Strange Tidings

Delivered Christmas Day 2011

Luke 2:8-20

It is Christmas morning. What new thing can a preacher say about Christmas? It comes around every year, and it is always the same scripture readings. Those of us who are church-goers have heard the Biblical Christmas story over and over every year for decades. The tales are familiar to us.  In fact, they are so familiar that we may not be able to see how strange the story would have sounded to first century ears. I am not talking about elements of the story like the Virgin Birth and angels. Those elements of the story may sound strange to our modern scientific minds, but the first century mindset accepted such supernatural things as a part of reality. Those elements would not have stood out like they do to us. I am speaking about some other parts of the story that fly right under the radar of our modern minds. These are the elements I want to explore this morning. The glad tidings of Christmas would be strange tidings to first century hearers of the Christmas story.

I. The first of these strange tidings is that the Christmas message was announced to shepherds. Of all people or groups that this grand announcement could have come to, it was sent to shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. Shepherds in those days were on the fringe of society. Even though the Hebrews had been a pastoral people from the very beginning, by the time of the first century the Jewish religious system had become so strict that shepherds were excluded for all practical purposes. Ritual cleanliness was very important at the time to religious people like the Pharisees and the Sadducees – who were the doorkeepers of the synagogues and the temple. You could not go onto the temple grounds unless you were ritually clean. Shepherds were unclean. Association with bodily fluids – especially blood, the birthing process, illness, and death made one unclean. One had to go through a lengthy purification process. For example right after the Christmas story in the gospel of Luke, we are told about the purification process that Mary had to go through after childbirth. It took forty days in all before she could go into the temple to present Jesus for a child dedication ceremony. Can you imagine shepherds having to go through such a process? Shepherds had to deal with blood all the time. They had to deal with death. They had to deal with newborn lambs, and sick sheep and dying sheep and ill & wounded sheep. So they were continually ritually unclean. Especially in the spring, which is when Jesus was probably born.

Even though we celebrate Christmas on December 25, that date is nowhere in the Bible. It is a later date chosen by the church. It is first mentioned in the mid fourth century, 300 years after Christ lived. It was chosen because it was the time of the winter solstice. When Christianity went mainstream under Constantine in the fourth century, the church adopted many pagan holidays and redefined them to celebrate Christian events. The winter solstice became the celebration of the birth of Christ. Actually the earliest dates that church historians have found for the observance of Christmas (according to Biblical Archeology Review) and was in the spring. That fits much better with the scene of the shepherds staying out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. They would not have done that in the winter; it was too cold. They did that in the spring. So Jesus probably was born in the springtime, during spring lambing season. The shepherds would have been continually in contract with blood from new lambs being born. They would have been very ritually unclean when the angels appeared to them and when they visited the Christ child at the manger.

So we see that even at his birth Jesus was breaking the rules. On first hearing the story of the birth of the Messiah, one would expect the announcement to be made to kings and priests and those in authority. Instead the Christmas story has angels announcing it to those who were not allowed to come hear the temple to worship God. Yet the angels came near them.  Normally when we imagine scene of the angels appearing to the shepherds, we picture the angels way up in the sky. But when you actually read the Biblical account that is not what it says. Verse 9 says, “And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.” The angel was standing in front of them. No wonder they were afraid. Then when the other angels appear, look what it says in verse 13. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God….” The other angels were with the first angel, who was standing in front of them, not flying overhead. The Christmas story presents a close proximity between the shepherds and the angels. The shepherds were literally standing on holy ground.

God could have announced the birth of Christ to anyone, but he chose the shepherds. Why? To make it clear that this Christ came for the unclean. He came for those on the edge of good religious society. He came for those who were not allowed into the temple, and yet provided the Passover lambs and the sheep for the temple.  Bethlehem is very close to Jerusalem. The shepherds of Bethlehem were the ones who raised the animals used in the sacrifices in the temple, but they could not go in themselves. It was no coincidence that the ones who provided the Passover lambs were the ones who were first told of the birth of the One later known as the Lamb of God.

There is one more interesting note about these shepherds. They were probably young people.  You might remember the story of King David in the OT, who as a boy was a shepherd of Bethlehem. When the prophet Samuel came looking to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the King of Israel, all the older sons came to present themselves before the prophet. But not David; he was not available. David was left in the fields with the sheep because he was youngest son. It was the youngest who always got the worst jobs. And the worst job was to have to spend your nights out in the fields watching the sheep, while all the older shepherds got to sleep in their warm beds. The shepherds to whom the angels appeared at Christmas were probably the youngest shepherds. They were on the bottom of the list even among shepherds. They were kids, or tweens, or at the most young teens. So we are going to have to adjust our manger scenes. These shepherds were not grown bearded men; they were youths. That is whom the announcement came to.

II. The next strange tiding in the Christmas story is found in the words of the angel in verse 10 “Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The strange part of this announcement was that the “good tidings of great joy” were for “all people.” Handel’s Messiah might quote the prophet Isaiah saying that these were “good tidings to Zion,” but that is not what the angel said. The angel said these were not good news for Zion, another name for Jerusalem the Jewish capital. This was good tidings for all people.

