Dreams to Protect and Guide - Matthew 2

 This morning, we meet Magi following a star looking for the divine king the star’s pointing to. They follow the star to Jerusalem, assuming that a king would be born in a palace, and end up at Herod’s palace. Along the way they encounter people who only pretend to worship or pledge allegiance to Jesus.

Imagine the surprise of Herod when these scholars from the East come and ask to see this new king and it’s not one of his sons! Herod quickly calls his own wise men to tell him where this new king is! Herod’s cunning, he calls the Magi and shares with them what his scholars discovered, “For this is what the prophet has written, But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” Herod tells the Magi, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” Herod wants the Magi find the child, tell him where he is, and then kill this threat to his throne. Herod’s focused on keeping power and control and is willing to use lies, force, and violence to keep power.

The Magi set their sights on Bethlehem. As the sun sets and the stars appear, they see the star again and are overjoyed. They follow it to the house where Jesus and his parents are living and see the child Jesus with his mother Mary; they bow down and worship him, knowing that this is the child-king anointed by God. 

They unpack the gifts they had brought for Jesus; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Each gift is given symbolic meaning by the early church; gold for a king, frankincense so prayers might go up to God on its fragrant smoke, and myrrh points to Jesus’ suffering and death as it was used to anoint the bodies of the dead. The Magi give valuable gifts to honour Jesus and acknowledge him as the divine king of the Jews. 

The Magi offer some of their best to Jesus. How do we normally come before our king, and what gifts we offer to him? Who do we offer our loyalty and allegiance to; what are the most important things in our lives; is Jesus even close to the top of our lists? This past week we celebrated Christmas and we offered plenty of our wealth on the altar of commerce. What do we bring to our king as we come to him? We reveal our hearts by where we offer our gifts of wealth, time, and talents. The Magi’s gifts reveal their hearts and loyalty. We’re called to give our lives over to Jesus; not simply trying harder to be good or nice. God now tells the Magi in a dream to not return to Herod, so they go home by another route. 

Herod now murders the boys in Bethlehem up to the age of 2. Matthew uses the words of the prophet Jeremiah to express the pain here, "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." A high school student in Thunder Bay was angry over this story. She asked, "Why does God only save Jesus, why doesn't he save the other boys?" She wondered if God didn't care enough. These are honest questions. The question "why" is a powerful question and often comes out of pain. There are evil people in the world; sin has been around ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Satan’s able to lead some people to do great acts of evil; Herod’s only one example, his cruelty extended to murdering 3 of his own sons when they threatened his throne. At his death, Herod commanded his soldiers to murder one member of each family so that the whole nation would mourn when he died. 

The Bible doesn't hide from the hard things of life. God acknowledges the pain in life, the tears shed by people as suffering that enters into every life at some time or another. The people of Matthew's time know that the history of God's people is filled with blood and tears, but they also know that God hears the cries of his people, sees their tears, and responds.

Matthew's reference to Rachel weeping for her children refers to the pain and suffering the people of Israel experienced when they were taken into exile by the Babylonian Empire hundreds of years earlier. As you read further in Jeremiah, God offers hope, "This is what the Lord says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. “They will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your descendants,” declares the Lord. “Your children will return to their own land. “… Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the Lord." Mathew, in quoting Jeremiah, points to the return of Jesus from Egypt, as Israel had. 

 An angel comes to Joseph in a dream and tells him to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt until it’s safe. Joseph obeys, faithfully bringing his family to a place of safety. They spend time in Egypt, likely in Alexandria where there was a large Jewish population. There’s always been a complicated relationship between Israel and Egypt as we see in Isaiah 19:23–25, “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.” God has bigger plans than we often realize, plans that include blessing other nations. When it’s safe again, God comes to Joseph and tells him it’s time to go home. When Joseph arrives in Judea, God directs him to go to Galilee, away from Herod’s equally evil son. Joseph settles in Nazareth where Jesus can be raised in safety to grow into his call to become king.

