Where Is the Child? by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat – December 8, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Matthew 2: 1-12

I begin this morning by reminding you what I am setting forth to do for my messages in this Advent season. There are four Sundays in Advent, and there are four Gospels in the New Testament. And there are two Gospels – Matthew and Luke – that give to us what we call birth narratives. They talk about the birth of Christ, Matthew and Luke. Mark and John do not. Last Sunday we looked at Matthew, today we’re going to look at Matthew. On the third and fourth Sundays we’re going to look at Luke. Today we look at the Magi, we look at King Herod, and Mary and Joseph and Jesus. The crux of the message is about Herod and the Magi. The crux of the message this morning is about darkness and it’s about light.

I worked hard last week trying to find quotes about positive aspects of darkness, and they are really hard to find. You and I are so conditioned to think that darkness is always a negative thing, and it’s not. There are great gifts that can come from being in darkness. For example, it’s like that old cliché – when is the only time you can see the stars? When it’s dark out, and there aren’t any clouds. Today is about following the star. Quick review – when I say quick I mean strap on your seat belts. I’ve got to go one of two ways in this message, and the jury is still out. We either have a 10- to 12-minute message this morning, or it’s going to be two hours. I’m not quite sure which way I’m going to go yet, but let’s go, let’s strap on our seat belts.

We have King Herod, and we have the Magi. King Herod, essentially what we need to know in terms of Advent and Christmas, is this is a really bad guy. We have extra-biblical, historical matter, which is a way of saying we have historical matter that’s secular, that’s factual. This guy murdered people. He murdered lots of people. He came to power, he was a Jew, he coerced thousands of other Jews to help him, he murdered other Jews, and he went in cahoots with the Romans, and like the Romans Herod was very good at what he did. Can you imagine politicians being very good at what they do? Can we try to imagine this? Herod was a bad guy.

Matthew tells us that the Magi, and by the way, everybody agrees, part of the point is they were very wealthy. They were very foreign. They were what most people refer to as pagans, and that’s what you and I would have been if we were in this story. They were non-Jews, foreigners. I always need to be careful here, because I have this one Christmas that haunts me, when not only did I preach about this, I also led a class after service during Advent where we took a look at what the Bible actually says, what Matthew and Luke actually say about what we call Christmas. The one Sunday when I said, which I’m saying now, we don’t know how many Magi there were, and by the way, it doesn’t say wise men. It just doesn’t say that. It’s OK to call them wise men. If you want to call them wise men, call them wise men. Well, it doesn’t say that; it says magi, and we don’t know how many there were. All we know is it was plural. Why traditionally do we say there were three? Because they brought three gifts. I always need to be a little careful here because I did have one person at the end of those four Sundays of Advent who came up to me privately and said, thanks a lot for ruining Christmas for me. And they meant it. I said, I’m really sorry, that wasn’t my intention.

But here we go – these are Magi. They’re members of the occult. They follow astronomy. And they went to Herod. They come across as very wealthy, very educated, but also very naive. They don’t seem to know about Herod. They come to Herod, and they say, we’ve seen the star in the east, king of the Jews, Herod. We’ve studied this and the star seems to be telling us that the king of the Jews is being born, we’re not sure where. And Herod, being the wonderful person that he is, says, great, a rival to my throne. I welcome it! Of course, he does the opposite, and the Magi go, and they follow this star. How can you and I do that?

I gave myself a crash course on stars this past week. I’m sure there are a lot of people here who know a lot more about the stars than I do, but I do know that the youngest star in our sky, in our galaxy, is at least a billion years old. And I’ve also discovered that the oldest stars in our sky, in our galaxy, the Milky Way, are at least 10 billion years old. My wife Vicki and I were out walking the other night, and it was a clear night. I feel very sorry for my wife because on our evening walks, she has to put up with this sermon research that I do. I said to her, look at those stars, they’re at least a billion years old. So of course I started preaching, it’s an occupational hazard, and I said to her, and I said to myself, those stars are at least a billion years old, some are 10 billion, I wonder what they are trying to say to us. What did they say to those Magi, and what are they saying to us? Of course, being a preacher, I answered my own question, and I came up with one word. I said to Vicki, I think of all the things those stars are saying, I can only speak for myself, but I think they’re saying to me, perspective. Perspective.