We have to understand how radical this statement was at the time. The Jews understood themselves as God’s chosen people. God dealt with them and them alone, as far as they were concerned. The expected Messiah was to be the king of the Jews. He was a Jew sent to Jews to redeem the Jewish people. In that historical context it was expected that he would fight against the Gentile Romans who were occupying their land. He was a descendant of King David. David was the great king of a thousand years earlier who defeated all the non-Jewish people around him, starting with the Philistine giant Goliath and established the first Jewish kingdom in the Holy Land. That is what the Jews were expecting– a Jewish Messiah for the Jews to take back the Jewish homeland and reestablish a Jewish kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem. But when the angel announces the birth of this Messiah, he says that this was good tidings to all people. All nations. All races. To us that might not sound so strange but to the first ones who heard the Christmas announcement this would be indeed strange tidings.

The universal scope of the Christmas story is repeated in the Gospel of Matthew with the story of the Magi coming from the East – the so-called three kings who brought their gifts to the Christ child.  These were Gentiles. When you read that story of the Magi in Matthew, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem are left out. These Magi, who were likely Persians, came to Jerusalem and consulted King Herod and the chief priests. And these Jewish leaders were clueless concerning any child born King of the Jews. They were completely out of the loop as far as God’s plans were concerned. God ignored the Jewish political and religious leaders. In fact he bypassed the whole nation of Israel and revealed this birth to these wise men in a foreign country.

These magi were the most unlikely people to receive an invitation for an audience with the Messiah. First, they were not Jews. They were not even Gentile converts to Judaism, which might have been a little more acceptable. They were likely Zoroastrians, a basically monotheistic religion (with dualistic elements) established by the Persian prophet Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra.  This is a nonbiblical, non Jewish religion, outside of the revelation of God to the Hebrew; yet they were the ones who received this heavenly revelation concerning the birth of Christ. Very strange! Furthermore they were astrologers. Astrology and all forms of divination were forbidden in the Old Testament, and yet here is God announcing the birth of his Son through a sign in the heavens, which would only have been interpreted by astrologers. Very strange! The whole point of the angel’s announcement to the shepherds and the magi’s visit is that this Christ was not just for some; he was for all. These good tidings of the birth of Christ are for all people.

III. The third strange tiding of this Christmas story is the announcement that the Christ would to be found lying in a manger. The angel says to the shepherd in verse 12 “And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”  The angel calls it a sign, which means it is something very unusual and meaningful. The word sign is often used in the gospels to refer to a miracle. But this was no miracle, but it was unusual in another way. It was strange to imagine that the Savior, who is Christ the Lord, would be lying in a feeding trough.

On Christmas Eve I explained some about the place where Jesus was born. The traditional interpretation is that there was a Bethlehem Inn that was full, so Joseph and his very pregnant bride Mary were put in the barn. That is not exactly not the way it happened. First of all, the “inn” referred to was actually just a guest room. The same word is used in the Christmas story as is used later in the gospel to describe the upper room where Jesus had the Last Supper with his disciples. It was more like a bed & breakfast then a Marriot hotel. Most homes of any size  had a guest room. When Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem, they expected to be able to stay with relatives in such a room. But when they arrived in Bethlehem, there was no room in the guest room. The guest room was already filled with other relatives who had also arrived for the census. The owners of the home – probably some of Joseph’s relatives – never would have shut the door in the face of family, especially an expectant mother. So they did the best they could under the circumstances; they squeezed them in wherever they could. Back then – and right up to the nineteenth century - Palestinian homes in Israel had the animals’ quarters connected to the house, just like barns are connected to homes here in NH. Although in that land homes and barns were made of stone. Stables were often caves connected to a house, kind of like a basement. If there was no room in the main living area or in the guest room, then it was normal to put the overflow into the place were the animals were kept. This was where Jesus was born.

So don’t picture Christmas as Mary and Joseph all alone in an outbuilding in the middle of winter. Picture them in the spring in an overcrowded house where the overflow accommodations had spread out into the animals’ stalls. Mary undoubtedly had women relatives attending her in the delivery of her child. When the child was born he was laid in the hay in the carved out stone feeding trough for the animals. This was the sign for the shepherds. Our story says in verse 15 “So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.”

How did they know where the child was? There was no star to guide them; that happened later. But Bethlehem was not that large a town. They probably just started knocking on doors until they found one where a baby had been born. When they entered, they were ushered into the stable and found the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. They would have felt right at home there. This was their type of Messiah. This Messiah was not born in a palace, in a wealthy house, or even in a guest room. He was born in their type of place, lying in the type of place that these shepherds might have spent many a night. In other words they felt comfortable with this Messiah. It was indeed strange for a king to be born in a barn, but for them that barn felt like home.

So the Christmas story is stranger than you possibly thought when you walked into this sanctuary this morning. I hope it is anyway. It was strange for those who were part it over 2000 years ago. It was strange for those who first heard the stories. And it should be strange for us. Christmas should not be a cliché. It should not be too familiar and predictable. It should always surprise us with new truths and revelations. It should always challenge us to see that Christmas is not just for those who think it is for them. It is for those who would never dream that Jesus was born for them. It is for those on the fringes. It is for the unreligious even more than for the religious. It is good tidings of great joy for all people. For unto us is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

 

The Christmas Census

Delivered Christmas Eve 2011

Luke 2:1-7

The Christmas story takes place during a census in Roman Palestine. Our story begins “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.”  Governments have been taking censuses for thousands of years. I am glad; they come in very handy for genealogists. I am the Davis family genealogist. I inherited the job from my aunt, who is now 89 years old and in failing health. The caretaker for my aunt and uncle in Florida shipped me three big boxes of family historical records a couple of weeks ago by UPS. I was excited when I saw the brown truck pull up in front of our house. My first thought was that I was getting some Christmas presents from my kids in California and Pennsylvania. I should have known better. They are not that organized. Just old papers.

