{"id":474,"date":"2017-01-04T08:40:25","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T13:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=474"},"modified":"2017-02-21T09:04:19","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T14:04:19","slug":"gifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2017\/01\/04\/gifting\/","title":{"rendered":"Gifting"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Gifting<\/h1>\n<h3>Click Below to Hear the Sermon Preached<\/h3>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-474-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/gifting.m4a?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/gifting.m4a\">https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/gifting.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n<h2>A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY<br \/>\nby Rev. James Eaton, Pastor<br \/>\nEpiphany Sunday\/A \u2022 January 1, 2017<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=350536746\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 2:1-12<\/a><\/h2>\n<h3>Falling in Love<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cWhen you meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start right now.\u201d That\u2019s how the movie <em>When Harry Met Sally<\/em> ends. It\u2019s less a love story than a friendship story: two college graduates move to New York city, have an off and on relationship, marry, divorce, live and finally discover they\u2019ve fallen in love. I suppose many of us here have a story of falling in love. For years I\u2019ve been trying to understand the beginning of Matthew\u2019s gospel and what I\u2019ve come to believe is this: it\u2019s his story of falling in love, of how he came to give his life to Jesus, to make his life about the life of Jesus, to let Jesus live in him. Now in everyone\u2019s story, the hardest part of all is to explain why this person, out of all the people in the world, all the people in your life, is the one.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew\u2019s gospel starts with two stories about Jesus meant to explain this. We\u2019re going to be living with Matthew\u2019s gospel throughout this year, so first we need to understand that it wasn\u2019t written for us. We\u2019re reading someone else\u2019s mail. This is a gospel account meant for Jewish Christians and Gentiles who are trying to understand how Jesus fits in the history of God\u2019s love. So Matthew uses pictures both audiences will understand. <\/p>\n<p>First, he gives us a long genealogy of Jesus. There are still places where the important question is not who you are but who your people are. This is who Jesus\u2019 people are. There\u2019s Abraham, first person of God\u2019s work in history, Isaac and Judah: this is a family story and these are great great something parents. This is a family that is fully and completely Jewish. But there are Gentiles in the story too: Ruth, the Moabite woman who became the ancestor of David. David is there too: one of Jesus\u2019 family. Fourteen generations to the great time of exile; fourteen more since, right down to Joseph. If you are Jewish, this tells you exactly who Jesus is, from Abraham to David to Joseph, and then of course Matthew tells us the story of Joseph and Mary and Jesus\u2019 birth.<\/p>\n<p>Now he turns from the Jewish audience to Gentiles, to us. We may not know the whole family history; we\u2019re new in the neighborhood. So he tells us a funny, ironic, story about how Gentiles came to recognize and celebrate Jesus, just as we have done. He tells us about the most amazing baby shower ever.<\/p>\n<h3>King Herod<\/h3>\n<p>This is a comic story, if we understand it. Let\u2019s start with someone who isn\u2019t in the Nativity scene: King Herod. Herod was a leader of one faction of Jews during the Roman civil war. He got his position partly because Judah\u2014Palestine\u2014was so insignificant. He backed the wrong guy but was left in office anyway. It was a kind of gift; part of the defeated forces of Mark Antony, he went to the victorious Octavian, prostrated himself, begged for mercy and got it. He was good at pursuing Roman interests and procuring Roman taxes but his one goal is simply to stay in power. Herod represents one way of approaching the world. He sees it as a pyramid and he\u2019s always scrambling to be on top. Along the way, of course, he\u2019s made compromises and he\u2019s been ruthless. He\u2019s also done some showy things; he rebuilds the temple and gives part of it a covering of gold, he builds a fortress nearby. He is King of the Jews but he knows that his position is never secure. He isn\u2019t part of David\u2019s line; his power is based on threats and violence.<\/p>\n<h3>The Wise Ones<\/h3>\n<p>So imagine the impact of having some experts from another country show up and explain that they have evidence a new King of the Jews has been born. They want directions to his birth place and they assume everyone will know about this in the capital. Herd isn\u2019t just surprised; he\u2019s afraid. It\u2019s one thing to stand up to all the humans claiming his throne but how to take on a divine appointment? He meets with his own advisors and finally they send these experts on their way to Bethlehem. He has them followed; he tells them to come back. Meanwhile, he plots murder. To him, the birth of this new King of the Jews is a threat.