The scholar Rodney Reeves in his commentary explains that Matthew’s Christmas story reflects a confrontation between kingdoms, “The story of Jesus’s birth is more than a narrative of Israel’s covenant story coming true. It’s about two kingdoms colliding, two irrepressible forces clashing. The kingdom of heaven invading earth. The reign of God versus the rule of men. Herod against Joseph.” The early church hears an echo back to Moses being saved to lead God’s people to freedom, as God now saves Jesus from Herod to lead God's people out of our slavery to sin. 

That clash of kingdoms still continues today. Augustine writes that there are two cities, the City of God and the City of Man. Augustine writes, “Two loves have made the two cities. Love of self, even to the point of contempt for God, made the earthly city; and love of God, even to the point of contempt for self, made the heavenly city.” These cities are what they love.” Herod’s in love with power, control, and himself, using fear and cruelty to hold onto power. Earthly kingdoms focus on pleasing enough people to stay in power, not on God’s will or desires. Jesus brings in the kingdom of heaven where love of God comes first and then flows into love of other. God’s kingdom is a kingdom of willing sacrifice, creating places and people of shalom, with Jesus as king and saviour, as symbolized in the Lord’s Supper. These two kingdoms contrast each other and we’re called to choose which kingdom to belong to. 

No matter what’s going on, no matter how evil man can be, God’s in control of all things, including our suffering. God doesn’t let us suffer because he doesn’t love us, rather, he meets us in our suffering and promises to carry us through it. Jesus won’t always change our circumstances, but he’s the resurrection and the life and weeps with us when evil hurts us. Often, we can’t understand why we suffer or experience evil, yet we trust that God’s working for our ultimate good. God gives us the church family to walk with us, support us, weep with us. Jesus also experienced evil. The gospels show that every indignity and evil was done to Jesus, yet Jesus never yields to evil. He never strikes back, never fights evil with evil, he responds in love. In the end, he defeats all the forces of evil, establishing the kingdom of heaven. We can choose the kingdom focused on keeping power for the few on the backs of the many, or we can choose the kingdom of shalom for all rather than the few, the kingdom focused on following God’s desire for all creation. Do you choose Herod or Jesus as your king?

God works through dreams to Joseph and the Magi. The lives of the wise men, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus himself are spared because they paid attention to the dreams God sent. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures to guide us to the child in the manger, the king whom wisemen worshipped; the Son of God come to save his people. 

Like Those Who Dreamed - Psalm 126; Luke 2:1-20

It’s Christmas! Some dream for a white Christmas, others for a Hawaiian Christmas. It’s a time of gift giving and a favourite time to get engaged, fulfilling dreams. So how does Psalm 126 fit into a day like today? James Mead writes, “Think of all the times we have heard someone say — or we ourselves have said — “I don’t know how I should feel during the holidays.” The mix of conflicting emotions and the memory of past blessings obscured by current crises can leave us feeling disconnected from our moorings. Psalm 126 … assures them that someone understands how they feel and, more importantly, can offer them hope.” Christmas is a time of hope and joy for most people, and I’ve had many of those joyous Christmases, but have also experienced loss and grief during Christmas; making Christmas a time of mixed and confusing feelings. 

Psalm 126 is a psalm of ascent, one of the psalms sung by the people as they travelled to Jerusalem. It’s a psalm of joy to the Lord for the favour he’s shown Israel in restoring them. It’s believed that this psalm was written after the return to Jerusalem after the 70 years of exile in Babylon. During those 70 years of slavery, the people could only dream of freedom and home. Now, as they travel the road home, “their mouths are filled with laughter and tongues with songs of joy.” 

The people know that this is something the Lord has done. It begins with Nehemiah hearing news from Jerusalem, Nehemiah 1:2–3, “Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” Nehemiah prays to the Lord to bring his people home again. Deuteronomy 2–3 was likely part of his prayer, reminding the Lord “and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.” 

