? Like God is someone who even
like, if you have the wrong theology, if you have the wrong
backgrounds, if you're not like the right kind of person or or
didn't grow up with that kind of pedigree, but you're earnest,
you're seeking God's like man. I, I delight to make myself
known. I love how rich the Lotus puts
it. He says we are not always
faithful in our waiting, but God is faithful in his coming.
It's not because we're like such good discerners or readers or
interpreters. And sometimes we get so hung up
trying to just get it right, don't we?
So focused and fixated on like, if I pray the prayer just that
way, if I make it sound like somebody else who like has the,
you know, the right vibe, they seem like they're really holy.
So like, let me try to be like them.
Thinking of a buddy who started praying in Australian for a
while because he was like watch too many Hillsong videos.
Like sometimes we do like we imitate, we imitate other people
were like, I got like, maybe if I get the formula just right,
then God will heal this person. Maybe God will answer my prayer.
Maybe it, you know, if I go to this place where there's some
magic, like maybe God will manifest and I'll have some kind
of experience. I don't think God cares about
the formula guys, but he cares a lot about your heart.
And this is good news for us, friends.
It's good news because I think it means that there is there is
hope for the excluded. There are hope for those who
maybe don't see themselves in the picture.
A little more than two decades ago, I was part of this church
that was really attempting kind of clums elite to reach their
neighbors. It was a small group, even
smaller than this one and you know, didn't have a lot of
traction in the community, but really cared and was trying to
get the word out. And one day somebody on staff
got a, a kind of a crazy idea. We were just throwing stuff at
the wall. They said, you know what, we're
going to make this flyer and we're going to send it out to
like every house, like within a mile radius.
And so they did. And the, and the flyer, it was a
cartoon. It was super goofy hand like
almost hand drawn, like something Andrew would do.
And this cartoon had this dude with like crazy hair and like
wild eyes looked a little bit like an orc or something.
I don't know. But you know, he's like all
harried and stressed out. And it said at the top, the
caption was, does your life need to be remodeled?
Of course, when you opened this little, this little brochure,
this little trap on the inside, it basically said, hey, there's
this Carpenter, his name is Jesus and he's specials in life
transformation. Like here's some information
about him. And if you want to hook up with
a bunch of people who are trying to like follow him, here's our
information about our church. It was it was cute.
It was like a kind of a cheeky ad that looked like it was for a
general contractor, but was really trying to get people to
come to church. It mostly didn't work.
I'm not sure why, but, you know, mostly people didn't come.
But I remember a a few weeks after the church sent out this,
you know, this, this brochure to people one Sunday, a worship
service in an auditorium, a lot like this.
Things were getting going. The first set was happening and
and then somebody kind of walked in through, through the side
door in the back, kind of sat down in the back.
And, you know, he didn't look good, right?
Looked like he had a rough day or week or few months.
His clothes were pretty worn and tattered, Smelled like he could
use a shower. My eye looked back and I
thought, I think this guy's probably unhoused.
But you know, we're happy to see him.
Glad he was there. And after the gathering ended,
the hospitality team does what hospitality teams do.
They're like going up and like, we're happy you're here.
You know, how did you find out about our church?
And as soon as they asked that question, tears started to well
up in his eyes. He said, I'm not, I'm not OK.
I'm not doing well. A few months ago, I lost
everything. And I've just been drinking like
crazy ever since. And honestly, I, I don't know
what there is to live for or, or, or whether there's any hope.
So a couple nights ago, I just decided I'm going to end it.
And there's this, there's this apartment building right near
where I live. It's, it's 16 stories tall.
And so I just waited until somebody opened the door and I
was able to get in. It's late at night and I, I
climb all the way up the elevator wasn't working.
Climb all the way up on the stairs and get to the top and
start to open the window. I'm feeling all the feelings,
but I'm, I'm ready to jump. And as I, as I take a step up to
the ledge, I noticed that there's something stuck on the
bottom of my shoe and I kind of kicked the ground, try to get
rid of it, but it wouldn't come off.
And so, and so I reached down and, and there was this flyer
that asked if my life needed to be remodeled.
And I read it and I came here because it does.
I think you guys saved my life. And, and I want to know about
Jesus, friends. Sometimes when people are
opening, God shows up. In the craziest places, not the
places that you would expect, not the places that you would
have planned, but the places where people are looking.
This is the opposite of that street light story.
You know, where the person is like looking for their change
under the street light. Maybe you've heard it and
somebody asks, you know, why, Why are you looking for whatever
you lost your ring or your change or whatever.
And he's like, well, it's light here.
And so I dropped it over there, but I'm looking here because I
can see here. It's a funny joke, but but the
reality of God is, it's almost like that God is like, if you're
looking over here, if you're genuinely looking, I'm going to
put a spotlight on it. I'm going to shine a light on it
because God wants to be seen. He wants to be known.
He wants to be received. Friends, where are we in the
story? Do we have eyes to see?
This is a question or a dynamic that Jesus talked a lot about in
his ministry, right? He said blessed are those who
have eyes to see and ears to hear.