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s imagine these \u201cWise Men\u201d. Since the text doesn\u2019t actually call them men, I\u2019m going to go with a more modern translation and call them sages. These are the first century equivalent of the people you see on CNN, the talking heads, the experts. They\u2019re from \u201cthe East\u201d. Now what we may not know is that in this context \u201cthe east\u201d means the older civilizations in what is now Iran and Iraq, the Persians, Babylonians and others. These all had a rich tradition in which divinity often came in human form. They believed god was often revealed in a person. And they watched for signs of such people. So the story starts with this: some eastern experts have seen a sign in the part of the sky called \u201cthe house of the Hebrews\u201d, which leads them to Judah. They are Gentiles; they don\u2019t know much about this place and they don\u2019t have a gps, so they do the logical thing, they go to the King of the Jews, Herod, sometimes called Herod the Great.<\/p>\n<h3>Gentiles Coming to Jesus<\/h3>\n<p>This is shocking, in a way. Jews always assumed the messiah would be Jewish; and so he is. But who knows about him? Who looks for him? Who seeks him? Not the priests in the temple, not the King of the Jews, Herod, but these gentiles. From far away, from the distant East, they see the world changing; they recognize the signs that God is doing something new and wonderful. They pack up, buy tickets on a caravan and go. Isn\u2019t this remarkable? <\/p>\n<p>We all know about excuses for not going to church. It\u2019s snowing, it\u2019s too hot, it\u2019s been a busy week, someone said something last Sunday that annoyed me. These sages represent the other side: outsiders who instead of looking for excuses, look for reasons to go. And the reason is the light of a star, a symbol of God\u2019s love. It\u2019s not an easy journey; it would have taken them weeks to get there. When they do get to Jerusalem, they must have sensed the underlying hostility at the court of Herod. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s interesting that in the whole story, we don\u2019t hear of them doing what is almost always done when you meet a king: giving gifts. They have gifts with them; they see no reason to give them to Herod.<\/p>\n<h3>Gifts for a king<\/h3>\n<p>They find Jesus eventually, they give him gifts that have been the cue to imagine all sorts of things over the years. What\u2019s clear about the gifts is that they are useless to babies and new parents. Honestly, who gives a new mother frankincense? Who brings myrrh to a shower? These people live in a rather stinky time period; frankincense at least puts a nice perfume over it. Myrrh is used to prepare bodies for burial; it\u2019s rare and costly. God, that would have been the most useful of all, I suppose. These gifts don\u2019t have individual points, despite all the imagining over the years. <\/p>\n<p>But taken together, they are the sort of thing you give a king. They are a recognition that Jesus is indeed the real King of the Jews, that he is the chosen one of God, just as David was, just as Abraham was. These aren\u2019t gifts you give a baby: they are gifts you give royalty. These aren\u2019t gifts to use; they are gifts that say, \u201cYour majesty\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why Herod wanted them to come back; he\u2019s afraid that\u2019s exactly what the child will evoke. He\u2019s afraid of the competition because in the world of Herod, then and now, there is only one top person. Everything is a pyramid and the ones at the top are always trying to climb higher; that\u2019s how they got there in the first place. Herod is afraid. That\u2019s the true comedy of this story. Look at Herod in his palace, with his army, his priests, the whole religious establishment\u2014look at Jesus in his manger, nothing but a baby with poor parents. But there in the stable, there is love: God\u2019s love, flowing out, lighting the world. The star is a symbol. Stars are only seen at night, in darkness. John will say later, \u201c[His] life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.\u201d It\u2019s so obvious, so clear, that the wise ones know who to give their gifts to. Think of it: they brought the gifts all the way from the East. They met with Herod. But they didn\u2019t give the gifts to Herod. Now, in the presence of Jesus, they do. They give their gifts.<\/p>\n<h3>God offers life<\/h3>\n<p>Herod\u2019s power is real. But God\u2019s power is deeper. The wise ones are warned in a dream, just as Joseph was; they go home a different way, perhaps with tales of what they\u2019ve seen. By the time Herod\u2019s troops get to Bethlehem, Jesus, the real king of the Jews is gone. Babies are murdered anyway; that\u2019s what kings like Herod do, their ultimate threat is death. But God\u2019s ultimate offer is life and in Jesus, he\u2019s offering it to all of us, giving it away, gifting us, just as the wise ones gifted Jesus.<br \/>\nThis is a story about falling in love. <\/p>\n<p>This is a story about the day you recognize Jesus for who he really is. This is a story for everyone who has or will ever come to Jesus, see who he is and respond by giving their own gifts. We are at the beginning of a new year. So it\u2019s a good time to ask: what gift are we bringing? What gift can we give? Can we, like the wise ones there, reach over the boundaries of Jew and Gentile, male and female, and all the others and see that the only thing that matters is this: in Him is the light of all people; in him is the gift of God\u2019s love. Receiving it, what can we do but give the gift of our own lives?<\/p>\n<p>Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gifting Click Below to Hear the Sermon Preached A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY by Rev. James Eaton, Pastor Epiphany Sunday\/A \u2022 January 1, 2017 Matthew 2:1-12 Falling in Love \u201cWhen you meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,39,3,2,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epiphany","category-exegesis","category-sermon","category-worship","category-year-a"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":475,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}