The Child That Changed The World
Sermon
A God For This World
Gospel Sermons For Advent/Christmas/Epiphany
Eight days after his birth Jesus was circumcised according to Jewish law and custom. It was then he was officially given the name "Jesus," which means "God shall save." By the act of circumcision and by the naming, Jesus was received into the community of Israel, bearing its mark upon his body.
Forty days later, according to Jewish law and custom, Mary and Joseph went to the Temple in Jerusalem for her purification and for the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. After giving birth to a male child, a woman was said to be impure for forty days. Had it been a female baby, Mary would have been impure eighty days! Nevertheless, Mary and Joseph offered two pigeons as a sacrifice. This was the offering of the poor. Had they been wealthier, they would have offered a lamb.
At the same time they presented Jesus at the Temple, dedicating him, as their firstborn, to God. An old man, righteous and devout, Simeon by name, happened to be there when Jesus was presented. Upon seeing the baby Jesus, Simeon was moved to prophesy that this child was destined to change the world. He would bring the redemption of Israel. He would be a light for the Gentiles. Because of him many would rise and many would fall. His presence would expose the secret thoughts of many hearts.
Also at the Temple was an old woman nearly one hundred years old. Her name was Anna and she was a prophetess. She had spent the eight decades of her widowhood at the Temple fasting and praying. Many regarded her words as those of the Lord. Regularly they turned to her for insight into the future and an understanding of the present.
Upon seeing Jesus, Anna, like Simeon, was moved to prophesy that Jesus would bring liberation to Jerusalem. This child is the one we have been expecting. God has blessed you, Mary and Joseph, with a child that will change the world.
Can you imagine the excitement and wonder of Mary and Joseph? Every Jewish mother of that day hoped her newborn son might some day become the Messiah, God's anointed King. Now, at this highly emotional time, Mary and Joseph have been told by two highly respected religious people that their child is to be the one.
There is evidence that Mary and Joseph came to disbelieve these prophecies as the years passed. As life settled into the normal routine, Jesus learned carpentry and spent his life much as any other boy in Nazareth, at least as far as we know. But then things changed. A long hidden flame within the mind and heart of Jesus burst forth. A stirring began within Jesus and Palestine that was to change the world. Joseph probably was dead by that time, but we wonder if Mary remembered what Simeon and Anna had said in the Temple thirty years before. Whether she did or not, we do not know. But that Anna and Simeon were right, we do know. This child changed the world.
And he did so in the ways they predicted.
I
For one thing, he laid bare the secret thoughts of many.
Jesus did not have to wait until he was full-grown to do that. It began by calling forth the secret hopes and desires of Simeon and Anna. The child Jesus also brought to consciousness the hopes and aspirations of Mary and Joseph.
The same is true today. The coming of a child into our lives can indeed reveal the secret motives of our hearts. For some girls, getting pregnant is a way to trap a man into marriage. They want not so much a child as a man, and an escape from their present way of life.
For some wives, the opposite is true. They want a child upon whom they can fasten their love and devotion, since they no longer really love their husbands or feel devoted to them. Likewise, the coming of a child can be a threat to a husband, who now finds his wife's attention and affection diverted to the baby. Or the opposite can happen, where a husband pins more hope on his relationship with the child than he does on his relationship with his wife.
Think of the effect of an unwanted child on a family. How it reveals the hidden desires of the heart. What division and animosity it can bring through no fault of its own. The coming of a baby reveals the secret self-concepts parents have. The new life challenges their sense of adequacy, their ability to cope, their easy selfishness and casual freedom. The coming of a baby tells something about the inward heart and its sense of commitment and responsibility.
The coming of a child changes our small personal world and reveals the basic values of our hearts. The ways in which we plan for the new life, the expectations we articulate, the homes we make, and even the kind of talk we use, reveal the secret intents of our hearts. Babies have a way, with all their innocence, of bringing us out into the open. It is not so much that they judge us, as that we judge ourselves by them, as we decide what we will do with them, and how we will react to this new life.
