Janet’s Blog

Genesis 14:17-20, Rev 19:6-10, John 2:1-11

 

I wonder what was the best party that you ever went to?

We had a party in church and Box House last night as a launch, a beginning of something, and it was a very good party.

 

But I’m not sure if it was the best I’ve ever been to.

I think I really enjoyed Iona’s 6th birthday party, There are parties which I went to as a student which I really enjoyed. And there have been other times, times when a cup of tea and a piece of cake soon escalated into a party.

 

So what makes a good party?

Food is important, company is important, a sense of being able to relax and sometimes a sense of marking something important as was the case with Flo’s birthday party earlier in the year.

 

Today’s readings in effect tell the story of three parties, they each in their own way reflect the common themes of parties, food, company, peace and a sense of marking a transition.

 

Abram had to go to war. I don’t think it was what he particularly wanted to do but his nephew Lot had been taken captive and the only way to obtain freedom for his family members was for Abram to fight. He fought and he won. That sounds like a good old fashioned excuse for a party. This was however a party with a difference.

The king of Sodom came out to meet him. Then comes the mysterious Melchizedek. We don’t know much about Melchizedek and at this point in the story of Israel we are hearing mainly about Abram and his journey into montheism.

 So it does come as a bit of a surprise to hear that Melchizedek was a priest of God most high. They are having a meeting a celebratory party and what does Melchizedek bring?

Not what we might consider as particularly good party food. No sausage rolls, no cake, not even any canapes or some of Diana Northey’s famous asparagus pinwheels.

He brings bread and wine. Bread and wine, this is ringing lots of familiar bells for us.

We know about bread and wine, we know about the meal which will become the passover, we know that these will also be offerings in the temple, we know that when Jesus celebrates the passover feast with his friends they also will share bread and wine, the meaning of this sharing will grow and grow for them following the death and resurrection of Christ, and the formation of the church.

 

 But we know that because we have snuck ahead and read the last chapter of the book. But here we are right at the beginning of the story of the Israelites. Abram isn’t even Abraham yet but still we find Melchizedek  bringing bread and wine. And with the meal, with the party comes the blessing. Melchizedek  blesses Abram and blesses and remembers God’s role in all this, and Abraham responds by giving from his booty to Melchizedek sharing the gifts from God with his fellow believer in God.

And so on to our second party of blessing, right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus and his disciples had been invited to the wedding.

There’s the terrible disaster that they have run out of wine, now I know I need to be careful about what I say here in the Methodist church. They have run out of wine and Jesus miraculously makes them more.

Jesus loved parties, he was always going to parties, and if there wasn’t one already then he would start one.  I wonder which of the parties Jesus’ goes to in the Gospels is your favourite. Maybe it’s this wedding feast, maybe it’s the big picnic with thousands of people, maybe it’s the beach barbecue after the resurrection, maybe it’s the Last supper itself or maybe you like the bit where he says to Zaccheus, You get down from that tree, the party is at yours tonight.

Each of these parties show the common theme of parties, food, company, peace and a sense of marking a transition.

This passage in John is one of the passages in which you can enter into many theological debates. You can ask “Why did Jesus say to his mum, My time has not yet come.

Did Jesus insult Mary when he called her woman?

Why does Jesus make so much wine?

Why does Jesus make it in the jars which were used for ceremonial washing?

Why were there six jars and not a good Jewish story number like seven.

How did he do it?

Why was the wine so good when it could have been just OK wine?

We could spend the next twenty minutes discussing any one of these  but what happens at this party.

Is there company? Yes there is Jesus’ Mum and Jesus’ disciples, there must have been other people too. Cana is about six miles from Nazareth, not too far away, we never find out who is marrying whom, because this party has other bigger consequences.

This is the first of Jesus’ recorded miracles. Why did Mary ask him to do it? Was she just beign a good pushy Jewish Mum or did she realise after what had happened in the Jordan that his time had actually come after all?

 

The disciples were there, these were very new disciples, the reading suggests that this was the first or second day that they had been disciples of Jesus. They were at the wedding too, we don’t know if it was a mutual friend or relation or if they came because they were with Jesus.

 

So we have the company, so what about the food. Well actually it’s quite hard to talk about the food without beginning to speak about transition.

Jesus came to bring about change and transition, transition from the old to the new. To show everyone that God wants the best for us. So Jesus makes the best wine. The absolutely best wine, and in such abundance. This is a transition for everyone there who had been at the party of an unprepared host, and suddenly they find themselves with the best wine.

