Bishop Peggy Johnson's Sermon for Epiphany Sunday, Jan. 3

hello i'm bishop peggy johnson i'm the episcopal leader of the eastern pennsylvania and peninsula delaware annual conferences of the united methodist church i greet you in the name of the lord jesus christ and i'll be preaching today january the 3rd on matthew chapter 2 verses 1 to 12 hear the word of the lord after jesus was born in bethlehem of judea during the time of king herod wise men from the east came to jerusalem saying where is the one who has been born king of the jews we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him when king herod heard these things he was disturbed and all jerusalem with him when he called together all the chiefs priests and the teachers of the law he asked them where the christ was to be born in bethlehem and judea they replied this is what the prophet has written but you bethlehem in the land of judah are by no means least among the rulers of judah for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people israel then herod called the magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared he sent them to bethlehem and said go and make a careful search for the child as soon as you find him report to me so that i too may go and worship him after they had heard the king they went on their way and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was when they saw the star they were overjoyed when coming into the house they saw the child with his mother mary and they bowed down and worshiped him then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and a frankincense and of myrrh and having been warned in a dream not to go back to herod they returned to their country by another root brothers and sisters this is the word of the lord thanks be to god will you pray with me lord i thank you for your word it is manna for our souls so bread from heaven feed us till we want no more and send us out into this world to feed your hungry people and now lord in spite of me or through me speak a word to your people in christ's name we pray amen amen the wise men came to worship baby jesus and worship is certainly an important part of our life as christians we come to our churches to worship the lord and at christmas time we sing o come let us adore him oh come let us adore him christ the lord and did you notice that in that hymn the third verse is actually done in latin it was sung for many years in latin veneteander ramos venite al de ramos go come let us adore him and i read a story about a grandmother who was schooled in latin and she wanted her four-year-old grandson to sing venite ramos for the christmas pageant and so she practiced with this boy for quite some time and on the big night he stood up as proud as he could and he sang velveeta alto rainbow velveeta alto rainbow and certainly our worship sometimes comes out that way sometimes we get distracted we get busy our minds start going in different directions and we don't truly engage in worship as we should worship is so important to our spiritual growth it's so important to just why god created us and these wise men of old they came to worship baby jesus and they can teach us a lot about the true meaning of worship so what can we do to worship better well first of all the wise men will tell you you must be humble you must be willing to give up yourself these people we don't know much about but we know they came from far away they came from the east and some say that they were scientists they were bright and capable people and they had to have some means because they traveled for two years to visit the christ child they were humble enough to give up their life for two years in order to experience this newborn king if you've ever been to the holy land i'm sure you've been to the church of the nativity in bethlehem itself it's a place where they say jesus was actually born and i'm not really really sure about that but for sure they've got a church that says it and if you want to see the exact spot where jesus was exactly born you have to go into the basement of the church of the nativity and you have to actually bow your head down to look into that place and over the top of that canopy or wherever it is you've got to go into there are the words only heads bowed in humility can truly worship christ and that's really a great message humility is what we need to truly worship and to truly serve god we gotta put ourselves aside and be who god wants us to be and do what god wants us to do that's where the bottom line is the proof in the pudding is what you do a few years ago i went to a food bank and there was a feeding kitchen that went on and so every day they were feeding people at noon and i took note of a woman elderly woman who was in the kitchen and she was working really hard cutting carrots and just very focused and someone said well that's the director of the program and so afterwards i engaged her in conversation and i said gee you really have a great program here tell me about it and she said you know it was a calling from god she explained that she had been a professor in a very prestigious university teaching sociology and upon her retirement at the age of 65 she said to god lord what would you have me do and god said go work in that food kitchen and she said lord excuse me i don't think you heard me what would you like me to do the professor of sociology and the lord said go work in that food kitchen finally she did and she worked there for 20 years she turned the place upside down she set up all kinds of social programs housing mental health services medicine emergency needs she was humble enough to put herself aside in all her pride all her education to do the very thing god had created her to do in her senior years oh what a lesson that is for us how we also need to put ourselves aside and truly worship god with what god is calling us to do whether we like it or not is what humility is all about it's a great way to show god how much you love him secondly the wise men teach us the importance of flexibility the wise men arrive in jerusalem where of course kings are supposed to be living right and they found that it was the wrong place and the wrong king instead of a little baby there was an old man and a nasty one but they went for plan b playing bethlehem they were willing to change their plan and go to another place to keep looking for this child friends pandemic has taught us a lot about plan b amen we pastors are all televangelists now with new platforms new zoom new people we've never seen before new music even new ways of giving our offering flexibility is important as we worship god we just can't keep everything the same way we can't script church so much that every piece of worship is so controlled that god can't even get in the door i remember one time when i was working in the deaf church that i served i was baptizing a deaf child and she liked the baptism she thought that was really cool i put water on her head and she signed more water please and i said no no no it's okay one time's enough and she said more water please and so finally she jumped into the bowl picked up the water and just started baptizing me her everybody the place went crazy i had to stop the plans i had for worship and let this little child take over because she taught us that day that all god's people are baptized christians we're all part of the family of god so friends don't be too tightly wound in your plans in the way you worship god be willing to be flexible let the spirit in let god take control and watch god work thirdly the wise men taught us about giving they cared enough to give the very best wise men gave gold frankincense and myrrh these were valuable gifts in that day they were symbolically valuable as well for truly jesus was king god and sacrifice so friends give god the best that you have give god everything jesus says where your treasure is there will your heart be also and i say where your heart is is evidenced by how you give your treasure giving is a very important response to worship it shows how much you love god and if you love much you give much and if your love is little you give little worship god with your means finally go home a different way the wise men were warned in a dream not to go back to jerusalem and so they went home by a different way and of course that's something of an allegory for true worship true worship means you leave with marching orders you leave with a different heart a new perspective a new challenge for something god wants you to do i like the sign i saw in the back of a church i visited recently that says the service is over but the real service begins now and that's how true worship ought to be worshipped should point us to a new direction on what we can do out in the world when we're done in church francis asbury the father of american methodism was converted to methodism as a young person in england and he joined the societies and he was a devout christian and he heard that there was going to be the great father john wesley preaching at a church in bristol one night and so he made plans to be sure to be in that church service and hear the famous john wesley preach and he preached his heart out at the end of the sermon wesley said i want preachers to go to america is there someone out here that can go to america we need them to spread scriptural holiness across the land and at that moment francis asbury felt god had given him marching orders and god wanted him to say yes to brother wesley and so he came forward that night and said yes i will go and he did he went off in a boat and went bristol to america and he never came back he left church a different way and he changed the world forever so look for a call and every act of worship a call to change a call to do a call to go a call to give and then you have truly worshipped so friends follow the star not just at christmas time but always follow the star that leads you to christ and you will find him and you will be a wise worshiper just like the wise men and wise worshipers always do these things humility flexibility sacrifice and servant so be it let us pray oh gracious god we thank you so much that you've given us a new year and you've given us the challenge of of doing worship in a better way so lord help us to truly worship you and not take for granted the opportunities we have to be in your presence lord may we hear your word for us this day this year that we might truly worship you in spirit and in truth this we pray in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen amen

Channel: EPA Conference UMC

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Length: 13min 3sec (783 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 17 2020