Part of the research I did on my family history in NH involved looking at old census records in Strafford County. My ancestors landed at Dover point in the 1600’s and gradually moved inland. In the nineteenth century they were living in Barrington and Nottingham. So I bushwhacked through overgrown cemeteries with my aunt and studied the 1830, 1840 and 1850 census records. Back when I was doing most of this research in the 1980’s, I could actually handle the original big census books; probably now you can only look at digital images of them. The 1850 census was particularly helpful because in that year the government began to ask more questions. In 1850, the census began collecting "social statistics" (information about taxes, education, and value of estate, and crime.) Subsequent censuses in our country gathered even more detailed data on race and ancestry, health, housing, and transportation. Nowadays governments use the data to determine voting districts. Racial data are used to assess fairness of employment practices, to monitor racial disparities in such areas as health and education and to plan and obtain funds for public services.

They had censuses even back in Roman times. Caesar Augustus was very interested in the number of citizens in his empire. He was especially interested in gathering taxes; so not much has changed in government in 2000 years. Historians know of three empire-wide censuses ordered by Caesar Augustus during his reign; they took place in 28 B.C., 8 B.C., and 14 A.D. The census described by the Gospel writer Luke in our passage was the one in 8 BC. Jesus was not born in the year 1. Our calendar, which dates everything from date of Jesus’ birth – BC and AD, was invented by a monk in the sixth century and adopted widely in the ninth century; the monk got it wrong.  All biblical scholars now date Jesus birth somewhere between 12 to 4 BC. If we date Jesus’ birth by the Roman census, then he was likely born in 8 BC.

What type of questions would they have asked Mary and Joseph in the Roman census in Palestine, in 8 BC? We actually know some details. Archeologists discovered in Egypt a Roman census document, dated 104 A.D., in which citizens were specifically commanded to return to their original homes for the census …  just like in the Gospel of Luke. Another census document from 119 A.D. has been found in which an Egyptian man answers seven questions: (1) his name and the names of his father, mother, and grandfather; (2) his original village; (3) his age and profession; (4) distinguishing physical characteristic – in his case a scar above his left eyebrow; (5) his wife's name and age, his wife's father's name; (6) his son's name and age; and (6) the names of other relatives living with him. The document is signed by the village registrar and three official witnesses. These two archeological finds are important because they show that it was the custom for people to travel to their ancestral homes like the Bible describes. This latter document is of special interest, because it gives us an idea of the kind of information that Joseph and Mary would have had to provide for the census.

The Christmas story is historically accurate concerning the Roman census. Mary and Joseph would have been instructed to go to their ancestral town of Bethlehem. The story says, “⁴ Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into 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 wife, who was with child.” When they got there, the town was full of pilgrims who had arrived in town for the census. The traditional wording tells us “there was no room for them in the inn.” It was not actually an inn. They did not have Comfort Inns or a Holiday Inns back then. It was more like a guest room in a relative’s home. Hospitality was an important virtue in that society, especially for family. Every family of any means kept a guest room. It was in that type of room that Jesus later held the last Supper with this disciples in Jerusalem. That is what the story was referring to. The “inn” that the story refers to was more like a Bed and Breakfast than a Marriott Hotel & Suites. There was no room for them in the guest room, so they had to camp out in the common area attached to the house where the animals were kept at night.

But you probably did not come here this evening to get a history lesson, even though I personally think it is fascinating to explore the historical context of the first Christmas. So I want to talk about another type of Christmas census this evening - one involving you. You have traveled here this evening to this meetinghouse, and you are going to be part of a census tonight. Don’t worry; we will not have the ushers going around the sanctuary with clipboards. But I want to ask you one question this evening and you can answer it privately in your own heart and mind.

Every census deals with households and the relationship of the respondent to the head of the household. We call this meetinghouse the house of God. The NT speaks of the church as the household of faith and Jesus Christ as the Head of the church. So my census question to you this evening is this: How are you related to the head of this household of God. When I did my personal family research in the 1850 census in Barrington NH, I found one of my ancestors missing from her parents’ household. She was a child in the 1840 census, but gone from the family home in the 1850 census. I finally found her as a teenager in another household in the same town. It was common back then for teens to go to live with another family for a variety of reasons. Perhaps their birth family could not afford them or a neighboring family needed help. A relative or a neighbor would provide them with room and board in exchange for working at the house or farm. That is what happened with my ancestor. My question for you this evening is: What is your relationship to the one whose house you are in this evening? What is your relation to the Head of this household - Jesus Christ?  Are you like my ancestor – just visiting - or are you related to him?

          In the apostle john’s Christmas account, he says of Jesus:, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own people, and His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

          This is what Christmas is about – not just about the child born in Bethlehem, but about us being spiritually born of God. The good news of Christmas is that we become children of God through faith in the one who is the only-begotten Son of God, born in Bethlehem that holy night.

