Today was a wonderful little service (well - not so little!) about 55 seniors came to the church today to celebrate Christmas, have sherry, lunch and a chance to chat with old friends. I got to preach - first time in the pulpit here. I have done sermons here before (most wednesday mornings) but I stand in the sanctuary and the congregation sits in the choir pews... standing in the pulpit is very different! But it went quite well - they could all hear me - it was wonderful! Here is my point form version of my sermon - I tried to not read it... it worked... for a bit - I have to work on that though...
Gospel: Luke 2:1-20
In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen
There was a man whose wife got sick and tired of always being the one who always bought the Christmas presents for all the kids, nieces and nephews, so she decided to delegate this responsibility to her husband. The husband HATED shopping so he figured that he’d get around this pretty handily if he just wrote a cheque to each one. He bought some nice Christmas cards – you know the kind – the ones with Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus on the front. So he wrote up the cards and said “Buy your own present!” packaged up the cards and mailed them off. He was so proud of himself – he had taken care of the entire shopping by the first of December. But as Christmas drew closer, he was getting a bit confused and a bit insulted that none of his nieces or nephews had written any thank you notes – his wife always got thank you notes. In fact, he noticed that they didn’t get nearly as many Christmas cards as he used to either. He was so perplexed that he went upstairs to his office to write a note to his favourite niece to see what happened. As he was moving boxes and papers out of his way, he saw it. A little stack of cheques. He had forgotten to put the cheques in the cards. That explained everything! Each of his nieces and nephews received empty cards filled with the words “Buy your own present!”
Without the cheque, the message takes on a whole other meaning!
In the account of the Birth of Jesus:
- The emperor calls for a census – everyone back to the town of your ancestors
- Mary travelling on the back of a donkey from Nazareth and Bethlehem
- They are turned away from the inns and given a place that had a manger where she could lay the baby when he was born
- Then the story goes out to the shepherds of the fields – and have visions of angels that tell them about the birth of the messiah in Bethlehem
- They go to see if it’s true
- All comes to a culmination of Mary and Joseph and a little baby wrapped in white cloth in an open air “barn” with cows and donkeys and other livestock sleeping curled up beside the baby. There is also often an angle hanging around at the roof – Gabriel – do not be afraid!
- This is the Christmas scene according to the greeting card companies
But just like the card that man’s family got – That’s only part of the story!
- Mary travelling stoically on the back of a donkey – 9 months pregnant
- between Nazareth and Bethlehem – 100 miles – did I mention she was 9 months pregnant??
- stable was probably a cave
- manger – hay – cows… lovely smell…
- If you’ve been in a barn – you know that the hymn we sang – Away in a Manger - that talks about “the Cattle are lowing” lowing is mooing… that is not a quiet thing especially in a CAVE! noise - animals
- smelly
- chaotic – for those of you who have had children – you know it’s not a peaceful calm setting!
This is God – Born into craziness.
Born into chaos.
Born into untideness.
Dirty, noisy, and messy.
Out of control.
Born to Mary who must have been scared out of her mind – here she is an unmarried 14 or 15 year old girl – a girl chosen by God to be the bearer of the messiah, the mother of the Christ child, the Prince of Peace. A simple girl that no one had ever heard of before – she could have said NO (in fact, I bet she wanted to say no!) But she didn’t. Though she didn’t have control over what happened. She embraced the words and said
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word”
Joseph didn’t have control over what happened either, but he chose to listen to the angel who came to him in the dream. He chose to embrace this crazy situation where he was not in control! He married Mary.
Mary was not in control – God was
Joseph was not in control – God was
We are not in control… as much as we would like to think we are – but God is.
God is born into our chaos.
Born into the untideness of our lives.
Born into the dirty, noisy, messy worlds we live in
Born into our out of control situations.
God was there in the beginning
God was there with Mary, and Joseph.
God was there in the manger.
God is with us here and now to teach us how to live,
how to love
and how to show an overwhelming compassion to everyone we meet.
May we all have the courage of Mary – to embrace the unknown and trust in the limitless love of God
To live our lives knowing that Jesus – the incarnate Word of God – is born into our messy lives and says
Do not be afraid to live.
Do not be afraid to laugh and cry and wonder.
Do not be afraid to love.
Do not be afraid.
Amen
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