Matthew 2:1-12 and Colossians 3:12-17
January 6, 2002
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
In our guest room, we have a black rocking chair with the emblem of my seminary on the head rest board. In gold paint, it says Andover Newton Theological School founded in 1807. Having such an academic rocker was common in the East Coast especially as a gift upon one’s graduation. Mine was a gift from Joy.
On my rocking chair, I read my Tillich and Niebuhr to prepare for my classes and the Bible for my first sermons as a seminarian. The gentle motion of moving back and forth gave me the reassurance that even in the busyness of the life of a pastor, there will be enough time in God’s eyes to see things through.
When our son, Greg was born, I would nap with him on my shoulder in my rocking chair. And when Greg and Lauren got older, they found the rocking chair to be one of their first tastes of amusement rides. One of the rungs in my chair is cracked due to a time when Lauren still wanted to sit on Daddy’s lap!
When we think of older people, we often see them as people who sit in rocking chairs. It’s common knowledge that a gentle repetitive motion has soothing effect on infants. The same is true in an older population that is emotionally distressed.
One study looked at 25 nursing home residents diagnosed as having dementia, either due to Alzheimer’s disease or other causes. Nurses monitored the patients’ behavior for the six weeks residents rocked, and compared it with their behavior when the rocking mechanism on the chairs was disabled. When the patients were rocking, they were happy; when they stopped rocking, they weren’t as happy.
There’s something timeless about a rocker…as if there isn’t a thing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to worry about, just rock and rock and rock and…be happy!
Before we traded in our hard, unpadded pews for these softer ones, we probably would have liked to have a whole sanctuary filled with rocking chairs! In comfort and perhaps even dozing off and on, you would lazily get to hear a lazy preacher preach. Maybe I would my own rocking chair up here rocking while preaching. We would be known as “The Rocking Chair Church.”
We can be a comfy church, a quiet church, a calming place—soothing sleepy souls and very happy.
But is that what God wants? Is that what the prophet demands? A sleepy church rocked like a baby into complacency? A sanctuary full of rockers would be perfect—for a dying church, a stagnant church, a church content with its aches and pains. A church of rocking chairs would lack vision, just sitting there, soothing itself, sitting out the rest of its years watching our new paint peel, our plaster crack and dust collect!
Are we called to be a Rocking Chair Church or a Rockin’ Church for God?
Putting on God’s Love
Yesterday over 40 of your elected church leaders and officers and fellowship group chairs gathered for our annual Planning Day. We represented all three worshipping congregations. Some people have served in different capacities and for many years. Others are serving for the very first time. All of us came with some anticipation of whether we will be a Rocking Chair Church or God’s Rockin’ Church.
This year’s theme is based on Colossians 3:16 when Paul said,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one
another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs to God.
When we unpacked this text, we discover that God sees us as his “chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothed with compassion.” This means that when Christ is in us, we are at the right hand of the holy God, and thus we ourselves must be holy also. Being in God, we are the ones who are loved. And the point is that the love we receive from God becomes the ground of our love for others.
Paul said,
“Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” God’s church is not a Rocking Chair Church made up of sheepish people.
Paul said,
“Bear with one another, and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” God’s church is not a Rocking Chair Church filled with uncaring people.
Paul said,
“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” God’s church is not a Rocking Chair Church comprised of unloving people.
When we bear witness of God’s plan for our church in 2002 with the theme of “Dwelling in Christ, Our Lives Sing Praises to God,” we can not be sitting quietly and dozing off on our rocking chairs. The passage tells us that with Christ dwelling in our lives, we are to actively teach and admonish one another. We are to sing from our hearts. With Jesus Christ in our lives, we can’t help but sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.
Epiphany
Today in our church calendar is Epiphany, the beginning of that season when we celebrate the revelation, the manifestation of God in Christ. Just as the Magi—the three wise men came to Bethlehem because they have seen the light of the star, so we have gathered in the church to celebrate God’s epiphany among us in Christ. Reflecting God’s love, your church leaders started the New Year by gathering for our planning session yesterday.
Matthew says that the Magi noticed a new star in the sky, one among the billions and billions that are out there. This star wouldn’t have been noticed at all unless they were looking for it.
