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6 Upon your walls, O Jerusalem,

   I have posted sentinels;

all day and all night

   they shall never be silent.

You who remind the Lord,

   take no rest,

7 and give him no rest

   until he establishes Jerusalem

   and makes it renowned throughout the earth.

8 The Lord has sworn by his right hand

   and by his mighty arm:

I will not again give your grain

   to be food for your enemies,

and foreigners shall not drink the wine

   for which you have laboured;

9 but those who garner it shall eat it

   and praise the Lord,

and those who gather it shall drink it

   in my holy courts.

10 Go through, go through the gates,

   prepare the way for the people;

build up, build up the highway,

   clear it of stones,

   lift up an ensign over the peoples.

11 The Lord has proclaimed

   to the end of the earth:

Say to daughter Zion,

   ‘See, your salvation comes;

his reward is with him,

   and his recompense before him.’

12 They shall be called, ‘The Holy People,

   The Redeemed of the Lord’;

and you shall be called, ‘Sought Out,

   A City Not Forsaken.’

Matthew 2: 1 - 12

One of the things about having a beautiful old kauri church is you get quite a few tourists popping in and most of them leave a comment in the Visitors’ Book. If you have a look at ours you’ll see that this last week a young girl called Georgia left the comment, “It’s scary! But I like the Xmas tree”.

That reminds me of the way we look for gifts in a shop. We scan the things in front of us and when something we like comes into view, it immediately grabs our attention.

At Christmas time we’re on the lookout for the perfect gift for the people we love, and hopefully by now we’ve found it; or something approximating it. It’s never easy finding the right present. Sometimes we search high and low and just can’t find the right one. At other times we seem to stumble across a gift without much hard yakka and we know it’s just right. It’s the one that hits the spot. It’s great when that happens.

Yes. It’s Christmas time!

For some people those words leave a tingle of excitement in the tummy; for others a vague dread. Christmas is not a happy occasion for everyone. Some people miss loved ones who have passed on. Others simply can’t afford Christmas.

How many times have you longed for a happy Christmas, only to find that yet again, relationships break down because of unresolved problems, selfishnesses, resentments and jealousies.

For that reason Christmas is an emotional time. It can be an anxious time. Be easy on yourself! We all feel the pressures of Christmas to one degree or another.

In our Gospel reading we read about the Three Wise Men, and we know they had gifts with them. Something drew them to Bethlehem. Yes, they were following a star, but why did they bother? Was it curiosity? Why come all that way to see a baby born to a poor mother in an obscure tribe in a tiny country?

Indeed, what has brought you to church here today? Is it custom? Is it something you do every Christmas, or is it simply because it’s a Sunday and you go to church on a Sunday? Perhaps you’re looking for something deeper than can be provided by family, Christmas trees, tinsel and good food? Are you perhaps, like the Wise Men, looking for the Christ?

Now I’d like you please to pick up your pew leaflet and have a look at the somewhat different “Christmas” picture on the front page for a minute.

The three Wise Men on their way to visit the baby Jesus face an apparently impenetrable barrier. The cartoon is clearly very modern and has a political message: it’s aimed at the injustice inherent in the walls the Israelis have built around Palestinian territory; but it speaks to us about more than just that.

Unlike the walls of Jerusalem in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah, there are no sentinels posted by God on these walls. They are barren and lifeless. There is no gate in these walls through which we are encouraged to enter into the Holy City – where we will encounter the salvation of God. These walls are distinctly unfriendly. They are simply a barrier.

In our picture, the Wise Men are faced with a dilemma. They probably faced many a dilemma on their long journey to Judea. Now, in the face of this problem, do they pack up and go home saying, “This is too difficult. We’ve come far enough. Let’s go back. After all, we have a viable product. We can tell everyone about this amazing, seemingly endless wall we’ve discovered; how magnificent it is, how long, strong and high; how character-building! It must have been made by God.”