God uses King Artaxerxes to restore Israel, allowing them to go home to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. Can you imagine the excitement and joy as the Israelites head home! The peoples’ dreams of going home are coming true. Our dreams always promise us more than we normally end up getting though. It’s hard; not everyone is able to go home, many stay behind in Babylon. Still God’s people celebrate. The nations around Israel make it hard for the Israelites, yet even they have to admit that Israel’s God is doing great things for his people. When the temple’s rebuilt, there’s celebration and yet the older people weep because it’s so much less than Solomon’s temple. Reality is much less than their dreams. The fortunes of Zion were never fully restored, even though they could go home, they still weren’t really free. The restoration is still incomplete. 

The psalmist knows this, “Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” The Negev’s a desert. The streams in the Negev were undependable and relied on rainfall, which don’t happen often or regularly. The psalmist continues with this image, the tears of those who sow will nourish the dry soil so the seeds will grow and bring joy as they harvest the sheaves. Our hope this Christmas day is found in the coming of Jesus. We know that the sorrow and pain which is still part of our world, finds healing in the coming of Jesus.

On this Christmas Day, we celebrate with joy the coming of the Son of God who brings light into our darkness, and is the living water that nourishes our hearts and souls. We now experience the fulness of life that’s only found in the Messiah. Israel’s been dreaming for the coming of the Messiah for thousands of years and now the dreams are fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. In Luke, we see God sending angels to shepherds working in the fields, to an old priest, a young teen girl, and a righteous man, preparing them for the coming of the Messiah. There’s no place in the rest of Scripture where so many people in such a short time encounter God’s messengers at the same time. In each of the encounters, a message of good news is shared: The Messiah’s on his way! The people will be filled with joy as the dreams are fulfilled. Isaiah foretells, old men will dream dreams and young men see visions, signs that the kingdom of heaven is nearby. 

In the past 4 weeks, we’ve been given glimpses of the type of Messiah coming through the dreams of Jacob, Joseph, Solomon, and Daniel. Today we meet the Christ they’re pointing to: the bridge connecting us to God, the one to whom everyone will bow, the wisdom of God who comes to live with us, the rock that rolls in to establish the eternal kingdom of heaven. All their dreams become real, bringing “good news of great joy that will be for all the people, news of a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”

Israel’s dreams come to life in Jesus. Jesus brings freedom from the oppression of sin, healing for their souls. He comes to restore the fortunes of his people, to restore their relationship with God, and to lead them to be the people God has called them to be among the nations. As followers of Jesus, we receive these gifts as well.

Pastor Peter Slofstra writes, “Does the news of Jesus' birth leave you wondering whether you are dreaming a dream that's too good to be true? Wonder no longer. The dreams and the reality are the same. The kind of glorious, terrifying, mind-boggling event that only seems possible in dreams has actually taken place. You are wide awake and Jesus the Savior has been born…. for from God's messenger we learn that all our dreams find their fulfillment in Jesus. And like the captives brought back to Zion and the shepherds returning to their fields, we are "like those who dream" (Ps. 126). The great fortune-restoring thing God has done for us through the birth of Jesus has "filled our mouths with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy."

Psalm 126 was sung as the people journeyed to Jerusalem. It inspired them to praise the Lord even when they knew that the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and their situation was still difficult; yet still they sang praise to the Lord. As we look at the world around us, as we reflect on our own dreams and situations, it’s still not the way many of us dream it should be, and yet we keep praising God, knowing that he’s in control and is working his plan of redemption and restoration of all creation. We look to the return of Jesus and the making of all things new again. We get glimpses of hope. I think of Christmas Eve 1914. The Imperial War Museum describes what happened, “Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches. The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man's land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man's land dwindled out.” In the midst of war, the soldiers remember the hope of Jesus’ birth and for a moment enemies celebrate the coming of God with us. We live in the hope of Christmas day and Jesus’ return as the King of Peace.

We dream today for the glorious day of Jesus’ return. John writes in Revelation 21:2–5, “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” May your Christmas be filled with the joy and peace of our Lord!

The Rock that Really Rolls - Daniel 2:24-47

Daniel’s story echoes the stories of Jacob, Joseph, and Solomon in some interesting ways. Jacob’s and Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams are both about the connection between heaven and earth, Daniel’s given the ability to interpret dreams as was Joseph and both were called to interpret dreams for Gentile kings, and like Solomon, Daniel’s respected for his wisdom. 