So, we’ve got these Magi, and they go on this trip. Matthew is the one that doesn’t want Jesus to do anything unless it can be supported by what we call the Old Testament. There are references in the Old Testament that say Jesus is supposed to be born in Bethlehem, so Matthew creates this scenario where Jesus is born in Bethlehem. The Magi show up, they bring their three gifts. Joseph isn’t even present. Joseph is not important in this story. Mary is present with the baby Jesus, but she never speaks. What Matthew was trying to tell us, while the stars are in the sky, Matthew is trying to say to you and trying to say to me the birth of this child, that can be born in our hearts even today, it can happen for us. It can happen for us.

OK, I’ve decided I’m going to go the 10- to 12-minute route. Everybody say a silent prayer of thanks. Here’s one of my takeaways from following the star. Two things. One is, so far in my life I can only remember one time when the stars in the sky took my breath away. It was many years ago. We’re already heard a cowbell today from my childhood in Union County. Many years ago, Vicki and I were living in Chicago, and I came back for a high school reunion so it was during the summer. It had to be at least 20 years ago, probably more. I came back, my parents were still both living at the time, so I stayed with them. I went to my high school reunion and had a good time. The reunion was winding down and a friend of mine asked for a ride home. Myself and a third friend, we drove my friend home. My friend lived and still lives out in the middle of the country in Union County. It was a summer night, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was really late for me, it was probably around 11, 11:30, and we pulled into her long driveway. She lived on a farm, and that’s when it happened, and I think it’s the only time I remember in my life. Those of you who live out in the country, you can do this all the time and I’m envious. I looked up at the sky and it took my breath away. We were gone from all of the suburban and city ambient light, and I had to get out of my car and I went, oh – now listen to my words – oh, my God. Look at all those stars. What are they saying to us? I think they’re saying the same thing that they said to the Magi thousands of years ago. It’s something about the birth and it’s something about perspective.

Here’s my finish, and it involves a bell. It was 1964, I was 6 years old, now you can figure out how old I am. My dad was the new minister at the First Presbyterian Church in Marysville. It was his first year there, it was his first Christmas, 1964. This particular congregation had never had an 11 o’clock Christmas Eve service before, and my dad, being a new minister, wanted to have an 11 o’clock service. And of course, he had two ushers at his disposal who lived at home – me, I was 6, and my older brother Jeff, who was 8. My younger sister Jill was 4, she stayed at home with mom. My dad led this 11 o’clock service. He wasn’t sure if one person was going to come or a hundred. Jeff and I ushered, I remember it vividly to this day. If you’ve been in Marysville, it’s the white stone Presbyterian church downtown across the street from the beautiful Union County Courthouse. And sure enough, it was like it turned into this Disney movie where people started streaming in at 10:45 and 10:50 and 10:55. There were probably about 75 people there, which was over-the-top success.

Now I’m probably going to give you too much information here, but this is one of the reasons why I remember it. In my house at that time my parents were teetotalers. That changed over time, but that’s something I don’t want to talk about in the pulpit. But at that time my parents were teetotalers, and I was one of the ushers, and I handed one of these guys who came in for worship, I handed him one of the bulletins, and his breath smelled really funny. My dad was hanging out in the back, waiting for the time to start the service, and I went over. I was very concerned. I was a good boy, and I was very concerned, and I went over to my dad and said, Dad, I think that guy has beer on his breath. I was sure that my Presbyterian minister dad was going to toss him out, right? My dad started to laugh, and I understood when I became an adult. My dad was glad he was there!

We had the service, it was great. And the service, my dad told me later, years later, he said, that first service, I really wanted it to end right at midnight. And here’s why. That church, he wanted it to end right at midnight and it did. People started to leave. With God as my witness, we looked outside and for the first time in weeks it was snowing. And that church has a bell, it has a church bell, and as you walk in the entryway you see this big, long rope, a thick rope, and my dad, God rest his soul, turned to his two sons and said, guys, go ring that bell. Well, it was too hard for me to do alone, sort of like life sometimes. I was 6, and I went down and put my hands around it and my older brother Jeff went above me and we pulled, and we rang that bell. Follow the star, and ring the bell. Amen?