I want you to find a scrap paper and a pen or pencil. If you use a prayer card, that's ok … just be sure to write a prayer concern on the card when it comes to prayer time this morning! Now write the following letters, all in upper case, spaced as directed … and if you make your line a bit uneven that is even better:

JESUS    TE  A  MA

Sometime last week, Drew and I were driving south on 35. While stopped at the light at the Fort, I noticed those letters on the back of a van, lopsided and unevenly spaced. As the light turned green, I said to Drew: "Jesus Loves You." He made no comment. A few moments later he said: "I bet that van in front of us was on a mission trip and that van was the lead car in the group." I was puzzled and asked him how he had decided that. "Simple," he said. "The youth group decorated the van before they left, that's why the lettering is unevenly spaced … but this was the first car because it is Jesus Team A." At that I started laughing and realized he was equally as puzzled as to why I had out of the blue said to him: "Jesus Loves You." In my mind I had arranged the letters so that they said in Spanish "Jesus te ama," Jesus loves you. He had arranged the letters to fit his experience of driving to mission with a group of vans. Both of us had seen the exact same thing and had made something that didn't quite make sense fit into our experience and expectations. And who knows which of us had gotten it right?

In another story from James Hewett: In a country church of a small village an altar boy serving the priest at Sunday mass accidentally dropped the cruet of wine. The village priest struck the altar boy sharply on the cheek and in a gruff voice shouted: "Leave the altar and don't come back!" That boy became Tito, [leader of the Yugoslavia, who was eventually excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, because of his treatment of the Catholic bishops in that country.] In the cathedral of a large city an altar boy serving the bishop at Sunday Mass accidentally dropped the cruet of wine. With a warm twinkle in this eyes the bishop gently whispered: "Someday you will be a priest." That boy grew up to become Archbishop Fulton Sheen,[well known Roman Catholic Bishop.] (James Hewett, "Illustrations Unlimited, Wheaton: Tyndale, p. 492) In this case it is a similar incidents, with markedly different reactions.

"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." … "Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."In the magi and Herod we also have people hearing and experiencing the same event with markedly different reactions. We know the stories – the magi have traveled a great distance to find this new king. Probably Zoroastrian priests out of Persia, they are ready to give this new king his due … blessing him with gifts appropriate to a great person. They see the star and in that sight find great news. They travel to Jerusalem and consult Herod, the current ruler of the area. Herod hears of the star and the birth of a king … and he finds this news a great threat. The gospel records his reaction in a part of the Christmas story that is rarely talked about: "When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."

Again, two different groups of people see and hear of the same event and have markedly different reactions to it. That is the reality of Christmas … the birth of God with us. Many who worshiped with us on Christmas Eve are gone until Easter. Their experience of God's birth limited to the glow of candlelight and the scent of Easter lilies. Many who hear of the good news of God with us can not tolerate the reality of the incarnate God, and so do their best to bring about death and destruction. Some, like ourselves perhaps, have taken the birth of God, Word made flesh to heart and have chosen to follow in the life and teachings of Jesus. And that choice sends us out to the world to be an example of the love of God … to bring good news to the brokenhearted, to bind up the wounds of the world, to seek peace.

As followers of Christ we are called to bring about the joy spoken of in our text from Jeremiah: "I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow." That Jeremiah can speak of such a time is amazing given that he writes as the people of Israel are about to be hauled off into exile. It is a reminder to the people that no matter how bad things get, God's covenant with them is still there … hidden somewhere within the threads of their lives, and that somewhere even in the midst of destruction and decay, there is something worth saving. We know that because of the reality of Christmas … God with us. We have seen the star and know it to be great news.

Jesus te ama … or Jesus Team A a reminder that we all come at life from different experiences and points of view. With that reminder, we are charged with going beyond mere toleration of one another and instead charged with, as some wedding vows say: guarding and sheltering each other's happiness. God has shown us the way … God has shown us what is worthy of salvation. What is worthy is us … you, me and the whole lot of creation. As we venture from this Christmas season, may we see with the eyes of the magi, who knew a king when they saw one. May we find the goodness of the Lord in all people … and share the good news of Jesus Christ so that they too may experience the joy of salvation.