My farewell sermon to my placement church, St Matthew's Stretford, which I preached at yesterday's Epiphany service.
If you were told you were going to meet a very important person what would your expectations be? I must admit I’ve not met many VIPs but I got quite excited when I was little to hear that my dad had met the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, at the Royal Agricultural Show, and presented her with his latest book on Massey Fergusson tractors. I don’t know about Mrs Thatcher’s experiences of meeting my dad but I was very interested to hear what his experiences of meeting this important person were. His measured reply was “shorter than I expected”.
It’s true that we probably have our own ideas about what important people will be like, or should be like, and we probably have some very definite ideas about royalty, as did the wise men in our gospel reading.
They know the child has been born in Bethlehem but that’s not where they go to first. They enter Matthew’s narrative by turning up at the palace in Jerusalem, expecting that’s where the King of the Jews will now be, as that’s where he ought to be.
They don’t find a new born king in Jerusalem but Herod and with him the important temple officials. The dominant emotion their presence evokes there is fear. Kate talked about fear on Christmas day, how so many characters in the Christmas story experienced fear but overcame it to achieve The purpose God had for them, but that’s not what we see with Herod. In Herod we see what happens when fear is allowed to dominate.
Herod lived a life in the shadow of fear. It lead him to kill his wife whose unfaithfulness he feared, 3 of his sons who he feared would usurp him, and to call for the murder of innocent boys in an attempt to destroy the infant Jesus who he also feared threatened his position. Herod let fear dominate his actions and it lead to his downfall as he was tormented by taking the lives of those he had loved.
I wonder what the wise men knew of Herod and his reputation? Did they believe him when he said he wanted to pay homage to the child? Did they leave the palace in fear of what Herod might do to them if they didn’t return with the information he requested? And how, when they left, did they feel about not finding the King of the Jews in the king’s palace as they expected?
So they journey on to Bethlehem, still guided by the light of the star, and when they find Jesus what they experience is an outpouring of joy. They fall to their knees and worship Jesus as the king they’ve searched for. They don’t question his humble surroundings in a small town. They didn’t find the King of the Jews in the Jerusalem palace but a more modest dwelling. Although it wasn’t what they expected there’s no hesitation.
Whatever their motivation for travelling so far to honour this king they now must surely realise this is a king like no other. They’ve experienced 2 kings- Herod in his Palace surrounded by fear, and Jesus in lowlier circumstances, surrounded by love, a love that must radiate out so completely to convince these men of wisdom that this is the king they’ve searched for, despite their expectations.
I think that like the wise men what we expect of Jesus and what we experience of Him can be very surprising. We might expect to experience him in church, but I find him frequently in the hospital rooms of frightened cancer patients. We might expect to find him in our fellow Christians, but I often see him working through my friends who claim to have no faith.
If you were to think about your week, or about your experiences over Christmas, where have you seen Jesus at work? Where have you been surprised to see him? How has he altered or changed your expectations of who he is or where he is?
I think the key to knowing where Jesus is, like in the gospel reading, is to look to where the love is- to put our expectations aside and live to simply experience Jesus as he is, not how we would wish him to be; wherever he might be, whoever he’s working through. If we open our hearts to the endless love and possibilities that God offers us, our God who exceeds any expectations we may have, we may find that we can experience him in all places and in all people.