But then, of course, babies grow up. And so it was with Jesus, growing up in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man. And if by his infancy he revealed the secret thoughts and motives of many, by his manhood he did so even more. John observes he would trust himself to no one, for he knew what was in the hearts of men.
In his own time he laid bare the deceit and hypocrisy so prevalent. Corrupt hearts and vicious motives were brought out of their festering, putrid dungeons to be observed in the high-noon sun of righteousness. The ultimate deceit of doing good things for the wrong reasons was laid bare by this man of fiery integrity. This child grew up to change the world by insisting on truthfulness, openness, integrity, and the pure heart. And wherever this idea is accepted, it still foments change.
II
Note further that this child changed the world because he caused the fall of many.
King Herod was no fool. Politically shrewd as he was, he could sense political danger miles and years away. No wonder he was unsettled when the Wise Men from the East, the astrologers, appeared. He knew it was possible for a newborn child to change the world. After all, how else does it happen? Only Herod wanted to be sure it was his child, not one of some unknown parentage who cared nothing for Herod's name and reputation. Thus, entirely in keeping with his character, he killed all babies of Bethlehem under two years of age. He missed Jesus, of course, and Herod today is remembered only as a backdrop to the story of Jesus. Herod and Augustus Caesar, in all their power, fell, and Jesus, in all his weakness, was exalted.
Jesus caused the fall of many because he spoke the truth of God's prophet. Prophets have a way of leveling the vanity and pretension of corrupt power. Elijah, the great prophet nine centuries before Christ, spoke out against the corruption and idolatry of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Eight centuries before Christ, Amos castigated King and High Priest for their corruption and deceit. He warned businessmen and community leaders that their land would be destroyed unless they practiced justice and loved righteousness. But no change took place, and by the power of the Assyrians, Israel was destroyed.
Six centuries before Christ, the prophet Jeremiah warned Judah and Jerusalem that they would be destroyed unless repentance, righteousness, and true faith were practiced in the land. King Zedekiah resented Jeremiah and had him imprisoned. The King complained that Jeremiah never said anything good about him. Jeremiah replied he would be glad to say something good about the King if there was something good to say. Later in history, King Herod hoped John the Baptist would have something good to say about him, but instead he was hotly criticized by the prophet when he attended the prophet's preaching meetings out on the Jordan riverside.
Likewise with Jesus. Not everyone liked what he had to say, because it judged them, criticized them, and revealed their sins. Honey may attract more flies than vinegar, but the prophet of God is constrained to tell the truth. Flattery may get you a long way in building an institution of religion, but the messenger of God is constrained to speak the word of righteousness, even when it means the downfall of many.
Churches and ministers struggle with this principle. How tempting it is always to tell people what they want to hear. How alluring it is to take the spirit of the times, bring it in to the church, sing and pray around it, and baptize it as God's Spirit. The latest intellectual fashion or psychological fad can sound so right and authoritative. Yet, very often the truth of God stands in contradiction of what for the moment seems to be so right, so in, so sophisticated. There are well-known ways for packing them in, but not all ways are true to the gospel.
It has been said by many that if you preach the gospel, people will beat a path to your door to hear you. I don't think that is necessarily so. Big crowds are not necessarily a measure of whether the gospel is being preached. Paul surely preached the gospel more effectively than most, and he did not always attract big crowds. Often it was the opposite, working mostly with small groups. While Jesus had his share of multitudes, he also had large numbers who turned away from him when they learned what discipleship was all about.
Simeon and Anna were right. Many fell away because of Jesus. They could not bear his words of truth. The change he required was too painful. They had wanted him to bless their way of life, rather than change it. Consequently, they fell away, and still do. Many a minister's heart has been broken by those who had come so close and then had turned and walked out of the church because the word spoken did not confirm their prejudice or uphold their corrupt interpretation of life. They were not seeking the truth. They were looking for someone to bless the lies of their lives. The true prophet will never do it. And many will fall away because of it. In that way Jesus was a child who changed the world.
