Sermon Tone Analysis

Christmas is Over—or Is It?

If I say January 6, what does that bring to mind?

(Capitol riots/insurrection—right for US history but wrong for Church history.)

January 6 is the day we celebrate the coming of the wise men to see Jesus in his house in Bethlehem.

(No, the wise men did NOT come to see Jesus in the manger.

That was the shepherds.)

On the same liturgical calendar that tells us when Advent begins, and when Christmas Day arrives, today is the Second Sunday after Christmas.

We don’t always get two Christmas Sundays.

That’s because the Day of the Epiphany, the celebration of when the wise men see Jesus, ends the Christmas season, and we are in Epiphany until the first Sunday of Lent.

The twelve days of Christmas start on December 25 and end on January 5. So, if Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, there is only one Sunday after Christmas.

That also means that this year, since since our next Sunday is after January 6, we celebrated Christmas again with songs about the wise men

Keep up your Christmas celebrations.

according to the song, including today, you still have to account for 8 milking maids, 9 dancing ladies, 10 leaping Lords, 11 pipers and 12 drummers.

So better get busy.

But today, we are thinking about seeking the Savior.

In the whole scheme of our celebration of Christmas, this is the one thing that will truly make a difference in our lives, for now and forever.

>>>So, our story has its start. . .

A Long Time Ago In A land Far, Far Away...

No Star Wars music here, that was about Galaxies, not lands.

Think for a minute about being an astrologer in an ancient land.

Astrology has at its roots the timing of the seasons and taking care of planting and harvest for agricultural success.

We discover early on in life that, for most of us who have not lived on or south of the equator, there is less sunshine in the winter and more heat in the summer.

Depending on where you live, the rains for crops may come in early spring and again in the fall.

You need to plant in ground that is about to get rain or that is not too wet to plant.

And there needs to be enough time for the crop to ripen and be harvested

These are the things that led humans to look to the stars.

They discovered that just as the sun rises and sets every day, and the moon follows a 28-day movement as it goes from dark to full every four weeks, certain lights in the night move through the skies at different times of the year.

So early astrologers were really more like weathermen, or almanac writers.

Looking to the skies all the time, and paying attentions to were these small lights were, showed that there were groups of stars that move together and some regular lights that moved at different speeds, sometimes in the wrong direction.

Today we call those the planets.

But also, there were the occasional lights with tails, which are the comets.

Some of these keep coming back.

And then there is the amazing phenomena of a nova or supernova, when a star explodes, an event that shows an extra-bright light in the night.

Both comets and novas can sometimes be bright enough to be seen in the daytime as well as night, A nova may last for minutes, hours, day or a week or more, but a comet can be visible for months.

If you are an astrologer, you are looking for the positions of the groups of stars, the planet’s movements, an the cycles of the moon and the times when there will be a solar or lunar eclipse.

But once in a while a nova or a comet appears.

And these lights in the night must mean something.

>>>So with that knowledge in our brains, we go to the story of the Magi, or the Wise Men, in the birth stories of Jesus.

It’s in Matthew Chapter 2.

Ah, this is how we know they were astrologers.

They saw the star, the light in the night sky, or maybe even so bright you could see it in the daytime, and this meant something to them.

The Bible names them Magi, which is a word from which we get magician, mostly because their science and knowledge was kind of a mystery to most.

We call them wise men, because that is another way of thinking of them, for they were probably among the smarted and most studied people in the ancient world.

And by the way, the Bible NEVER says there are 3 wise ment.

We only know there were more than one, for the word is plural.

>>>These

Wise Men Were Seeking The King From the Heavens

which from ancient books they had around they believed was for the Jewish people.

Naturally they thought the palace in Jerusalem was the place to look, and the King of Judea should be able to answer their quest by pointing him out.

But Herod, barely Jewish and placed in office not by roots in a royal dynasty but by the graces of Augustus Caesar had no clue who they were looking for.

And this ruthless man who had murdered many of his own family so he would not have competition, surely didn’t think this was good news.

>>>King Herod the Great builder of the temple and so many other monuments, wanted to know what was going on,

Now, this was not news to the students of the Bible that were among them.

So with little delay, they were able to say,

This was the information that the wise men needed to know.

Where do we find the new-born King of the Jews.

The answer was Bethlehem, just a few miles outside of Jerusalem.

>>>Excited at the thought of finishing their quest, I’m sure they could barely contain themselves.

>>>Even though Herod may have thought it was a stupid search, he told them to report back about the child.

then, . . .

They had spent many months, and much of their wealth to take this quest.

>>>And in honor of the king they would find, they did not come empty handed.

The Wise Men Came With Gifts for the King

When they were at the house that somehow the star in the sky had picked out for them, they stopped at the door and asked if there was a child here, born with a special story.

>>>And the answer was yes!

They brought from their wealth to honor the King from the Heavens.

This is why we still give gifts at Christmas time, and why we collect your special gifts as an offering in honor of Christ during this season.

The gifts reflect the role of Jesus the Christ of God.

Gold for a king, Frankincense for a priest, and myrrh for a burial.

>>>Not only did these gifts point to the roles of Jesus, but they also bankrolled what would happen next for his family.

The excitement was over.

The wise men had found Jesus the Christ then heard from God that night and left the country.

That’s when we read,

So this young family with small resources received all they needed to finance a trip to Egypt, find a home, and live and work until it was safe to come back.

God is SO GOOD.

Our real story today is not about Herod, or the Wise Men, but about why we need Jesus.

>>>So lets now move away from Bethlehem and all the things there and think about . . .

Why We Still Seek the Savior

There were a couple people in Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth that were also looking for the Christ of God, their savior.

Neither one of these were just youth.

In fact, both had a lot of birthdays already.

No doubt they were familiar with these passages about seeking God patiently from Psalm 27:7-8

These two were seeking the Lord, wanting to be close enough to him to know his pleasure, close enough to feel his holiness.

And I think they were faithfully sure that they would see what they were looking for, as Psalm 27:13-14 says:

For we read in Luke’s story about a man named Simeon and a woman named Anna.

Two Seekers See the Savior

It was time for the new-born Jesus to be brought to the temple with an offering.

>>>For every first-born is to be dedicated to God:

And this is when some magic happened, first for Simeon, about whom the scripture says,

Well guess what happened on this day?

Most of you already know that the Bible says,

Simeon’s quest had ended, God’s promise to him was answered, and he saw the Lord’s Salvation, for just for the Jews but for all people.

>>>And shortly after that, we read. . .

Another seeker sees the Savior!

And there was praise to God and telling the story of what God was doing through a small child from an other-wise unimportant family from the backwaters of Galilee.

The important reason why we still seek the Savior is that

Most of Us Haven’t Truly Seen the Savior

which may sound a little harsh, but hear me out on this.

Most of us grew up in Christian homes.

We have been in church since we were little and can hardly even think about doing anything else on a Sunday morning but be here, in church, singing the songs and hearing the Bible stories about what God does for us.