Our story this morning begins a few verses earlier when King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and challenges his wisemen, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means. If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into pieces of rubble.” The wisemen can’t do it and the king orders their execution. It seems Daniel wasn’t there, as we read in verses 14-16, “When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.”

Daniel goes to God and God gives him the dream and its meaning. Daniel appears before the king and the king challenges him, “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?” Daniel’s honest and tells the king that he can’t, but his God can and did, since God gave the king this dream. Daniel tells the king, “As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.” Daniel then tells the king his dream of the statue and the rock and its meaning. 

What a dream! Nebuchadnezzar saw a large statue with a head of gold, its chest and arms made of silver, with a belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet made up of a mixture of iron and clay. The statue changes from wealth to power to fragile. The shocking part of the dream is the rock, unlike the statue, is not cut out by human hands and strikes the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashes them, completely destroying the statue that the wind sweeps it away. Meanwhile the rock grows until it fills the whole earth. 

The king listens as Daniel tell him the dream, and Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that the king is the head of gold. But Daniel also tells Nebuchadnezzar that it wasn’t through his own power and ability that he’s this wealthy powerful king, but that Israel’s God has made him the king of kings with dominion and power and might and glory, ruler over all mankind and creatures. Daniel’s speaking spiritual truth into the power of the world. The language Daniel uses to describe Nebuchadnezzar echoes biblical language that points to Jesus, but with a huge difference, Jesus’ kingdom is eternal while Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom is not. This is a reminder and warning for God’s people to not put their faith in human rulers, for at some point they all fall or die. We’ve seen this in the fall of the government in Syria, the uncertainty in the governments of countries like Germany and France, and even our own Canadian government. There’s the temptation to look with fondness to the governments of other countries, but they too are only temporary.

There are mighty empires represented in the dream. Daniel tells the king, “You are the head.” We know Nebuchadnezzar’s followed by the Persian empire, the Grecian empire, and the Roman empire which becomes divided and ends up a mixture of iron and clay. The clay is a brittle type of clay used for earthenware, easily shattered. From a distance, the statue looks powerful, but as you come closer, the foundation’s weak, made up of human might and philosophies meant to help them hold onto power, but that clash with God’s will. 

It's an impressive statue pointing to impressive empires, but in the end, they’re crushed at the coming of the rock from heaven. The world’s kingdoms keep underestimating the power of the kingdom Daniel serves, the kingdom we often don’t pay enough attention to, a kingdom that will never be destroyed. The rock that Daniel describes is the kingdom of heaven which comes near in the coming of Jesus who calls us to, “Repent and believe, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” The statue becomes meaningless while the rock becomes everything! 

Jesus refers to himself as a stone on whom others will be destroyed. In Matthew 21, Jesus tells a parable of workers who kill the son of the owner so they can take over the vineyard, Jesus interprets the parable, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’ “Therefore, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”  Jesus is returning to establish his kingdom over the whole earth and those who cannot or will not accept him will be crushed. The infant in the manger becomes the Lord of all the universe. 

We were planning on celebrating the baptism of Peyton this morning, baptism is another encounter in this clash of kingdoms. In baptism, we make a choice for the kingdom of God over the kingdoms of this world. Baptism’s a sign and seal given to the church to remind us and strengthen us as followers of Jesus, reminding us of who we are and who God is. Heidelberg Catechism Q+A 70 teaches, “To be washed with Christ’s blood means that God, by grace, has forgiven our sins because of Christ’s blood poured out for us in his sacrifice on the cross. To be washed with Christ’s Spirit means that the Holy Spirit has renewed and sanctified us to be members of Christ, so that more and more we become dead to sin and live holy and blameless lives.” Baptism reminds us that we’re members of Christ, members of the kingdom of heaven as we become dead to sin and live holy lives, set apart and our sins are washed away, a gift of grace.  

