Foothills Congregational Church The Rev. Michelle Webber

United Church of Christ 1^st Sunday after Christmas

461 Orange Ave/. Los Altos December 30^th, 2007

These gifts we bring

Matthew 2:1-12

Let me tell you a secret. Every year we do the Christmas pageant that tells us about when Jesus was born, right? And I bet that most of you could tell that story off the top of your head, some of you word for word, right? What would you say if I told you that we do not know how Jesus was born? What if I told you that there may not have been angels singing to shepherds, or three wise men from the east, or that Jesus may not have been born in a stable, with animals all around him?

Do you know the story of when you were born, or when you first came home to the house you live in now? How do you know that’s what happened?

The truth is, it doesn’t really matter if that’s how it happened, what matters is that your family has bonded over telling and retelling that story because it represents something of how valuable you are to them.

That’s the case with the story of how Jesus was born, too. It doesn’t really matter that we don’t know exactly when and where he was born, or who the first visitors were. What matters is the number of people who have bonded over the story and how it represents how valuable Jesus has been to us.

There are reasons that certain stories get told over and over. I have a cousin who had an amazing birth. She was born premature. She fit in one of her father’s hands. But she was absolutely beautiful. She still is. And she is a very strong and capable person. She does well at everything she tries. But we often tell the story of when she was born, so tiny and so fragile and so beautiful

because it reinforces how much we love her and how proud we are about everything she has accomplished.

The story we heard this morning was from the gospel of Matthew.

Matthew’s community had a reason for telling the story of Jesus’ birth in this way, too. Matthew was born Jewish and believed very strongly that Judaism was

the best religion, that the God we all worship is explained in God’s truest sense in the Hebrew customs. There were people in the Jewish synagogues who wanted followers of Jesus to be banned from the Jewish communities. So Matthew told the story of Jesus’ life in such a way as to explain why he thought that Jesus’ followers should be allowed to be part of the Jewish community. He tried to prove that Jesus was what the Jews called the messiah, the one blessed by God to lead the Jewish people.

The Jewish scriptures, what we call the “Old” testament, had a whole bunch of things to say about who, what, and where the Messiah would come from. So Matthew’s community took these stories and what they could remember about when Jesus was born and put them together into this story.

First he deals with who the Jewish Messiah was supposed to be. The messiah was to come from the royal Hebrew line, from King David. So the Gospel of Matthew spends a good 15 verses showing how Jesus was descended from David. “Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Perez…etc.” In my family I would say that David was the father of Jerry and that Jerry was the father of Michelle and Michelle the mother of Jerri Lane…you see how it goes.

Then he deals with how the Messiah was supposed to be born. Obviously, the messiah was to be born in some miraculous way. Matthew finds a quote in the book of Isaiah that says that the savior, known as Immanuel, or “God with Us” was to have a mother who was not yet married. So in Matthew’s story Mary is not yet married when she finds out that she will have a son.

Next he talks about where the messiah was to be born. The scriptures had said that he would be born in Bethlehem of Judah. Matthew uses the story of the 3 Magi, or astrologers (people who study stars), who come following an unusual star that leads them to Bethlehem. Now the magi come bringing gifts. And the gifts help point to what Jesus was. Matthew has told us that Jesus was born where the Messiah was to be born, that he was born to the family from which the Messiah was to be born and that he was born in the way that the Messiah was to be born. So, what did the Magi bring? Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh. Matthew is telling us something about Jesus based on the types of gifts that they bring to him.

This Christmas my cousin, Blake, gave me a beautiful silver cross.

It’s very special to me because he is only 11 and he used his allowance money to buy it for me. It’s a great gift for me because I’m a minister and I wear a cross almost every day. Now it would have been weird if he gave it to my sister

because she’s not Christian and so doesn’t celebrate Jesus. It would be weird to even give her a Christmas present. You can tell something about me based in this gift that I received.

The Magi bring Jesus gold. What do you know about Gold? It’s expensive, exceedingly valuable. In fact gold was so valuable that it was a gift appropriate to royalty. The Magi also brought frankincense. What do you know about frankincense? It’s dried tree sap that was used in religious ceremonies. Frankincense would have been an appropriate gift to a priest or from a priest to God. A priest would offer it to God by burning it in the temple. And Myrrh. What do you know about Myrrh? Myrrh was a resin used to prepare a body for burial. Why do you think Matthew would have the Magi give Jesus a burial preparation? Because it points to the significance of the story of when Jesus died that Matthew wanted us to keep in mind when we hear the story of how he was born.

So, who does Matthew want us to believe that Jesus was? The Messiah.

Who do you believe that Jesus was? Your answer may change over time. Your faith in your answer may change over time, but his example of a life well lived, a love well given, will never diminish. Amen.