OT Lesson: Isaiah 13:17-22 (CEB)
Look! I’m rousing the Medes against them;
the Medes pay no mind to silver, no desire for gold.
Their bows will smash youths;
they will be merciless to newborns, pitiless to children.
So Babylon, a jewel among kingdoms,
the Chaldeans’ splendour and pride,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah,
destroyed by God.
No one will ever resettle
or live there for generations.
No Arab will camp there;
no shepherds will rest flocks there.
Wildcats will rest there;
houses will be filled with owls.
Ostriches will live there,
and goat demons will dance there.
Hyenas will howl in its strongholds,
and jackals in its luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time is coming soon;
its days won’t drag on.
NT Lesson: Matthew 2:1-3 (NRSV)
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the Child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed His star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;
Sermon
Introduction
Good morning. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Last Sunday was quite special, and I enjoyed it a lot. Especially the message of Michelle Standeford and Karen Young along with the testimonies of the two current residents. It was quite moving, and it is always wonderful to see and know how our donations are being used. Now I can boldly say to you that your donations make huge difference in the lives of so many women in the shelter. Today is the Caring Sunday, and we also make differences in the lives of many people in this town through the Caring Centre. During this Advent season, we will collect the Christmas Joy offering, one of the special offerings of PCUSA. This Christmas Joy offering does many things, and one of them is helping Presbyterian students, including seminarians. I was one of the recipients of PCUSA scholarship. So through this Christmas Joy offering, you are helping future pastors just like me.
Two days ago was Black Friday. Did anyone go out for shopping on Black Friday? To your surprise, there is no Black Friday in Canada because their Thanksgiving is the second Monday of October. But they do have something similar to Black Friday, and they call it Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas. Boxing Day is the biggest shopping day when they get the most discounts at the stores. I went out for shopping at my first Boxing Day in Canada. It was a total shopping frenzy. We all have nice and gentle image of Canadians, but not on Boxing Day. Since then I never go out for shopping on either Boxing Day in Canada or Black Friday in America. Instead, I went to the Fair Oaks this time and spent the day with pigs, the only provider of bacons.
Persia
As we have been announcing, today is the first Sunday of Advent. And it feels like Christmas already. The memorial park is lit up. The down-town is lit up. Radio stations play carols all day long. Last year, we followed the basic Advent topics of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. And this year, the theme is the nations in Nativity: Persia, Rome, Egypt, and Israel. And we also decorated the pews and assigned them with twenty-one countries. Of course you can sit on your regular pew, but you are encouraged to move around and sit on different countries. Anyway, today’s topic is Persia. You can find the Persian candy recipe in the bulletin insert, and actual Persian candies are available as well, all thanks to Lisa. Let me give you the basic information of Persia. Persia which we are talking about today is an empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 B.C. and lasted for 220 years until 330 B.C. in the land of mainly today’s Iran and Iraq, but its land was from Egypt to the Indus valley, covering 2.1 million square miles. It was the largest empire the world had ever seen at its time until the Mongol Empire emerged. The United States of America including Alaska is 3.8 million square miles, and the Mongol Empire was 9.3 million square miles. The size of the Persian empire was enormous, way bigger than the Roman empire at its prime time, which was 1.6 million square miles. Have you watch the 2007 film, ‘300,’ starring Gerard Butler? “This Is Sparta!” The Spartan soldiers were fighting against the invader, and that invader was the Persian empire we are talking today. But I have to say that the depiction of the emperor in the film was totally wrong. They did it just to make fun of him. The emperors were covering their entire body. Anyway, no matter how big the empire was, the heart of Persia was Mesopotamia, in the same way that no matter how big the United States is, the heart of America is always Indiana. Well, at least to me, maybe not to you.
Mesopotamia
You must have heard of Mesopotamia a lot. Mesopotamia is a Greek word (Μεσοποταμία) meaning ‘Between the rivers,’ and just as the name tells us, it is the area around and between the two rivers of Euphrates and Tigris. Those are very long rivers running from Turkey into the Persian gulf. It is the home of one of the four ancient civilisations. The mysterious Sumer civilisation was from the Mesopotamia. They invented lunar calendar which spread all around the world including China, Korea, and other Asian countries. Chinese people every year insist and do the internet terror saying that we must call the Lunar New Year as Chinese New Year. But technically we got to call it either Lunar New Year or Sumerian New Year. Chinese did not invent the lunar calendar, the Sumerians did. Later many great empires emerged from Mesopotamia because there are rivers, which made the land fertile, in other words, there were money and good economy. Those empires include Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Parthia, and so on. Abraham was actually from this area, from the city called Ur. From the source outside of the Bible, the Jewish kings at the time of invasion appealed to the empires that Abraham was from there. Another fun fact is that the civilisations in Mesopotamia traditionally used cuneiform on clay tablets.
