Sermon Echoes - A Baby Changes Everything

 

    

It may seem strange to be hearing about the Wisemen's arrival this past week. 

Christmas may seem so last year (😊)  

We are into a new year with new hopes and dreams  

But the message of Christmas –

    the message of HOPE,  PEACE, LOVE, and JOY is for all days  

As is the Good News of Salvation – 

     life abundant now and life eternal is the promise received by the incarnation of Christ.  

Pastor, Theologian, and Poet Howard Thurman says it best in his poem, The Work of Christmas  

 

THE WORK OF CHRISTMAS 

When the song of the angels is stilled,  

When the star in the sky is gone,  

When the kings and princes are home,  

When the shepherds are back with their flock,  

The work of Christmas begins: 

To find the lost, 

To heal the broken, 

To feed the hungry, 

To release the prisoner, 

To rebuild the nations, 

To bring peace among others, 

To make music in the heart. 

    The Visit of the Wisemen has significant theological meaning for all of us. The star invited visitors from far away to announce to the religious leaders and the royalty the Messiah had been born. Talk about epiphany right! The text says that Herod was terrified and all of Jerusalem with him. They had gotten used to their power, The Religious leaders used to their seat at the table, used to lining their pockets with a little of what Ceasar took. And this baby,  if word got out about this baby, a messiah being born to fulfill the scripture… this baby would change everything.

It is very True, a Baby changes everything. This baby came to bring that change. Jesus came to usher in the way of God. We have read about it as our liturgical year got underway in the declarations of the Prophets, In the Magnificant of Mary, the angel's song to the shepherds, in the way he came. 
Friends, Jesus brings the change that shows us the way of God. Jesus' teachings turned the establishment on its head and demonstrated a love that tore down barriers to allow us in, to allow all people in. Jesus first message would be a reading of Isaiah 

   The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,  because the Lord has anointed me. 

He has sent me to preach good news to the poor, 

    to proclaim release to the prisoners 

    and recovery of sight to the blind, 

    to liberate the oppressed, 

¹⁹    and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 

Jesus closed up the scroll and announced he was the fulfillment of this passage.

Jesus came to bring about change  

Change through healing and wholeness  

Change through a rearrangement of how people were treated.  

This babe in the manger 

This child the Wisemen traveled over the continent to see  

This son of God – changed everything for the world.

"A Baby Changes Everything"     Faith Hill

A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition

The Wesleyan Covenant Prayer was adapted by John Wesley, the co-founder of Methodism (along with his brother, Charles) for the renewal of the believer's covenant with God. Wesley wrote the prayer was first used in a covenant renewal service held on Monday, August 11, 1755, in London, with 1800 people present. Since then, the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer has often been used by the people called Methodists around the world in services throughout the year but especially at the start of a new year. 

I invite us to pray this and make this covenant together as an opportunity to re-commit to our work to bring about grace-filled, loving, and redeeming change to others this year.

(Contemporary Version)

I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you,

Praised for you or criticized for you.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service.

And now, O wonderful and holy God,

Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,

you are mine, and I am yours.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

Let it also be made in heaven. Amen.

You can print this prayer to keep with you throughout the year. by following the link here