It wasn’t much to go on—one star—but they still went. It isn’t easy to follow a star, but they did, correcting their course again and again by its fickle light. The wonder of it all is that they found what they were looking for. And what they found they weren’t disappointed. It was just a baby, a little boy. Not much to go on, really. If they hadn’t followed the star and searched for him, they would have missed him altogether. But they found him, and for two reasons: they were looking and there was someone to be found.
In our search for God, for how God has revealed himself to us, it is always like this. We have to look and listen. We have to get out of our rocking chairs to look and listen. And when we do, there is someone to be found—Jesus.
When we really look, when we really listen, we have to decide that either we are finding God in everything or God is, in fact, everywhere to be found. So we come to church, not to be seen by others, not to do our religious duty, but to seek and find—to be reminded again that God is with us in every moment and in all things.
Remember the Colossians passage that is the verse for our theme for this year? God is with us dwelling in our lives. God’s revelation is here for us to find. But we must choose to look for him. And when we do have Christ dwelling richly in our hearts, our lives sing praises to God and everything that we do, in word and deed, we do in the name of the Lord.
Although the star was hard to follow, the Magi didn’t give up. And perhaps the mission and vision of our church may not always be easy to measure or achieve. And although all the ideas and possibilities that we came up with may never become implemented, we must also not give up. We just know that we have to get up from our rocking chairs!
I am always amazed to read what happened to the wise men. They followed the star. They worshipped the baby. In the end, says Matthew, “they went home by another way.”
They took a different route than the one they had taken to get to Bethlehem. They didn’t go through Jerusalem again.
Not only did the wise men changed their route home, they, too, were changed. From the East where they lived, they could have catalogued the new star in their astrology records and be done with it. They could have left for home after meeting with Herod—sensing the danger for themselves. They could have stayed on their camels’ back sitting high above the lowly manger where the baby laid. No, they got off their rocking chairs and their lives were changed.
They saw just a baby and their lives were changed.
God’s Rockin’ Church
I know that every year as we say goodbye to one year and welcome a New Year. We want to have guarantees that we might succeed this time around with our New Year commitments. We pray that all the plans we set out to do yesterday will come true. And when we realize that even with good intentions that we failed, we become disillusioned and disappointed.
When this happens, I am reminded of the Magi—the wise men in our passage today. Far away from Bethlehem, the wise men caught a vision powerful enough to sustain them on a journey of many miles and many months until they discover who they were looking for.
God also has a vision for us. We too must persist on our journey even when there may be obstacles along the way. We are chosen by God, holy and beloved, clothed with compassion, trusting that we will see and hear enough along the way to guide us towards God’s plan for us.
Like the Magi, once we have seen the Christ, we returned home by another way. Our lives are changed forever. We are not the same persons today as we were before Christmas! When the Magi got off their camels and knelt down and paid him homage, their lives changed. When we get off our stationary rocking chairs and kneel down before Christ and opening our treasure chests, we give Jesus our possessions of gold, our reputations of frankincense, and our life of myrrh, our lives are changed forever too.
FCBC is God’s Rockin’ Church in 2002 because:
*Your church leaders and officers gathered together yesterday to envision outside of their comfort zones trusting God to sustain them on the journey.
FCBC is God’s Rockin’ Church in 2002 because:
*Like the wise men, you and I have sought after God following the star that leads us to the Christ Child and what we found has not disappointed us.
FCBC is God’s Rockin’ Church in 2002 because:
*We have time and time again in faith taken another way recognizing that old ways may need to be left behind and a new way can be found in obedience to God’s plan for us.
FCBC is God’s Rockin’ Church in 2002 because:
*We are arising from our comfortable and stationary rocking chairs like the Magi rose in following the rising star. And when the star stopped over where the place where the child was, we know that a few years later, this same child after dying for our sins will rise again.
Let us go from this place on Epiphany Sunday having seen God’s plan for our lives to get off our rocking chairs and become a Rockin’ Church for God!
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, as you led the Magi to see the Christ Child, lead us today to not be content and satisfied with all the comfortable things of life and church. Challenge us to actively search for your plan for our lives. Help us to dwell richly in Christ so that our lives become so thankful that we sing praises to you. In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.