Some commentators make a lot of the number of jars. They say it’s six, a traditionally incomplete number which is then turned into completeness by the presence of Jesus.

Some commentators make a lot of the fact that these were ceremonial washing jars. Jesus is taking the duties of ceremonies, and sweeping them away instead filling the space with blessing.

Whatever we may think about those thoughts we do actually know what it was about. The transition of this party is that Jesus revealed his glory and his disciples put their faith in him.

This was part of us realising that God was for us and not against us, and an important journey for the disciples, and for Jesus as he makes his first steps into this public ministry.

So what about the party in Revelation, The angel said, Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

That seems an odd phrase but remember Jesus is called the Lamb of God as he goes to be baptised by John.

Behold the lamb of God.

Lamb strangely enough is not a traditional sin offering, a ram or sheep or goat but not a lamb. A lamb indicates Passover, where the curse of death is removed or taken away but he presence of the lamb.

So company in heaven, John’s revelation has plenty of company, what sounded like a great multitude, and shouting. The sort of exceptionally loud party to which in other circumstances one might call the Police.

However the company of multitudes, and food, well not specified but we do know there will be food because it is described as a feast or a supper. The transition, the transition in the vision is that John is moved to a new desire to worship.

So what of today how can we be transformed by our parties.

When we come together we meet and we share the company of one another, we are commanded and expected to come together in worship. We come together us humans, but secure in the promise that God is also with us, and so for our company we have us and God.

As for food, we have in some services, communion and eating and drinking together later brings us together, we also have spiritual food of the scriptures, prayers and hymns and songs.

So what about the transition, I guess that will be different for all of us. When you leave here today you won’t be the same as when you came in.

 

 

Just in case any of you think I’m slacking with my blog, I was on holiday on 18th January so no sermons to post…

For one of the confirmation classes last year the homework was, read the whole of Mark’s gospel by next week.

One of the results of this homework was a revelation for me in the understanding of this passage.

Why?

Because apparently ‘God is a chav…’

And why is God a chav?

Because he says “You are my son, whom I love, with you I am WELL pleased”

I was mainly impressed by the fact that they had all conscientiously done their homework, but it does show that however familiar you are with a passage sometimes it takes someone else’s point of view for it to give you a new insight.

So today, as they say, we begin at the beginning.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Simple, we are so used to this statement we forget to see how radical it is.

It is quite different from the other Ancient Near Eastern Creation stories which often contain a lot of violence, where the world was believed to be created for example by one deity being cut in half by another deity. Instead of this creation from violence we have this simple statement, ‘God did it.’

So the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The Spirit of God, there, right at the beginning, however you try to understand the Spirit of God, your understanding will only be an approximation, some way of trying to understand how God acts in his Spirit in the world.

So the Spirit is hovering over the waters, and God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

God saw that the light was good, and separated the light from the darkness.

The Spirit with the water involved in the creation right at the beginning of time, and the result was good.

Good is an interesting concept, how do we know that something is good, or beautiful. In the classic book Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance this is the concern of the main character. He calls this a philosophical ‘quality’,  somehow we seem to know that something is good,  somehow we know that something is beautiful. This is a very difficult question for an atheist, how can we know that something is good, or beautiful, especially something of which we don’t have previous experience yet still we seem to know.

This is not such a difficult question for a Christian because if we believe that we are made in the image of God then something of God’s appreciation of good will be inherent in us. Just like God saw that the light was good, so we will have some idea of good.

There are many different ways to understand the symbolism of Baptism, and because it’s a symbol it can of course have a multi layered meaning.

John was preaching a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus comes to be baptised.

We know that Jesus is sinless, so why is he being baptised?

In Genesis we hear how the combination of water and the Spirit of God is the beginning of creation, the beginning of new life, the good beginning of life.

For those people who come in repentance for their sins, this is what they are hoping for, for the beginning of a new creation for them, for a new life, a good new beginning.

Jesus comes at the beginning of his ministry he is in need of support in his new beginning , he may not be in need of repentance from sins, but he is in need of re-creation at the beginning of his ministry. God gives this amazing sign, the Spirit of God descends on Jesus like a dove, and the voice comes from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.”

The water and the Spirit have come together to build up Jesus at the beginning of his earthly ministry. This time of new creation which in one real sense begins at day one here, as the light at the beginning of the creation story and this story will culminate with the death and resurrection, and with the resurrection we will have life in all its fullness and then again God will see that it is good.

