…And the World Changed.

Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 148; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:22-40

And here we are. There is fighting in the Middle East. There are terrorist plots afoot. Soldiers are stationed away from home. Persia/Iran is causing trouble, just as it has for hundreds of years. The price of food is high. People around the world are being tortured for belonging to the wrong group of people. People are killing other people because of the way they are dressed or which group of people they belong to. Taxes are too high – there are many homeless – the hotels are overbooked this season because of all the travelers. Increasingly, the politics in the capitol are distant from the concerns of ordinary people. Pagans are sacrificing animals to gods we’ve never even heard of. The rich are getting richer while the average family struggles to survive. In short, the world is a mess. And there was a special child born recently. Of course, I speak of the world of 4 BC, the year that Jesus was most likely born.

Those of you that have been blessed with children will understand that there are certain things about your own children which are different from all other children in the world.

First of all, your own children are special. At an early age, you know that they are different from all other children in the world. For example, our eldest son Ian, walked when he was eight months old and we were sure that he’d be athletic. When he was 18 months old, we were living in New Jersey and stopped by the Sidling Hill Geology roadside park on I-68 in Maryland. While we walked the exhibits, Saundra was occupying Ian by saying to Ian, “This is a metamorphic rock, this is an igneous rock, this is a sedimentary rock.” A few days later, in New Jersey, at 18 months old, Ian walked up to our friend Diane, held up a rock, and said, “Miss Diane, this is a metamorphic rock!” Diane turned and said, “Saundra, did I hear him correctly?” I’m sure you all have similar stories about how you knew that your children were special, blessed of God in some special way.

Secondly, your own children are specially designed by God to embarrass you and keep you humble. That same child of ours, a year or so later, was standing in the front yard of our new home in front of our new neighbors in Georgia, standing there with no clothes on, watering the lawn as only a little boy can – no, he didn’t have a water hose. Once again, I’m sure that all of you parents have similar stories about how your child embarrassed you.

Third, the mere presence of your children tells you early on, very early on, that first night when you hear a little cry at 2 AM and you are instantly awake, you recognize that the world has changed for you and it will never be the same again. The very simple life that you and your spouse led will soon become a very complex life that involves Huggies, music lessons, Little League baseball, soccer, football, kindergarten, schoolwork, a GIRLfriend!, college, a WEDDING?, and grandkids. Your world changes.

And so it was for Mary and Joseph. When Jesus arrived, they waited a few days in Bethlehem, and then traveled the 3 or 4 miles to the Temple in Jerusalem. (And no, the wise men had not arrived – We’ll talk more about that next week). They were going to the Temple because the law of Moses required that Jesus be circumcised on the 8th day, and a sacrifice of a pair of doves be made at the Temple.

The walk was an easy walk by the standards of the time. The bright sunshine would come down around them, with the dry blue sky that is common in Palestine most of the year. Because of the sea, the weather rarely gets cold and snowy there. After all, even here in West Virginia, we’ve had weather near 70 degrees this week. I’m sure that Mary, just as all new mothers, was fascinated with the little hands and legs and every expression that His tiny face made. He was special, as all newborn babies are special, and His mother understood this.

But Jesus was extra special, and Mary and Joseph soon found this out.

First of all, …. “there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss[c] your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but that would certainly get my attention and it got the attention of Mary and Joseph. What a glorious child! Simeon’s first prophecy lifted up Mary and Joseph.

34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Simeon’s second prophecy was much more ominous than his first prophecy. “A sword will pierce your own soul too.” is not the sort of thing a new mother wants to hear about her newborn son.

Then this ancient woman Anna hobbles up to them.

“She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then had been a widow for another eighty-four years. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Ok, so we have Anna, who is over 104 years old and still living at the temple, who tells everyone around that This Child will redeem Jerusalem. How can He redeem Jerusalem? – The child barely can keep His eyes open in the bright sunlight of that intensely blue Mediterranean sky. And the day came to a pleasant close as they walked back to Bethlehem, packed up that night, and headed for Nazareth, a hundred mile journey.

39 When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

It was time to go home. It was time for a return to normal life. But Mary and Joseph would never again have a normal life. They had a special child.

Time passed. And we know the end of the story. We know that this child grew to lead a movement of thousands of people and was eventually arrested by the powers-that-be. We know that this Rabbi, this great Jewish teacher eventually claimed to be God Himself, the crime that He was arrested for and executed for on a Friday in the spring of 33 AD. And we know that just a few days later, early Sunday morning, he began to appear alive and more healthy than ever to eleven separate groups of His followers – even to one man who was leading a persecution against his followers. Jesus gave His followers final instructions, and they then began to change the entire world with His message of hope: “we can live forever” – His message of love: “ treat other people as you would like to be treated” – and His message of joy: “the promise of eternal life does not require gold or power or lands or education, but only the humbleness to understand that there is One who is greater than you and His name is Jesus Christ.”