Baptism reminds us that we belong to Jesus. When we baptize children, we remember that God works first, choosing us before we can choose him. This is why, as parents and church, we promise to invest in, teach, and mentor them so that when they’re older, they’ll accept Jesus as their own Lord and saviour. We promise to help parents to raise their children to know Jesus as their king. It all starts with us truly accepting Jesus as our King of kings, taking seriously his call on our lives, shaping our lives, our beliefs, our values on him. To do this means regularly reading the Bible. For God’s Word to make a difference in our lives, studies by Barna and other groups shows we need to read Scripture 4-5 days each week. It takes regularly talking to God in prayer, even if it’s simply taking a few moments throughout the day to ask for his presence, wisdom, grace, and guidance. It worshipping regularly with your church family so you can worship God together, pray for and with each other, sharing how God’s working in your lives, encouraging each other.

Isaiah gives us glimpses of the kingdom of heaven. Isaiah 2:3–4 points to a kingdom of peace shaped by the law of the Lord, “Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” 

It’s a kingdom of righteousness where creation once again lives together as God originally intended, Isaiah 11:5–10, “Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

Nebuchadnezzar falls prostrate before Daniel, recognizing, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries.” In a place far from the Promised Land, a king of kings has a dream of the King of kings, the revealer of mysteries. God sends this pagan king a dream of a heavenly kingdom overcoming the world, echoing to Paul in Ephesians 3:6 “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” With the coming of Jesus, the rock appears and begins rolling its way into history, becoming the holy mountain where the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the goat, and Gentiles and Jews live together under the King of kings forever.

The Way of Wisdom - 1 Kings 3:4-15; 4:29-34; Luke 1:11-17

Thank you, children, for telling us all about Jesus’ birth and why he came. This morning we’re looking at another dream that also teaches us more about who Jesus is. Do you remember King Solomon? King Solomon ruled over Israel and when he was king, there were no wars, he was a king of peace. Later on, people waited for the Messiah who was going to bring peace to all the earth. Solomon’s name even means peace. King Solomon was known for his great wisdom, lots of people from all over the world came to learn from him.

When Solomon first becomes king, God comes to him in a dream and offers Solomon anything he wants! “Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.  So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” Solomon asks God for wisdom because he knows being king is going to be really hard. God’s happy with Solomon’s choice! Solomon knows that he needs God to give him wisdom to be a great king for God. He asks to be able to know right from wrong and to rule with wisdom and justice. He asks for the things we hope to see in our leaders; for the qualities that really only Jesus has perfectly. God gives Solomon the gift of wisdom and he becomes known around the world for his wisdom.

The Bible teaches that wisdom’s very important. There’s a whole book in the Bible called Proverbs that teaches wisdom, lots of it written by Solomon. In the Bible, God tells his people they have to choose between following him or idols, and when Jesus comes, to choose Jesus or reject him. In Proverbs 2, Solomon teaches us that there are two paths we can take: the path that leads to death and the path that leads to life. John the Baptist came to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus, who will bring many of the people of Israel back to God. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 7, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Wisdom is choosing to follow the path that Jesus has made for us to bring us back to God. 

The Apostle Paul shows us that Jesus is our wisdom, now this is a bit more for those a little older than you are, but you will learn it as you grow older. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom…. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”  

There’s a lot of talk about intelligence today, about knowing lots of things, but little talk about wisdom. Wisdom’s often seen as an old-fashioned concept. That’s because biblical wisdom is about knowing how to live well with God, with others, with creation, and with ourselves. There’s humbleness in wisdom, a willingness to listen and to learn from God’s Word as we study it together. People looking for wisdom today are told to try new things, push yourself past your comfort zone, talk to people you normally wouldn't talk to, being open-minded and reserve judgment, finding a mentor, and asking for help when you need it. 