Baptism is the beginning of new life, a new creation, Jesus didn’t need repentance washing, but we do.

I am reminded of the chorus of the Liverpool lullaby

Oh you are a mucky kid

Dirty as a dustbin lid

When he hears the things that you did

Youll get a belt from your dad

We know that we do need washing, we get a chance to be clean.

In a way this goes back to the inherent understanding of good, if we know what it is to be good we will also know what it is to be not good. We call this conscience, and you could argue that it is inherently cultural, but there is also something else, something inside us, something which knows what’s good and what’s not good.

The phrase “you scrub up well” annoys me, I think because I like to think people shouldn’t be judged on their outward appearances, although, of course often they are. God knows that we will scrub up well, but we will scrub up well when we come to repentance. God washes us clean, he doesn’t give us a belt when he hears the things we did, he gives us the opportunity to be clean, to have a new beginning, to be washed.

Where does that leave us then?

Many of us here were baptised, for some of us we remember it well, for others it was an event for us before we remember. We are a church community of the baptised. In our church rituals we don’t come to be baptised every week. But we do come to repentance, we come to that place where we acknowledge things have gone wrong in our lives, and we rely on God’s grace as he promised to bring us new life, a new beginning. Sometimes we are all dried up and we seem to have lost this new life of the spirit and the water. So we need to come to God again asking for his grace, asking to be touched by his Spirit, we need to come back to the river.

To end, some lyrics from a Delirious song.

Find me in the river

Find me there

Find me on my knees with my soul laid bare

Even though you’re gone and I’m cracked and dry

Find me in the river, I’m waiting here

 

To try to keep my blog more up to date!

You will all be able to see the outcome of this resolution hmnnn…

John 2:1-11

There is a risk that if you were in Weillington you might just recognise a substantial part of this sermon…

Imagine the scene, in the late 1980s a group of volunteer cooks are working hard to prepare a meal for the hundred or so teenage Christians gathered on a Christian holiday. They are working in a rather shabby private school kitchen. Joy the chief cook, has organised the cooking of enormous quantities of shepherd’s pie, but as the time draws near the chips to accompany cannot be found in the walk in freezer, each of Joy’s assistants goes in turn to look for the chips and returns chipless, eventually they are reconciled that the chips must have missed the delivery of frozen foods somehow. Five minutes before lunch, Joy and one of the others go into the freezer to look for something else.

 

Joy of course finds the chips, the other person exclaims loudly, ‘It’s a miracle.’ Joy replies, ‘No, it’s not a miracle, If it was a miracle they would be in the fryer and hot!’ As for the ravenous hoards, they had bread with the shepherds pie.

 

In today’s gospel we hear the story of Jesus’ first miracle, and it’s to do with food. It was of course as Joy had correctly observed in the nature of miracles, food, well wine, served at exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

 

The miracle takes place in Cana, in central Galilee, Jesus is there with his mother and his disciples. When Mary notices that the wine has run out. Jesus says

 

‘Woman, what concern is that to you and me.’

 

Much theological angst has been wrought over this phrase. Firstly with the word ‘Woman’ some have interpreted this to be disrespectful of Mary, but actually this term is not necessarily disrespectful.

 

Then the

‘what concern is that to you and to me?’

 

Some of you may be familiar with the comedian Catherine Tate and her classic stroppy teenager with the catch phrase ‘Am I bovvered’, ‘Do I look bovvered,’ Is Jesus bovvered? well of course Jesus is not a stroppy teenager, he is a man of a certain age, feeling his way in to his destiny. We can actually only guess at what he meant when he said ‘My hour has not yet come’ did he think he wasn’t ready, did he know what lay in front of him, the extent to which Jesus the man knew that he was God is a huge area of theological debate.

 

Whatever the answers to these really difficult questions the result was the same, Jesus turned huge amounts of water, bathfulls of water, into wine, not just cheap stuff that would do, but the best wine, the steward comments on its quality.

 

Why did Jesus do it? This gracious action on behalf of his host, when it appeared at first perhaps that he wouldn’t do it. There are some suggestions that by this action he was out doing the pagan god Dionysis, who had a reputation for turning things into wine, but there was Jesus actually doing it. Some suggest that this miracle shows Jesus’ approval of marriage in particular and parties in general. Some suggest that this reflects the imagery of wine in the Old Testament and shows how Jesus himself is the good wine which has been kept back and is now available. We have in our possession a fridge magnet which says ‘life is too short to drink bad wine.’ Jesus came to bring life, and life in all its fullness and that is what in many ways this miracle reflects.

