It was a few days after Christmas. A mother was busy cleaning up the den, putting everything away, taking the Christmas tree down. Her son came in and saw her and said, “Mama, what are you doing?” She said, “I’m putting all our Christmas stuff away.” He asked in reply, “Why are you doing that?” She answered, “So everything will be back to normal again.” His response to that was, “Mama, I don’t want things to get back to normal again.”
On this second Sunday after Christmas, we have the thought in our minds that Christmas is over. There is often the urge, the desire, to pack everything up and get it out of the way. But, sometimes, I think we rush away from it too quickly, do too good a job at cleaning up after it, and in that we run the risk of removing it from our lives.
What if after Christmas we could keep life from getting back to normal again? What if we could really hang onto it and take it with us into these good days ahead of us in the new year?
I want to suggest to us today that we can do just that. By that, I do not mean that everything is going to be perfect, or always go our way. Nor do I mean we will be able to escape the same routine, the same schedule, the same duties, we have had to struggle with before. But, I would suggest that there ought to be something different about us because we have been able to see again a star of wonder, to hear again the angels sing, to hear again the cry of a babe, and have our hearts strangely warmed because God has bent low to the earth, again.
Today, I remind us of the story of the visit of the Magi, three Wise Men from the east, to the holy family in Bethlehem.
We have been thinking during these weeks about the theme: The light of Bethlehem still shines on. Today, we come finally to this: In the darkness of suspicion, there is the light of devotion.
Traditionally, the Christian church has remembered the visit of the Magi twelve days after Christmas, on the day of Epiphany.
This is a great story we heave heard today. These three men came into Jerusalem looking for a king. They met another king who immediately felt threatened when he found out what they were doing there. He became suspicious of them and this new king. He began to plot the death of any and all who would claim any kind of royalty. In that darkness of suspicion, the light of devotion was shining. The Wise Men were very wise. They came to give their devotion to the new king and would not be turned aside.
In our world today, there is still a good bit of suspicion. It can poison relationships, goals, noble-endeavors, groups, and ideals. In the darkness of suspicion, let the light of devotion still shine on you.
Hang onto this as we move away from Christmas.
One year, as we were putting things away after Christmas, my wife said, “Well, Christmas is about over.” Our daughter replied, “Yes, but we still have the memories.”
Let the memory of that night and those days so long ago continue to live in your heart.
Remember these things about the visit of the Magi and their devotion:
I
Keep Christ as the object of your devotion.
We see in those three men who came from so far away that he was just that for them. He was the object of their devotion.
Matthew tells us that the Magi came from the east to Jerusalem. They had one question on their minds, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” Some translations read, “we have come to pay him homage.” The point is clear. They came all that way for one reason and one reason only, to worship him, to make him the object of their devotion.
This is one of those things we must see. If we do not see this, we do not see Christmas, we do not understand it, and it makes no sense at all. If we do not see this, we will soon forget it and what it does.
Two couples were walking through the mall. They were talking about their church. One of the men was going to say something about the lady who was to teach their class the next Sunday. He turned to his wife and said, “What’s the name? I don’t remember like I used to.” Then, he said to the other man, “Give me some help. Her name is like a flower.” His friend said, “Violet, Rose.” The first man replied, “That’s it. Now, Rose, what is the name of the lady who teaches our class?”
Don’t forget, “There is a name that is above every name.” We are told “Call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the one born to be king of all creation and king of all the creatures.
Take this with you into this new year. If you want your life to be better in the new year, keep Christ as the object of your devotion.
A pastor went to see a couple in his church. It was early March. As he sat in their den with them, he noticed a Christmas ornament hanging from a bookshelf. The lady saw him look at it and she said, “No, we did not forget. Every year when I put all the decorations away, I choose one to leave behind on purpose to remind me that Christmas is not just one day, or one season. For me, Christmas is a lifetime. That ornament is a reminder that Jesus walks with me every day.”1
My wife and I have a collection of manger scenes. One of them we bought in Bethlehem. We never pack it away. It stays out all the year through. It is a reminder of the one born to be the object of our devotion.