Paul reminds us that true wisdom is found in Jesus. The ornaments in the tree remind us of God’s wisdom: a stable where God becomes human, nails and a cross where Jesus gives his life so we can have life with God.  Jesus has become our wisdom from God, wisdom where we find our righteousness, holiness, and redemption in Jesus who came to lead us back to God, and fulfil God’s promises to overthrow Satan’s power and influence, washing away our sin to restore our relationship with God; this is God’s wisdom! Solomon’s dream calls us to choose wisdom, wisdom rooted in Jesus and trust in God’s plan, walking the path that leads to life, seeking the kingdom of God. Will you choose the way of wisdom?

Every Knee Shall Bow - Genesis 37:1-11; Matthew 2:9-12; Philippians 2:6-11

Joseph is Jacob’s favourite child. Jacob gives Joseph a special gift, an ornate robe. The Hebrew word used points to a long robe that made it difficult to any kind of physical work, meaning that Joseph couldn’t do the physical, dirty jobs that youngest brothers normally had to do, like herding sheep or spending time in the fields. Jacob’s clearly showing everyone that he’s grooming Joseph to take over the family business. This doesn’t go over well with his older brothers. Then Joseph goes and brings his dad a bad report about them, and doesn’t seem to realize how this turns them against him even more. 

This is the context in which Joseph has his two dreams, both of them building on each other, pointing to Joseph gaining power over his brothers, leading to them bowing down to him. The brothers easily interpret the dreams when Joseph shares his dreams with them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” It’s not very surprising that they react with, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.” The sheaves are all equal, and then suddenly Joseph’s sheave is lifted up and made more important.

You’d think Joseph would sense the tension with their response, but then he has another dream and shares it with them again, “Listen, I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” Joseph tells his father his dreams and even Jacob rebukes him, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers are even more than angry, but Jacob’s experience and wisdom makes him keep Joseph’s dreams in mind, waiting to see if these dreams are from God, or just the dreams of a young man who desires importance and power.

These dreams fit with Jacob’s desire for Joseph to become the leader of the family through whom God’s blessings would flow. This is a story about power. Joseph, as the younger son, has no power in his own right, but his dreams point to him being raised up into a place of power. His brothers refuse to believe that they’ll kneel before him. Today, we live in a culture where kneeling before someone else is hard, it takes humility to acknowledge that someone else has power or authority that we’re called to acknowledge. Kneeling puts us in a position of vulnerability where our head is bowed, our eyes are on the ground and we cannot defend ourselves, having to trust in the goodness of the person we’re kneeling to. We struggle with pride, believing we know better; inside many of us believe we’re better than others, so bowing to someone grates against our pride. 

Jacob’s dream and history call us to listen carefully to Joseph's dreams; God’s doing something here through Jacob to move forward his plan of redeeming humanity and all creation. Jacob’s spoiling of Joseph leads to Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers. Joseph’s story is a complicated journey into a place of importance in a household, yet ends up in prison because of a false charge by his master’s wife. In prison, Joseph again rises in importance and then becomes a dream interpreter for two other prisoners. His interpretation of their dreams later leads to him interpreting the dreams of Pharoah, who raises Joseph to second-in-command to save the Egyptians, and others, from a devastating famine. Joseph saves his own family from the famine and helps them settle into a place where they can grow and flourish. Because of the dreams of others, all from God, Joseph is raised up to a place of power and authority, fulfilling his own dreams. 

Through everything, Joseph keeps trusting in God and who God calls him to be, even when faced with temptation and persecution. When Joseph is raised up to a throne, Joseph uses his power to save, not only the Egyptians, but people from all nations who came seeking food during the long famine foretold in Pharoah’s dreams. When his brothers find themselves before Joseph, bowing before him, just like his dreams said would happen, Joseph offers forgiveness, recognizing God at work in it all. Genesis 45:5 and 7, "Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.... God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” 

Joseph’s dreams point ahead to Jesus and how everything on earth and in heaven, will bow down to Jesus. The Lord, through Joseph, saves his people and brings them to a place of flourishing in Goshen. Likewise, Jesus comes as Lord of all to save his people, offering us forgiveness, freedom, and new life and renewed creation. The wise men are led by a heavenly sign to bow down to Jesus, pointing to the nations of the world coming to bow down to Jesus when Jesus returns to establish the kingdom of heaven over all creation. The wisemen kneel before Jesus, and worship him. They confess that Jesus has been sent by God, and recognize that his authority is divine and greater than any earthly king. 