Mary’s Advent Carol

Delivered December 18, 2011

Luke 1:39-56

The music for one of the most well known Christmas carols, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, was written by a man who did not want his music set to Christian words. Furthermore the man who wrote the lyrics did not want his words set to lively music. They both did not get their wish. The lyrics were written by Methodist hymn writer Charles Wesley. The melody for this familiar carol was composed by Felix Mendelssohn almost a hundred years after Wesley wrote the text. Neither Charles Wesley nor Felix Mendelssohn would have wanted this music to be joined with these words. Mendelssohn, a Jew, had made it very clear that he wanted his music only to be used for secular purposes. Wesley, on the other hand, had requested that only slow and solemn religious music be coupled with his words. However, in the mid nineteenth century, after both men were dead, an organist named William Cummings, joined the joyous Mendelssohn music with Wesley’s profound words to create the carol we know today! If you hear some rumbling underground when we sing this carol on Christmas Eve it might be the sound of both of these men turning over in their graves.

Today we are looking at an Advent carol. We sing Christmas carols at this time of year, but there are also wonderful Advent songs. I love hymns like “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” Our text today is also an Advent song. It was written by Mary the mother of Jesus, and inspired (we believe) by the Holy Spirit. It is known as the Magnificat, named after the opening words: “My soul magnifies the Lord!” But before we get into the song, I want us to first explore the setting of the song – how it came about.

The story of how the Magnificat came about is found in Luke 1:39-45. ³⁹ Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, ⁴⁰ and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴² Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! ⁴³ But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

In the passage right before this (that we looked at last week), Mary was told by the angel Gabriel that she was going to bear a Son. This was going to be no ordinary son nor ordinary birth. It was to be a virgin birth and the Son of God. To give Mary some confirmation and support, the angel told Mary in verse 36 “Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.”  So Mary hurried right off to see her cousin Elizabeth, who lived in the hill country south of Jerusalem. As soon as Mary walked in the door and greeted Elizabeth (presumably with a hug) the baby in Elizabeth’s womb moved. Elizabeth actually says that the baby leapt for joy! Suddenly Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, confirming to Mary what the angel had told her. As soon as Mary heard these prophetic words from Elizabeth, suddenly she also is inspired by the Holy Spirit and spoke this passage known as the Song of Mary, or the Magnificat. There are four things I want to say about this Advent carol.

I. First, it is the song of a Magnifying Soul. It starts off “My soul magnifies the Lord!”  I love that opening phrase. It sums up the spiritual life. It is the purpose of our lives. The most famous statement of the purpose of human life is found in the Westmister Shorter Catechism. It says, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.” I think the main reason so many people are confused and unhappy in life is that they do not know why they are here on earth. They do not know the purpose of their lives. They assume they are here for themselves – to be happy or stay healthy or get wealthy – to be successful or famous or fulfilled. They might embrace more noble reasons – to serve humankind or serve others or to make the world a better place. These are great causes, but they are not the chief purpose of our lives. The chief purpose of our lives is to glorify God. To use Mary’s word to “magnify the Lord.” Judge everything you do by that standard.

The word “magnify” is instructive. It means to enlarge. Our lives are to be like a magnifying glass. A magnifying glass enlarges the appearance of things. My father-in-law (a retired pastor) has bad eyesight, but he loves to read. So he reads with a magnifying glass in his hand. A lot of people have a hard time seeing God. Even though to me the presence of God is obvious, I know that many people cannot sense God in the world, in the universe, in history, or in the church. They have bad spiritual eyesight. I talk to people and I read books by people who simply cannot see God.

I am presently reading a book now entitled “Why I became an Atheist” by John Loftus. This is a man with three advanced theological degrees. After years as a pastor and an apologist for the Christian faith, he changed his mind about God. He is now an atheist and a college philosophy professor. All he sees now in the world and in the universe is suffering and evil and meaninglessness.  He does not see God. It is a very challenging book and is being used as a textbook for seminary students because it so thoroughly explains the chief arguments against theism and Christianity. Any thinking Christian has to work through such philosophical arguments. I find the book theologically intriguing. But I also find it sad, because this man cannot see God.

Our purpose in life is to be a magnifying glass for people who can’t see God. Unfortunately I think sometimes Christians and churches sometimes do just the opposite. We can obscure God. One of the things that led this man John Loftus to atheism is what he calls the "lovelessness in the church." This man was hurt by a church and church people, and his decision against God is as much emotional as it is intellectual. For him the church obscured God so much that he could no longer see God at all. That is sad. The church’s purpose, and the purpose of our lives is to magnify God – to be a magnifying lens so that people can see God through our lives.

II. Second, Mary’s song is the song of a Joyful Spirit. She says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” Again the catechism says, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.” Joy is one of the hallmarks of a Christian heart. In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul lists the nine fruit of the Holy Spirit – those spiritual qualities that should be present in every Christian’s life. The first one is love; the second is joy. Mary sings, “my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” 

If there is no joy in our faith, do we really know God? The apostle John makes the case in his first letter that if a Christian does not love, then he doesn’t really know God or Christ. I would make the same case about joy. It is one of the basic qualities of the spiritual life.  How can you know God and not be joyful about God? Joy is contagious and it is attractive. If we want to attract people to church all we need is to exhibit joy.

Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" is a poem written by Henry van Dyke in 1907 which was musically set to the famous "Ode to Joy" melody of the final movement of Beethoven's ninth symphony exactly 100 years ago in 1911.  Van Dyke wrote this poem while in Williams College, Massachusetts. The words are a wonderful exclamation of joy – exactly what Mary is talking about. 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

Van Dyke described his lyrics with way: “These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time.” I am not so sure they are so common today 100 years later, though they should be. I recently read one of the networks of blogs by the magazine The Christian Century. The author is a minister and pastoral counselor named Katherine. She and her husband went to the symphony in Fort Worth Texas and heard Beethoven's Ninth, with choirs from Texas Christian University, University Christian Church, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary -- over 350 singers on stage behind the orchestra.  She writes in her blog: “Oh! When they suddenly burst out with Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee (in German, but hey...) I thought I had died and gone to heaven…. After the concert, as we're walking to our parking garage, we encountered the street preachers on the corner. They're there every Friday night, shouting their hate-filled version of the gospel to all passersby. Usually I just want to get away from them, but strangely last night I felt myself getting very angry. After having come from this truly sublime experience of Beethoven's Ninth that filled me with joy, touched my soul, and took me to the mountaintop, to then come out into the night and hear this filth filling the air -- it was horrible.”

Those are the two extremes that Christians can embody. We can turn people off to God or turn people on to the joy of God.

III. Third, Mary’s Advent carol is the song of a Blessed Life.  She sings: ⁸ For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”  Mary felt blessed. She knew that her life from that moment on was not going to be easy. If she had any doubts about it at this point, then they were erased when her child Jesus was born. At the infant Jesus’ dedication ceremony in the temple, a man named Simeon prophesied that her child would be a sign to be spoken against and that a sword would pierce her heart. Then after the visit of the wise men, came the death squads from King Herod trying to kill her child. Mary’s life as the mother of this child was not easy, but it was blessed.

That is a model for seeing our lives. Our lives are not easy. No one’s life is easy. It is hard to grow up as a kid and a teen these days. It is no easier getting older.  As Bette Davis said, "Old age ain't no place for sissies!"  Being a Christian believer does not make life easier. We still have all the normal trials and tribulations of life. And many Christians who live in countries hostile to the gospel suffer religious persecution on top of that! But the difference between faith and unbelief, is that we see the trials in the context of a blessed life. Life is a mixture of good and bad. You can focus on the bad or on the good. When you see life as blessing, you focus on the good. Ultimately all of life works out for good because the Ground of our lives and of all life is God, who is Good. Mary knows that no matter what happens in her life, that God is real and she is blessed.

IV. Finally, Mary’s Advent carol is a song to a Magnificent God. When you read the words of this song carefully, it will surprise you. It is like no Christmas carol you have ever heard. It isn’t what you would normally expect in a story leading up to Christmas. Mary sounds like one of the Old Testament prophets. This is a revolutionary song of political, social and economic justice. Listen to her words:

       ⁵¹ He has shown strength with His arm;
      He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
       ⁵² He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
      And exalted the lowly.
       ⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things,
      And the rich He has sent away empty.
       ⁵⁴ He has helped His servant Israel,
      In remembrance of His mercy,
       ⁵⁵ As He spoke to our fathers,
      To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

Mary is exalting a God who acts in history on behalf of his people and of the poor and powerless. This is not an otherworldly “pie in the sky when we die” type of spirituality. She is not talking about heaven. This is down to earth stuff. Christmas can be a time of fluffy sentimentality; lots of movies, television specials and songs have that tone. Christmas has become mostly about family, food, presents, and warm and fuzzy feelings. But Mary’s song rings a different note. Mary sounds more like John the Baptist than a Hallmark card. Her message is more like the Christmas card that John Davies was telling me about a couple of weeks ago. On the front it says: “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come!” And inside it says, “Merry Christmas from John the Baptist.”  Well, there are no warm fuzzies here in Mary’s song either. Mary’s Advent carol reminds us that Christmas is about God and justice and righteousness – God setting things right - not themes you hear in too many Christmas carols, but it is in some if you listen.

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a Christmas carol based on a poem written by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day 1864 during the American Civil War. His wife had recently died in tragic fire, and he had just gotten word that his son Charles had been seriously wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church in Virginia. On that Christmas day he wrote these words. It is not in our hymnal or we could sing it, but I will read it for you to end this message:

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Birth Announcement

Delivered December 11, 2011

Luke 1:26-38

This Advent we are looking at the passages in Luke that prepare us for the birth of Jesus. They are filled with angels. In fact about the only times we see angels in the gospels are in the stories surrounding the beginning and end of Jesus’ life – his birth, death and resurrection. At this time of year in particular angels are everywhere in the stories. In every church I have pastored I have had at least one person who loved angels, who collect angels and decorate their homes with angels and send angel Christmas cards. In this church it was Bertha Gotshall, if you remember her – the postmaster at lower corner. She just died this August at the age of 98. She loved angels and wanted to know all about angels. She owned hundreds of angel ornaments and figurines. She decorated her tree with angels. She would ask me about angels often, and I eventually gave her Billy Graham’s book on the subject, entitled “Angels, Angels, Angels.” I don’t know who has now taken her place here as the Federated Church angelologist. If you are an angel lover, let me know on your way out of church.

The angel Gabriel plays an especially important role in the Advent and Christmas stories. Last Sunday we saw him in the Holy place of the Jerusalem temple when he appeared to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Our passage today takes place six months later. This time this same angel appears to Mary in her home in Nazareth, and a conversation ensues. We are going to look at that conversation this morning and see what it tells us. It breaks down naturally into three exchanges, each one has the angel speak and Mary responds.

I. First is verse 26-29 “²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” ²⁹ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.”

