SLOW DOWN AND BEHOLD!
Dr. Stephen Jones, preaching
Second Baptist Church, St. Louis
Text: Micah 5:1-5
December 9, 2007, Second Advent Sunday
Where to look for what to
behold?
There’s something about that
word, behold. What does it mean to behold?
It is a word we use sparingly. It
is not so much old-fashioned as a word rarely used in common speech. And maybe
there is a reason for that. Perhaps because you don’t behold the commonplace,
the everyday. You behold the unusual, the uplifting, the exalted. “It was
beautiful to behold.”
If you walk to the edge of the
Grand Canyon and take in the view, you would behold its vast beauty.
Where to look for what to behold?
You don’t behold the familiar or
ordinary. You reserve your beholding for the extraordinary.
During my years in Ohio, we had a
nearby retreat center where we enjoyed taking the youth. And in the nature
preserve, there was a large pine forest. As you know, there is very little
underbrush in a pine forest. And I would take the youth on a hike and have them
lie down on the ground under those pine trees at right angles to each other,
with one person’s stomach serving as a pillow for the next. And we would look up
at those pine trees. The youth thought I was crazy the first time I asked them
to do this. But the moment they lay down on the ground and looked up,
“Behold!” What a sight, those towering pine trees, their branches swaying
against the bright expansive sky. And the spectacle of it drew us up and hushed
us up and we beheld its glory.
The young woman was about to be
married. There was the expected hubbub in every room in the house. She had to be
consulted on every minor decision from what color of this, to what order of that
to where is this? The intensity was increasing and she was losing her
focus. She slipped outdoors into her backyard, unnoticed by every family member
and friend chasing after this detail and that. She walked by a flower garden, a
sight she had not noticed for weeks. She sat down on the ground and drew a
yellow flower close to her face. Fifteen minutes passed as she beheld the
intricate beauty, the structure, the magnificence of that yellow flower.
We don’t “behold” very much
because we stay with the hubbub and forget to sit beside and take in the beauty
of a yellow flower.
Where to look for what to behold?
On the other hand, “behold” is a
fairly common word in Jesus’ speech. He often started sentences with this word:
“Behold, I send you
out as sheep in the midst of wolves…” (Matthew 10:16)
“Behold, a sower went
forth to sow seed. . .” (Matthew 13:3)
Jesus said to the
twelve, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and they will condemn the Son of
Man
to death. . .” (Matthew 10:33)
An angel of the Lord
appeared to Mary Magdalene by the empty tomb and said, “Behold, he is going
before you
into Galilee. . .” (Matthew 28:7)
In so many ancient
prayers, the Hebrew people would plead with God to look down upon them, “O
Lord, behold
my affliction…” (Lamentations 1:9)
The word appears so often in the
nativity stories that one might think of this as a season of beholding:
“As Joseph considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him…”
(Matthew 1:20)
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a child. . .” (Matthew 1:23)
“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. . ., behold, wise men from the
East came to
Jerusalem…” (Matthew 2:1)
“Now when the wise men had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to
Joseph in a
dream. . .”
(Matthew 2:13)
“An angel said to Mary, ‘Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.
. .” (Luke 1:31)
Mary said to the angel, “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord.” (Luke
1:38)
An angel appeared to the shepherds saying, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy.” (Luke 2:10)
None of these are common,
everyday experiences. Behold, an angel appeared. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive. Behold, I have great news for you.
Some modern translations of the
Bible remove the word, “Behold,” and replace it with ordinary words such as,
“Look!” or “See!”
However, in the Greek, the word,
theaomai appears, meaning, behold, and from it comes our English word,
theatre. When you behold something, you don’t view it detached from afar, you
enter into it. As in the theatre, nothing happens until the audience is drawn
into the story. Theoreo means to look at, behold, but also to experience
and in the passive, to become visible.
“We have seen the Lord,” the
disciples said. (John 20:25) Behold!
