Sermon 51 - Christmas Keeping Faith
Luke 2:4-7
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
Okay, to start off with: why did Jesus never close any doors after him? Because he was born in a barn.
Around Christmas time, we get lots of sermons around the birth of the Messiah. Jesus is born. Jesus, the king of the world, God's son, the Messiah, is born. That's the breaking news.
And sometimes we go into details about how Jesus was born, or where, or when. We have to make up most of these stories, because we aren't given a lot of detail in the Bible. Interestingly, although we little information about the people, we *can* date the birth of Jesus rather precisely. Not completely precisely, because communications, and orders, and official government mandates, took a lot longer then than they do now. We can date Jesus birth because the events surrounding it were triggered by a census. Caesar Augustus only did three censuses during his reign. And we are told that this was the census shortly after Quirinius started to govern his little piece of the empire. That census was called in what we would now know as 7 BC. But it probably didn't take place right away, because you had to get the orders to all the parts of the empire, and they traveled pretty much as fast as somebody walking. Pretty much nothing moved any faster in those days. (Yes, you could take a boat. But the boat only went as fast as the fastest wind would blow, and even then you probably didn't want to actually sail during the fastest wind since that would be dangerous. And you couldn't go as fast as the fastest wind anyways, because the fastest wind might not be in the direction that you wanted to go. So then you had to row. Or, more likely, you had to stay in port until the wind, which might have been blowing against you, died down, so that it wasn't fighting the rowing of your ship.)
So it took a long time for the orders to even get anywhere. And then the local authority had to make arrangements for how they were going to do a census. Probably there were some dictates from HQ, but there were an awful lot of local conditions that were going to affect how you are going to do it. And then you had to arrange those, such as, in the case of Judea, everybody going back to their hometown, or rather the town of their ancestors, and then you had to send out the orders to all the little towns in your area. And then all the little towns in your area had to arrange however they were going to record all of this, etc, etc, etc. So it took a while.
Undoubtedly for political reasons, so that the early church could hide what they were actually doing, the early church celebrated Christmas during saturnalia. This was a big, five-day, Roman party, which all kinds of other religions would undoubtedly be willing to pack their celebrations on to as well, since it fell conveniently near the winter solstice, which a number of them celebrated anyways.
The Bible tells us that there were shepherds out abiding in their fields, watching over their flocks by night. Now, the reference to Jesus as the Good Shepherd to the contrary, shepherds weren't considered particularly good. They were definitely second, or even third, class citizens. They weren't even allowed to testify in court, since it was felt that they were morally suspect, so shepherding was not considered a really great occupation. But, presumably the shepherds knew their job, and the only time you need to be out, with the flock, grazing in the fields, or even in their pens, but at night, is during the lambing season. And this isn't in late December. It's in March.
So, Jesus was probably born in March of either 6 BC, or 5 BC. And, rather conveniently, there was a conjunction of planets around about 6 BC. It was a conjunction of Jupiter, which relates to sovereignty or kingship, and Saturn, which has a somewhat subordinate relation to the same idea, and Mars, which, for some reason, not only relates to war, but also to the Jews, or to Judea. So that gives us somewhat of a reason that Magi, the intellectuals of the eastern part of The middle east, might have been wandering around Judea, looking for a king, in March of 6 BC. All of which is kind of interesting, but irrelevant to what I really wanted to talk about.
I wanted to talk about Mary and Joseph. Now Mary, particularly, had been given a visitation from an angel, and a prophecy, which she could even test. She was told that her cousin Elizabeth, who was beyond childbearing age, was, in fact, pregnant. So she went to visit Elizabeth, and, lo and behold, Elizabeth was, in fact, pregnant! And, as if a miracle would not be good enough, she got a *second* prophecy, from Elizabeth. So, she, Mary, even though, yes, she was from a small town, and wasn't particularly important, and didn't come from any auspicious lineage, in terms of kingship, for other really specific biblical prophecies, still had a pretty good idea that, yes, she was going to give birth to the Messiah.
Now Joseph, at this point, might not have had that same assurance. He had being betrothed to Mary. We aren't told too much about Mary. We haven't been told too much about Joseph, either. We are given Joseph's lineage, and he is, in fact, of the house of Judah, same as King David. And in Joseph's lineage, and genealogy, in Matthew, there's a rather interesting inclusion of four women. Women were pretty much never mentioned in genealogies. Women, even though matriarchal lineage is a matter of fact, while patriarchal lineage is a matter of trust, as Gloria frequently pointed out, well, women were just not that important to those who kept the genealogies of the Old Testament. So it's really interesting that these four women are mentioned. It's even *more* interesting when, as I would love to explore in a different sermon sometime, were pretty much all foreigners, and pretty much all did things that would be scandalous, in our day, and probably were in theirs. But, as I say, that's a different sermon.