 

Throughout this beginning of John’s gospel there are descriptions of miracles. Miracles which show the amazing quality of God’s grace shown in Jesus. Jesus’ miracles start off here for the Jews but they go on to include gentiles as well. The miracles show ‘Gods scandalous grace to the kosher and the unkosher’

 

‘Gods scandalous grace to the kosher and the unkosher’

 

I wonder if your life has ever been touched by a miracle, when something has happened which you weren’t expecting. Have you ever had that experience, has something happened which has been full of God’s scandalous grace. Have you ever been in that situation where the chips were indeed ‘in the fryer and hot’, where the water is suddenly and expectedly the best wine overflowing the tub? What about that friend or relation who amazed the doctors and lived?

 

In many ways life itself seems a miracle, an act of God’s scandalous grace which is impossible to understand. When we reflect on the journey which Jesus undertakes from this point, how he leads not just a few people at a wedding feast, not just the odd demoniac, or leper, he leads us all, everybody in humankind into God’s scandalous grace.

 

What happens as the result of Jesus’ miracle in Cana? God’s glory is revealed and the disciples believed. When we reflect on the miraculous things around us and the scandalous grace of God may God’s glory be revealed to us, and may we also believe.

 

 

 

Isaiah 60:1-6,

Psalm 72:10-15

Matthew 2:1-12

 

I wonder what is your favourite song from the spice girl stable?

 

Maybe it’s the original “wannabe”, or perhaps the classic “who do you think you are?”

 

My favourite is not a spice girl group song but one which Mel C sang called “Never be the same again”.

 

Why do I like it?

 

Well musically it’s quite catchy, helped of course by the fact that Mel C is one of the girls who really can sing, also it has that catchy rap interlude in the middle, by Lisa what’s her name, but I think I like it because it is SO true we all have moments, times when something changes, something shifts and we know that life will never be the same again. Sometimes it might take only the touch of a button or the utterance of one word, or sometimes it is the culmination of a great effort and sometimes it is something which is done to us, rather than something which is instigated by us but all these things mean that life will never be the same again.

 

Looking up Epiphany in the dictionary first of all you get the church festival celebrated on 6^th January in commemoration of the manifestation of Christ to the wise men of the East. Useful, so today is the 4^th and not the 6^th but it is perfectly OK for us to transfer this to the Sunday. So that is what we celebrate today, the manifestation of Christ to these wise men.

 

Good, then the definition carries on and includes a sudden revelation or insight into the nature, essence or meaning of something.

 

An Epiphanic moment, the epi means to in greek and phainein means to show. The epiphanic moment is when it is shown to you.

 

So when was the last time you had an epiphanic moment? When was something shown to you which gave you a sudden revelation or insight into the nature, essence or meaning of something?

 

It could have been the moment you suddenly realised, why am I doing something this way when if I did it that way it would be so much better?

 

One sunny November day in 2001 I was driving up the A46 to Cirencester when I had an Epiphanic moment and realised that we should sell our house near Bristol and move to Cirencester. This may at first sound complete madness but it was absolutely the right thing to do, and we did it, Ian was a little surprised when after the meeting we’d been at I told him we had to move house, but since it actually made perfect sense he got used to it.

 

Epiphanic moments are often associated with journeys and I guess that brings us back to these wise men.

 

First of all God had shown then the star, I wonder how epiphanic that had been for them. It seems that it would have been a sudden revelation, this is the New King’s star we must go.

 

The Old testament passages today talk about the tribute journeys which were made in Old testament times, how people would travel distances brining fine gifts in tribute to a wise or special King or person.

 

So the Kings come, they come to bring gifts to this new king, their journey is not perhaps what they expected.  Like those in the old testament passages they bring gold and incense to pay tribute. They get to the palace in Jerusalem and he’s not there. They thought that they understood God’s plan, they thought they had it mapped out, New King he is in that direction, let’s get to the palace and there he will be the new King.

 

Sometimes we think we know what God has God planned we think we know how something is going to turn out, we think we will do this and God will do that and so this will result, we will arrive in a place and then this will happen.

 

This is often not the case.

 

There is at least one liturgical writer in the Church of England who admits that he had false hopes about the impact of the new language services that were introduced into the Church of England in 1980. He says there was such an air of expectation that this would b the trigger that would have people flooding into church, where actually it was all a lot more complicated than that. It’s not that is was a bad thing, just that it didn’t bring about the mass influx of common folk into the church buildings that some people thought was God’s plan, God had other plans.

