Return to Sermon Index	We Saw His Star

Matthew 2:1-12

There are some profound lessons that we may learn from our scriptures for today. And, yet, these lessons are often ignored, especially as we read them during the secular season of Christmas. We miss these lessons because of the rush and hustle that is going on around us at this season of the year. We miss these lessons because of the so many other things, good, bad, or indifferent, that bombard our sensibilities. Yet, undeniably, there are significant teachings that we may easily miss in the story of the Three Wise Men, otherwise known as the Three Kings of the Orient.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons obtained is the perception that the message of God's love is for all the earth. Indeed, this is an important lesson. Certainly, many of us may have already assumed that this was true, but it is also surprising how many people think that the message of God's love is just for them and people like them.

For instance, in my years in the ministry, I have been amazed at how many people thought that Jesus spoke English and that the Bible was originally written in the English language. In fact, I've had several people tell me that the King James Version of the Bible was the only version of the Bible good enough to read, as though the King James Version of the Bible was the first version ever written. What these persons either forgot or just didn't know was that the first scriptures of the Bible were written hundreds of years before English, as we know it, was even spoken. And, even then, it was written in dialects of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic that are no longer even spoken today.

So, the point is that the Christian faith isn't the sole possession of Americans or English speaking people, any more than it belongs to any other nationality. And this we learn from our story of the Wise Men from the East.

At the time of Jesus' birth, many of the people of Israel believed that God was only concerned with Israel. They couldn't understand that God might have a desire to extend salvation to all the people of the world. They believed that if God was going to save a person, that person had to be Jewish. So, the story of the Wise Men from the East opens up a whole new chapter in the way God's people began to understand their faith and the very inclusive nature of God.

The Wise Men, after all, were from the East. They were astrologers, probably of the Zoroastrian religion. They knew about Judaism, they even incorporated many Jewish teachings in their own religion, but they were pagans as far as the Jewish people were concerned.

Yet, God reached out to these pagans through their own religion to reveal the coming of His Son to them. What is amazing is that the most precious thing that God ever brought about upon the planet earth, besides Creation, itself, was not only revealed to a young Jewish maiden and her husband, and to simple Jewish Shepherds and to two old people in the Temple in Jerusalem, but was revealed to pagans from outside Israel, as well.

Certainly, this should tell us something. It should make us think a bit, especially when some of us may think that all of our mission money should stay at home, rather than go abroad to countries far away. It should challenge our thinking, especially when we may think that God can only speak to us through those things that are familiar to us. And, it should challenge our thinking, especially when we are considering God's amazing power. For, just as he did for the Wise Men, God may be able to use even pagan religions in mysterious ways to lead persons to faith in Christ.

I was talking with a person, the other day, who told me that the only T.V. they ever watched was Christian T.V., that the only books they ever read were books by Christian authors, and that the only music they ever listened to was Christian music. In almost the same breath, this person criticized any Christian who might listen to non-Christian T.V., or read what they called "secular books", or listen to secular music. But, I had to wonder if perhaps this person wasn't limiting God's power to speak through the secular media, as well as the Christian media. I had to wonder if perhaps this person wasn't perhaps missing out on many other ways that God may be using to speak to the world. Certainly, if God used a pagan religion, and pagan astrology to reach out to the Magi, doesn't God work in the same mysterious way, today?

But, there is something else for us to consider. The Magi had to go a long way to find the Christ. They had to leave the comfort of their homes and give up possessions to find the King of kings and Lord of lords. The order of life, that most of us treasure, had to be put aside by the Magi in their search for the Son of God. In following the leading of the Spirit, for the sake of their own spiritual growth, they had to put aside business as usual.

I wonder how many of us would be willing to that. What if, for instance, the Spirit told us that, as a church, we were going to have a month of worship services that were going to last an hour and a half, rather than just one hour. Certainly, such a turn of events would be a challenge to those of us who insist upon business as usual and who are uncomfortable with changes.

Or suppose God wanted us to spend the next few weeks learning some of the hymns in the hymnal that we had never sung before. None of us can deny that this is something that would challenge, not only our singing ability, but also those of us who think that the quality of our Christian faith pivots upon our use of the familiar, rather than upon the untried and unknown.

Sometimes I wonder how many Christians would have made good Wise Men. So many Christians resist venturing forth into the unknown that it is a wonder that the Church is able to continue, at all. Indeed, as one Christian leader has put it, the words, "We never did it that way before!" are the last words of a dying church, not of a church that seeks to go on into the future. The wisdom of the wise men, wasn't that they knew so much about their own faith and ways of the world. Rather, the wisdom of the wise men was their willingness to venture out into the unknown, to try new things, to listen to the voice of God's Spirit beckoning to them from the unseen reaches of the unfamiliar.

Unfortunately, many Christians look at the unforeseen and unfamiliar events of life and call them problems. Given the option of trying something new and different, many persons can only count the reasons why they shouldn't do it. Many persons can only see how inconvenient or disruptive something like this may be.

But, if we are going to be like the Wise Men, we need to be able to envision the opportunities. We need to be able to see how God may, indeed, be in that new thing God may be calling us to do.

The Wise Men looked up and saw the star. They could have stayed home. They could have been indifferent. They could have listed all the good reasons for never venturing out. But, they didn't. Instead, they ventured forth and found the Christ.

Sometimes God uses new and untried things to help us in our spiritual growth, to get us moving, to lead us to Christ. How wise we are to make use of the opportunity when we see His star. Amen.