III
Jesus was a child that changed the world because he caused the rise of many.
Simeon, old and devout, holding the baby Jesus in his arms in the Jerusalem Temple long ago, was no fool. We would do him a disservice if we regarded him as a sentimental grandfather doting, in his old age, over a baby. He had seen too much of life to do that. He knew the harsh realities of history. Simeon was not waiting around only to indulge in nostalgia or wishful thinking. Wise and perceptive man that he was, he was waiting for the redemption of Israel. He longed for the liberation of Israel, and with mystic insight he saw Jesus as the liberator.
But note this. Jesus was the occasion for Simeon's rise, because Jesus was the one for whom he was looking. Now that he had seen the fulfillment of his hopes, he could die in peace, knowing his life had not been in vain.
Simeon raises an important question for all of us: for what are we looking? What is uppermost in your dreams and longings? What would most satisfy you? What would it take to grant you fulfillment?
Some might answer that they wish they had a husband or wife who really loved them. Others might long for financial success, or fame, or for a chance to change history. Some hope only for a good job, or a new car, or a large inheritance, or an extraordinary vacation.
What do you most want for your children? Good education? Financial success? Good job? Happy marriage? Healthy grandchildren? Well, yes, I suppose most all of us want that. But how many of us long for our children and grandchildren to love God and Jesus Christ? Is the work of Christ's Kingdom uppermost in our minds, or is it only a cultural accessory to the basic way of life we already have chosen?
Who are the people exalted by this child who changed the world? In his own words, he has said the Kingdom belongs to the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the comforters, the seekers after righteousness, the sufferers. The Kingdom belongs to those who humble themselves, who take the less conspicuous seats at banquets, who come to serve rather than to be served, who have hearts and minds seeking after truth and integrity, justice, and love. These are they who will be raised up and exalted.
Not possible, you say. You think the Christ Child is too weak. You believe he is no match for the harsh, brutal, blatant power of the world. You think we have succumbed to sentimentality like Simeon and Anna in the Temple.
No, that is not the case. We believe that the power and Spirit of God is with this child now become man. The Herods and Caesars and Napoleons and Hitlers and Stalins come and go. They have their day. They blossom and flourish like the grass of the field, and then they wither away, die, and are forgotten.
But not the Kingdom of Christ. Year after year, century after century, his Kingdom marches on. In language after language people sing his praises. In structures which range from mud huts to simple, wooden-frame buildings to ornate cathedrals, millions upon millions bend the knee in prayer and adoration to this Child King. His Kingdom marches on, transcending every national boundary, every barrier of time, every atheistic citadel, every intellectual denial -- marching on and on into every expectant, receptive heart like those of Simeon and Anna. These are they who are raised up by this child that changed the world.
"He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:11-13). There is no greater change that could ever come to the world.
Prayer
Eternal God, who existed before all time, who is present in time, and will continue to exist when time has ceased to be, you have ordained the universe to exist in time and you have, in your providence, set the sun and moon in their places to mark day and night and to measure seasons and festival days. Even in your eternal timelessness you have given us the rhythm of time to measure our days upon earth. We praise and adore you.
We confess before you, O God, our frustration with time -- with its swift passage and our squandering of its precious gift. In this holiday season, when many of us remember and mourn our loved ones -- with us a few moments in time, then taken from us before their time -- when we remember them we confess our propensity to take time for granted and our tendency not to be thankful for each moment we have.
Some of us are frivolous with time. Some of us have too much time on our hands, others of us only mark time or kill time or passively await our time. Forgive any misuse of time, O God, and teach us to number our days and to get a heart of wisdom.
O God, who wishes to make all our time full of meaning, come anew to each of us in this festival season. Open our minds in reverence and awe to the presence of the Christ. Open our hearts to our family and to our beloved. Let grudges of times past be cast aside so that this Christmas can be the first day of the rest of our life. Infuse our weary and burdened spirit with a new gift of your divine energy so that we might, with new zest, work for peace on earth, good will toward men.