Curse People Saved the Saviour
Sadly all those empires in the same area at different times were all cursed a lot. So many prophets in the OT cursed Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. Even today’s OT lesson, Isaiah prophesied against Medes and Babylon, which is the same place as Persia. So it was same land, same people but just different titles. God speaks through the mouth of Isaiah that God will destroy it like Sodom and Gomorrah, that the land will be desolate and useless. There was no hope for the people in Persia. But one day they found a hope, or at least a glimpse of hope. They saw a star on the west. I will talk to you more in detail later, but it was not a single star, but actually a combination of several stars, which can be interpreted as the birth of Jewish king in the astrology. After finding that star, the wise men or magi began their journey to the new born king following the star. The distance from Baghdad to Jerusalem on a straight line is about 550 miles, but the scholars assume that the magi travelled most likely from Baghdad to Mosul, to Aleppo, to Damascus, and finally to Jerusalem. And it is about 1,000 miles. And this journey probably took about nine months to a year, considering harsh travelling conditions back then including no paved roads. And the journey back then was extremely dangers and they had to risked their lives. After the long and dangerous journey, they finally found the Saviour of the world and worshipped Him. Those magi gave the gift of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I don’t know how much gold they gave, but gold is gold. All those gifts were very expensive and many scholars think that it was enough for several years’ wage. Because of these gifts, the Holy Family was able to survive in the strange land of Egypt for four years. So those magi saved the Saviour. And at night after worshipping the little Saviour, they were warned in their dream and they did not return to Jerusalem, which gave the Holy Family enough time to escape the city of Bethlehem. So twice the magi saved the Saviour.
Magi Saved the Church
Time flew, the Persian empire was gone. Rome and Parthian were the two empires dividing the world, and Constantine the Great became the emperor of Rome. He is famous for the Edict of Milan, which ended the persecution on Christianity. He later made the Christianity as the state religion, and built many churches and basilicas across the empire. Of course many churches were built in Holy Land, and the Church of the Nativity was one of them. In that church was a painting of Magi worshipping baby Jesus. Time flew again and it was 635 A.D. Caliph Umar and his army came to the Holy Land and conquered all the cities. Wherever they went, they destroyed and tore down every single Christian church. Now the army arrived at Bethlehem and there was a big church standing—the Church of Nativity. The caliph commanded his army to plunder first and then tear down the church. The soldiers went into the church, and one of them saw the painting of the magi worshipping baby Saviour. Those unlearned soldiers did not know any of the stories but they clearly identified and recognised that the three big guys in the painting were wearing their own traditional noble clothing. So those soldiers reported it to the commander of the army. After hearing and seeing the painting himself, he thought to himself, ‘I don’t know what this is, but this place and this building must have something to do with our ancestors.’ And he commanded his army, “Hey guys, do not touch this building. We go to Jerusalem right now.” So the Church of Nativity was the only—I mean, one and only—church which was not destroyed at the time of Muslim invasion simply because of the three guys wearing traditional Persian clothing. So those magi saved the Saviour twice, and six hundred years later, again saved a church from destruction. Jews despised and humiliated the gentiles. But the very despised and humble gentiles saved the Saviour while the Jews handed Him to be crucified. Jews and Christians could not protect the church, but the gentiles who were dead for six hundred years saved the church.
Conclusion
Friends, today we lit the candle of hope. There is always hope for us. There is always another chance for us. Those empires and people of Mesopotamia invaded and destroyed Israel, and they discontinued the throne of David. And thus they were punished and cursed by God and by so many prophets in the OT. But they, those magi continued their study and looked up the sky every single day for hope. And when they finally found hope, they acted upon it without hesitation. And eventually they did far greater things than the actual chosen people by saving the Saviour twice, and the church once.
We might have made mistakes in the past. We might have made unwise choices and decisions in our early years. And we may suffer the consequences because of the errors we made before. But it is not over. The baby Saviour came on earth to give us hope. And thus we always—I mean all the time—have hope. We always have another chance, not because we deserve but because of the grace and love of our Saviour. So friends, let us find hope in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, and just like the magi, let us act upon hope. Then there must be things we can do in the kingdom of God on earth in this very town of Lebanon. Let us learn from magi and live out our lives fully in hope. Amen.
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