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December 30, 2007

Reaction

Preacher: Pastor Braun Campbell Category: Biblical Scripture: Matthew 2:13–2:23

First Sunday After Christmas
Matthew 2:13-23
"Reaction"

Science is exciting! Now, you could talk to some of the science-type-folks in our congregation, who might tell you that a majority of the scientific process is spent in long, unexciting periods of observation and analysis, building expectations as to what will happen under specific circumstances. Science, they might say, takes time. And although that's well and good, I like my science a little be more... engaging. Some of the greatest science teachers don't just lecture: they show you the science at work: Mr. Wizard, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Mr. Jim Hicks (my physics teacher at Barrington High School), and one that I've learned from over the past few years - when I go someplace where I can watch Food Network, that is - Alton Brown. As these men have shown me, science can be exciting because of the reactions that take place. In physics, chemistry, or cooking, a reaction happens in response to a new thing entering the environment, as when baking soda comes into contact with vinegar and makes a papier-mâché science fair volcano erupt. With science, because of those long hours of watching and waiting, we can expect that "A" + "B" results in "C." But reactions occur outside of the science lab, too.

On Monday night or Tuesday of this past week, many of you exchanged gifts with friends and loved ones in Christmas celebrations. What kind of reactions did you observe in those around you? How did you react to the gifts that you'd been given? Could the reaction be described as "Ralphie" + "Red Ryder BB gun" results in "rejoicing with great joy?" Or was the reaction something more like "You" + "Fondue set" results in "standing in the Returns & Exchanges line at the store?" Did your longstanding hope reach fulfillment?

A number of reactions have occurred in the past week among the people of St. John's: we've reacted to several days straight of worship services, to flu viruses, to overflowing restroom plumbing, to the demolition of the house next door, and to Christmas travels. And new things are still happening all the time, calling for a reaction. During the four weeks of Advent, we watched and waited. We prayed and prepared. We heard the message that the Messiah was to come, that God was coming to be with us. The Lord spoke through His Word and pointed us to the birth of a baby, the Son of God incarnate, who would save his people from their sins. And behold - Christmas has come! But how have we reacted? Even in this season of Christmas, we may still struggle with short tempers, especially with those closest to us. We might buy in to the materialistic notions around us, turning to things physical, looking for joy and fulfillment. Our thoughts and actions often reveal that we'd rather that God didn't come into our lives, for we have been serving ourselves as our own God.

That was Herod's reaction to the Christmas news. Herod, who jealously guarded his power and authority as ruler, was faced with yet another perceived threat when the Magi came to him, announcing that one had been born who was King of the Jews. How would he react? Predictably, Herod, who executed the members of his own family that he saw as a danger, decides to destroy the threat. And when he realizes that the wise men would not be returning to him with the child's identity, he reacts again. Taking the calculations of the Magi to determine the child's approximate age by this time, he sends people to murder all the male children in Bethlehem and its district, where he'd learned the child was to be born. Herod's reaction to this new King would bring about tragedy. The Coventry Carol, which we sing in our worship services this weekend, remembers the woe and the weeping that Herod's fear and vanity inflicted.

But if we focus on the massacre, we'll miss the point of today's Gospel reading. In the verses that surround the account of Herod's reaction, Matthew instead directs our attention to Jesus. Here we see that this child, born in Bethlehem, is the fulfillment of prophecy as God's own Son. God did come into the world, as He had promised: the Messiah that the people had long expected, for whom they watched and waited, had arrived. And God would even turn Herod's evil back upon itself. Instead of killing the true King, the Prince of Peace, Herod's act would instead point to Jesus as the Christ, the fulfillment of God's word through the prophets.

If you think about it for a moment, especially through the mindset of first-century Judaism, Jesus might seem to be an odd fulfillment of prophecy. The people were expecting God to send a deliverer, one who would save his people, and there were plenty of things from which the people needed to be delivered - like Rome! But the incarnation did not happen in order to give the people a political messiah. Rather, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came to deliver the people from their sins. Jesus would live the perfect life that God intended for His people: Jesus was Israel, the chosen people, as they were supposed to be, summed up into one person. After Herod's death, as God once called His children out of Egypt, He calls His Son back to the same land that he had promised to Abraham and his descendants.

The Christmas is already flying past, and next weekend we'll be celebrating Epiphany. This year, the Epiphany season is fairly brief: Ash Wednesday is already just a little over one month away! This can be a good thing for us as we're asking how we should react to Christmas. Christians don't celebrate Christmas just because God fulfilled His promise to be "God with us." We're not just enjoying the music and decorations and Sunday School programs that remind us that Jesus was born. We're also looking ahead. Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter all go together as parts of God's plan to bring salvation to us. Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection are pieces of the same story of God working in unexpected ways. Indeed, even Mary and Joseph's return to Galilee would point to God doing a new thing in Christ - no one expected anything good to come out of Nazareth! But God tells us of a new reaction, one that would change the universe: "Jesus Christ" + "our sin" results in "forgiveness and reconciliation."

The boy that Herod tried to destroy would destroy the power of death itself. That is the hope that we hold and this is the promise of the Christmas season we now celebrate. This is the Good News that causes a reaction in our lives! We do not need to live in fear as Herod did, desperately trying to cling to power; instead, we can rejoice with great joy that we have a powerful King who loves us by being with us. Because God comes to be with us, we do not need to rely on our own might. The Holy Spirit is at work every day of the Christian's life, calling us to hope, calling us to the manger and the cross and the empty tomb.

The life that God gives to you and to me cannot be described by science, because God fulfills His promises in unexpected ways. But as with science, we might better learn through experience than through lecture. So come and see from Scripture that the Lord is good, that He is faithful. Come and experience God at work in the Lord's Supper, where Jesus himself is present in, with, and under the bread and the wine. Our God is an engaging God. And because He is, we can go out this Christmas season, living each day as a reaction in fulfilled hope.

Merry Christmas! Amen.