We thank you, O God, for all gifts of time, especially for Jesus Christ in whom time was begun, redeemed, and fulfilled. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Forty days later, according to Jewish law and custom, Mary and Joseph went to the Temple in Jerusalem for her purification and for the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. After giving birth to a male child, a woman was said to be impure for forty days. Had it been a female baby, Mary would have been impure eighty days! Nevertheless, Mary and Joseph offered two pigeons as a sacrifice. This was the offering of the poor. Had they been wealthier, they would have offered a lamb.
At the same time they presented Jesus at the Temple, dedicating him, as their firstborn, to God. An old man, righteous and devout, Simeon by name, happened to be there when Jesus was presented. Upon seeing the baby Jesus, Simeon was moved to prophesy that this child was destined to change the world. He would bring the redemption of Israel. He would be a light for the Gentiles. Because of him many would rise and many would fall. His presence would expose the secret thoughts of many hearts.
Also at the Temple was an old woman nearly one hundred years old. Her name was Anna and she was a prophetess. She had spent the eight decades of her widowhood at the Temple fasting and praying. Many regarded her words as those of the Lord. Regularly they turned to her for insight into the future and an understanding of the present.
Upon seeing Jesus, Anna, like Simeon, was moved to prophesy that Jesus would bring liberation to Jerusalem. This child is the one we have been expecting. God has blessed you, Mary and Joseph, with a child that will change the world.
Can you imagine the excitement and wonder of Mary and Joseph? Every Jewish mother of that day hoped her newborn son might some day become the Messiah, God's anointed King. Now, at this highly emotional time, Mary and Joseph have been told by two highly respected religious people that their child is to be the one.
There is evidence that Mary and Joseph came to disbelieve these prophecies as the years passed. As life settled into the normal routine, Jesus learned carpentry and spent his life much as any other boy in Nazareth, at least as far as we know. But then things changed. A long hidden flame within the mind and heart of Jesus burst forth. A stirring began within Jesus and Palestine that was to change the world. Joseph probably was dead by that time, but we wonder if Mary remembered what Simeon and Anna had said in the Temple thirty years before. Whether she did or not, we do not know. But that Anna and Simeon were right, we do know. This child changed the world.
And he did so in the ways they predicted.
I
For one thing, he laid bare the secret thoughts of many.
Jesus did not have to wait until he was full-grown to do that. It began by calling forth the secret hopes and desires of Simeon and Anna. The child Jesus also brought to consciousness the hopes and aspirations of Mary and Joseph.
The same is true today. The coming of a child into our lives can indeed reveal the secret motives of our hearts. For some girls, getting pregnant is a way to trap a man into marriage. They want not so much a child as a man, and an escape from their present way of life.
For some wives, the opposite is true. They want a child upon whom they can fasten their love and devotion, since they no longer really love their husbands or feel devoted to them. Likewise, the coming of a child can be a threat to a husband, who now finds his wife's attention and affection diverted to the baby. Or the opposite can happen, where a husband pins more hope on his relationship with the child than he does on his relationship with his wife.
Think of the effect of an unwanted child on a family. How it reveals the hidden desires of the heart. What division and animosity it can bring through no fault of its own. The coming of a baby reveals the secret self-concepts parents have. The new life challenges their sense of adequacy, their ability to cope, their easy selfishness and casual freedom. The coming of a baby tells something about the inward heart and its sense of commitment and responsibility.
The coming of a child changes our small personal world and reveals the basic values of our hearts. The ways in which we plan for the new life, the expectations we articulate, the homes we make, and even the kind of talk we use, reveal the secret intents of our hearts. Babies have a way, with all their innocence, of bringing us out into the open. It is not so much that they judge us, as that we judge ourselves by them, as we decide what we will do with them, and how we will react to this new life.
But then, of course, babies grow up. And so it was with Jesus, growing up in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man. And if by his infancy he revealed the secret thoughts and motives of many, by his manhood he did so even more. John observes he would trust himself to no one, for he knew what was in the hearts of men.