 

God has plans for the Magi, they do not get what they were expecting but they will not be disappointed. God will not disappoint their vision, he will not betray their Epiphany. 

 

Herod sends them to the child, he sends them to search for Jesus, to a small town. Where Herod sends them the star goes too. This is not just a human message, God is revealing the way to them, he is showing them every step of the way even when it doesn’t lead them to where they thought they were going originally.

 

They see God’s hand in the sky guiding them, when they saw the star they were overjoyed,

 

When they get to the house, they see Jesus and they bowed down and worshipped him, they gave him their treasures. Then they go on their way.

 

But they do not go on their way back via Herod, God says No.

 

The wise men go home, they go home maybe a little wiser, maybe a little sadder when they hear what Herod has done, they go home knowing that they had done what God what God had called them to do, and knowing that even if things hadn’t been exactly as they had expected all had come to pass, they had seen the child and worshipped him.

 

For the wise men things, as Mel C so wisely sang, will never be the same again.

 

There is a joke which goes something like this, someone asks a fellow in the country for directions, the fellow says, well if I was going there I wouldn’t start from here…

 

This joke is only funny in a tragic way because we can all only start from where we are. There is nothing we can do about that. We start from where we are.

 

The wise men started from where they were, actually the moment that they took that first step on the way, things would never be the same for them, and by the time they returned I wonder how they had changed, the journey they had taken had not been exactly what they had expected, but all the same God had not disappointed them.

 

And so where are we this Epiphany?

 

Ha s God revealed something new to us this Christmas season, was something shown to you  which gave you a sudden revelation or insight into the nature, essence or meaning of something?

 

Maybe we are about to take that step that step which will begin the things which will make us never the same again?

Maybe we have arrived a the palace and what we thought was happening is not exactly what we were expecting and we feel we are waiting for the advisors of a dubious king to come back and give us directions, and we have lost sight of the star momentarily.

 

Maybe we are there, maybe we are there at the stable worshipping, but knowing that God will soon send us on an unfamiliar road…

 

That which God shows us is true, he will not disappoint us, things may not be quite what we were expecting, we may have our vision clouded, our star may be hidden by cloud momentarily.

 

Let us follow diligently the Epiphany journey of the wise men.

 

We follow the way that God shows us,

 

we travel knowing that with each step we will never be the same again,

 

and we travel and God will not disappoint us.

 

 

John 1:1-14,

Isaiah 52:7-10,

 

Hebrews 1:1-4

 

What does it mean that God became human?

What does it mean that God who created the universe is suddenly this little baby, taking his first sharp breaths of air from which the amniotic fluid has just been squeezed.

It means that God is suddenly reliant on humans for his plan, humans to care for and look after this child, this hope this way to salvation, this baby the fulfilment of a thousand years of prophecies.

It means that Jesus would first learn to feed, and then shortly to smile, he would know pain and joy.

At our Advent family service we asked the question, if Jesus didn’t have a skateboard as a toy when he was a boy what would he have had, and one of our youngest members suggested roller skates.

When Jesus was born and grew up, he was human like us.

He got hungry and thirsty, he needed to relieve himself, he got tired and dirty, and when he walked a long way his feet would hurt. He liked going to parties, and he liked being with friends, and sometimes he needed to be alone.

Jesus knows, God knows what it is like to be human. He knows grief, we know he wept when he heard that his friend Lazarus had died, he knew the pain of rejection, people told bad things about him behind his back, people didn’t understand him.  He loved his Mum and asked his friends to look after her after he had died.

 

God knows everything about being human, apart from of course Jesus was without sin.

There are two people in the bible who have no biological father. Adam and Jesus, Adam did sin, he did things wrong, he put barriers between himself and God. God’s original plan to hang out in the garden with some naked vegetarians went wrong when the humans chose a different way. They chose to turn away from God.

Jesus though is God. How that worked is a mystery and the Gospel reading tonight tries to help us understand it, by using the language of imagery, of light and darkness, of creation and hope.

Could Jesus have understood that he was God and remained fully human? That’s a favourite theology essay for undergraduates, or rather their lecturers who set it. I don’t think we can really understand the answer to that question. We can know some things, other things will remain a mystery.

So why God in human flesh? So God can say I know how you feel? In one way,  yes. So God can show us how to live? In one way, yes. So that since we turned away God can provide the way for us to come back to him? Yes, that’s it.

