Good morning, Sunrise! I am Tim Roberts, the pastor of this
great group of Christ followers here in the greater Winston-Salem area. Today
we begin the season of Advent, which comes from the Latin word adventus, which means arrival or
approach. Here in our context, Advent is the season of patiently awaiting for the
arrival or approach of Jesus. But let's face it, most of our modern American
society equates it with the beginning of the Christmas season.
I am excited about this season of Advent and have been for
quite a while - ever since I felt God leading us to do something radically
different this year. So, this year, we are going to take part in something
radical. We're going to take part in a conspiracy!
A conspiracy. Sounds kind of risqué and edgy, doesn't it? It
should! After all, let's look at the definition of its root word,
"conspire." 
1. to agree
together, especially secretly, to do
something wrong, evil, or illegal
Now, hold on; something don't
sound quite right with that. I mean, yes, that is the primary definition of
conspire, but that can't be what God is leading us to do - something evil or
illegal.
No, there's got to be something more to it than that. Let's
dig into this a bit by looking at what the word originally meant.
The word "conspire" comes from another Latin word,
conspīrāre, which
means breathe together. While the
primary definition does somewhat reflect that, it still doesn't seem quite
right. So, let's look at the second definition
and see if it helps our quandary
2.
to act or work together toward the same result or
goal.
Now that seems more like
something God would lead us to do, doesn't it? Friends, that's exactly what
we're going to do in this time leading up to Christmas - we're going to
conspire, to act and work together toward the same goal - that being to make
this Christmas even more special as it changes the world!
That sounds good, but how can
we accomplish such a feat? Simpy put, we can do this by conspiring to
-Worship Fully
- Spend Less
- Give More
- Love All
We begin this conspiracy today
with Worship Fully.
To worship fully sounds like a
no-brainer, right? I mean, who wouldn't agree that the whole point of Christmas
is to worship the birth of Jesus?
Well, just as it appears that
most people have forgotten what the season of Advent is really about, it also
seems that the crux of Christmas has
become heavily veiled too.
Let's consider for a moment all
the stuff that we associate with Christmas.
What are some of those things,
other than Jesus or the Nativity, that comes to mind when we think of Christmas?
All of this stuff, the decorations,
parties, gifts, food,... all of it can distract us from and hide the source of
the celebration. It's not the first time that people had some difficulty
finding Jesus either.
This morning, I want to begin with a passage of scripture
from the second chapter of Matthew's gospel. It is not about the events leading
up to the birth of Jesus and not really about the birth either, though we often
try to fit it in the birth story. It is about a visit from some wealthy
foreigners that many scholars debate that could have occurred 2-4 years later.
This story is found in Matthew 2:1-12.
Matthew 2:1-12 (NLT)
1 Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during
the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from
eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We have seen
his star as it arose, and we have come to worship him." 3
Herod was deeply disturbed by their question, as was all of Jerusalem. 4
He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law.
"Where did the prophets say the Messiah would be born?" he asked
them. 5 "In Bethlehem," they said, "for this is what
the prophet wrote: 6 'O Bethlehem of Judah, you are not just a lowly village in
Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people
Israel.' " 7 Then Herod sent a private message to the wise men, asking
them to come see him. At this meeting he learned the exact time when they first
saw the star. 8 Then he told them, "Go to Bethlehem and search
carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I
can go and worship him, too!" 9 After this interview the wise men went their way. Once
again the star appeared to them, guiding them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of
them and stopped over the place where the child was. 10
When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! 11
They entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were, and they
fell down before him and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests
and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12
But when it was time to leave, they went home another way, because God had
warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
[Prayer]
These wise men were astrologers. Much like astrologers
today, they looked studied the celestial alignment of the stars and planets for
some meaning in the relation between these astrological phenomena and events in
the human world. In essence, they looked to the heavens for guidance and placed
their hope in the stars.
They must have been taken aback and awestruck when they
discovered a new star shining brightly in the sky. They carefully discerned
that this star must be for the one they had heard about in stories from another
people's faith. They knew that this must be the star of the one who would be
born King of the Jews.
As we read, they didn't just admire the star, which astrologers
do today. They didn't just study it, as astronomers do today. What we read is
they followed the star. They purposefully followed it, even to the point of later
resisting governmental authority. This star led them to the real source of all
hope.
Now let's stop for just a moment and consider this story.
Here we have foreigners or "non-believers," as some may say, who saw
beneath all the chaos of the day (the power struggles, the confusion of the
people, the debates over tradition...). As God's grace preceded them, they
found, beneath all of this stuff, Jesus...and they worshipped him. They didn't just share some hugs amongst each
other, make a toast, eat turkey and ham, and exchange gifts. No, we read, they worshipped him!
Today, we find things not much different. There are still
power struggles, not just political powers struggling with each other about the
fiscal cliff; we have stores competing for Christmas sales profits and
Conservative Christians arguing with the secular community as to rather trees
should be called Christmas trees or Holiday trees. We see struggles over
tradition, with new family tradition impeding on old traditions and Christmas-vs-Chanukah-vs-Kwanza.
As we said earlier, we have other distractions too; distractions
like excessive gift buying, extravagant lights and decorations,
holiday movies, 24 hour Christmas songs,...
Yet, beneath all of this stuff, we still find Jesus
The question for us today is, which do we worship? Which is
worthy of our adoration?
You see, our hearts are formed by what we worship. So,
during this time of year, does the way we spend our time, money, and energy
testify that we worship the stuff of Christmas or the source of God's undying
love?
I want to challenge us to conspire this year. Let's
conspire, work and act together, to change the world by seeking Jesus beneath
all the Christmas stuff, and worship him fully.
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