So, back to Joseph. He had been betrothed to Mary. Already. Becoming engaged, in those days, generally took longer than it takes today. Yes, even today, lots of people just basically elope. But, at that time, those who tried to follow the Jewish law, pretty much always waited for about a year. We aren't, actually, told this in the Bible. As a matter of fact, we aren't told very much about marriages in the Bible, aside from so and so went into so and so's tent, and they were man and wife. But everybody who writes fictionalized accounts, expanding on the information we're given in the Gospels, seems to take this as gospel. So, we won't fight it.
Again, those who give us fictionalized accounts of the engagement, and marriage, of Mary and Joseph, and Jesus birth, all seem to stress the point that Joseph was a religious man, and quite particular, and felt that Mary was a particularly observant Jew, as well, and so this is why he chose Mary. So, having Mary turn up turn up pregnant must have been a bit of a shocker. Again, all of the people who give us fictionalized accounts of this, have Joseph not wanting to actually charge Mary with adultery, since that would get her killed, but, Joseph is resolved to put her away quietly.
And then the angel comes back.
And Joseph is told that Mary is carrying a rather special child, and, in fact, *God's* child. And he'd better get on with marrying Mary. And, oh, by the way, when the baby is born, you are to call him Jesus. (Okay, we have a gender reveal, as well, and it doesn't involve glitter, and fireworks, and exploding packages.)
So Joseph does marry Mary. Or, at least, took Mary as his wife. One of the fictionalized accounts, a movie with the title of "The Nativity Story," points out that, while Mary had been shunned for being pregnant, Joseph is now shunned, for accepting this pregnancy, and taking Mary as his wife, anyway. This is displayed quite graphically as the couple set out to go to Joseph's hometown of Bethlehem, to register for the census. Everybody in town, even those who had, while shunning Mary, congratulated Joseph on his narrow escape, are now shunning Joseph as well. And, as they leave town, with everybody in town muttering against them, and giving them looks that could kill, if looks could kill, Joseph comments to Mary, "They're really going to miss us." I love that line.
So, then they get to Bethlehem. And all we are told about Bethlehem was that there was no room for them at the inn. So, in the fictionalized accounts, Mary is in labor, and Joseph is frantically trying to find some place for her to have a baby, rather than just out on the street. And, eventually, someone proposes the stable.
Again, we don't know an awful lot about agriculture in 6 BC Judea. It's a stable. It's for animals. It's got poop on the floor, because there is a manger, and the only reason you have a manger, which, incidentally, comes from the French word manger, which is even spelled the same, and refers to something you put the animal feed in, and the only reason you put animal feed in something, is so that the animals will eat it, where they might turn up their nose, if some of the feed is near, or on, or around, piles of their poop.
So, let's stop here. As a matter of fact, let's stop a little earlier, when they're on the Streets of Bethlehem, desperately looking for someplace to have a baby. Someplace not too dangerous to have a baby. And, even though they have had *two* messages from angels, and two prophecies, and at least one miracle, confirming that this is what's supposed to happen, their faith must be a little bit shaky at this point.
I can relate. I am a grieving widower. I am desperately lonely, without Gloria. I have no one to talk to. Gloria was not only my wife, she was also my best friend. She was the person that I most wanted to talk with. She was also my editor. Gloria was an extremely good editor. I'd say that Gloria was the best editor in the entire world, even though I do not know all of the editors in the entire world. But I do know Gloria. And I trusted her to do my copy editing, and I trusted her to reword my sentences to improve the syntax, and I trusted her even to change what I was writing, and sometimes even to add to what I was writing, in order to clarify it, or to improve it. And I'm really kind of peeved that Gloria is not around, anymore, to help me with these sermons. To help edit them. To help improve them. To make them better. I imagine that you, as well, are kind of peeved that these sermons are not better than they actually are. Even though you may not know the reason.
And, I am a depressive. I have fought depression for just about all of my life. I have fought it for more than five decades. I have studied about depression. I have studied what to do about depression. I have tried all kinds of things to try and address the depression. And the depression hasn't gone away. And, in fact, now it's even worse, because, while for most of my life it was periodic, now it seems to be entrenched. I went into a depression, pretty much two years ago, and I have never gotten out. Despite all of my study, and all of my efforts, and taking psychopharmaceuticals, and all the things that I am trying to do, and all the things that have worked, at least somewhat, in the past, and asking God to take it away, or kill me, I am still depressed. And, pretty much on a constant basis, I wish I were dead.
Now, I'm not dead. And I could do it. I know enough from medicine, and my work as a nurse, and my work as an industrial first aid attendant, and my study into depression, and my study of every illness and trauma to which my relatives have fallen victim, and to my study into a lot of diseases that a lot of my friends have fallen victim to, I know a lot about how to stay alive, and therefore a lot about how to kill yourself. So I could. It's maybe going to be a little bit harder than it might have been a while ago, but I could do it. The medical system is even willing to help me along, because at least one of the doctors has offered to start me on the process to medical assistance in dying, MAiD.
But I'm still alive. Partly that is because I am pretty sure that killing myself would show a lack of faith in God having the final word on this subject, and God having a plan for me still being alive, even if I don't like it very much.