There are some things in life so
extraordinary, so out of the ordinary, so revealing that one can only say,
“Behold.” When we live in the city all the artificial light softens the
night. And then we go out into the country and look up at the heavens and
behold, the brilliance of the stars!
Is there anything to behold this
season? Anything for you and me to behold? It was a season of beholding for
Joseph and Mary, for the shepherds and wise men. Is it also for us?
“It’s beginning to look
a lot like Christmas,
everywhere you go.
Take a
look in the five and ten, glistening once again,
With
candy canes and silver lanes aglow.
It’s
beginning to look a lot like Christmas,
Toys in
every store.
But the
prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be
On your
own front door.”
Is there anything to behold this
season?
God has given us something to
behold in a tiny baby.
Some of us are frightened of
babies. We don’t know how to handle them. Have you ever had the experience of a
young mother reaching out and handing you her new baby? You are so aware of the
trust she is placing in you. Will you support the baby’s head and not allow the
neck to jerk around? Will you hold the baby carefully, God forbid, that you
should drop the baby as she is placed in your arms? Will the baby take one look
at you and begin crying? Will you be able to meet the baby’s needs?
At Hanging of the Greens, I
noticed Steve Comfort came up to Pat Justis with open arms, and there was a
hand-off of baby Sam. Pat took off and I watched as Steve and Sam bonded. Isn’t
it wonderful to be in a church family of trusting adults so that one doesn’t
have to be unduly concerned about who is caring for your baby?
Is there anything to behold this
season? God has given us a tiny baby to behold. Is there anything more wonderful
than a young mother holding her baby for the first time?
We become so convinced that
nothing out of the ordinary could happen to us. I don’t know if you have driven
through the backroads of coastal Carolina, but I always find the names of
churches amusing. The one that really gets me are the Hardshell Baptists. Would
you admit that on a sign? We also can be hardshell Baptists but I wouldn’t
advertise it. We can be so hardshell that nothing can penetrate us.
We don’t expect God to speak to
us. That doesn’t happen anymore. Not today.
How do we become softshell
Baptists? How can an angel speak to us? How can we behold the wonder of God
speaking with us, visiting us, filling our night-time sky?
Allow me to offer five pairs of
words.
Slow down.
Grow silent.
Be expectant.
Look inward.
Behold it!
What do I mean by look inward? I
mean that when you look up at the immensity of a night-time sky, the vastness of
the heavens, words cannot describe the infinity of space. Behold! There is also
a vastness within. Dreams and the subconscious are as vast as the heavens. Inner
thoughts and fantasies are as bountiful as the stars. Deep reflection, down-deep
feelings, as deep as the black of outer space. Behold!
Human beings alone have the
capacity to look within. God touches us within.
Were there six shepherds out
keeping watch over their flocks by night? Five saw the star, heard the angels
singing, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace goodwill to all.” The
sixth shepherd couldn’t hear it, couldn’t see it. He couldn’t imagine what had
gotten into the others. He stayed behind with the sheep, scratching the fleas on
his head, couldn’t wait until the next day to poke fun at those starry-eyed
dreamers when they returned empty-handed. What the shepherds saw and heard that
night they surely saw with inner eyes and heard with inner ears. It was received
deep in their souls.
God will touch you down-deep. You
have to go deep to behold it. The reason some people never experience God is
that they never look deep. Their vision is superficial. They see only the
surface.
Our text from Micah begins, “Now
you are walled around with a wall. . ." Sounds like those hard-shell Baptists,
doesn’t it?
“But you, O Bethlehem
of Ephrathah,
you who
are one of the little clans of Judah,
the least
of the tribes of Israel,
From you shall come
forth for me
One who
is to rule Israel.
He will rise up to
lead them in the strength of the Lord,
In the
majesty of the name of God.
And they shall live
secure, for now his greatness
Shall
extend to the ends of the earth.
He shall be peace.”
Where to look for what to behold?
Slow down.
Grow silent.
Be expectant.
Look inward.
Behold it!
Amen.
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