Bowing the knee to Jesus and acknowledging his lordship and authority over our lives doesn’t always bring a comfortable life. Jesus took on the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness, born to Mary in a stable. Joseph’s faithfulness to God through the troubles of his life points to the faithfulness of Jesus to his Father’s will which leads him to the cross where he takes our sin and punishment on himself to save us from death. Just as Joseph is lifted up over his brothers, so Jesus is raised up over all creation, “God exalts Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name that us above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Jesus is not a ceremonial king like King Charles, he’s the king of power even in the manger. When we bow before Jesus, we’re bowing to the creator and saviour of the universe, the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given, the King of kings before whom all other kings will bow. Herod, along with every other ruler in our world, will have to humble themselves before Jesus at some point, along with all of us. The rulers of the world promise us all kinds of things, but they cannot save us, they cannot give us new life, or a full life, the only ruler who can is Jesus.

Jesus is divine, this calls us to a deep level of commitment and trust to live in obedience to Jesus’ commands. We seek to imitate Jesus in his humility, when in the Garden of Gethsemane, he turns to the Father with the cross before him and commits himself to the Father’s plan, saying, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Our culture will turn against us, it always does, as Joseph and Jesus both experienced. When we bow our knee to Jesus, we choose his will over ours, we chose his right over wrong, we turn from selfishness and pride to humility and obedience, we obey the call to be holy, to be pure in our minds, hearts, and bodies, we work hard to love God, our neighbours, and even our enemies, but it won’t always be easy, as the gulf between our culture and church is growing larger. 

In Philippians 2, Paul calls us to remember who we are as children of God, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”  Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” We find the strength to work out our salvation and to live in obedience to God through the regular study of Scripture, through making prayer central to our day, and in the gathering together to worship, as it keeps us focused on Jesus and away from ourselves.

Are you willing to bow the knee to Jesus, to respond to the call of Jesus, working out your salvation through making Jesus first in your lives, doing his will, and living according to his purposes over your own, trusting in Jesus’ will for your lives? Join together in committing ourselves and our families to following Jesus with the confession of Joshua, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Stairway to Heaven - Genesis 28:10–22

Jacob is on the run, even though his parents make up other reasons for his quick departure. He’s tricked his brother Esau out of the family blessing, taking the main inheritance from his twin brother for himself, first by taking advantage of Esau’s hunger and impatience, and then fooling his father into believing he was Esau when Isaac, who was partly blind, thought he was dying and so offered the family blessing to Jacob as Jacob dressed like, and made himself smell like his brother. Jacob’s mother Rebekah is afraid for Jacob’s safety and so persuades Isaac to send Jacob away to Rebekah’s family back in Haran to find a proper wife since there were only Canaanite women in the area. Esau had married a Canaanite and this disgusted Isaac, which didn’t help calm Esau’s anger towards Jacob, so Jacob runs.

As the sun sets, Jacob stops for the night. As he settles down to sleep, he takes a stone for a pillow and goes to sleep. The poet Walter Russell Bowie describes the place where Jacob stayed the night, “It was a hilltop of barren rock; and its barrenness seemed to represent at that moment Jacob’s claim on life. He was a fugitive, and he was afraid.” While asleep, Jacob’s visited by the Lord who gives him a dream where he sees “a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord.” We often picture a straight set of stairs, or a ladder like set of stairs, yet what Jacob saw was more like the ziggurats found in Babylonia, more like what is found in Genesis 11 and the story of the Tower of Babel. There are important differences in Jacob’s stairway and the Tower of Babel. Humanity built the Tower of Babel in order to reach the gods and become more like them, echoing back to the serpent’s temptation in the Garden of Eden. At the top of the ziggurats you would find shrines dedicated to the gods, making them a place of worship sacrifice.

