_______________________________________________

________________________________________________

SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 2008

THE DAY OF THE EPIPHANY

Matthew 3:1-12 (The hole in our soul)

________________________________________________

TODAY’S SERMON THEME:

Each one of us has been created with a hole in our soul. An empty place that we just cannot seem to fill. We try mightily to fill it -- with material things, with relationships or entertainment, with food or drink -- but nothing will fit. Nothing will satisfy our inner emptiness. And there is a reason for that: Only God can fill our soul to overflowing. Only God can satisfy our deep spiritual longing for hope, for meaning, for truth.

________________________________________________

1. Have you ever known someone whose life is absolutely perfect? Someone who has everything all together? Someone who is successful in every area of his or her life? Let me tell you about one man I know whose life seems to be perfect in every respect. His name is Mike. And here is his story:

(1) Mike has a great job. A job that he loves. As a matter of fact, he looks forward every morning to getting to his office. He has done the same thing for more than 20 years, and he LOVES it. He would not exchange his job for anything in the world. He provides an important service that people need, and he greatly enjoys meeting those needs.

(2) Mike also has a great family. His wife of 25 years loves him. His two college-aged sons love him. He has always spent large amounts of time with his wife and sons, and if you see them out in the community, you can tell that there is something special about them. His wife is very active in their neighborhood association, in the local school board, and as a volunteer at the local high school. The boys are active in sports, and they are doing well in school. Not great. But very well. And, very impressively, the boys have managed to stay out of trouble through high school and into college.

(3) Mike has a great support system among his friends. He has at least four or five close friends whom he could call in the middle of the night, and they would be there for him, without asking questions. These are men whom Mike has known since high school, and they have been through hell and high water together. Literally. They have supported each other through the deaths of parents, the deaths of co-workers, the arrests of friends, even the horrible trauma of AIDS and cancer. AND NOT ONLY THAT: But this friendship group has managed to play golf together for TWO DECADES, without shattering their bonds of affection.

(4) So. From all outward appearances, Mike's life is perfect. Perfect in every respect. In every respect.

2. Well . . . in ALMOST every respect. You see, at the very center of this man's being -- right in the middle of his heart, right in the middle of his gut -- there is a horrible emptiness. A terrible emptiness. Nearly every week, Mike wakes up in the middle of the night with cold sweats. He has an anxiety, a fear, that he really has not been able to define. As he told me at one point, he is AFRAID most of the time, but he has not been able to admit it. Or to explain it. Deep in his heart, he knows that all that he has will one day be gone, and he is fearful about facing that day. His anxiety attacks have been so severe that he started seeing a psychiatrist, and he started taking anti-anxiety medication. From all outward appearances, MIKE HAS EVERYTHING GOING FOR HIM, but he feels totally EMPTY inside. More and more, he found himself thinking about DYING. Thinking about death. He has already buried both of his parents, and a couple of his closest friends. And with each funeral in his family, with each funeral in his friends' families, he gets more and more afraid.

3. Suddenly Mike’s life does not look so perfect anymore, does it? Outward appearances can be deceiving. And no matter how PERFECT a life appears to be OUTWARDLY, it is the INNER dimension of our lives that is always the most important. It is the INNER part of our lives that ultimately determines our overall peace of mind. As the Lord Jesus put it: We can possess the whole world, but if we lose our soul in the process, we are truly and absolutely LOST. Jesus said: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but to forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” The answer, of course, is NOTHING. We cannot give ANYTHING in exchange for our soul. If our SOUL is lost, then we are truly lost. No amount of outward things -- money, family, friends, possessions -- can bring hope, peace, or security to a soul that is in distress. Nothing in this world -- NOTHING -- can address the inner spiritual yearnings that all of us have. And all of us have inner yearnings for (1) hope, (2) meaning, and (3) truth.

4. And that brings us to the main point I want to make this morning, before we look at our wonderful Gospel Lesson from Matthew Chapter 2 and the story of the magi’s visit to Bethlehem to see Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus. Here is the main point for today:

You see, when we are finally HONEST with ourselves, deep within our hearts, we know that we are somehow INCOMPLETE in our lives. We realize that there is a deep yearning within us for hope, for meaning, and for truth. We try to address this yearning through outward things, but nothing seems to work. Nothing seems to satisfy us. We are somehow incomplete, empty. And only God can fill us. Only God can satisfy us.

5. And so the wise men left their homes in the area known as present-day Iran and headed to the West, following a star. A few observations about this amazing story:

(1) There was something about the lives of these “wise men” -- or magicians, or astrologers -- that was somehow incomplete. Something about their existence that caused them to look toward the heavens for answers. And so they gazed into the sky, at night, looking for hope, for meaning, for truth. They were searching for a sign, a portent, an omen, ANYTHING that would let them know that there was SOMETHING MORE about life. Something greater than what they knew. Something more magnificent than what they had experienced.

(2) When they saw the STAR of Bethlehem, they followed it. All the way to Jerusalem. (Now, scholars have tried for 2,000 years to explain this “star” -- as a comet, a conjunction of planets, an asteroid, a meteor, an eclipse. But we know that it caught their attention, and they followed it a great distance.)

(3) They traveled to Jerusalem to ask King Herod where the new “king of the Jews” was supposed to be born. Now, Herod WAS the King of the Jews, by agreement and by military might supported by the Roman Empire. But in his jealous madness, Herod asked his own priests where the Messiah was supposed to be born. They told him the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, in the city of David. So Herod sent the wise men on their way to Bethlehem, six miles to the south.

(4) And Herod asked the wise men to return to him with a report about this new “king,” so that he, too, could go and worship. And that is when Herod conceived his maniacal plot to kill the new-born child.

(5) The magi arrived in Bethlehem, probably some months after Jesus was born (perhaps as long as two years), to find the Holy Family living in a house. There they worshiped the new King, offering Him gifts of gold (for a king), frankincense (for a priest), and myrrh (ointment for a royal burial). These gifts probably gave the family enough money to live in Egypt, after they were forced to flee when Herod ordered his soldiers to kill all the male children in Bethlehem under two years of age.

(6) And then the magi left Bethlehem by a different route. They thus avoided Herod, his madness, and his plot to kill the holy Child.

6. The Bible is filled with stories about inner yearnings for hope, for meaning, for truth. (1) Abraham yearned for more, so he left his father’s home in the East, and followed the Lord’s directions to the land of Canaan, and to Egypt. (2) Moses yearned for more, so he turned aside from his flock of sheep and goats to go to the Holy Mountain, where he encountered a burning bush -- and a God who called him by name into the Lord’s service. (3) Elisha yearned for more, so he followed his mentor Elijah all the way to the Jordan, where he saw the angelic chariots of fire, and the heavenly horsemen. (4) Isaiah yearned for more, and he saw a vision of the Lord God of Hosts, seated on the heavenly throne. (5) The apostles yearned for more, and they followed Jesus.

ONLY God can fill the yearning for MORE, the hole in our soul. Only God can fill our souls to overflowing . . . satisfying our yearning for hope, for meaning, for truth. After all, the empty spot inside us is a hole shaped just like God.