Sermon for Christmas Eve 2011

Old High St Stephen's, Inverness
Christmas Eve Watchnight Service at the Old High

Sermon
 

Matthew 2:1-12 is read

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

The Christmas stories are full of fascinating characters. Perhaps the most mysterious are the magi, these 'men who studied' whom we hear about it Matthew's Gospel tonight. Over 2,000 years of Christian history, they have been an endless source of speculation,
leading to ideas about them which is unwarranted by the Biblical account. For example: Matthew doesn't tell us how many of them there were. We assume three, because they brought three gifts- the famous gold, frankincense and myrrh. But there might have been two of them, or four of them- we simply don't know. Again, a tradition of later centuries makes them- mistakenly- kings. They weren't that, although they were probably men of high status. We call them wise men, and, indeed they may have been top advisors to kings. They certainly seem comfortable around the corridors of power, for they have no compunction in arriving at the royal palace of Jerusalem and asking where the new king is to be found. When he hears that they have arrived, King Herod himself wants to meet them.

They studied the stars, seeking knowledge, so we should call them astrologers- men who looked to the skies, searching for signs which would help them predict the future. Governments still employ people to try to predict the future for them- I heard the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility being interviewed the other day, struggling to predict what the future holds for the British economy- the statistics keep changing apparently, and there is too much uncertainty ahead. We try to tell the future through statistics and figures, but ancient people used the stars. That's not as crazy as it seems at first, for after all, our clocks are based on the movement of stars. Watching the stars was a good way to tell when to plant or harvest crops- why shouldn't the stars predict the arrival of a new king? The old astrologers learned much about the night sky, in many ways laying the foundations on which the modern science of astronomy would be based.

Today's astronomers are scientists, and no astronomer likes to be confused with those charlatans, the astrologers. For astronomy is respectable and serious, and astrology can easily be show to be nonsense. But back in Biblical times, astrologers were the respectable. Among their unscientific beliefs, they had acquired much practical knowledge, such as mathematics, upon which just about everything we have discovered since depends. They were custodians of the wisdom of the ages. So like today's economists, their predictions were valued by kings, for these were the experts, the technocrats, of their day.

The stars are all that these wise men have to go by, for they are gentiles, non-Jews. They don't know about the Biblical prophecy which says that the new king will be born in Bethlehem. But King Herod is willing to share that knowledge with them, and have them search out the new king on his behalf. And so off they go, on their quest to discover the truth.

It seems to me that one of the things which sets human beings apart is their insatiable curiosity. We want to know, to understand, to find what is hidden, to make sense of the mysterious. Sometimes we think that faith is opposed to that way of looking at things. Faith, we say, is believing in what we cannot see, or understand. Faith is about enjoying the mystery, putting trust in what is hidden. So will not science break all this down? Doesn't scientific curiosity stand opposed to simple faith? But into our Christmas story comes these early scientists, philosophers, advisors to kings and experts in their field. They have seen something unusual, and they are pursing it- a star leading them onwards. Just like today's scientists, they will not rest until they get to the bottom of they mystery. By introducing these nonbelievers, these Gentiles, these seekers after knowledge, the Bible seems to be affirming the scientific, the rational, the curious in human nature.

Today's stargazers have observatories full of complex equipment to aid them in their researches. We have even flown in space ourselves, and have flying observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope.
 

With our technology, we can look see into the deepest space, back into the earliest days of creation. Hubble has sent back breathtaking images of the deepest space, and given us clues to the very origins of the universe. But perhaps the most important pictures taken of outer space are those which look back home, to planet earth.

For we have been able to see our own planet as she is: a small blue sphere, harbouring life in a dark, cold universe. Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders said of the photographs which they took of earth from the moon, 'we came all this way to explore the Moon and the most important thing we discovered was the earth' (Haynes Apollo 11 Owners' Workshop Manual, p184). We have begun to realise what a wonderful, fragile, beautiful planet earth is: our island home, the only place we can live (unless we travel in cramped spaceships). And science is showing us how we have mistreated this home of ours, and science is helping us find ways of preserving this island home for future generations. We put everything we love in peril when we don't listen to today's wise men's best shot at predicting the future of this lovely planet.

At the other end of the scale, we are able to research and experiment, to reason and theorise and calculate, so that we can begin to understand the mind boggling complexity of matter at its smallest. Hardly a week seems to go by without some new discovery, from somewhere like the CERN particle accelerator in Geneva, of just how wondrous and complex creation really is.

 

And so we continue to seek, and to find. Sometimes the technocrats get it wrong, of course. The wise men sought the new king in the palace of Jerusalem. But the word of Scripture directed them elsewhere, to Bethlehem. How surprised they must have been to find the king had been born to a poor peasant couple in stable, and that the new king's subjects seemed to have no room for him. For sometimes, as we seek for knowledge and wisdom and truth, God will surprise us. 

The search for the new king led the Wise Men to Bethlehem. And then Matthew tells us, 'they returned to their country by another road, since God had warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod'. It is a tricky business, being an advisor to a king. For who knows what ends the king will put your advice to? King Herod was not to be trusted, as Matthew's Gospel tell us:

Matthew 2:13- 18 is read

The Christmas cards who Bethlehem silent, starlit, peaceful. But Matthew's Gospel leaves us with another image of Bethlehem- a Bethlehem where the streets run with blood, as a tyrant takes out his rage on innocents. The Christmas cards have got it wrong.

This is not a cosy story for children, but a story which is all too familiar, in the Middle East today and elsewhere throughout history. It is almost as if you cannot bring something new, good, holy, loving to birth without creating an equal an opposite reaction. In Luke's Gospel, Mary, Jesus' mother, sings of her God:

He has stretched out his mighty arm
and scattered the proud with all their plans.
He has brought down mighty kings from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away with empty hands.  (Luke 1.51-53)

Christmas is good news- but not for everyone. There will always be those, like Herod, for whom the arrival of God's justice is threatening. There will always be those who think there cannot be room for another king. Peace and justice is not universally welcomed.

So sometimes the technocrats need to meet the Galilean peasant family in the borrowed cow shed. Sometimes the experts need to know about what the results of their advice will be on the poorest in society. For God will always take the side of the downtrodden, the forgotten, the overlooked, the outcast. Here is the miracle of Christmas: that God comes, not to a royal palace, but to a stable behind an inn.
 
Ascription of Praise
Glory to God in highest heaven,
and on earth peace to all in whom God delights! Amen.

Luke 2.24

Biblical references from the Good News Bible
© 2011 Peter W Nimmo