It is amazing how simple ideas can change an entire world.

In 1955, several young men and women who were graduates of Wheaton College in Illinois became missionaries in Ecuador. They heard rumors of a tribe that kept to itself, that still lived in as their prehistoric ancestors had, deep in the Amazon jungle. The Waodani were dangerous – they killed all outsiders. One day, a Waodani woman came out of the jungle fleeing others. She told a terrible story. In this tribe, every person had complete autonomy – there were no laws, just individual freedom. Anyone could do anything they wanted to do – include kill anyone that annoyed them. And all of the men were expert hunters with spears. They had to be – their religion told them that when they die, they must fight and pass by a great serpent.

Unfortunately, because there were no laws, no government, if a man became angry and fought with another, they usually settled the issue with spears. The murder rate in this tribe was 40%. Each person had a 40% chance of being killed by another Waodani during their lifetime. They were literally killing each other and destroying the tribe.

The young men from Wheaton College made contact with the tribe and camped out near the village. One morning, all the men from Wheaton College were killed by the tribe. The story the Waodani woman had told was true – these people were indeed very dangerous and hostile.

So the wives of the young men from Wheaton College did what any Holy Spirit-filled wives would have done – they packed up their children and their supplies – and walked into the village. While they were there, they began to teach the Waodani Christian ideas – in particular, the idea that God doesn’t like the killing of one man by another, and the idea that God gives the gift of eternal life to all – even the weakest among us, the tiniest children, the least healthy, those who cannot hunt or fight.

And things began to change.

Today, murder is virtually unheard of among the Christian Waodani. Until his death a couple of years ago, Mincaye, the man who led the attack upon the young men from Wheaton had become a jungle dentist, flying an ultralight airplane himself between jungle clearings and spreading the Word of God.

Ideas can change the world – especially if they are backed up by the Holy Spirit of God. The story of the Waodani can be found in the films “Beyond the Gates of Splendor” and “The End of the Spear”

Today, we will be baptizing some young people. Oh, the joy of baptism, especially to be baptized during the Christmas Season!

There are some of you in the audience that may be uncomfortable with the idea that young children are being baptized, children who cannot make this decision for themselves. Let me say a few words about our Methodist baptism customs.

If there were a couple of adults here who were physically unable to speak, would we accept that these people couple be baptized? Of course we would.

If there were a couple of adults here who mentally were so impaired that they could not give their assent to being baptized, would we baptized them upon the agreement of their guardians? Of course we would.

And so, why do we say that an adult with an infant’s mind can be baptized with the agreement of a guardian, but that an infant cannot? It makes no sense. Further, it assumes something. Those who oppose infant baptism deep down believe that baptism is something done by the pastor or something done by the one baptized.

Yet it is God who does the action in baptism. During baptism, God reaches into the heart of the adult or child being baptized and changes the heart of that person from its in-born sinful nature to a nature that inherently wants to do good. God does this – we only give God permission for it to happen. God will never have to do this work again, because it is the work of God – not the work of a man.

And after I put the water on the child, I will pray for the child to receive the Holy Spirit of God. It is that Holy Spirit which now indwells the child that makes the most difference in the life of the child. For this is now God acting within the child.

At a point in their lives, the children as teenagers will be asked to take these vows for themselves. This is our confirmation. This spring we will have a confirmation class for our teenagers. And then they will join the church as full adult members.

One other aspect – there are always people who feel that the only valid baptism is one which involves immersion. The earliest written works we have, in particular a document called “The Teaching of the Apostles”, which is actually older than the Book of Revelation, speak of three methods of baptism as being equally valid: “Sprinkling, pouring, or immersion”. All of these methods have been used throughout the history of the church. For obvious reasons, we will not be taking a swim in Elk Creek today.

Look around you. Compare what you see in this world with the vicious, cruel world of 4 BC, and you’ll see that while some things have not changed, other things have changed considerably for the better. We have hospitals – a Christian invention. We have a world where we are allowed to worship as we please – something that Christian nations allow and many non-Christian nations do not allow. We have a basic sense of fair play and limits to the personal freedom to harm another – In China, Ian met a boy who was proud that his father hung him upside down and beat him for poor grades.

We have basic sanitation – travelers to India and China talk about the absence of street toilets – Because of this absence, the streets literally have become the toilets.

We have a concept that people all have inherent value, the value that comes from being an image of God. Think of all the people who endured slavery in their families for centuries because people did not think this way. Think of the men who are being killed and the women turned into slaves in the Middle East today by ISIS, just because they are not Moslems.

The world has changed considerably from 4 BC. You were once a little child, special to your parents. As you grow and become a Christian leader, think of the things about this world that you can change -- with the power of God beside you, the Word of God going ahead of you, and the Holy Spirit of God guiding you -- Think of the things about this world that you can change. And do so in your specialness.