And, of course, I have also been promised pie in the sky by and by when I die. Whenever that way maybe. I hope rather hope that it is sooner rather than later.
But, I don't like it. Of course, I don't *have* to like it. We are not told that we will like absolutely everything that God does. Habakkuk complains to God that God is ignoring the fact that the people of his time and land are supremely wicked. And God replies, don't worry about it: I've got everything in hand. I'm going to bring in the Babylonians, and they're going to kill everybody.
And Habakkuk kind of stammers, and says, wait a minute, that wasn't what I had in mind ...
The point being, that I'm pretty sure that I know what Mary and Joseph felt like, on that Christmas Eve, on that street in Bethlehem. They didn't like it. Life was pretty hard. Yes, they have been promised that they were going to be part of God's greatest miracle. But they hadn't been promised that they were really going to like their part in it. And their part in it, right at that particular moment, was pretty unpleasant.
And it must have been pretty hard to keep faith in the plan.
Now, maybe Mary and Joseph were completely magical beings who never doubted for a moment. We aren't told, one way or the other. But I suspect not. I suspect that they were regular people who, at that moment, were thinking, "Why is this happening to me? Did I get it wrong? Was I just having a daydream when I thought an angel was talking to me? I *thought* I was doing what God wanted, but, if so, why is this so completely messed up?"
And then, somebody comes along, and offers them a barn. Not the Caesarian suite at the Bethlehem Hilton, you understand. A barn. Presumably this person *might* have scooped up the worst of the poop, and might even have put down some fresh straw, so that it wasn't quite as disgusting as it might have been. But it was pretty disgusting, and it smelled, and there were still animals around, and they probably continued to poop. Maybe not immediately adjacent to Mary and the baby, but the atmosphere would have been pretty rank.
I read something, recently, from one of the Jewish commentaries. A student asked the rabbi why God made atheists. And the rabbi said that, not believing in God, and not believing that they were going to get anything out of doing any good deeds, atheists were there to, when they did anything good at all, demonstrate altruism. So, the rabbi said, when you see someone in need, pretend that you are an atheist, and pretend that you can't say, oh, God will help you. And help that person yourself.
And, right at that moment, we are told that somebody came along and helped them. We aren't told whether or not they were Jewish. They probably weren't Samaritans, because Samaritans tended to live in a different part of Judea. But they might have been foreigners. They might not have been Jewish, and so they might not have been thinking that they were doing a mitzvah, a good deed, for which they were going to be repaid. They might just have said, oh well, God isn't here right now, so, I will help this person in need. So that's a bit of a lesson right there.
Now, given my own situation, I really would like to end the sermon right there. I would like to make it just about doing a good deed, to someone you don't know, for no particular reward. Just because that person is in need, and you can, at least partially, fulfill that need. I wish I could do that.
But, of course, I can't. Because all of you know the story, and all of you know that it goes on. All of you know that the shepherds came, with word of yet *another* angel visitation, and yet another prophecy. And the wise men came. And they brought gifts. And the angel came back, and brought another gift, telling Joseph to get the heck out of there, and go to Egypt, to save the child's life.
So, yes, God, sometimes at least partially by human agency, takes care of Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Good thing too, because Jesus had other things to do. And of course, this is a happy ending. At least for now.
So, I can't stress too strongly, that you should help those in need. Other than that, generically, God does suggest that we hope those in need. And there are lots of ways we can do that. We can do volunteer work. Or we can turn to the person next to us, in the pew, and notice that, during this, "the most wonderful time of the year," they are having difficulty. Particularly because everyone else is into the most wonderful time of the year, and they are having difficulty. They may have suffered a loss, possibly of a job, possibly of a spouse, possibly of a family, well, the list of possible losses goes on. And they haven't yet been comforted. They haven't yet been helped. All they can do is sit there, in the church service, and, possibly, cry. Or maybe their face is going through very weird contortions, as they try *not* to cry. As they try not to give way to their loss, or their grief, or their depression, or their physical pain, because they have not been comforted, from whatever thorn in the flesh God has given to them. And possibly God is not going to take away that thorn in the flesh. He didn't for Paul. Maybe God has a reason, that they are suffering. But that doesn't mean that you can't do whatever you can to comfort them. Comforting them is always the right thing to do. You won't be able to upset some plan of God's. God is bigger than you are. God is more powerful than you are. And comforting this person who, at the moment, is in distress, is always the right thing to do.
Someone did it for Mary and Joseph. You can do it too. And you should look for every opportunity to do it, because, although Mary and Joseph got help, lots of people haven't. Lots of people have had problems for longer than one evening in Bethlehem. Lots of people have been going through distress for *years*. And, while it mustn't have been fun for Mary and Joseph that evening, and it must have been hard for them to keep faith with the plan, lots of people have been in various types of pain for a lot longer, without anyone even offering them a barn. And it's really hard to keep faith in that kind of situation.
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