Christmas 2013
Father Adam Trambley
December 25, 2013,
St. John’s Sharon
At Christmas, God shows up in the messiness of our lives.
The first Christmas was messy.
Mary, handmaid of the most high, is making do.
She knows why. The
angel announced to
Her blessings and honors and the Son of the Most High,
But she had not a single expectation met that first
Christmas night,
Except Emmanuel making his way into the world
In the manger.
She had hopes, like any maiden embarking
On a betrothal and marriage.
Harkening
To the cry of her new husband, handsome and strong.
Starting a family ere long,
At the right time for such things. Instead
She was spirited off to her cousin’s ahead
Of gossipy tongues and other dangers.
Joseph said he understood. Heard,
Like her, but in a dream, a word
From a resplendent angel of the Lord
That the Son of God would be born
through her. They
would name the child Jesus,
who would be Emmanuel, God-with-us.
But then Caesar’s decree went out
The whole world round.
So everybody had to get out
And go to their family’s home town.
Which meant Mary had to do without
Her mom and her own family when the baby
Started to
crown.
She was assisted through labor pains that night
By gracious, anonymous Bethlehemites
Who had no knowledge of why or how
This baby had come to be laid between ox and cow.
But by providing loving and gracious care
To the mother of God, they got to be there
When, all of a sudden, shepherds showed up.
Now nobody needs visitors right after they have a baby.
After Lily was born, I was required to remove, almost
bodily,
A maybe
well-meaning nurse who needed us to know
How to work
the TV remote. Not helpful.
But in an animal cave,
When lounging after labor
against a sofa of still-living
leather,
with no hand-sanitizer in sight,
shaggy shepherds
from the surrounding countryside
should not be seen
but simply stay home with the
sheep.
So it would seem – except for the angel.
The shepherds showed up,
Telling
tales told to them by the angel.
They ran to the manger,
past an amazed Joseph and a dazed Mary,
and exclaimed, “There’s the boy.
Wrapped in swaddling clothes, just like the angel said.”
“What angel?” ask the midwives,
While
Jesus’ parents just exchange exhausted glances,
Whispering
to each other “That angel…again.”
In the midst of the messiness of midwives amid the animals
The shepherds shout the good news:
To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior
Who is the Messiah, the Lord.
Mary treasures this new information,
A
revelation even to her
About the unimaginable scope
of God’s working in her own life.
Mary,
receiver of the angelic visitation
Who just
gave birth to the Redeemer of the world,
Comes to
know more of God’s love
By
listening to shepherds in a stable
Because
that’s precisely where God was working
In her
life.
All the others were just amazed at the miracle.
To be at any birth is a beautiful miracle,
but this was beyond even that
bountiful blessing.
The people present experienced God that night
In an incredible, yet incomprehensible, way.
The animals, too, were touched.
One
tradition is that the nativity of Jesus
Allowed
those in that stable to talk that night.
They probably praised God
with moos and brays and bleating.
Except for the wide-eyed baby goat
Who
just said,
“You’ve
got to be kidding.”
So once everything began to calm down
And extended family again left town.
Mary started to put her life
Together as Joseph’s new wife
And the mother of an infant son.
She would have liked to run
Home as soon as she could
But another long donkey ride didn’t sound good.
So they stayed at a house in Bethlehem,
And were
there when the Magi
Got off
camels at their front door.
If the shepherds were a shock,
the Magi were more so.
Coming in and muttering about miles traveled
Searching for a star.
Dressed in unfamiliar clothes, speaking in strange accents,
And
kneeling before the baby Jesus.
Mary and Joseph really had no idea who the Magi were,
And we
don’t either.
Kings? Wise-men? Astrologers?
The best translation of Magi may just be
“Really
weird dudes that aren’t from around here.”
But they came.
And they recognized Mary’s baby as a King,
And they brought him gifts,
Kingly
gifts
of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Then Mary whispered to Joseph that she hadn’t expected the
Magi,
And didn’t get them anything.
So Joseph got the fruitcake Aunt
Agatha sent,
Took the tag off,
And gave it to the Magi for a treat
on their way home,
Thus giving rise to a tradition we
still honor today.
Seriously, though,
The Magi brought Mary an entirely new level of understanding
About how
much God was working through her life.