In opposition to these grey, merciless walls, are the walls of Jerusalem. They are inviting and they stand for a demarcation, a clear signal that one is about to enter the City of God. They are a cause for joy to the approaching pilgrims. As the Israelites journeyed to Jerusalem on special religious feast days they looked forward expectantly to their first glance of the Holy City. Young children would vie to be the first to sight the city walls. They would announce with an excited shout, “I see the City of David! I see Jerusalem!” and the whole company would rejoice. Not simply because the journey was nearing an end, but because they were nearing the presence of God in the temple in Jerusalem.

So do our Wise Men (who stand before some pretty ugly walls) hesitate and call a halt, all the while missing the fact that Bethlehem and the perfect gift (bundled up in the Christ-child) are a short way beyond the wall? Do they give up and simply go home, rationalising their experience and never seeing beyond the barrier to the truth, beauty and life on the other side?

Or do they press on, perhaps quoting King David, “For by you I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall” (Ps 18: 29 and 2 Sam 22: 30) and find a way through, under, over or around the wall?

Does Christmas time throw up the occasional wall for you? Have you ever experienced a Christmas, which, when it was all over, you wondered whether the Christ-child was in it all? I think we’ve all been there at some time or another.

I say to you this morning, persevere. Don’t give up. Keep looking for the perfect gift. Push through the things that cut you off from Christ. He may just be beyond the wall you’re up against. Look for God in every situation you come across and in your relationships – even when Mum and Uncle George have predictably fallen out, or Dad and your brother have ended up having an almighty row – yet again. Bring God into the situation. Look for the perfect gift – Jesus Christ the Lord – look for him amongst the good and the bad; in the midst of the innocent happiness, the consumerism, the petty resentments, the flaming arguments, the tensions – look both for him and to him. He is the perfect gift, for you and for those you love this Christmas.

This Christmas, when you come up against a barrier, how about determining that you’re going to view it, not as a discouragement, but as the pilgrims of old saw the walls of Jerusalem, as an opportunity to behave differently. Be a child again, announcing the sighting of the Holy City: “I see the City of David! I see Jerusalem!”

It’s not easy trusting God. Our natural tendency is to want to control everything ourselves. It takes faith; it takes trust, especially when the barrier doesn’t look anything like the walls of the beautiful City of God.

Is that how we find the Christ today; looking for him where he apparently is not? Yes, we need to look for God in everything, but the crux of it is really quite simple. If you want to find the perfect gift this Christmas, be the perfect gift this Christmas.

Be Christ!? Why do we need to be Christ to people in order to find him ourselves? And anyway, how is that done?

You see, we’ve turned spirituality into a concept we carry around in our heads. We’ve divorced faith and following, and in the process our faith has become hollow. Let there be a consistency between our words and our deeds. They are one thing. When you look for the opportunity to see Christ in every situation, when you put your own desires aside for a while, and determine to push through the barriers that come your way – you will – as it were - have turned that barrier into the beautiful walls of Jerusalem. You will enter into the Holy City – the presence of God. By putting our own selfish desires aside and behaving like Christ, we find Christ.

In fact here’s an idea. When you hand out presents this Christmas, (that’s assuming you didn’t get up at the crack of dawn and open them all!) how about as you’re giving the present, quietly, between you and God, say this prayer: “This Christmas, I’d like to be the perfect gift to you. The best way I can be Christ to you, is by putting God first. I hope I don’t disappoint you in this, that I don’t back off when it gets tough, that I’m not overtaken by my self-centredness but that I keep on putting God first, because that’s the best I can do for you.”

It may not be easy. It is never easy including God in everything we do, but it will be best. And it will be best because the key to knowing Jesus is being like him. And hey, ask God for help. He willingly gives it.

God bless you at this Christmas time as you turn the barriers in your life into opportunities to act like Christ. In doing so, you’ll find Christ – the perfect gift.

AMEN.

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