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Sunday, 23 December 2007 – Christmas Service

I’m afraid that I’m not into sat-nav’s. That might have something to do with my age - because all my life I’ve been used to using hard-copy maps - where you can see the whole of a journey mapped out from the beginning to end before you start. It might also have something to do with some of the horror stories you hear about journeys that have gone wrong using satellite navigation. One I remember was of an ambulance setting out with a patient for a relatively short journey to a hospital in Essex - and ending up at either Manchester or Liverpool - I can’t remember which - because they blindly relied on their sat-nav’s directions! But that might just have been because - if you don’t ask the right question - you don’t get the right answer. And I know my brother’s been up a farm track using his sat-nav thinking it was a country road - but that might just be because he’s my brother.

Of course - the magi (wise-men - astronomers cum astrologers - whatever) had their own version of sat-nav about two millennia before the invention of the micro-chip. It was call Star-Nav. And pretty reliable it was too. So they put together an expedition and follow its direction like a tracking system for hundreds of miles until they got near to Jerusalem.

Now I believe (although I’m not completely sure) that a modern sat-nav can put you within a metre of where it’s guiding you to - anywhere on the earth’s surface. That’s not bad. I do know that Graham May (who some of us know) used one down in Devon to get back to where he’s earlier found an unexploded shell on a firing range where he was employed. But of course - you’ve got to be able to trust your guidance system.

So the Magi get near to Jerusalem - look down and see the city on the horizon - put two and two together - and get it wrong! They took their eyes off the star - and onto their own deductions.

I mentioned just now miss-placed trust in a guidance system. Let me now tell you another story where it should have been trusted! It’s the second world war - and an allied bomber is flying back to it’s base over the Mediterranean and towards the North African coast. The crew know how far they have to travel and how long it should take them. Suddenly their flight path indication switched from their destination being in front of them to being behind them. They look at their watches. No - they can’t be there already - it’s far too early. They must still be out over the sea. That crew were never seen again. But a few years ago a virtually undamaged world war two bomber was found some way inland in the Sahara Desert. It had crash landed because it run out of fuel. And that was because what this crew didn’t know was that they’d experienced an exceptionally strong tail-wind that night - and it had blown all the returning aircraft home a lot quicker than expected. The indicator was right. Their deductions were wrong. Not believing the guidance system cost this crew their lives.

Anyway - the wise-men - having been disabused of their own deductions - get on their way again - return to their route via Star-Nav - and eventually pin-point a house with a young boy in it - the God-child - or as the Old Testament (OT) calls Him - Emmanuel – ‘God with us’. And since he’s in the house and not still in the stable - one assumes that He’s also now gone through His naming ceremony and been given the name ‘Jesus’ - from the Hebrew word for ‘saviour’ - because the Bible tells us - He will save people from their sins. These travellers had found their destination accurately - probably more accurately than they could have comprehended. I wonder if they realised the king they had sort and found was The King of all eternity. And did they realise that a cosmic ‘battle to end all battles’ between good and evil - sin and holiness - was going to fought out - and won - by this small child when he’d grown up into a man some 33 years later? But they’d made their journey - and they’d found what they came looking for?

On the way there they’d met (however indirectly) people who had what we might call hard-copy information that could have guided them to the new infant king themselves. The scholars and priests that King Herod consulted for a start. The text we read says that the arrival of the magi caused a stir Jerusalem - so you could probably write your own headlines for an imaginary tabloid newspaper the next day. This being so - and with these guys having a lot of the facts at their finger tips - why didn’t they get exited about it - or at least make the 6 mile journey South from Jerusalem to have a nose around themselves. Was it that they had just got complacent about the OT prophetic promise - or did they just not believe it could happen.

Complacency kills. I don’t know if you saw a documentary on TV last week about another journey - that of the Columbia space shuttle that had a disastrous ending just a few years ago? Houston knew about the lump of foam hitting the front edge of the shuttle’s wing within a day of the launch. They knew enough to subsequent accurately reproduce the damage that destroyed that shuttle in a controlled re-enactment. But for over a week they discussed the filmed impact and studied it, while the shuttle and its crew circled the earth oblivious of the danger - and they did nothing. They had the information. But they didn’t realise its import.

The priests and the Jewish leaders had the facts - and could theoretical have make the journey themselves. Admittedly their knowledge was not so precisely guided as that of the Magi - but they enough to encourage them to put the ‘where’ information they already had together with the stunning new revelation of the ‘now’ brought by the Magi - and to make that journey - but they didn’t. ~ You know - we as a nation have had the Bible in our own language for centuries. People gave their lives to ensure we had the facts about Jesus in a way we could understand them. So why don’t people today make the journey to meet Him?

And how about you? What about the journey you’re making?

You know - we’re all on at least two parallel journeys. And one at least is not optional. We travel from the cradle to the grave - and there is on opting out of this journey.

But we also travel the time-line of our lives in search of a meaning and purpose for the ‘growing up and growing old’ journey. And that’s even if the questions posed by this parallel journey aren’t always clear to us - or aren’t always recognised. And it’s how we travel that journey - and what we use as our guidance system on it - that matters. The way we travel this journey is optional - but the travelling of it isn’t. And there are consequences to the way we travel on this journey - not always clear - but definitely there.

If you are at a place on your journey of life tonight where you are searching about for a route - then you’ll find a few people in this building who’ve typed ‘Jesus’ into their spiritual navigation system - just as it says in the book of Hebrews in the Bible – ‘fixing their eyes upon Jesus’. Of course - if they’re honest - they’ll tell you that sometimes they lose their way - but that’s probably more their fault than His. But they will also tell you the route is always there to return to. If you are looking for way to live for the rest of your life - don’t leave this building tonight without asking God to forgive your sin - and to take the opportunity today of making Jesus your life guide.

Because Jesus said in John’s gospel Chapter 14 and verse 6 – ‘I am the way (literally the route you take) the truth and life; no-one - no-one - comes to the Father - except by Me.’ There is no viable alternative route. That’s why God became a man - a real flesh and blood man - born as baby - not beamed down - and lived amongst us - and - as our substitute - died for us to put us right with God. And this is the authentic message of Christmas. This is the meaning behind it.

Granville Richards