In his own time he laid bare the deceit and hypocrisy so prevalent. Corrupt hearts and vicious motives were brought out of their festering, putrid dungeons to be observed in the high-noon sun of righteousness. The ultimate deceit of doing good things for the wrong reasons was laid bare by this man of fiery integrity. This child grew up to change the world by insisting on truthfulness, openness, integrity, and the pure heart. And wherever this idea is accepted, it still foments change.
II
Note further that this child changed the world because he caused the fall of many.
King Herod was no fool. Politically shrewd as he was, he could sense political danger miles and years away. No wonder he was unsettled when the Wise Men from the East, the astrologers, appeared. He knew it was possible for a newborn child to change the world. After all, how else does it happen? Only Herod wanted to be sure it was his child, not one of some unknown parentage who cared nothing for Herod's name and reputation. Thus, entirely in keeping with his character, he killed all babies of Bethlehem under two years of age. He missed Jesus, of course, and Herod today is remembered only as a backdrop to the story of Jesus. Herod and Augustus Caesar, in all their power, fell, and Jesus, in all his weakness, was exalted.
Jesus caused the fall of many because he spoke the truth of God's prophet. Prophets have a way of leveling the vanity and pretension of corrupt power. Elijah, the great prophet nine centuries before Christ, spoke out against the corruption and idolatry of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Eight centuries before Christ, Amos castigated King and High Priest for their corruption and deceit. He warned businessmen and community leaders that their land would be destroyed unless they practiced justice and loved righteousness. But no change took place, and by the power of the Assyrians, Israel was destroyed.
Six centuries before Christ, the prophet Jeremiah warned Judah and Jerusalem that they would be destroyed unless repentance, righteousness, and true faith were practiced in the land. King Zedekiah resented Jeremiah and had him imprisoned. The King complained that Jeremiah never said anything good about him. Jeremiah replied he would be glad to say something good about the King if there was something good to say. Later in history, King Herod hoped John the Baptist would have something good to say about him, but instead he was hotly criticized by the prophet when he attended the prophet's preaching meetings out on the Jordan riverside.
Likewise with Jesus. Not everyone liked what he had to say, because it judged them, criticized them, and revealed their sins. Honey may attract more flies than vinegar, but the prophet of God is constrained to tell the truth. Flattery may get you a long way in building an institution of religion, but the messenger of God is constrained to speak the word of righteousness, even when it means the downfall of many.
Churches and ministers struggle with this principle. How tempting it is always to tell people what they want to hear. How alluring it is to take the spirit of the times, bring it in to the church, sing and pray around it, and baptize it as God's Spirit. The latest intellectual fashion or psychological fad can sound so right and authoritative. Yet, very often the truth of God stands in contradiction of what for the moment seems to be so right, so in, so sophisticated. There are well-known ways for packing them in, but not all ways are true to the gospel.
It has been said by many that if you preach the gospel, people will beat a path to your door to hear you. I don't think that is necessarily so. Big crowds are not necessarily a measure of whether the gospel is being preached. Paul surely preached the gospel more effectively than most, and he did not always attract big crowds. Often it was the opposite, working mostly with small groups. While Jesus had his share of multitudes, he also had large numbers who turned away from him when they learned what discipleship was all about.
Simeon and Anna were right. Many fell away because of Jesus. They could not bear his words of truth. The change he required was too painful. They had wanted him to bless their way of life, rather than change it. Consequently, they fell away, and still do. Many a minister's heart has been broken by those who had come so close and then had turned and walked out of the church because the word spoken did not confirm their prejudice or uphold their corrupt interpretation of life. They were not seeking the truth. They were looking for someone to bless the lies of their lives. The true prophet will never do it. And many will fall away because of it. In that way Jesus was a child who changed the world.
III
Jesus was a child that changed the world because he caused the rise of many.