In Jacob’s dream, the stairway gives us a glimpse into who God is. God makes the first move in reaching out to us, here Jacob is asleep and unable to reach out to God. God is a God at work, the one who reaches down to us, making a pathway in order to stay connected and involved with his creation, communicating and interacting with humanity. At the top of the stairway in Jacob’s dream, there’s no shrine, but God himself, directing the angels, looking out over his kingdom and creation. Our God is not a distant God, but a God who makes himself accessible to his people. 

This is part of what Christmas is all about, it’s Jesus coming down the stairway to be with us. Jesus connects us more closely to the Father again. Jesus makes that clear in John 1 when he meets Nathanael, who becomes one of his disciples, “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” 

We don’t need to reach up, or measure up to God, God comes down to us, even in the most ordinary of places, a plot of cold ground in the middle of the night. In the Garden of Eden, we chose to listen to Satan’s voice and align ourselves with him instead of God. Because of our choice, we were thrown out of the presence of God, out of the safety and surety of God’s presence. We became wanderers away from God. Jacob’s dream shows that God still looks out for us, even when we’re on the run and alone. God is there, reaching down from heaven to lift us up again. Jesus himself is the stairway, showing us in his conversation with Nathanael, that he’s the way to a full life with God who wants us to know his love and grace, and bringing us back into the presence of God.

The Lord speaks to Jacob in the dream, identifying himself, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.  I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” The Lord’s reminding Jacob of his long relationship with his family, beginning with his grandfather Abraham and then with his father Isaac. Now the Lord extends this relationship to Jacob as the bearer of the family blessing Jacob took from his brother. 

The Lord reminds Jacob of the family blessing that includes the land he’s sleeping on, that his family will be large, and a blessing to all peoples on earth. Then the Lord promises to be with Jacob wherever he goes, and that he will bring Jacob home again. The Lord’s reminding Jacob that he’s unlike all other gods who only held power in limited places while the Lord has the power to protect and bless Jacob no matter where Jacob is. The Lord offers Jacob his blessing even though Jacob hasn’t fully committed himself to the Lord yet as his God. It reminds me that for many of us, our faith and commitment to Jesus is a journey and it takes time and encounters with God through the Holy Spirit to lead us to a place and time where we finally make that commitment. This is something we’re beginning to really focus in over the upcoming years, focusing more deeply on faith formation, leading our children and youth to where God becomes their God and not just their parents’ God, where we’re equipped to grow deeper in our faith and trust in God in all areas of our lives, and in all circumstances.

Jacob wakes up and he knows he’s just had an encounter with God, realizing that he wasn’t even aware of God’s presence. He takes the stone he used as a pillow and sets it up as a pillar, pouring oil over it and renaming the place Bethel, house of God. Jacob knows he doesn’t deserve God’s blessing, and so he makes a deal with God, a vow, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.” Blessings can be hard for us to receive, especially when we know we don’t deserve them at all, so it’s easier to try to offer some kind of payment or sacrifice to sooth our own soul. This is what Jacob does here. 

This is what unconditional election is all about, it’s not about what we do, it’s all about God and him choosing us. It means that we don’t need to bargain with God, that we can trust him because he will give us better than we ask or deserve, and we know that God loves us better than we even love ourselves. We keep trying to earn God’s blessings, but Paul reminds us in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus comes and washes away our sin, he brings healing, offering us new life and hope, leading us home to our Father. He’s the stairway, the bridge that leads us to the Father. He’s the bridge that’s strong enough to carry us over the gulf between us and the Father, connecting earth and heaven. It’s all grace, we’ll never earn the blessings; this is why grace is beautiful and hard at the same time. 

As the Gospels remind us, “Repent and believe, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” and the kingdom is near in the coming of Jesus to earth from heaven to bring renewal and restoration. Conceived by the Holy Spirit. Rooted in heaven! Born of the virgin Mary. Grounded on earth! As Son of God and Son of Man Jesus is the perfect bridge; the stairway to heaven sent by God. In a place called Bethel, Jacob the sinner dreams of the coming Saviour. And in a place called Bethlehem, his dream became reality. For through Jesus’ birth our longing for connection with God is fulfilled.