This first exchange talks about the presence of God. If I had to describe the purpose of angels in scripture this is what I think they mean. They represent the presence of God in our midst. That is the message of this angel to Mary. He appeared to her and the first words out of his mouth are “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.”  That is the message of Christmas as well. It is the meaning of the name Immanuel. The most famous OT prophecy of the birth of the Messiah is from Isaiah. He said, “Behold the virgin shall be with child and bear a Son and they shall call his name ‘Immanuel.’” Mary and Joseph didn’t name their son Immanuel; they named him Jesus. But we understand that spiritually he was Immanuel, which the gospel writer Matthew in his Christmas story reminds us means “God with us.”

That is what Christmas is about. That is what the birth of Jesus is about. It is a celebration of the experience that God is with us. That we are not alone in a senseless universe. This is the meaning of the incarnation – that God became a human being and dwelt among us. That is what the gospel writer John says in his Christmas account. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is what Christmas is about, and the angel announced it. “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.” And even though those words were directed to Mary, through Mary they come to us. We are highly favored, for the Lord is with us.

The angel goes on to say, “blessed are you among women!” God is present and we are blessed. Of course Mary has a special blessing; she was doubly blessed because she was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. But we are also blessed through that blessing to her. We are the recipients of this grace that came into the world through Mary in Jesus Christ. Do you realize how blessed you are to know the presence of God with you?  There are different ways that we can talk about the presence of God with us. One is this Christmas doctrine of the incarnation – that God became enfleshed in Christ. In Jesus’ preaching he talked about the Kingdom of God within us and in all around us. After Easter the church speaks of God present with us as the Holy Spirit indwelling us. These are all different dimensions of this wonderful truth that God is present. The Lord is with you. That is what the angel said to Mary.

Mary’s response in verse 29 is this: “she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.” I love her response. She was taken aback at this message, as we should be. She was silent. She did not say anything. This is a correct response to the experience of the presence of God. This is why silent prayer and silent meditation is so meaningful to me. I also pray with words, but I spend most of my prayer time in silent prayer. Words seem to get in the way for me. Words put a distance between God and me that I don’t want there. When I have to, I use words. I am a preacher after all, so I use words a lot. But silence is so much better, so much more direct. So it makes perfect sense to me that Mary’s response to the announcement of the presence of God was silence. And wonder. We can’t understand the presence of God. All we can do is be aware of it. That is Mary’s initial response.

II.  The second round in this encounter between the angel and Mary is in verses 30-34. “³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” ³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

Here is the big announcement. This is why the angel came to Mary – to announce to her that a miracle was going to happen. She was going to give birth to the Son of God. Every birth is a miracle. Our daughter Sarah is going to have a child, and we are going through this pregnancy with her in a much closer way than with our two daughters-in-law. The birth of any child is a miracle. But what was happening in Mary’s womb was a miracle of a whole different order. It is called the Virgin Birth, and is attested not only here in Luke’s gospel, but also in Matthew’s gospel, so the story was well known. She is going to give birth without a man being in the picture. She knows enough to know that this is impossible. So her response is in verse 34 “Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

The doctrine of the Virgin Birth is a stumbling block to many people. They consider it legend or myth, a fantasy story invented by the church. Many people assume it is a biological impossibility and therefore reject it out of hand. But what seems at first glance to be impossible is not impossible with God. The angel says in verse 37, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”  The whole point of Christmas is that God does what seems to be impossible. If you take the seemingly impossible out of Christmas you are left with nothing. You might as well just celebrate the Winter Solstice, the natural rhythm of the seasons and the tilt of the earth in relationship to the sun.  It is natural and normal – no big deal. But Christmas is a big deal. Christmas is about impossible possibilities or possible impossibilities. It is about something that we think cannot possibly happen, and yet it does.

The virgin birth is not really impossible. Virgin births, known by the scientific name of parthenogenesis, are known to happen naturally in some invertebrate animal species. Parthenogenesis has been induced artificially in the laboratory in fish and amphibians. This type of asexual reproduction has even been induced in mammals – mice and rabbits in the laboratory. So it is not impossible. It has just not been scientifically duplicated in humans yet. But it could be one day, if we want to spend research monies doing something like this. Humans share most of our DNA with these mammals. It is just a matter of switching on the right gene. So let’s not get hung up on the virgin birth.  Virgin births are not impossible; they are reality. 

If you are going to hung up on something, get hung up on the incarnation - that God can become a human being. That is what is important. God is spirit. How can spirit become flesh? How can the immaterial become the material? That is the real stumbling block. That is the real mystery. Yet that is what we are celebrating at Christmas. Again, “³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.” 

III. Let’s move on to the third exchange. Verses 35-38 “³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.” ³⁸ Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Here the angel talks about the power of the Holy Spirit doing a miracle in Mary’s life. In her case it was the conception of a child in her womb. But I want to apply this principle to us. Advent and Christmas is not just about something that happened to someone else 2000 years ago. It is about also about something happening now to us. The Christmas carol says: “Oh holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin and enter in, Be born in us today.” The virgin birth and the incarnation are not just doctrines to be believed. They point to spiritual truths to be experienced.

