Dec 10 - Witnesses to the Birth

This week we looked at the story of the nativity and the characters around it.

First we looked at the poor innkeeper.  Often given a bad rap for not finding a room for Mary and Joseph, in reality he may have been quite hospitable.  That barn that he put them in may have been quite regularly used as a guest room when there wasn't another available.  It was not unusual to place a baby in a manger.  Hay can be clean and soft and the mange about the right size to hold a baby.  Here was a business man, someone of ambiguous reputation, opening his home, or at least his outbuilding so this young mother could have her child under shelter. He RECEIVED them and the baby Jesus.

Angels sang of God's glory.  Through the music the message went out that something spectacular was happening.  Through the angels' song, not only was God glorified, but the humble everyday birth was proclaimed in a way definitely NOT humble. People started to get a hint that maybe this wasn't just another first time mom with bad timing. Mary praised God through song when she found out she was going to be Jesus' mother. Zechariah praised God when he regained his voice.  Elizabeth sang God's praises when her baby kicked at Mary's approach. The shepherds sang songs of praise after visiting the baby.  Music holds a powerful message - and we are called to share it.  So, with the angels we should SING out the Good news!

Wise men, Magi, came from the east looking for a spectacular new king. This is amazing on so many levels.  They weren't Jews yet they ventured into Jerusalem in their pursuit of the star and whatever it fortold.  They travelled for a very long time - possibly years as there were no planes, trains or automobiles.  They SOUGHT the new baby that would change the world.  They recognized that this child had significance, not only for the Jews but for them also.  When they found him, they WORSHIPPED him.  Not oohing and awing "oh how cute" - but kneeling prayer kind of worship.  These foreigners acknowledged Jesus' larger mission as from God.  In reverence and respect they brought the best of what was available in their land - Gold, Frankinscense and Myrhh.  They GAVE what they had in homage to this child. God, once again, uses the unexpected, the gentile travellers to show Jesus as a Messiah for all. There is so much we can learn from these strangers that wander into the story from afar then wander out again.

Shepherds, the kind of unclean, unsavory, strong "man's men" - were some of the first to see the baby.  I wonder what Mary thought when these men of dubious reputation (and odor?) came to see her precious baby. Did she wonder how they had heard?  Did she mind their outdoorsy dirt and smell?  Did she wonder at their reverence and respect?  Once again God has given the message of Jesus' birth, not to the regular, middle class religious Jewish type, but to the questionable, the outcast, the ones seen as not quite as good, not quite clean enough for civilized society. And what did they do? They saw the baby and they praised God! Most of us would quietly leave and talk just amongst ourselves, but they called it out, they sang, they praised God - they SPREAD THE WORD!

So the story of some ordinary newlyweds spreads out to include the extraordinary - but not necessarily in what would have been seen as in a good way.  Businessmen were sometimes fine - but other times were shifty and less than honest. Often they were well off and not seeking for a way out of their situations. The magi were foreigners - the Jewish religious people would have seen them as unclean. They were probably wealthy - not really in touch with everyday life.  The shepherds were even worse - at least the others were respectable people - the shepherds' reputation was dubious at best.  Yet Jesus came for all of them: The ordinary;The unclean; The Outsiders; the Low. And Jesus came for us, wherever we fit into the spectrum:  Priest or sinner; Clean or unclean; Ordinary or extraordinary. 
 
This seems to be the message at Christmas.  God comes in unexpected ways to meet all of us. We are all called to come to the stable - to receive the good news of Jesus' birth, to rejoice at God's goodness, to seek God's will, Worship at God's feet and bring whatever we can in homage.  Then we are called to spread the word - through speaking, through singing and through doing - and, like Mary, to ponder these things in our hearts.  This Christmas let us seek God and God's will in our lives.  Let us seek to understand the messages God is sending us through situations and people we meet, or through dreams and ideas that won't go away.  And let us always, always take time to sing, to pray, to worship.  For God is good.  Glory to God in the Highest!

December 3 - meeting the Ordinary that brought the Extraordinary

This week we looked at some of the people who closest to Jesus before and around the time of his birth.  What we found was a lot of regular people, devout people, people who quietly went about their day to day lives –   God broke in and surprised them. 

