Kneeling Before a Baby

Though we understand God to be
ever-present.  We symbolically understand
God to be present specifically at the altar.
Above is the Altar at the United Methodist
Church on Third Ave. In Big Rapids, MI.
That's my good friend Mike to the left. 

Matthew 2:1-12

They came and Knelt before a baby.  When you find God you kneel before him.  If you find Him in truth; if you find him in your faith; if you find him in your service you kneel before him.  Does that mean you actually take the posture of resting on your knees?  Perhaps, but what it really means is that you give God honor, you give praise, your acknowledge God’s presence.   We don’t always notice the presence or the action of God in our lives.  Not everybody is the type that walks around looking for the presence of God.  We are doing what we feel called to do.  There is work to be done.  So what do we do?  How do we find spiritual nourishment from the God who came as a human in the form of a baby?  How do we worship a God that lived as a human 2000 years ago in a region of the world that most of us will never see?   We look to scripture and we witness the action of the three wise men, the three kings, the astrologers the magi, whatever you want to call them, they came and they knelt before a baby.  This is a strange thing. 

I mean, love my kids, but kneeling before a baby?  Scripture says they paid homage to him. They brought gifts of Gold, frankincense and myrrh. To a baby!  Who were they trying to impress?  A baby doesn’t notice anything but its own comfort or discomfort.  The baby’s parents were a young couple traveling from Nazareth; they seemed to be no one special so why kneel before a baby?

Alex just had his 16^th birthday.  17 years ago I had very different visions of what parenthood would be than I do now.  In fact a lot of those visions were shattered about this time of year 16 years ago.  While we were waiting for Alex to arrive I had a chart hanging in the hall in the upstairs of Diane’s grandmother’s house where we were staying.  It was an illustrated diagram of the development of a fetus month by month.  I had written in Alex’s due date at the end of the fold out piece of glossy paper and I worked backward adding dates along the diagram to the current date.  I would look at it. And marvel at it as if it were an actual picture of our unborn child.  I didn’t realize then, just how clueless I was.

I wasn’t even the one that was responsible for feeding him and it wasn’t long before I felt exhausted.   Up several times a night crying.  He was hungry, so Diane fed him.  He was messy so we cleaned him. He got sick and we worried over him.  One night he wasn’t any of these things that I could tell and yet he was still crying and I irrationally asked him “What do you want? Just tell me and I’ll do it!” of course a baby cannot answer with words. A baby is not interested in your desires or your wellbeing.  As wonderful and as miraculous new life is, babies are the most selfish creatures on the planet. 

You’ll notice in the scripture the wise men didn’t stick around. They left.

They brought all this great stuff for Jesus.  Joseph may have been like, “Oh hey, why don’t you stay for a few weeks?”

Then (With the baby crying in the background) the wise men were like, “Oh, no. We really need to be getting back.  We gotta go to work.  You know astrology stuff.  Uh, take care.  Good luck with the Herod thing.  Enjoy the incense and the…balm. Hope the gold helps.”  Then they were gone!

By the way, I was asked about the gold that was given them.  Mary, Joseph and the baby almost immediately after this were on the run for their lives from Herod.  They lived in Egypt as refugees until Herod’s death.  I don’t imagine there was a lot of time for Joseph to find work.  I think the Gold was very useful and necessary during this time of their lives.  

The wise men gave their best.  They gave their gold, they gave their frankincense, and they gave their myrrh.   They came from Persia and they brought their best. We come to this place of worship to be in the presence of our God.  We come from Fountain and Ludington, and Scottville, and Pentwater, and Muskegon.  And we bring our best. 

What is our best? 

Back when I was in seminary I volunteered at my church as a Stephen Minister.  The Stephen Ministry is a congregational care program where people are matched.  Someone who needs care is paired with a caregiver.  It is spiritual care.  It is a relationship.  It’s a friendship.   I was paired with Wally. Every week I visited him.  I would sit in his home for an hour sometimes more seldom less.  We talked about all sorts of things.  He was a sports writer for many years so when March Madness came around our visits were mostly about watching basketball.  He had a stroke one day which meant that he couldn't stay in his home any more. He moved to a nursing home. So I visited him there.  I was going to school in Holland at the time.  In the middle of one of my theology classes I got a call that Wally wasn't doing well.  That the end was probably near.  So I asked to be excused.  I drove the hour and a half back to Greenville and when I got to the nursing home there was a worker in his room cleaning.  No Wally.  I was too late.  He was gone and they had already taken him away.  I didn’t get to say goodbye.  

I loved him. In all my pastoral classes they say that I should keep a professional distance from the people that I will serve.  I understand why they say that and to a certain extent I agree because if I took on everyone’s hurts, I don’t know if I could survive.  When Wally died I questioned if this was the right profession for me. I wasn’t sure I could endure that kind of pain on a regular basis.  But to not love, to not give your best, to hold something back, to hold back a blessing that God has for you, which He wants to give through you, to hold that back is a sad thing. So I said “okay” to God.  The same is true of each one of you. You each have blessings to give. You have your best to give. The commandment is to love one another.

Something may have happened that has prevented you from fully giving of yourself, which makes you hold back.  When that happens, the Adversary has a victory.

The wise men gave their best. They sacrificed everything for something unknown; for an unsure thing but they had confidence they would find it. They found it in a baby. They left that day. They couldn't take anything from the baby.  They didn’t get any material gain or imparted wisdom it was a baby! They just wanted to be in the presence of this hope, this potential, this promise that is only in the beginning of being fulfilled.  They gave their best not knowing how it would end.  Even if they would have stayed none of them would have lived long enough to experience anything of Jesus’ adult ministry.  But they came and they brought their best.  They knelt before a baby.

When Jesus was an adult just before he gave his life, he gathered his disciple for a meal.  He told them that the bread was his body and the wine was his blood.  Do this in remembrance of me. Jesus tells us, “Do this in remembrance of me.” 

This is my Body broken for you.  This is my blood of the new covenant shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  Jesus is present.  Jesus is here!  So come! Take this gift of his presence. If you haven’t noticed his presence in your life, if you are unaware of how God is working in an through you, then take this opportunity to receive Holy Communion and know that he is present and kneel before him and give him your best.