The virgin birth is about the mystery of God literally indwelling Mary. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit (who is mentioned here specifically in this passage) is about God indwelling us. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “he is with you and will be within you.” The apostle Paul speaks of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This story is about much more than a birth announcement to Mary. It is an announcement to you - Christ in you, the Holy Spirit in you, God in you. Christmas is not just about the physical birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, it is about the spiritual birth of Christ in us. The incarnation is about God becoming flesh in an historic way in Jesus. But it is also about God becoming flesh in his people, in his church, in history in us. The carol continues: “We hear the Christmas angels / The great glad tidings tell; Oh come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel.”

There is an announcement to be made at Christmas time. But it is not just the announcement of a baby born to Mary. It is the announcement of Christ’s life to be born in us. The question then becomes how are we to respond to this announcement? Mary responds in our passage in verse 38 by saying, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”  She responds in faith. She accepts that what she thought was impossible is possible with God. She responds in faith as a servant of God, deciding to surrender her will and life to God – to let God do with her life whatever he wishes. This decision changed her life forever and it changed history forever. Likewise when we respond in faith it changes us. Christmas becomes not just a date on a calendar, but a truth to be experienced every day of our lives. God with us, Immanuel.

Advent Angst

Delivered December 4, 2011

Luke 1:5-25

This month we are going to be looking at the Advent and Christmas stories in the Gospel of Luke. Luke has more to say about the events that lead up to the birth of Jesus than any other gospel. Mark’s gospel does not mention Christmas at all. John’s gospel has poetic references to the incarnation (“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”) but none of the stories. Only Matthew and Luke tell the stories, and Luke has twice as much material as Matthew. Luke starts the Advent story way back with events leading up to the birth of John the Baptist, who has Jesus’ cousin. That is what we are going to be looking at today. Luke’s Gospel starts with an older couple named Zacharias and Elizabeth, who lived in the hill country of Judah south of Jerusalem. They were past the age of childbearing. Back then children were your future. When you became too old to work in the fields, your kids supported you. There was no Social security or 401(k)s. Your kids were your retirement plan. So people wanted kids not just so they would hear the pitter-patter of little feet around the house. Having children was an economic necessity.

The Gospel of Luke begins with this older couple living alone in the country. They were good religious people. Our text says, “And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Zacharias was a priest. There were lots of priests in those days, more than they needed for the temple responsibilities. So they took turns officiating at the temple in Jerusalem.  There were so many priests that a man could go through his entire life and never officiate at the temple. They used to draw lots to see who would have the privilege of going into the holy place. As the gospel of Luke opens, Zacharias has been given the once-in-a lifetime honor of officiating at the temple. That is where the story begins. There are five things that this story tells us about Advent.

I. First, it says that Advent can be a time of barrenness. Verse 7 says of this couple, “But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.” The word barren is used. Back then they blamed childlessness on the woman. The men never thought it was their fault. Now we know more about what prohibits conception. But still the word “barren” is striking. The Christmas story starts with barrenness. They had no child, and they were sad.

The holiday season today is not always a time of joy. It can be sad for some people. The death of a loved one during the year can make the holidays difficult. Some people experience increased stress, depression, and anxiety during the holidays. Cultural expectations are high that this is supposed to be a joyous time of year, but that is not the case for all people for any number of reasons. Not only death, but also illness, divorce, separation, unemployment, or financial pressures can make this a tough time of year for people. Therefore it is appropriate that the passage for today starts off with a family having a blue Advent. It is a matter of perspective. For some people the holidays are “the most wonderful time of the year.” For others it is a blue Christmas. 

A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other was their looks. Opposites in every way, one was an eternal optimist, the other a doom and gloom pessimist. Just to see how deep the difference was, one Christmas their father loaded the pessimist's room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist's room he loaded with horse manure. Later that day the father passed by the pessimist's room and found him sitting amid his new gifts crying bitterly. "Why are you crying?" the father asked. “You have all these wonderful gifts!” He replied, "My friends will be jealous of me because I got all these gifts. Also, I'll have to read all these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff. I'll constantly need batteries, and I know that eventually all my toys will get broken." Passing the optimist twin's room, the father found him joyfully digging and playing in the pile of manure. "What are you so happy about?" he asked. “You got a roomful of manure.” To which his optimist replied, "If there is manure, there's got to be a pony in here somewhere!"

How about you? What is your situation? Maybe it is not a matter of temperament. You might have good reason not to be so full of holiday joy this Christmas. It is important to acknowledge that the holidays may not be the perfect storybook picture. This passage acknowledges that reality.

II. Second, Advent is a time of prayer. Our story takes place in the temple. They may not have any kids, but Zacharias has been given the honor of officiating at the daily sacrifices in Jerusalem. He has dreamed of this day all his life. It is a consolation for him. Furthermore, he is going to use this opportunity not only to offer the required sacrifices for the people, but to offer a personal prayer as he goes into the holy place. There were lots of priests doing lots of jobs in the temple. But Zacharias’ division of the priesthood had the honor or going into the holy place, the small structure at the heart of the temple grounds, and burn incense on the altar of incense. The Jews believed that the temple was the one place on earth closest to God, and that your prayers were more likely to be heard by God there. Jews still today offer prayers at the Western Wall, the only remaining part of this same temple. They write prayers and put them into the cracks of this so-called Wailing Wall. I have done this whenever visiting at Western Wall in Jerusalem. Even though I don’t believe God hears my prayers more in that place, I still put my hand against that wall and pray. In fact the last time I was there the Jewish man beside me offered me his prayer book. He thought I was an Israeli Jew and had forgotten mine!