 Mary was a young girl, full of hopes and dreams for her future – looking forward to her wedding and then, in time, having a family with her new husband.  There was no indication that she was going to be instrumental in a revolution, in God’s plan to bring freedom and peace to the world.  Her life was turned upside down with the visit of an angel.  Not only was the choice of this regular girl unexpected – so was her response – not worry and fretting about what people, especially Joseph would think, but praise that God would bless her so unexpectedly. 

Zechariah was from the tribe that served in the temple.  He was no one particularly special in the public eye.  He had not managed to have sons so he may have been somewhat pitied.  He quietly went about his way – just another one of the family doing his duty.  Then God burst in and changed his life.  Zechariah could no longer perform some of his church tasks as he had no voice – but he was a witness to God’s presence as his inability to speak was understood as a sign from God.  After many years of wanting a son, of consoling his barren wife, of remaining true to his wife and to his faith, he found out he was going to be a father.  His life changed forever as his son became John the Baptist, a famous prophet, loved feared, followed and watched by many. 

Elizabeth, his wife and Mary’s elderly cousin, was also a regular woman.  She loved God and worshipped regularly, but was seen as somewhat less than women who had been able to have children.  There was a stigma, as if the childlessness was a punishment for something she or her husband or her parents had done.  Then God burst into her life – Taking away her husband’s ability to speak, allowing her to get pregnant, then making her the first person Mary went to when she found she was pregnant, the first person besides Mary to recognize the significance of the child that was to come. God burst into Elizabeth’s life and changed it forever.  It’s not that it was easier – giving birth to and raising a child at her age would have been difficult – not to mention watching him grow into the widely known but dangerously unconventional prophet would have given a mother lots of anxiety.  But Elizabeth, unassuming and previously looked down upon by others,  embraced her new life and felt richly blessed by God.  

Joseph, another regular guy, a carpenter preparing to wed Mary and start a life together, gets his life turned upside down when he discovers his betrothed is pregnant – and then is told in a dream to marry her anyway!  Suddenly extraordinary faith and endurance were called for from this ordinary man.  Through the months of watching Mary grow large with child, watching the child be born and strange people coming to see him, then having to leave for Egypt to keep the child safe – so much for the mundane life of a small town carpenter. 

After the baby is born we meet some more people deeply affected by Jesus’ birth. 

On his first trip to the temple Jesus is met by Simeon – an ordinary but devout man.  Prior to that day, Simeon was probably seen as just another old guy who went to the temple every day.  Very few, if any, people probably knew of his request to see the Messiah before he died.  Many people probably passed him by without even really noticing him.  But God granted his prayer to see the Messiah, and  then used  Simeon  to pass on a prophecy – to help Mary and Joseph prepare for what would lie ahead but also to show God’s presence in the infant so carefully held by this old man.  God changed his life.

They also met Anna. She is another interesting person.  An elderly widow who lived in the temple.  She was a prophet.  She seems to be quite friendly.  And she was another woman seen as less valuable because she came, not from Jerusalem or Bethlehem – but from a little place on the outskirts of Israel where people intermarried with non-Jews and may or may not remain true to the Israelite faith. I’m sure she spent a lot of time ignored, maybe even rudely so.  Perhaps she was seen as a little crazy.  She was such a fixture in the temple people may even have forgotten to notice she was there. This is not someone who would be at the top of the list for meeting the Messiah – yet she was. 

All through  the Christmas stories we see people who would not be the expected choice –for a mother, a father, a prophet’s parents, or one of the first recipients of the Messiah’s news – yet they were chosen to be just that.  God can burst into the most ordinary, the most painful, the most mundane life and make it something special.  God can use you. Whether you are super talented or feel totally untalented – God can use your hands, your voice, your life to make a difference.  Never feel like you are not good enough – because God is good enough for you – for me – for all of us fallible humans.  We just need to allow God to work through us.  Open your eyes and your arms and embrace whatever it is God is calling you to do or be – even if, for now, it is just ordinary.  You never know when God will burst in.