Then, move on to something else:
II
Give to him the best that you have.
Keep Christ as the object of your devotion, and therefore give to him the best that you have.
Because the Magi, the three kings, paid homage to this new king, because they worshiped him, they presented to him their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold was a gift fit for a king. It was costly, treasured, and sought after, and given to a baby king. Frankincense was an expensive fragrance, representing a personal treasure. It was a fine perfume. Myrrh was a precious ointment used in the preparation for death. It was tinged with sadness. All of these gifts were expensive treasures in that day and in that part of the world. Each of those men brought to the one they worshiped, the best they had to offer him. This was a sign of their dedication. Just as their kneeling was a sign of their homage, so were these gifts a sign of their dedication. It was also, I believe, a statement about their priorities.
Who and what do you really put in first place? I wonder, could any of us, or all of us, dare to do what these men did? Would you dare to give to Christ, the king, the best thing you have, the most expensive thing, the best part of you?
I wonder would you give the best you have, and if you did, what might that be? What might you be able to give to him in the year ahead?
Just before I was to speak at a lunch meeting, the person who was seated next to me shared a story that I then shared with the audience. It was about this group of ladies arriving in heaven. Saint Peter was questioning them and telling them they had to prove they were Christians. The first lady said, “I’m a Baptist, and here’s my Bible to prove it.” The second lady said, “I’m a Catholic, and here’s my rosary to prove it.” The third lady began rambling through this large pocketbook she had with her. Saint Peter asked her what she was doing. She said, “I’m a Methodist and there’s a casserole in here someplace.”
I have thought about that story since then. It is a good story. It is very important to study the Bible and live a life of prayer. It is also vitally important to live a life of service. Like the lady with the casserole, all of us can find some little thing we can do. We can find a way to serve. This will be our gift to Christ in the year ahead.
Give him the best thing that you have.
Then, move on to one thing more:
III
Let your life take a new direction.
If Christ is the object of your devotion and if you give to him the best you have, then your life will take a new direction.
We come now to a verse in this story that I love. We read these words: “And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.” This means they did not go back to Jerusalem, through Herod’s town. They avoided him and his suspicion. Maybe it also means they lived another way.
Maybe that could happen to us as we begin to move away from Christmas into the new year. Maybe we could return by another way.
Perhaps, this is the real test of Christmas, whether or not we have found something which cannot be lost, something that will carry us into the future by another way, on some new and different roads to a new place in our living. Perhaps, we can keep something of Christmas alive in us that will lead us into another way.
Long ago, Henry Van Dyke wrote these words we still remember today:
Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the foreground; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness; are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.2
You can keep Christmas and you can take a new direction. You can carry with you into this new year the greatest blessings of this season.
Its love can live in our lives, and we can share it.
Its hope can hold us up, and give us patience.
Its joy can fill our hearts, and overflow into all our relationships.
Its peace can soothe our worried brows, and keep us calm within.
Its light can brighten our paths, and help us find our way.
A man watched his son playing on the floor. The boy seemed a little restless, so the man found a picture of the world in a magazine and cut it up into small pieces. He placed the pieces on the floor, and told the boy to see if he could put the world back together again, the way you would with a puzzle. He watched as the child got some tape and began to work. Then, the man read his paper for a while. But soon, the boy came to him with the world all taped back together. The man looked at it and then at his son and said, “How did you do this so quickly?” The boy replied, “It was really easy. There was a picture of Jesus on the other side of the page. I just put that picture together right and it made the whole world right.”
If you will get this picture right in your thinking, it will make your life right, and as more and more of us do this, it makes the world right.
We take this with us away from Christmas as we return by another way. It is the way of devotion.
In the darkness of suspicion, may the light of devotion shine on you.
And remember, all the lights of Bethlehem still shine on.
1.James C. Cantrell, III, “Left Behind On Purpose,” Chapel Notes, St. James United Methodist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, December 31, 1995.
2.Charles L. Allen and Charles L. Wallis, Christmas (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1957), p, 42.