By another way…

I’m convinced that part of the problem with the lousy attendance in so many churches like ours is exactly this; that people have sensed this business of being out of step and are no longer comfortable with the very idea.

Let’s fit in, go along, and get along.

That is the broad and easy way, but it is not Jesus’ way.

What got me to thinking about this is the last line from the Gospel reading we had at the Remembrance Service last Sunday afternoon.

It was Matthew’s account of the visit of the magi to the young Jesus.

The last line is: And they left for their own country by another way.

Is that a throw-away line, or is there the hint of an important truth there?

After having that encounter with the infant Jesus and his parents, they cannot go back the same way; things have been changed for them.

It is not only that they no longer wish to give a report to King Herod, they also now know that there is truly something life-changing going on for them through this baby.

We wish we knew more about what happened with these strange characters, but scripture is silent about their next adventures.

But we can be sure that life was never the same for them, wherever they went, and whatever contact they may have had with Jesus in later years.

Novelists have applied their imagination to inventing what-next episodes, but we have to stick with the text that we do have.

There is wonder, there is mystery throughout the story, and they must go to their own country by another way.

Today’s Gospel reading is pondering the same mystery of the life-changing encounter with Jesus, but John goes about telling the story in a very different way.

“Who is this Jesus?” is the same question that each of the Gospel writers expound.

John goes back to the very beginning of creation and says that everything that is happens because of its connection with the Lord Jesus: All things came into being through him, he says.

His life is the light of all people, John declares.

It is not just for one ethnic group, but for everyone.

It is not just for one time and place, but for everywhere.

It is not just for the change of one person or a few, but for all who are encountered by this Jesus.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, the gospel writer John assures us.

And here we have gotten to the very heart of things.

All of us who hear that tender story on Christmas Eve, whether in Luke’s words, or in song and hymn, or in proclamation of some other kind, must at length deal with this central assertion of the faith.

Many come and listen, and allow themselves to be unaffected by this truth.

If God becomes man, then things cannot go on the way they have.

If God cares that much about us, surely we would not even dream of being lackadaisical about the ways in which we respond.

In four weeks we will be hearing several of the miracle stories that the Gospel of Mark records.

The scoffers will say that the whole thing is preposterous.

No, the healing stories are really very small things compared with the truth about which the scoffers are really complaining: that God becomes man, the Word became flesh.

That is because contrary to every impulse of the culture around us, we are therefore not free to do just any old thing that pops into our heads, and this irritates the scoffers.

Because of our Baptism, we know that he intends to be shaping us to fit into another reality that we call the Kingdom of God.

We are out of step with the old ways.

Christianity is itself a culture with its own distinctive language, dress, and habits, George Lindbeck pointed out years ago.

To become a Christian is to be initiated into this new culture, and it may be in conflict with the popular and prevalent ideas in society.

Methodist theologian and retired bishop William Willimon writes: “I can tell you, as someone raised in South Carolina, that the Gospel obliterated much of my segregationist, racist culture, and I give thanks to God for it!”

He freely admits some of his failures along the way, when his actions did not reflect the light of Christ very well at all.

He tells of being a young boy and walking in on a scene where a black kid was surrounded by a gang of white kids who were taking turns pummeling him.

William was coerced into pretending to punch the boy also, just so he would not become an object of their beating as well.

He ran away ashamed, realizing that he should have stood up for the kid, and forever wishing that he had done things differently.

Christianity always brings with it a collision of cultures.

To be a Christian means to be someone who witnesses that Christ is the Light of the world, the truth that matters and endures, and the culture that will finally be fulfilled when God completes his creating.

Contrary to what we hear around us and in our minds also all the time, it is a faulty impulse in which we wallow … to get more and more stuff, to rack up more Facebook friends than anyone else on the planet, or have an ever-increasing bucket list of experiences.

These things are supposed to be the essence of a complete life.

It won’t work; it never has worked.

The latest X-box, the new friend to whom we are tending, or the next Caribbean cruise may all be fun but they are not the center of life for a Christian.

Keep things in their proper perspective; we need to make sure of the connection of any activity, word, or action with the path that Jesus illuminates.

We are heading for home by another way.

We have a wonderful icon in front of us today: it shows us the Holy Family; Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus.

There is a traditional but very “unrealistic” element in this icon.

The infant Jesus looks more like a miniature adult than a baby!

This is a way of saying that Jesus is the one in charge of every situation, no matter where it takes place or what it is.

Our next hymn underscores it:

Now he shines, the long expected;

Let creation praise its’ Lord.

There is our motivation, and our job.

Christ Jesus is the Light that guides us in sharing that knowledge wherever we go.

Whether our life be but a single heart beat, or 5 score or more years,

whether the noisy world is paying much attention or not,

whether we feel much like doing it or not on any given occasion,

we keep on using that Light, and pointing out that truth.

And in God’s good time, it will be successful.

Yes, the world may consider us out of step, and quite a bit odd, but that is ok.

We’re on the road home, confidently, by another way.

Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.