Rebecca Sheridan
Monday, December 24, 2018
Luke 2:1-20
When I was ten years old I was able to travel with my family to my dad’s ancestral homeland in Kvingo, Norway, a fishing and farming village off the Masfjorden on the west coast of Norway. The house where my great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather were born is still in the family. We got to visit the church cemetary where many of my ancestors were laid to rest. To this day, I believe it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and I have been able to go back once since that first time. Sometimes I get asked the question, “If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?” Or “What is your happy place?” and that is my answer – that picture in my head of the house, the boathouse, the saw mill, and the beach on the fjord. In meeting third and fourth cousins and seeing the places where my ancestors grew up, I felt connected in a deep way that is hard to describe. If you have ever been able to travel to your ancestral home, maybe you have felt something similar – I hope so.
This evening, we remember how Jesus was born: his adoptive father, Joseph, had to travel to his ancestral town of Bethlehem, the city of David, for the census, to be accounted for. I don’t know if Mary or Joseph had ever been to Bethlehem before, or if this was the first time Joseph was in his ancestral home. We don’t know if he was able to connect with relatives, see family resemblances, or relate news of family back in Nazareth, but my prediction is, probably not. It seems that rather than a warm welcome, great food, and a free place to stay like I have been offered each time I visit relatives in Norway, Mary and Joseph were shown the back door. I can only imagine the shame, the fear, the disconnection they must have felt with Mary, about to give birth for the first time, forced to stay in a barn and lay their newborn baby in an animal feeding trough, rather than in a relative’s home.
I debated about what version of the Bible to use tonight, as the familiar NRSV version is so comforting to hear this time of year, or even the King James. Many of us may sort of know it by heart as it is read and we start to say it along to ourselves. I chose the more modern version of the Message Bible in the end because I think it’s good for us to hear this very familiar story in a different way. I encourage you to go home and read your favorite version aloud with family tonight or tomorrow – it’s an easy and meaningful spiritual practice to remember the true reason for the season and our celebrations. We’re hearing the Christmas story a little differently tonight to remember that the first Christmas event, the birth of Jesus, the son of God, our Messiah, Savior, and Master was a SHOCK! I can imagine Mary and Joseph feeling like they were walking in a dream, and maybe sometimes a nightmare, as they tried desperately to find a place to stay, and again and again were turned away by THEIR OWN FAMILY. Angels appear to shepherds with God’s glory blazing around them to tell them that the Savior of the world has just been born in the town they have happened to set up camp by. This was not normal, people. This was extraordinary. Every person in this story from Luke experiences a range of emotions: rejection, doubt, fear, amazement, joy, confusion, wonder. Having given birth twice myself, I am quite sure the scene was not as idyllic as our nativity scenese portray – let’s remember animals were also there who do not smell good, nor are they very quiet for long, like babies. God turns the world upside down in one evening in the birth of a baby, lying in a manger and we ALL are forever changed because of this shocking, miraculous event.
The Message version of the Christmas story we heard tonight caused me to pay closer attention to the rejection that those who first received the good news of our Savior’s birth felt immediately before this blessed event. Joseph and Mary, alone, young, and afraid in a town that while unfamiliar should not have been isolating – it was their ancestral home. Yet, instead of feeling the deep connection to the line of King David like I felt in Norway, they were dismissed, cast aside, without much sympathy even with Mary’s condition. The shepherds were working overtime – no Christmas holiday for them, camping out with a night watch over their sheep. They were subsistence-level farmers, nomads, at the bottom of society, but angels first appeared to them to ask them to spred the word of “a great and joyful event.. meant for everybody worldwide!” It is very significant that Jesus begins his earthly life this way – rejected, lowly, yet connected from birth to his ancestral homeland, the line of King David. It is very significant that the Savior of the world appears first to the ones most easily rejected by society: unwed teenage peasant parents and shepherds camping on the outskirts of town. In the NRSV, the angels share this blessing from God, “And on earth peace among those whom he favors.” God shows his favor to the whole world in turning everything upside down, in appearing to the least and the lost, in accepting the rejected that first Christmas night. His son, this baby Jesus, will continue to be rejected by some to this day: but first, rejected by King Herod as a baby, he and his parents will flee to Egypt. Back in Nazareth as an adult, he will preach in the synagogue and be rejected by those in his hometown. In Jerusalem, he will be betrayed and denied by his closest followers, his own disciples. On the cross, he is rejected by all worldly powers who put him to death. This is how God saves – God turns the world around, so that the rejected are the first to hear the good news and receive peace and joy. God favors the lowly, the least, and the lost. The one most despised and rejected is the Messiah, our Savior, Lord and Master, who calls us to do the same. Whether you have found peace and acceptance in your own family line, in your ancestral home, around your Christmas dinner table or not; God declares tonight and every night that God has come to make a place for you. You belong to God. Wherever you go, no matter how displaced or disconnected you may feel, God in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us, goes with you.
Several decades ago there was a national campaign in our denomination to call local churches “The Welcome Place.” Some of you may still have the red T-shirt: Bethel – The Welcome Place. I like the idea. It reflects the character of God for us to strive to extend radical welcome, hospitality, and love to those who are often overlooked. It also challenges us to ponder what genuine welcome really requires, when a guy who doesn’t smell the best shuffles in with a suspicious looking backpack, or when someone who doesn’t speak English very well tries to follow along in worship. And then there’s always that sin question – “well, if we accept that, are we avoiding confronting someone’s sin? God doesn’t tolerate sin.”
In our Christmas story tonight, we are reminded of how easy it could have been for any one of us to be that relative, that innkeeper, who rejected the holy family, who rejected Christ unknowingly for a host of reasons but most especially the result of sin, which seeks to separate and divide us from each other and God. Over and over again in the story of Jesus which we will be retelling here at Bethel in the next year, God reminds us of Jesus purpose to restore what is broken, to save what was lost to sin, to bring together people in relationship which never otherwise would have happened. Old and young, rich and poor, every language and race, regardless of occupation, citizenship status, station in life God’s good news is meant for everybody everywhere. In hearing this Christmas story anew, perhaps the greatest shock for us tonight, or the message we have yet to fully grasp is how God could possibly be in love with us, with me, sinful human being that I am. You have a place here. God has accepted you, just as you are, no exceptions. In Jesus Christ, the son of God, the Word made flesh, our Savior and Lord, God is working to reconnect our lives to return us to our ancestral home, where all belong, where everyone fits in, where the shocking becomes normal, where the world is not just turned upside down, but made right again. Merry Christmas! Amen!
