Sacred Everyday
Notes
Transcript
Matthew 1:18-24 ; Luke 2:1-20
Christmas Tragedy
Christmas Tragedy
On the night before the night before the night before Christmas we had a cozy Christmas meltdown.
There we were, snuggled up on the couch, blanket, fire going, watching the made for tv classic Claymation Rudolph the mutant reindeer. Red-nosed reindeer. We started this lovely movie at 8. It ended at 9. Now you may see the parenting fail.
In my defense, I had the kids get in jammies before time thinking they could slip into bed after. Peaceful, cozy Christmas Eve eve eve. That is not what happened.
When a child reaches a certain point of tired, and then doesn’t go to bed sneakily for longer, and then fights going to bed, and then begins screaming and crying, coziness sort of slips away. Any and every thing in the world becomes a reason that child can’t sleep. And then it feeds on itself because now “my head hurts…” Yeah, mine too. Both our heads hurt because you’ve been screaming, blessed child.
A small Christmas drama. I thought you might enjoy. I did not enjoy it. But for that moment, that was the largest thing in my life. I thought of nothing else. I wasn’t praying for any of you. I wasn’t thinking great theological thoughts. It was just the tiny crisis in front of me. I can see now that it was small and even at the time I could see the humor… kind of.
But this wasn’t really a departure from my life. This is the stuff of my life. Moments, good and bad, little dramas, little stories and that makes me think of Christmas in a slightly different light.
The Christmas Story
The Christmas Story
As we go through the book of John we see a few things in the life of Jesus. A few “best of”. Almost like a highlight reel to accomplish John’s very explicit purpose: “these things are written that you might know and believe in Jesus as the Son of God.”
John teaches so powerfully the fully realized, majestic, hallelujah glory of God, Jesus, revealed. And it is the birth of this Jesus we celebrate this weekend. It is huge and glorious and the heavens are ringing. We see the same in Luke’s familiar telling of the tale.
Scholars believe that Luke got to interview Mary, and so carries in his narrative the eye-witness perspective of Mary Mother of Jesus. So we hear her words and story coming through Luke.
I am not going to teach through the text, just read it. So if you want, close your eyes, picture the events as they are happening. Enter the story, and see the characters in the movie in your mind.
Luke 2:1-20
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Angels and sky exploding and glory hallelujah. This is the miraculous birth of Jesus. Long awaited coming of the King.
But another thing struck me as I see all the inflatable nativity scenes around. Subtract the magi… they probably showed up months later, maybe more than a year. How glorious and huge this event is… how small the audience.
Let’s read the story again from Matthew. Matthew captures just the bare details, but seems to tell his story a bit more from Joseph’s perspective.
Listen again, and pay attention to who all has a clue of the momentous events at hand.
Matthew 1:18-25
8 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Mary has a vision from God, and so she knows and trusts that something miraculous and special is happening. And she knows she is a virgin… so she has the strongest sense something is going on here.
Joseph has a vision from an angel and, on an incredible act of faith, trusts Mary’s unbelievable story. That she has not been unfaithful but is giving birth to a miracle child!
And then… in this story that’s it. The wise men later. But let’s include the shepherds from Luke’s telling. 3, 4 shepherds? Probably not many, it doesn’t take many and who wants to work on Christmas Day anyway?
To everyone else, you know what this looks like? A small family drama.
The greatest miraculous crescendo of history up to this moment, to all appearances, looks like a small family drama.
Joe’s Brother-in-law
Joe’s Brother-in-law
We know that Joseph was going to Bethlehem because that’s where he was from. The same must be true also of the rest of his family, because they would be from the same place. We don’t what his family looked like… but let’s assume Joseph had a sister, who married, and now we have Joseph’s brother-in-law Todd.
Todd is a very Hebrew name.
Todd lives in Bethlehem and all the family is gathering for this dumb census. Aunts and Uncles and Cousins and Mom and Dad and kids all over piling in. Todd has an absolute responsibility to host his family, there is no Motel 6 down the street to send them. So every room of the house is filled. And filled to bursting.
And then, last minute late night arrivals, here come Joe and Mary.
And she’s preggers about to burst.
Now Todd wasn’t invited to the wedding, but he knows when it happened and he can count the months. That would be scandal enough. But Todd heard his wife discussing it with the neighbors and apparently the baby isn’t even Joe’s so…
Even if his house wasn’t full, maybe his reputation would be better for tucking these ones away.
But he has a responsibility to host them somehow, and so Todd makes a space. If Todd is pretty wealthy, he may keep his animals in a cozy cave nearby, that’s the strongest tradition. Or, my favorite option, most families kept their animals in the home with them, in the main room where they’d be protected and warm and help keep the house warm. So in come Joe and Mary, scandal of the family, sleeping in the living room with the angels.
And out comes baby and goes into the crib of last resort, the manger kept to feed the animals.
Another birth in Bethlehem. Big news for Joseph and Mary. A bit of scandalous excitement for the rest of the family. A total trip for a few poor shepherds.
Jesus Entered in to the Small Moment
Jesus Entered in to the Small Moment
But I love this. Jesus entered this world in such a small way. Into such a small moment. A little bit of fanfare out in the boonies, as if the angels couldn’t stand it and had to let it out somewhere…
But it is this tiny family drama, and it is such a human moment. Big in their lives, taken for granted in everyone else’s.
But isn’t that the stuff of life? You have your big and small moments and I have mine. You have your family dramas and I have mine. And they consume us, and our attention. That isn’t trivial… this really is the stuff of our lives. It is the story of our lives.
And we, in this church, we have the privilege of doing life together, so I get to know and share and be a part of your story and you get to be a part of mine… but I think at times we can start to think that our story is small. That our dramas are common and so irrelevant. We aren’t shaping the world stage, we are just figuring out where to setup a bed for our pregnant sister-in-law.
But this is the exact kind of stuff, the human life, the human family, the human drama that Jesus enters into.
Incarnation. God entering into our world means that God really entered and still enters into our world. Into the real stuff of it. The everyday of it. The truth of it. Even the smallest moments of it. Even the small scandals in it.
From the very first day, from the very first Christmas, Jesus has been about entering into life as it truly is, and bringing abundant life as it could be, should be, will be.
Jesus has been about entering into life as it truly is… and then recreating it.
Jesus brings the Sacred into the Everyday. And he hasn’t stopped doing that. He brings the Sacred into my Everyday and he brings it into yours. He creates it in us, through us, for us. He continues to be Incarnational in this way.
It is Christmas in your heart… but not in a Hallmark way. In a baby screaming because he got set down in a manger and the goat was eating out of the manger and ate his swaddling blanket. “But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes…” Heresy!
Jesus enters into the kid screaming because he is so tired he can’t think straight moments. And he doesn’t make them easy, but he can make them sacred. And redeem them. And teach me to love in them, and learn from them.
Next Step Testimonies
Next Step Testimonies
I’m going to give just a little tiny hint, and then it is back to Christmas time. Because we tend to look for the big things and miss Jesus in the sacred everyday moments, we are going to begin a new practice at Next Step church. We are going to begin sharing with one another both the big and the small ways that God is working in and on us in our actual lives. Not the once-upon-a-time testimonies. The this-is-happening-now testimonies.
Jesus entering into our lives as they truly are, and the process of shaping and recreating us.
This is what we celebrate in the very first Christmas. Jesus entering into life as it truly is. This is Immanuel
You've come to bring peace
To be love, to be nearer to us
You've come to breathe life
To be light, to shine brighter in us
Oh Emmanuel God with us
Let’s sing those words together.