No ScriptureTo view, this service you can follow the link to our Facebook page: Sunday, January 9th Worship Service
Good morning, good morning! My name’s Leroy Barber - I’m
the Director of Innovation for an Engaged Church in the Greater
Northwest Area of the United Methodist Church. It is good to be
here this morning. It has been a wonderful, wonderful weekend
where we celebrated Christ! We celebrated Christmas and I pray
that that has gone well for you and your family.
Here we are the day after Christmas, though. It’s an interesting
day, right? And maybe, I want to spend a little time today examining
after the birth of Christ. What was the road? What did it feel like?
Let’s use our imaginations a little bit this morning as we dive into
scripture and try to get the feeling after the euphoria, right?
Kinda like where we are right now today! Did you eat a lot
yesterday? Did you hang with family? Any of those kinds of things?
Your family might be leaving today so the euphoria has happened,
and now, what do we do? It’s maybe what some may have felt after
the birth of Christ.
I’d like to start with a scripture out of Matthew 2:1-12:
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child
who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its
rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard
this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling
together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of
them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem
of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them
the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to
Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when
you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him
homage.” When they had heard the king, they set out; and there,
ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it
stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the
star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the
house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down
and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they
offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been
warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own
country by another road.
So, we know, we celebrate Epiphany later on but I think it
starts, the path to Epiphany starts right away, right? So, all this is
going on but there are stars in the sky, people worshiping, right?
Shepherds have come to worship and all kinds of wonderful
happenings around Jesus and the birth of Jesus, similar to what we
celebrate. Then it says these Magi, they see the star, they hear about
it, and they are going to head to worship Jesus, right? To worship
this new king that has been prophesied.
The problem is Herod hears about this. Herod calls them and
finds out the story. Herod calls all these folks together: “What does
this scripture say? What has been prophesied? I want to know,
right?” So, he finds out, and then he plots.
I find it interesting that right after the birth of Jesus, we begin
to see what Jesus really represents in the world and that wasn’t
“good news” to Herod. We know that the birth of Christ, we know
that a life following Jesus, we know that this isn’t always good news
for everyone. The idea of that started right away! Herod didn’t
think this was good news - Herod saw his power going away. Herod
was offended by this, it says. He became angry and right away
begins to plot against Jesus.
So, one could say that the day after this celebration, all hell
broke loose, right? That this plot to kill Jesus, that would happen at
the cross 33 years later begins almost right away. Here’s the first
evil that happened right after that: “When they had gone, the Magi
and the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream: ‘Get up’ he said, ‘take
the child and his mother to escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you
for Herod is going to’”… do…what? Search for the child and kill him,
right?
So right away, whatever power Herod had, he saw a threat and
the threat was Jesus. Jesus simply becomes a threat by becoming
the Light of World incarnate - by showing up. Simply showing up as
a light in the world to present that against the darkness of the world
caused havoc and many children lose their lives. Right after the
celebration.
So, how does this apply to us? What is this mean? So, we know
that Jesus was born in Bethlehem but raised in Nazareth and he had
to go to Nazareth to flee from being killed. His parents had to move
instantly. What does this mean for us? How do we take in the
celebration of a season that we love? How do we celebrate Jesus?
How do we stay in the space of joy and peace and love and grace and
wonder and those things? How do we live those out after, after we
celebrate, after the holiday, after Christmas is over? How do we feel
today when we’re back in it? When family is going to go back if they
visited you? When the meals are over, right? After the gifts have
been opened - here we are, right? Back in our lives.
I want to go through a couple things fairly quickly. One, we
know that Jesus came to preach good news. And represented that
good news and perhaps, today, we begin to think about how we
preach the good news that we celebrated. The idea of love and grace
and dignity for all people - how does that begin to live out?
Jesus said this: “I didn’t come to condemn the world. That isn’t
my job! I came to bring LIFE!” How do we bring life today after we
celebrate the Risen King? Jesus comes that we might bring life and a
new way of living, right? And we know after Jesus becomes of age,
he begins to live it out differently. This is why he has dinner at
Matthew’s house, right! “Hey, Matthew! We’re gonna eat at your
place tonight!” That idea of light in the world bringing new ways to
live could be preached out in us.
What if we all begin to walk this sermon - even if you’re not a
preacher! I’m using that word, but I mean it in a sense of how we
begin to walk this sermon, this practical example of who Jesus is in
the world in the midst of the society around us the day after we
celebrate. We go out and we preach the celebration with our lives!
The second thing that Jesus does here is this idea that Jesus
brings protest against injustice, right? And we know this as Jesus
speaks, as he confronts the injustices of the world. We see it later in
his life as he turns over tables, as he lifts the idea of loving our
enemies that these things begin a protest of the darkness if you will.
Light has come! How do you and I in the midst of a celebration, at
the end of a celebration, take the idea of that our, our work, and our
lives are a protest of the darkness around us? That we go after
injustice in all of its forms? And we speak out, we confront, we
overturn tables…what does that look like on this day?
The injustices worked out is my next point - how do we plan
this? What does this look like? And a big way we look at it is we
plan to make things right! We preach things by living it out, by
walking these sermons, we protest injustice, and then we plan to
make things right.
Jesus walks this out - the ideas when he talks about “hey, I’ve
gotta go to Samaria” and he talks to the Canaanite woman and all of
these kinds of things. Jesus is planning to make things right where
they are not.
What comes to mind is diversity and equity and inclusion and
of these things that sit with us all year long after we celebrate the
wonders of Christmas. What is your plan to walk it out? How do we
make things right in the world knowing that darkness and power
will come against that work? And yet we forge on with this idea to
represent diversity, to represent equity, to represent inclusion in all
of its ways.
And then what is our practice? And our practice is simple,
right? That we’re going to love our neighbors. That we’re going to
love others as we love ourselves. That we’re going to treat other
people the ways that we want to be treated. That after the
celebration, here are these four things I present to you.
Let’s preach the gospel in all of its forms - in its love and its
grace and its dignity for all people. Let’s protest the injustice in the
world around us by speaking out and confronting it and overturning
tables. Let’s plan to make things right. And the practicals of the
work of diversity and equity and inclusion. And then let’s live it
contextually close - let’s love those around us. Let’s love our
neighbors as we love ourselves. Let’s treat others the way we want
to be treated.
There’s great stuff worth celebrating today! We’ve had
(hopefully) a wonderful week and as we move quickly after
Christmas, after the celebration of the birth of Jesus, let’s let our
work be what speaks for us in the world. Amen. God bless you!
Enjoy the rest of your holiday!
Sunday morning parking at the church is available in the high school parking lot on Third Street across from the church and in the city lots west of the church. These lots are available only on Sunday mornings. A small lot for handicapped parking is available just off of Adams Street on the north side of the church, with an accessible entrance directly into the sanctuary. A lift operates between the Fellowship Hall (3rd Street level) and the Sanctuary. William Sound System Receivers and Headsets are available to assist with hearing problems.
The First United Methodist Church of Moscow, Idaho takes as our mission to be the body of Jesus Christ, ministering to a community which draws strength from its diversity. Our mission centers on the worship of God, expressed through varied forms of prayer, preaching, music, and ritual. See more...