Aha! Herod!

from my sermon on 1/2/11 from Matthew 2:1-12

At a former church I had a member who had been on regional staff in the United Methodist Church. I asked her to come in as a consultant with our local church staff, as another pair of eyes to see how we could function better. After visitng us, she said, "One thing you could do as a staff is to share 'God sightings,' places where you experience the presence of Christ." I said that 'God sightings' sounded a lot like epiphany, where Christ is revealed, unveiled. One of my staff members said that epiphany was too big a word. As an Aggie, I said that epiphanies were 'aha' moments, places where we knew it was Christ in our midst.

I had an 'aha' moment this past week. We had a reunion of some of us Aggies who met at the Wesley Foundation, the Methodist campus ministry, some 35 years ago. We gathered in Mason, where one couple has a B & B right on the square. We reminisced. At the very first work project we did, Bob had gone to the bathroom right as we were leaving and got locked inside the building! He had to phome to get himself out of the double-keyed dead bolt locked doors. We had meals together.

I led a worship service in the chapel of the Fist UMC of Mason, a room that used to be my office when I did my internship there in 1978, I asked the 14 of us to witnness to the presence of Christ in our lives today. Bob and Lisa have a 29 yr old daughter with autism. they have tried group homes that didn't work out. They have taken their daughter back into their home, found her a job, and started a Sunday School class at their church for persons like her. Brent and Monica have a son who was in a head on collision with a drunk driver. Their son has survived thanks to good medical care, many prayers and support from their church and community. Russell has never been married. He quit his job to care for his father in his dying. For 3 years he was his father's nurse. Today, he volunteers at the UMC across the street from his house, including folding the worship bulletins on Thursday afternoons just like we do here. It was holy time. For an hour and 15 minutes I knew Christ was in the room. Aha! I wanted to place the experience in a bottle, put a label on the front, and say, "When you need the nearness of Christ, here it is!"

Of course we can't do this. We can't manufacture 'aha' moments. We cannot manipulate God into coming on our terms. It is always a gift, at God's initiative. But if I read this passage correctly, the 'aha' moments can come to absolutely anyone. They are not necessarily wise men in the story. They are certainly not kings. They are magi, from which we get magic. They are sorcerers, astrologers. Our Old Testament doesn't have a good word to say about such folks. They are gentiles. They are foreigners. They would have been voted least likely to see an epiphany.

If I read the story correctly, the world is filled with 'aha' moments. They can come in a star , a dream, a little boy in a house in Bethlehem. They can come even today.

You open the email. It has a link included in it. You receive 10 of these a day. Most of the time you delete them. This time, you go to the link. It is of a food court in a mall in Minneapolis. People are chowing down on their KFC and Chinese noodles and burgers and fries. There is Muzak playing. But it stops. An organ starts to play familiar chords. A beautiful soprano stands up and sings, "Hallelujah!" Then a tenor, and bass, and an alto. Soon a whole choir is singing. It is Handel's Messiah, the Hallelujah Chorus. People stop eating and talking. They stand and start singing too. Aha! In a food court in a mall in Minneapolis Christ comes!

You go to a Habitat for Humanity house blessing. You have driven nails, dug fence posts, hung drywall, painted, and now the house is done. On this day, you stand on the driveway, and the family is there. Someone comes and hands them the keys to their new house. It is the first house they have ever owned. Their smiles are so big. Aha! Christ is revealed!

Even in morning worship, sometimes we have 'aha' moments. It happened on Christmas Eve, at the 4 p.m. pageant service. We had sung a carol. The Christmas story was read. A little person just couldn't hold it in. They clapped and shouted "YEAH!' Aha! Christ comes even in worship.

I know you have made New Year's resolutions, and that is fine and dandy. You are going to lose weight. You are going to diet and exercise. Great! But hear this, beyond your resolutions, God has resolved to try to reach everyone, and has soaked the universe in 'aha' moments.

When you have an 'aha' moment with Christ, it won't be long until you have an 'aha' moment with Herod. He is lurking in this story. How many times is he mentioned in the passage? He says he wants to worship the new king, but he doesn't really. He is threatened. He is plotting. He is evil. This Herod is not the same king as the one at Jesus' death. But this Herod is an unsavory character. I did a little research. He murders a wife. He murders some sons. He kills a brother-in-law, among other bad deeds.

I hate to tell you this, but there is evil in the world. And not just out there in institutions. There is evil right at the door of your heart.

I have reading Blue Like Jazz, a story of Donald Miller's coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Don is going to classes at Reed College, a "party school" in Portland, Oregon. I know none of you have gone to a party school. At Reed, they actually set aside a weekend for sex and drugs and rock and roll. Don and his Christian friends were trying to come up with a response to this rave. Don suggest in jest that they set up a confessional booth on campus. One of his friends thought that was perfect. No, Don said, I was only kidding. No, the friend said, we will build and confess to others.

So as they were building the confessional booth, they attracted some attention. "What's that?" "A confessional." "Really?" "Yeah, come by later." Don drew the first shift. He hoped nobody would come, but someone did. "What is this?" "It's a confessional." "Oh, so I am supposed to tell you all the wicked things I have done?" "No, I want to confess to you how sorry I am that we Christians have messed up so badly. I am sorry for the Crusades, and everything." "I don't think you are responsible for the Crusades." "I know, but I don't represent Christ very well. He said to feed the hungry, and I don't much of that. He said to clothe the naked, and I am not good at that. He said to heal the hurt, and I don't. He said to bless those who persecute you, but mostly I lash out and try to get revenge. I am sorry." The dude responded with tears in his eyes, "I forgive you." Aha!

The dude asked about the cross. Don responded, "It means that we are broken, messed up, sinners. We can't fix ourselves, so God has come in Jesus to take our sin away, to heal us, to restore us, to rescue us from ourselves."

Aha! That how Christ comes, even when we confess. So the act of confession in the worship service is not a hollow one. It is where we see Christ at His best.

The good news is that Christ wants to be revealed to absolutely everyone and has bathed the universe in 'aha' moments.