Simeon, old and devout, holding the baby Jesus in his arms in the Jerusalem Temple long ago, was no fool. We would do him a disservice if we regarded him as a sentimental grandfather doting, in his old age, over a baby. He had seen too much of life to do that. He knew the harsh realities of history. Simeon was not waiting around only to indulge in nostalgia or wishful thinking. Wise and perceptive man that he was, he was waiting for the redemption of Israel. He longed for the liberation of Israel, and with mystic insight he saw Jesus as the liberator.
But note this. Jesus was the occasion for Simeon's rise, because Jesus was the one for whom he was looking. Now that he had seen the fulfillment of his hopes, he could die in peace, knowing his life had not been in vain.
Simeon raises an important question for all of us: for what are we looking? What is uppermost in your dreams and longings? What would most satisfy you? What would it take to grant you fulfillment?
Some might answer that they wish they had a husband or wife who really loved them. Others might long for financial success, or fame, or for a chance to change history. Some hope only for a good job, or a new car, or a large inheritance, or an extraordinary vacation.
What do you most want for your children? Good education? Financial success? Good job? Happy marriage? Healthy grandchildren? Well, yes, I suppose most all of us want that. But how many of us long for our children and grandchildren to love God and Jesus Christ? Is the work of Christ's Kingdom uppermost in our minds, or is it only a cultural accessory to the basic way of life we already have chosen?
Who are the people exalted by this child who changed the world? In his own words, he has said the Kingdom belongs to the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the comforters, the seekers after righteousness, the sufferers. The Kingdom belongs to those who humble themselves, who take the less conspicuous seats at banquets, who come to serve rather than to be served, who have hearts and minds seeking after truth and integrity, justice, and love. These are they who will be raised up and exalted.
Not possible, you say. You think the Christ Child is too weak. You believe he is no match for the harsh, brutal, blatant power of the world. You think we have succumbed to sentimentality like Simeon and Anna in the Temple.
No, that is not the case. We believe that the power and Spirit of God is with this child now become man. The Herods and Caesars and Napoleons and Hitlers and Stalins come and go. They have their day. They blossom and flourish like the grass of the field, and then they wither away, die, and are forgotten.
But not the Kingdom of Christ. Year after year, century after century, his Kingdom marches on. In language after language people sing his praises. In structures which range from mud huts to simple, wooden-frame buildings to ornate cathedrals, millions upon millions bend the knee in prayer and adoration to this Child King. His Kingdom marches on, transcending every national boundary, every barrier of time, every atheistic citadel, every intellectual denial -- marching on and on into every expectant, receptive heart like those of Simeon and Anna. These are they who are raised up by this child that changed the world.
"He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:11-13). There is no greater change that could ever come to the world.
Prayer
Eternal God, who existed before all time, who is present in time, and will continue to exist when time has ceased to be, you have ordained the universe to exist in time and you have, in your providence, set the sun and moon in their places to mark day and night and to measure seasons and festival days. Even in your eternal timelessness you have given us the rhythm of time to measure our days upon earth. We praise and adore you.
We confess before you, O God, our frustration with time -- with its swift passage and our squandering of its precious gift. In this holiday season, when many of us remember and mourn our loved ones -- with us a few moments in time, then taken from us before their time -- when we remember them we confess our propensity to take time for granted and our tendency not to be thankful for each moment we have.
Some of us are frivolous with time. Some of us have too much time on our hands, others of us only mark time or kill time or passively await our time. Forgive any misuse of time, O God, and teach us to number our days and to get a heart of wisdom.
O God, who wishes to make all our time full of meaning, come anew to each of us in this festival season. Open our minds in reverence and awe to the presence of the Christ. Open our hearts to our family and to our beloved. Let grudges of times past be cast aside so that this Christmas can be the first day of the rest of our life. Infuse our weary and burdened spirit with a new gift of your divine energy so that we might, with new zest, work for peace on earth, good will toward men.
We thank you, O God, for all gifts of time, especially for Jesus Christ in whom time was begun, redeemed, and fulfilled. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