At a difficult
time,
In a place
she may not have wanted to be,
The very
heavens bore witness to the scope of God’s saving power.
A star
revealed the light of God to anyone who cared to look,
Even
to those who were looking hundreds of miles away.
That light
of God was revealed in her child, Emmanuel,
The
King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace,
The
Word made flesh dwelling among us.
That revelation came to Mary, and to all of us,
In the
midst of the messiness of a most unusual time
In the life
of a mother and father merely trying
To take care of their very new family.
So it is with us.
Christmas comes,
But it is
often very messy.
Expectations are extravagant:
The tree
taller than last year.
Another gift
to be gotten.
One more
cookie batch to bake.
If we have
five minutes to sit down and enjoy,
There is
probably something we should be doing.
So much struggle for the perfect Christmas,
Yet that
perfection is not in our power.
Families are hard at the holidays, too.
Some of us
are missing people we love:
Some
of them are far away and unable to get home.
Some
are in the nearer presence of God.
Then some
of us have family around
That
we wish we were missing.
Of course, for others of us here
Life has gotten so topsy-turvy,
So scary
and uncertain,
That riding
a burro to Bethlehem
Might seem
a magnificent intermezzo.
In the midst of such messiness,
The message of Christmas is not
That Santa
shows up and makes everything OK.
The message of Christmas is
That God
shows up in the midst of the messiness,
If we only
learn to recognize him.
Sometimes God is found
In the wonders of nature all around
Us. The beauty of the
setting sun
With colors bursting across the horizon.
The snow landing gently upon
The branches as the first rays of dawn
Fill our souls with heavenly light.
Sometimes God appears in guests unexpected
Arriving on our doorsteps when we,
Most
dejected,
Are about to give up.
Like the shepherds, they raise
Our hearts to heaven with shouts of praise.
They recognize the purposes in God’s mind
Of our work in our daily grind,
Showing us how in the midst of our strife,
We, like George Bailey, have A Wonderful Life
Filled with people God has given us to serve,
Perhaps more than we deserve.
That we will experience the presence of the
Babe in the
manger
When we reach out to love our neighbor.
Too often we only hear the whining
Until someone shows us how God is shining
Forth through those whom
We see merely as gloom,
But are really part of the unbounded
Providence of God at work around us.
At other times God has appeared
In the odd and the strange and the weird
Like turbaned foreigners riding through the night.
Our first reaction might be fright
When experiencing something we do
not know.
But its mystery could start to
glow
In the gaps of our lives now
dark,
Where music is silent and the
color stark.
In those places where our hearts
know loss
God’s presence does not gloss
Over our sadness and pain,
But allows us to know that gain
Of his love enfolding us
Not rushing, but holding us
In the midst of turmoil and
grief.
So that we feel the relief
Of knowing we are not neglected,
Even if his instrument is as
unexpected
As Magi from the East
Announcing the birth of the
Prince of Peace.
God’s ways are far beyond our
ways
And for the unimaginable birth of
his son
Both in the stable and in our
lives
We give praise.
Then, of course, angels sometimes
appear
When the path of our life is
murky and unclear.
Lighting the way with glory and
song
That we can follow if we truly
long
For God’s will to be done on
earth
As it is in heaven, starting with
The difficult decisions we face--
The struggles where we need God’s
grace
To endure and overcome. Trials
which we
Ourselves would never be able to
see
Through to the end without
Some kind of encouraging heavenly
shout
Showing us that our labors are
about
Nothing less than the unfolding
of God’s saving work in our
lives.
Mary and Joseph could never have
carried
The significant burdens of their
special baby
Unless they knew that what they
were going to do
was incredibly important in God’s
plan.
Each and every one of us is
invited
this Christmas to find where God
is present
in the messiness of our ordinary
lives.
It may be that an angel will
announce
An astonishing appointment
To transform lives in
unimaginable ways.
Or maybe Christ is coming in a
disturbing disguise
That can be discovered only in an
ordinary act of love.
Or maybe God wants enough of our
attention to reveal
His unfailing presence beside us.
Regardless of where we find
ourselves this Christmas
Jesus wants to be born into our
lives this night
to help us understand
The unfathomable depth
Of his love
For each and every one of us.
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