December 24th,
2017 “Mary, Joseph, and the Baby”
Rev. Heather Jepsen
Luke 1:26-38, 2:1-20
This is my 12th Christmas in
the pulpit, not counting the years I spent interning and such, and I have to
tell you that I am always amazed at how the story of Christmas has the power to
strike me anew each year. Some religious
holidays get old quick, like Christ the King Sunday. Ask Lars, he’ll tell you that’s the one I
complain about the most. I draw a blank
on some Palm Sundays, and even Easter morning can be a challenge to view
afresh. But for some reason, Christmas
always feels fresh for me. I always have
new ideas, new thoughts, and new energy in my heart. Nothing fills me with genuine awe and wonder
at the love our God has for us like the arrival of Christmas each year.
This year I have been thinking about
the story in new ways, centered on the characters of Mary, Joseph, and the
Baby. In our first reading, we hear of
the annunciation. The angel Gabriel
arrives to tell Mary about this amazing opportunity to share in a risky
pregnancy. Number one, to be pregnant is
a risk in and of itself. In the paper
just this week there were alarming statistics on maternal death in Missouri
today. Imagine what the statistics were
like in Mary’s Galilee. Plus, there is
that bit about Mary not being married.
To be pregnant without a husband is to risk death by stoning. Yeah, I can just imagine Gabriel receiving
this task from God and saying to himself, “Now how am I gonna sell this?!?”
Gabriel sells it by making it sound
pretty good. This kid “will be great,
and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him
the throne of his ancestor David. He
will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no
end.” That sounds awesome. But you and I both know that it sure doesn’t
look like that in Mary’s life. It looks
a lot more like this kid will be a bit of an outcast, a great healer but a
troubling teacher. He will bring hope to
some and threaten even more. Finally he
will be executed by the state for crimes he didn’t commit before Mary herself
is even 50 years old. Yep, that won’t
sell it.
Despite the risks, Mary says “yes”, as
many of us have said yes to kids. And like
Mary we don’t know the future. The truth
is that I don’t think we want to. While
Mary ponders these things in her heart, parents everywhere ponder what is and
what might be. It is no good to refuse
love in the fear of experiencing loss and pain.
I believe it is best to love fully into whatever moments we have, and to
let suffering come it its own day. Mary
is willing, “let it be with me according to your word” as many of us are
willing to take such adventures in love.
Joseph on the other hand, has different
choices to make. Luke doesn’t tell us
much of his story but Matthew says Joseph dreams about Mary and the Baby. In our second reading for today we hear of
the two and their stressful journey to Bethlehem. How ridiculous to take a long donkey ride in
the final days of pregnancy. And of
course Joseph didn’t make reservations and the two were stuck in a cave, which
is where the animals would have been kept at the time. Cozy!
You know, we always imagine Joseph on
the side, just hanging out. We get
confused with our crèches, “Is that Joseph or a shepherd?” his is such a bit
part. But I started thinking this year
that he might have had a bigger part to play.
I mean, if there is no room in the inn, then it’s not hard to imagine
that there is nothing else either. No
blankets, no hot water, and no midwife.
What if Joseph served as the midwife?
What if Joseph was the one to coach Mary through the process and to insure
a healthy birth? Maybe instead of
standing on the side in helpless worry, Joseph was a hands-on man of nurture
and action? Joseph, “midwife to the
divine”?!? It’s an interesting thought.
And how about that Baby? What is going on there? I just get so excited to even think about
it. We have all these big theological
ideas about who Christ is, who God is, all of creation and all of power and
glory and here it is, in a womb, in a child.
It blows my mind. One of my
favorite Christmas pieces is Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols” and in the
song that describes the pregnant Mary it has the line, “heaven and earth in
little space.” All of everything in the
tiny space of a womb, it’s just so neat.
And after the birth, all of creation is just lying there in a
stable. All of everything, all power and
love, is present with us so weak and vulnerable with no crib or anything. I love it!
Overall this year, I am struck by God’s
deep, deep love for us. God knows who we
are; that we are selfish, and broken, and dangerous. I mean, how long had God been trying to reach
out to us before the birth of Christ?
How many years had God been watching us hurt each other and break God’s
heart? God knows us, and we are not
safe. And yet God comes to us in the
most vulnerable of ways, asking us to take care of God. How could God trust us like this when God
knows who we are? It is such a grand
gesture of love, it can be overwhelming.
The miracle of today is that this
gesture of love is repeated over and over for us, for our time. At Christmas we celebrate that God came, past
tense, so that means that God is here now.
God is with us now. God is even
now urging us to respond to this beautiful story of love and trust. God wants us to hear and know this miracle of
divinity and humanity together. Like
Mary and Joseph, we can do our part to bring about God’s love in our
world. We can say “yes”, we can be
midwives. God trusts us enough to show
up in our brokenness, to be vulnerable with us, and we always have that renewed
opportunity to respond to God. God is
never done with us, and so the Christmas story is always fresh and it is always
new. God is always ready and waiting to
born.
As you celebrate with family and
friends tonight and in the days ahead, let your mind wander afresh through this
Christmas story. What was Mary thinking
when she said yes? What was Joseph’s
real role that night? What was going on
in that manger, “heaven and earth in little space”? And what does it mean that God trusts us
enough to come to us in such a vulnerable way?
My prayer is that your heart too will
swell with wonder, awe, and love this Christmas. Amen.