Jesus’ death and resurrection will break death’s hold on humankind, and provide the way for us to eternal life, to be with God forever.

John describes it like this, “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. “

So do we go back to being the naked vegetarians wandering in the garden, is heaven like that.

I don’t know.

What would being a child of God mean to you?

God cares for his children unconditionally, they are with him all the time, and never have to go away.

Would it mean a huge football pitch to play with the other children? Would it mean sitting at table with everyone in the feast.

Would it mean having a room where you could sleep and get a good rest, a place to be.

There are lots of images of heaven, glimpses which God grants to different people, we don’t really know what it will be like, but we know that Jesus came to reconcile us to God.

This is why God came as a child. This is why God came as a child who would learn to smile and cry and talk and walk and run and cook and grow.

This is why God came as a child.

So that we could all be children of God.

 

 

Nine lessons - you know what they are….

God had some good news.

 

The sort of good news that you really need to keep a secret for just a little bit longer.

 

Because you can’t tell everybody just yet, the time isn’t right and it needs to be a secret.

 

The problem with this sort of good news is that it fills you up inside, and makes you shake and the more you think you can’t tell anyone the worse it becomes and you know you know you just have to tell someone.

 

God couldn’t keep this good news entirely secret any more, he couldn’t manage not to tell anybody, he needed to tell someone, and so he told, some shepherds and some wise men.

 

Some shepherds and some wise men?

 

Some shepherds and some wise men?

 

This was important good news, news which would shake the foundations of the world, this baby was destined for greatness, glory, death and resurrection and the salvation of the world.

 

Surely God should be letting some important people know.

 

Surely he should be leaving a memo by mistake on the photocopier in Herod’s palace in Jerusalem, or even sending an aide to have a cappuccino with the Emperor’s people in Rome.

 

He should be sending a messenger to the civil service, and when the question is asked about the importance of this baby, the messenger could say, ‘I couldn’t possibly comment’, in  a highly meaningful way.

 

But none of this consultation in political high places, physical high laces instead a hillside near Bethlehem, and an observatory thousands of miles away are the two places where the news is picked up.

 

Shepherding used to be a noble profession, the profession of the ancient Israelites, even the profession of King David before all that harp playing and kingly stuff. But by the time of Jesus’ birth shepherds had become the lowest of the low in Jewish society, people working late on night shift, poor pay, poor conditions, often uneducated, and in danger of attack by predators, if ever somebody needed some good news it was these people.

 

Even so I imagine it was quite a surprise when the angels appeared. They hadn’t won the lottery but the angels said this is better than that, this is about God coming to turn the world upside down like he promised he would. And he’s showing that partly by telling you guys first. God values the poor and the undervalued, and this is how it is going to be. And so the Shepherds go and see the baby, and come back rejoicing. God has shared his secret with them, with those who have most to gain from his heavenly kingdom, no more being despised or looked down because God has come to save you all.

 

Then the wise men, so they were probably not Kings, we don’t actually know that there were three of them just three gifts, and it is possible, although unlikely that they were not all male. But there are some things we are sure of, they were not Jews, and they had come a long way to worship this new King. They go to the palace first of all, and find the baby isn’t there, the advisors say, No, No, it’s Bethlehem you need. Jerusalem is not far from Bethlehem, but not one of the people from Herod’s court goes with them to find this King, instead they wait for the wise men to come back and report.

 

What are these people doing here? God has shared his good news with them, and they are excited too, they make a long journey, probably from Tehran, to see the cause of this good news. They are not disappointed.

 

So the secret is out to these few, well Mary and Joseph know as well, then there is the waiting, God will let a few others in on the good news, he can’t quite help himself, Simeon and Anna, Elizabeth already suspects, but then comes the waiting.

 

It’s going to happen God says, it’s going to be great, this good news won’t stay to myself, but soon enough in cosmic time everyone will know, Everyone will know how much I love them and how this little baby will grow into a perfect and wise man, who people will try to get rid of by killing him and when death loses it’s hold on him, death will lose it’s hold on humanity for ever.

 

God is so excited that this part of the plan has begun he can’t help telling someone, he chooses to tell some shepherd’s the despised, and some wise people who aren’t Jews, because God’s plan is good news for everyone, not just the religious, not just the clever, not just those in good society and not just the Jews, but everyone.

 

Now it’s not a secret anymore, God has told us his good news too, his good news that he loves us and that we can have new and eternal life for ever because of his plan.

 

God says to each of us, ‘I’ve got some good news, and I’ve just got to tell you…’