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Matthew 2:1-12 There’s a movie out in theatres right now called Borat. I haven’t seen it yet, and I’ve actually heard its not worth going to see, but it has already created some controversy. The movie itself is part scripted and part unscripted. Borat goes across America interviewing people and getting their reactions to different pranks and things, kind of like Candid Camera used to do. Anyway, just after the movie was released, Sasha Baron Cohen, the creator of Borat was actually sued by two of the people that he caught on film. Two fraternity boys they filmed were evidently fulfilling all the stereotypes of fraternity boys by engaging in public drunkenness when they made all kinds of filthy and bigoted remarks on tape. They sued Cohen because they said that really wasn’t what they were all about. They say that they wouldn’t have said those things if they hadn’t been drunk at the time. It seems that alcohol revealed a part of themselves that they didn’t want the rest of the world to see. This also happened to Mel Gibson a couple months ago. He was driving drunk, got pulled over and started spewing anti-Semitic remarks at the police officers. Unfortunately, we all have moments in our lives that reveal a little bit of the truth of who we are and what we are about. Like in these examples, sometimes these moments involve alcohol, but they don’t have to. And they don’t always have to reveal the worst in us either. Today’s gospel story is just one of those truth-revealing moments for the main characters - King Herod and the Magi. Now, normally, when I write a sermon, I like to focus on what it is that God is doing, what God is up to, but if you notice, in this familiar story, God isn’t very active at all. In fact, Jesus is barely mentioned in this story of the Magi, and when he is mentioned, he doesn’t do anything. Neither does Mary. This is an unusual gospel story for that reason. However, even though Jesus isn’t very active, he is still the most important part of the story. His birth, his presence in the world, his coming into creation as a human being forms the entire context for the story and the mere fact that he exists is what causes the other main characters to reveal their true colors. He is the light that shines into the darkness and the true essence of the other characters is revealed with stunning clarity. Look at King Herod the Great. He was known as Herod the Great because he was king over all of Judea. He had been appointed to the position by Caesar himself and he had won a lot of important battles. He had saved Jerusalem from invasion on a number of occasions. And during a drought, he made a sweet deal with Egypt for some grain and actually set up a very fruitful welfare aid program. In other words, Herod was a pretty powerful guy, yet like with Mel Gibson, in one revealing moment, his true colors were revealed. The Magi, these guys from the East, came knocking on his door asking him where the new king was to be born. New king? The next king was supposed to be his own son, not some obscure carpenter’s son. Herod’s power turned to fear. His confidence turned to insecurity. His good deeds were erased by his true evil. Just the thought of this little baby, born to some peasants in the little town of Bethlehem, was enough to reveal who this great king really was. His paranoia got the better of him and he massacred hundreds of young boys, just because they happened to be born at the wrong time in the wrong place. Instead of being known as a great king, Herod is now best remembered for slaughtering those innocent children. What about the Magi? What did the little baby reveal about them? Well, first of all, they must’ve had an incredible amount of openness and curiosity. They were all willing to leave their homes, travel to a foreign land, just to follow a star and to find out what it was all about. And when they finally found the object of their affection, they weren’t discouraged or dismayed that it was just an ordinary little baby. They still showed him the honor he deserved and showered him with lavish gifts. The second thing that this little baby revealed about the Magi is that they weren’t as dumb as they looked. Herod must’ve thought they were real dopes, but they outsmarted him by going home a different way. So this brings us to the question for us today…what does the birth of Jesus reveal about you? I heard some radio DJs talking this week about when you should take down your Christmas tree. A couple of them still had their trees up and they talking about how they just hadn’t had time yet to take the decorations down, and then one of them made a revealing comment about his attitude toward Christmas. He said that he had already taken his tree down because he was ready for something different, ready for whatever’s next. I thought, “Oh, that’s nice. Let’s see…family has come and gone – check. We’ve unwrapped the presents – check. Savior of the world has been born – check. Alright, time to move on and pay some bills. What’s next?” How sad. Now, I’m not criticizing people for having taken down their tree – the traditional time to take down a Christmas tree is sometime after the day of Epiphany which was yesterday – but I think his words revealed a lot about what he believes about Christmas – it’s just one thing to check off the list. The fact that Jesus has been born, that God has come to be WITH us, that this child will one day go to the cross so that we might be saved – these are things that confront us and force us to reveal something about ourselves. We live in the same context as King Herod & the Magi. Jesus has entered our lives and our reaction to his presence reveals who we really are. The truth about us is revealed through our words, through our actions, and through our decisions. Are we with him or are we against him? We all have a little Herod in us – fearful, insecure, and even evil. And thanks to the Holy Spirit, we all have a little Magi in us also – open, curious, and faithful. A good question for all of us to ask ourselves is this, which part of me is being revealed to the world – the Herod part or the Magi part? And this is a question we must answer as a congregation and as individuals. You’ve probably noticed the white paper banners on the walls, many of them filled with post-it notes. They’re kind of hard to miss. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to read about them with the blue insert in the weekly. These post-its are the results of the questions that the congregation answered during one of my sermons back in November. The Transformation Team is using these notes to create our congregation’s guiding principles and they reveal to us what is most important to this congregation as a whole. I’m very encouraged that that the things at the top of the list include love, kindness, faith, Christian living, Lutheran heritage, and valuing everyone. These guiding principles, along with our mission statement reveal our true colors as a congregation and who we are as Hope Lutheran Church. My final story is an example of how this can be answered as individuals. I had the exact same conversation at two different times with two different people this week. Both people I talked to are fairly new members and I won’t use their names because I don’t want to embarrass them, but what they shared with me revealed a lot about who they are and what’s important to them. I was talking with both of them about becoming Stephen Ministers and toward the end of the conversation, I mentioned to them that we are also going to be starting small groups in a couple of months. I was just trying to throw out a feeler to see if they might be interested in leading small groups instead, when both of them replied with almost the exact same words. They both told me that small groups had played an important part of their own faith development, that they love to study the Bible in small groups, and when they and their husbands moved to St. Charles recently, they were looking to buy a house specifically with the idea of hosting a small group in their homes. Both conversations gave me chills, because not only had I found some great small group leaders, but because of what their house-buying decisions revealed about them. These were two very faithful women who have a love of Jesus, the Bible, and learning through small group Bible study. The decisions we all make, the things we all say, and the way that we conduct ourselves let the world know if we’re with Jesus or we’re against him, if we’re Herods or if we’re Magi. There really is very little in between.
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