He wasn't talking about like the visual or auditory faculties.
Jesus was talking about spiritual discernment.
He was talking about this dynamic that it is possible to
be in the right place at the right time, to have the truth
right in front of you and yet to miss it, look right by it
because we're not paying attention for that, which is
important. We went to the zoo yesterday
with my daughter and they're looking at these habitats and
there's this snake habitat. Man, I don't know, it's probably
me. Like, have you ever, you ever
been in these situations where it's like there's a box, it's
this big and you're like, where is this thing?
I swear it's in here somewhere. I like, but you're looking and
you're looking and you're looking and you're looking and
like, I cannot see it. And then like somebody who's on
staff, there's like, oh, it's right there.
See, I, I, I think sometimes this is the dynamic.
Like we, we don't have eyes to see.
We haven't, we haven't trained ourselves through paying
attention. And so even when God moves right
in front of us, like right here, we, we look past it, we miss it.
I honestly think if Jesus came back today, there'd be a lot of
very religious people, a lot of Christians, a lot of people who
know their Bible pretty well, a lot of people who are faithful
in church who would look more like the scribes or, or even
Herod honestly, than the magi. And this is what the story
challenges us to consider. Do not sit on your laurels.
Don't, don't, don't coast on previous spiritual experience
because of something that happened before.
God is with you. He's still moving today.
He wants to be known if we have eyes to see.
Simone Weil once wrote prayer consists of paying attention.
Prayer consists of paying attention, John Mark Comer says
in the end of your life in the end, your life is no more than
the sum of what you gave your attention to in the end, your
life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.
Friends, what is attention to what God is doing looks like for
us in this season. I mean, are we operating when we
actually inventory our life at Christmas in a hectic time from
a place when, when God brings a new thing into our life, where
honestly, we resist it because it's like we're anxious and it's
changing something and it's messing with my plans, so we
just push it aside? Are we so familiar with
Scripture because we've read it before that that when we pick up
the book, we're just like, ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know this. I read this before my brain
checks the box. I've already digested this
information, so I can just move on.
Are we coasting on past spiritual highs?
Are we there longing expectantly, looking for what
God might do? Friends, Jesus is still moving
if we are paying attention. I think it's ironic that even at
Christmas we can miss. Jesus, like every business in
the entire world, has found a way to turn this holiday, this
this holy day on which we celebrate the arrival of God to
a a backward peasant girl in, in a faraway kind of hillbilly
place in in an outside stable. Into this juggernaut of red and
green striped spectacle in which we need to shop and consume and
somehow make it magical through all of the all of the spending
and all of the activities and all of the costuming, the the
shopping, the spending, the scurrying, the Santa is so
amputated from the origin story that even atheists are jumping
in. Right.
And my complaint here is not with that, honestly, or, or even
with capitalism, although that's another complaint for another
day. There's criticism to be had.
My point is really that at this time of year that that that
celebrates and centers the one who we Orient our entire lives
around, how tragic it is for us to miss his presence because we
already know the story and, and there's a lot going on.
And so friends, as we enter this Christmas season with all of the
goodness and the joy and, and sometimes the heartache, the
sorrow, the tragedy, the longing which remains unfulfilled, I
want to invite us into an attentiveness, into a presence.
What if we were a people who in all the comparative gift buying
and the weird family dynamics and the social obligations and
you know, the budget crunches and all of that, the acts and
activities. What if we were people who are
characterized by a presence and attentiveness, a willingness to
just be in tune with what God was doing around us and what was
happening in the people in front of us?
What would it take for you to get there?
I imagine some of us would need to slow down.
We'd need to pause. We need to move a a a little bit
more cautiously to to even make space in our schedules to be
willing to be interrupted. But friends, if we did this, if
we didn't just notice the star, if we if we followed it this
Christmas, what magic might we uncover?
An experience, not just an old story that happened long ago,
but a vibrant fresh experience of the in breaking Kingdom, of
God, of the God who is with us, who is present here and now in
our lives and our families, in our neighborhoods, in, in the
school, in the city. What if we had eyes to see?
I want to invite you to this end, to a really simple practice
this morning. Some of you are familiar with a
breath prayer. A breath prayer is just a prayer
that you do while breathing. Pretty simple.
It tends to be very simple because you need to do it while
breathing something you can repeat.
So even right now in this moment, I'm going to invite us
into into this just super quick spiritual practice.
And I also by way of Christmas gifts, I want to give it to you
as a gift to take with you this Christmas to continue to
practice in those moments when like the anxiety is there or the
frustration or the the comparison, like, is my gift as
good as my my brothers is my, you know, like, did I bring the
right casserole to the thing? Like what if I say no to that,
that invitation that I got? As you wrestle with the dynamics
and the busyness of the season, I want to invite you into the
simple prayer. It goes like this.
As we inhale, we just remember, Christ, you are with me.
Breathe in and say it under your breath.
Christ, you are with me, and as we exhale we say together, give
me eyes to see. Let's do that a few more times.
Christ, you are with me, exhale, give me eyes to see.
Inhale. Christ, you are with me.
Exhale, give me eyes to see.