some thoughts on arrival

"When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born."

- Matthew 2:3

So this past Sunday we began a new Advent sermon series at United Life entitled "The Arrival of Expectations." Now I know Advent doesn't begin until the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but it seemed pretty clear to me that the rest of America was already begining to focus on the holiday season (especially retail America). So, while I don't advocate just following the latest fads mindlessly, we've begun as a community to turn our attention towards one of our most holy days, Christmas. 

From very early on, Christians have used the weeks preceding Christmas to engage in a time of preparation. Just as the ancient Israelites waited hundreds of years for the promised Messiah, so too do we as followers of Christ wait for his return. The weeks of Advent give us the chance to take a step back from our daily/weekly/monthly routine to remember both of these seasons of expectation, one which was fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and another which he has promised to fulfill when he returns. 

More specifically, we at United Life are going to try taking these weeks as a challenge to live lives of expectation and hope. When Herod hears that foreigners have arrived in his city searching for the long awaited King of the Jews, the Messiah, Matthew tells us that he is troubled. But then Matthew gives us a picture of Herod that could go either way. Herod immediately calls the chief priests and scribes together and inquires of them the truth about the Messiah. Then he gives this information to the strange visitors, and asks them to help him so that he too may go and worship. It isn't until later that his true, paranoid intentions come out. 

Herod, we know both from the biblical account as well as from other historical documents, was a man who drew his hope from one source: himself. He acquired his power through shrewd political maneuverings and unflinching ruthlessness. He expected nothing from the world except what he could wring from it with his own two hands. Yet, when a power beyond him begins to show itself, when prophecies stop being old wives' tales and start hitting way too close to home, Herod's fate, so to speak, is still not sealed. He can still choose to surrender the throne. He can still leave his life of hopelessness, and exchange it for one of expectation. The arrival of wise men from far away means the arrival of expectations for a man and his people that had stopped expecting anything for a long time. 

In fact, the arrival of the wise men in Jerusalem is a shadow of the ultimate arrival of expectations, that is, the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, into human history. At United Life, as we examine Matthew's account of the events surrounding this arrival together, we will encounter people living expectantly and unexpectantly, study people faced with choices similar to Herod's, and discover a God moving throughout it all to keep his promises, even when we've stopped expecting him to. My prayer is that as we witness these things together with the help of Matthew, we will transform into an expectant people, amazed by God's faithfulness and love.