Lights, Camera, Action: God as Screenwriter

What exactly do you know about the wise men from the Bible? How many of them paid homage to the Christ child? Were the wise men or kings or astrologers or scholars? Where did they come from? What were their names?

Read Matthew 2:1-12 and Isaiah 60:1-6 for your answers.

Did you find how many wise men were there? No? Did you know that early Christians believed there were twelve wise men, traveling in a giant caravan, with servants and supplies and all the trappings? Can you imagine adding that to a Christmas nativity?

God as screenwriter seemingly leaves us wanting for the details of this story – how did Herod call all the religious leaders together so quickly? Wasn’t there animosity between them and King Herod? Where exactly is the “East?” Whatever happened to the wise men as they traveled home? Sometimes we feel that way about our own lives – why didn’t God stop this from happening? Why won’t God let us in on the future plan? What details has God seemingly left out of your story?

But when we stop worrying about what has been left out and start looking at what is there, a whole new story opens up. A way to Jesus appeared for a group of people who weren’t Jews, who weren’t part of the ‘in crowd.’ God sent signs for those not even expecting a Messiah, while the king of the Jews Herod hadn’t the slightest clue. By sending the exotic foreigners to worship the Christ child, it is a signal that all are welcome into God's kingdom, that salvation through the Messiah is not limited to the Jewish people.

God acts again and again in our lives. God puts a star in the sky, a light in our lives to show us the way, so that we can offer ourselves to Christ. God offers us epiphanies – revelations – of God’s presence in our lives over and over again. Are you paying attention like the wise men, looking for direction? Are you responding to the God-actions in your life, the God-nudges? For when God acts, God expects us to respond. And what a joyful response we can offer, because our God loves us enough to continue writing our story and calling “Lights, Camera, Action!”

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate

We Are Not the Light

Have you tried to tell someone who you are by saying who you are not? In John 1: 6-8, 19-28, John the Witness confesses to the religious authorities who grill him: No, I'm not the Messiah. No, I'm not Elijah. No, I'm not the prophet. Instead, with great understatement, John identifies himself as the one called to point us toward the coming of Jesus Christ - to witness to him. John says of himself that he cries out in the wilderness and that he's unworthy to untie the thong of the sandal of the one who is coming. Like us, John waits in the dark for the coming of the Messiah, who will bring light into the world's darkness. John's "I am not" self declarations contrast to Jesus' later "I am" statements.

John's self understanding arises out of his relationship to Jesus as the coming Messiah. Who John is and what he's called to do (witness to the coming light) depends totally on belonging to Christ. One way to think about our own relationship to Jesus is that Jesus is both sun and Son. We are the moons which circle around the sun/Son, reflecting the light of the sun/Son.

This distinction helps us understand that we're neither the Christ, nor are we God. God is Creator and we are God's creatures. Like John, our call - our work - our service - is to prepare the way so that Christ's light might shine out into the world where darkness seems to prevail.

Hebrew Bible Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11 draws a powerfully poignant picture of the kingdom here on earth that will come to pass where people respond to God by:

• preaching good news to the poor
• healing the heartbroken
• proclaiming freedom to captives
• releasing prisoners
• comforting those who mourn.

Isaiah pictures the year of Jubilee in which land is returned to original owners, debts are cancelled and slaves are freed. Anticipating slates wiped clean is accomplished through the light of the world shining in the dark, never to be extinguished by the darkness. Jesus Christ is the bringer of eternal Jubilee.

While we wait, we can witness to the slivers of light and the bounteous light that we see whenever and wherever we serve in Christ's name. What good and great news this is!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley