WEBVTT 00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:09.679 It's Epiphany Sunday. Today we celebrate as a church this amazing moment when the Magi visit the Christ child. 00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:22.480 It comes very late in our Christmas story and sadly some people have already packed away the Christmas decorations in the loft and the Magi come a little bit late. 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:34.539 Fortunately we moved it forward didn't we and we've brought them into the nativity scene and to many of our nativity plays so we actually captured the importance of their visit. 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:42.760 I'm so pleased that we have because maybe at school you were one of the kings. 00:00:42.760 --> 00:00:47.480 The thing about the kings in a school place you got to wear the posh clothes didn't you? 00:00:47.479 --> 00:00:58.379 You get all those shiny gifts you got that long walk around the hall to signify the long journey that you had while everybody sang We Three Kings. 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:01.919 What is the importance of their visit? 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:16.780 These adventurous blokes from distant lands so far who were powerfully drawn by what many Christians would dismiss as a pagan astrological prediction, a mystical star to meet with Jesus. 00:01:16.780 --> 00:01:19.219 That's very important in their visit. 00:01:20.320 --> 00:01:22.859 The thing is there's several things that spring to mind. 00:01:23.980 --> 00:01:29.700 Firstly don't dismiss the way Jesus draws people to meet with him. 00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:39.020 It was a very important visit, very counter-cultural that Gentiles were being called to meet with the Christ child. 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:41.159 We were invited in. 00:01:41.159 --> 00:01:50.899 Secondly, whether you bring posh gifts or like the shepherds you came straight from work just as you are, their worship was equally received as precious. 00:01:51.299 --> 00:01:53.739 The Magi took quite a bit of planning. 00:01:53.920 --> 00:02:01.780 The encounter with horrible Herod yet faithfully day in and day out following a star. 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:06.439 The shepherds, that was a little bit more spontaneous as they were within running distance. 00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:14.840 The wonder of meeting with Jesus, whether you planned for it or whether it just happened spontaneously, is the same effect. 00:02:15.859 --> 00:02:18.639 All worship and wonder. 00:02:20.859 --> 00:02:27.500 I'm aware at the beginning of this year that we're all hopeful of what the year may look like. 00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:30.919 Many are saying, well, it can't be any worse than the year that's just gone. 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:47.399 And like many, we are planning our diaries, whether you have an electronic diary or whether you have one of those new, crisp, wonderful, blank-paged desk diaries that smell new. 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:52.679 The new year that lays ahead offers us lots and lots of opportunities. 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:56.200 Adventures and encounters afresh. 00:02:56.580 --> 00:02:58.500 Many that we may have planned. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.060 Many that will be spontaneous. 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:10.159 And when we look back, many of us had no idea at the beginning of 2020 what our diary would look like by the end of the past year. 00:03:11.020 --> 00:03:12.020 Postponed weddings. 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:14.100 Cancelled holidays. 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:15.840 Lots of Zoom meetings. 00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:17.260 New ways of living. 00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:20.560 And in many ways, just new ways of surviving. 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:27.300 I opened my diary at Christmas 2021 and I thought, I wonder what this year will look like. 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:30.580 Will the coming year look the same as last year? 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:34.319 A catalogue of crossed out, cancelled and postponed events. 00:03:36.659 --> 00:03:44.020 Rudian Brook, the Christian writer, author and broadcaster, is one of my favourites to follow. 00:03:44.020 --> 00:03:48.580 And he recalls that in his diary he has poems, one for every week. 00:03:49.060 --> 00:03:52.460 And yet became distracted in all the changes of last year. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:56.100 As he said, they were long days and dog days. 00:03:56.420 --> 00:03:58.240 I certainly resonated with that. 00:03:59.219 --> 00:04:02.860 Yet he decided to go back and read through his poems. 00:04:03.640 --> 00:04:05.980 One of them was The Oxen by Thomas Hardy. 00:04:05.979 --> 00:04:09.679 A poem that I hadn't really engaged with since childhood. 00:04:11.519 --> 00:04:13.819 Christmas Eve and twelve of the clock. 00:04:14.239 --> 00:04:16.219 Now they are all on their knees. 00:04:16.439 --> 00:04:21.659 An elder said as we sat in a flock by the embers of hearthside ease. 00:04:22.759 --> 00:04:27.420 We pictured the meek, mild creatures where they dwelt in their story pen. 00:04:27.819 --> 00:04:31.439 Nor did it occur to one of us there to doubt they were kneeling then. 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:36.219 So fair a fancy few would weave in these years. 00:04:37.219 --> 00:04:40.439 Yet I feel if someone said on Christmas Eve, 00:04:40.839 --> 00:04:47.339 Come see the oxen kneel in the lonely Barton by yonder coombe our childhood used to know. 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:53.620 I should go with him in the gloom, hoping it might be so. 00:04:53.620 --> 00:05:00.540 You see the whole thing about the Magi, the star, the shepherds, the heavenly host. 00:05:01.379 --> 00:05:06.519 There was wonder in the meeting as they were led to meet with Jesus. 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:10.740 Who or what led you to meet with Jesus? 00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:13.399 Was it a friend? 00:05:13.579 --> 00:05:14.899 Was it a family friend? 00:05:15.259 --> 00:05:16.959 Was it a spontaneous incident? 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:21.259 Was it a gradual realisation that Jesus is worthy of all our praise? 00:05:21.259 --> 00:05:24.519 Who brought you to meet with Jesus? 00:05:26.219 --> 00:05:32.719 And how many people could you bring to meet with him in this coming year? 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:37.599 God knows may be your initial response. 00:05:37.959 --> 00:05:40.920 And I'd say I'll mentor that because he does. 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:45.019 If we respond to his plans. 00:05:45.019 --> 00:05:57.959 How many people did Billy Graham think that he would bring to know Jesus the day that he was invited as a young man to a revival meeting on the 1st of November 1934. 00:05:58.359 --> 00:06:01.319 And made that initial commitment to follow Jesus. 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:07.379 Some people have made a conservative estimate and said it's something like 2.2 million in his lifetime. 00:06:07.379 --> 00:06:18.899 But so many people are still coming to faith in Jesus because of a YouTube that he made and broadcast before he returned to be with the Lord. 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:22.199 You can count the apples on a tree. 00:06:23.379 --> 00:06:25.980 But who can count the apples in a seed? 00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:27.819 Goes the old phrase. 00:06:27.819 --> 00:06:33.399 You know I can put a lot of dates and events in my diary for 2021. 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:40.579 It will probably mean very little unless I am open to the prompting and the move of the Holy Spirit. 00:06:40.939 --> 00:06:44.779 And his opportunities to bring people to meet with Jesus. 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:50.199 And at the end of last year I looked at my plans. 00:06:50.379 --> 00:06:52.459 2020 was a tough year for us. 00:06:52.459 --> 00:06:57.099 Yet despite the fact that we had to do things differently. 00:06:57.539 --> 00:07:00.759 With all my planning looking as if it had hit the shredder. 00:07:01.039 --> 00:07:03.759 I saw people come to know and meet with Jesus. 00:07:04.539 --> 00:07:05.939 Despite my plans. 00:07:07.099 --> 00:07:16.279 I saw people who were in desperate situations draw closer to a relationship with him in life changing and life giving ways. 00:07:16.279 --> 00:07:17.799 It wasn't in my diary. 00:07:17.979 --> 00:07:20.159 Not in the way that I had planned it. 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:22.860 Some people came through illness. 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:24.380 Some people came through pain. 00:07:24.820 --> 00:07:25.780 I'm dying. 00:07:26.020 --> 00:07:29.540 I want to know what's beyond this life. 00:07:29.700 --> 00:07:32.500 To know his comfort, his peace and a life everlasting. 00:07:33.520 --> 00:07:41.000 Some came because they had all put their trust in maybe career, pension, marriage, investments. 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:44.600 They all dissolved sadly. 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:52.920 And they realised that Jesus was the one, like in the poem, that they may be a jettisoned as a child or a teenager. 00:07:54.260 --> 00:08:03.560 And found again that Jesus was the solid rock exposed again that had always been there when everything else got washed away. 00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:13.720 These adventurous men, these magi, these kings came searching for something and found it. 00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:15.639 They weren't disappointed. 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:17.060 They weren't too haughty. 00:08:17.340 --> 00:08:22.680 They weren't too grand to kneel in a filthy stable and worship. 00:08:22.680 --> 00:08:28.019 Who will you lead to meet with Jesus this year? 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:32.039 Perhaps this message will do that. 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:37.740 Perhaps at the beginning of this year you will kneel where you are and meet with Jesus in prayer. 00:08:38.740 --> 00:08:44.320 And we'll say a prayer later in a time of prayer that you may want to join in with. 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:50.480 Where will you allow Jesus to arrange your priorities and your life? 00:08:52.100 --> 00:08:57.940 How will you allow him to order your diary in the years to come? 00:08:58.580 --> 00:08:59.560 And mine as well. 00:09:00.760 --> 00:09:08.340 On that great day, how many apples will have come from the seedbed of our life in Christ? 00:09:08.340 --> 00:09:11.800 Who can count the apples on a tree? 00:09:13.300 --> 00:09:15.460 But who can count the apples in a seed? 00:09:18.160 --> 00:09:20.200 I can hand lots of people tracts. 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:23.440 I can hand lots of people brochures about Jesus. 00:09:23.780 --> 00:09:30.720 The same as I can send them about an article of standing on a mountaintop on a glorious summer's morning. 00:09:31.580 --> 00:09:33.120 It makes great reading. 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:37.879 But it's the actual shared experience that changes your life. 00:09:38.340 --> 00:09:40.580 And stays with you forever. 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:42.320 Many of you will know that. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:44.639 Many of you will know that experience. 00:09:44.940 --> 00:09:47.379 That glorious moment of meeting with Jesus. 00:09:48.560 --> 00:09:50.899 Some of you will be longing for it. 00:09:52.280 --> 00:10:00.340 Being alongside someone as they meet with Jesus, I think, is one of the most humbling and powerful experiences that we can have in our Christian life. 00:10:00.340 --> 00:10:11.160 If you're making plans for 2021, please, please ensure that Jesus is at the heart of what you are planning. 00:10:11.820 --> 00:10:16.300 And be open to him hijacking your diary, as I say. 00:10:17.080 --> 00:10:21.820 To be open to him to be at the centre of all that you are doing. 00:10:21.820 --> 00:10:24.440 And all maybe that you are planning to do. 00:10:25.560 --> 00:10:28.180 As Rudian Brook reminds us in that poem. 00:10:29.060 --> 00:10:30.700 And reflecting and looking back. 00:10:31.660 --> 00:10:37.200 If someone said on Christmas Eve, come see the ox and kneel in the lonely barton by yonder coom. 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:39.580 And our childhood used to know. 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:42.240 I should go with him in the gloom. 00:10:43.140 --> 00:10:45.080 Hoping it might be so. 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:50.160 I pray for you in this year to come. 00:10:50.920 --> 00:10:54.660 As you actively journey with people in their meeting with Jesus. 00:10:54.659 --> 00:10:58.079 Jesus, the one who came for all people. 00:10:58.659 --> 00:11:00.740 Shepherds, kings, saints and sinners. 00:11:02.299 --> 00:11:07.319 God's plan for redemption and rescue didn't get packed away in the loft with the decorations. 00:11:08.319 --> 00:11:09.519 It continues. 00:11:11.559 --> 00:11:17.799 Christmas was and remains a cosmic and salvational plan for all God's people. 00:11:17.799 --> 00:11:19.019 For you and me. 00:11:19.019 --> 00:11:21.740 In which God comes amongst us. 00:11:22.059 --> 00:11:26.439 And we are invited to meet with him in person. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:31.199 Be a star this year, will you? 00:11:33.019 --> 00:11:36.939 And lead many people to meet with Jesus.