Today this is the most holy site in the world for a Jew to pray. When the temple was in operation 2000 years ago the moment that the incense was offered each day was the most holy moment. It was thought that the prayers mingled with the incense and went to the throne of God.  In fact there are three passages in the Book of Revelation that refer to this. Revelation 8:4 says, “the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God.” Zecharias used his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the Holy place of the temple offering incense to say a personal prayer. His prayer, like it had been for years, was for a child.

Advent is a time of prayer for us. This month is wonderful with the music and the decorations and special foods and celebrations. But let’s not forget to make it a time of prayer.

III. Third, Advent is a time for answers. In Zacharias’ case his prayer was dramatically and immediately answered. The answer was hand delivered by the angel Gabriel who suddenly appeared beside the altar of incense. It says in verse 11-14 “¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. ¹⁴ And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.” 

Advent can be a time for answers. I recently read a short article by former president Jimmy Carter on his prayer life. He says, “I understand that God answers prayers in different ways. Sometimes he answers “yes,” sometimes he answers “no.’ Sometimes he answers late, and sometimes he answers, “You’ve got to be kidding!” Advent is a perfect time to seek answers to some of those big issues in your life. We each have some concerns in our lives that persist. Advent is a time to address the issue, and to hopefully get some answers. Maybe they have to deal with hurt and forgiveness. This may be the time to patch up relationships that have been strained. This is a perfect time of year to ask forgiveness and to give forgiveness. In either case it is a wonderful Christmas gift. Maybe this is the season to say “Thank you” to someone whom you have never thanked for his or her influence on your life. What a wonderful gift to give. Maybe this is the season to work through some emotional or spiritual problems. To pray and seek with all your heart until they are resolved. Advent can be a time for answers. You probably won’t have your answer hand-delivered by an angel, but who knows?

IV. Fourth, Advent may be a time for doubt. In the story Zacharias receives a tremendous answer to his prayers. He is promised that he and his wife would have a son named John. Not only that, but John was going to become a great prophet of God who was going to prepare the way for the Messiah. You would think that Zacharias would jump up and down and shout Hallelujah! But he doesn’t. His first reaction is doubt. It literally feels to him to be too good to be true. Zacharias answer to the angel is in verse 18 “And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”  He is saying, “How can I be sure? How can I believe you?”  He doubted.

Advent can be a time of doubt for us. This doubt can take many forms. We can doubt the whole Christmas story, or at least parts of it. This is the time of year where we read about some pretty amazing things in the Bible stories. Angels? Not just this angel appearing to Zacharias, but we have angels throughout the Advent and Christmas stories. Are angels real, imaginary, symbolic or what? How about the virgin birth? Even Joseph didn’t believe that one when he heard it for the first time! And he heard it straight from Mary. How can we in a scientific age believe such an idea? The star of Bethlehem? Did that really happen? Wise men from the East? All these stories sound more like myths than history. Can we really be expected to believe such things? Intellectually we may struggle with these gospel accounts. Zacahrias could not even believe that he was going to be a father in his old age. He could not believe that his son would be a prophet. We are asked to believe much more than that!

What do these stories point to? Even more than the supernatural claims, we might struggle with the theological claims. All these stories point to the one major Christmas truth – that God became man in Jesus Christ. That is the central message. Please don’t get hung up on the details - how an egg can be miraculously fertilized in the womb or what the Star of Bethlehem really was. Those issues are nothing compared to the central claim of Christmas. That Jesus was more than a human being, that he was divinity enfleshed in humanity. This is what it is all about. And this is what many people doubt is true.

And then there is the spiritual aspect. Even if we can believe the claims that Jesus is the Son of God, can we respond to him in faith? Can we follow him? Can we give our lives to him? That is where doubt can really come in.

V. Fifth, Advent is a time of silence. In the story, the angel responds to Zacharias’ unbelief by saying that he would not be able to speak until everything has been fulfilled. Traditionally this is seen as a punishment on Zacharias for his unbelief, but let me give this story a different spin. Perhaps it was a blessing. I have been at retreats where there were long periods of silence. In fact I was at a one day Baptist retreat last month at Gove Hill in Vermont when we went for periods of hours in silence. One minister complained about it afterwards saying that she had come to talk with friends, not to be quiet. I was once at a retreat in Washington DC when no one said a word for three days. There are monastic orders committed to silence. I have found that silence can be a real gift. God is revealed in silence. I hear God in silence in a deeper way than in words or even music. God speaks in silence.

Zacharias went nine months without speaking. It was a time for him to reconnect with God. It seems to me that the doubt that he expressed with his mouth was simply the verbal expression of the deep doubt in his soul. The imposed silence allowed him to explore that doubt and rediscover his faith, which had become lost over the years.  Perhaps this Advent is a time for you to rediscover your faith. Maybe your faith has become weak or is close to being lost. Maybe you need to take time for silent prayer and meditation so you can hear the voice of God. The loudest noise is not the outer noise; it is the inner noise. It is that endless chatter of our minds, the internal conversation that we carry on with ourselves, the babble that keeps us from falling asleep at night, that churns up worry and anxiety in our heart. Real silence is when that inner voice is calmed. Then we can hear the voice of God. It took Zacharias nine months for silence to work deep into his heart and work through his doubts and lead him to a place of faith.

Advent is a gift. It is a time to prepare ourselves spiritually for Christmas. Do not waste the gift of Advent.