Ever consider that Christmas comes at the intersection of the most holy and the most common? It truly must have been a most confounding and confusing event for the angels in heaven. Christmas is the ultimate story of God’s love, but it is acted out in a field with shepherds, involves a young girl pregnant and not married, takes place during a tax census issued by the government, involved a delivery in a barn, overcrowded cities and businesses, engages in principal characters that come from insignificant places.
I think all of that and more is what makes the Christmas story so compelling – NOTHING is beyond God’s interest.
We are going to spend the next few weeks looking at some of the compelling people that make up our Christmas Family Portrait. Hopefully, we will see them in a new light and this new light will make this Christmas fresh and new in our lives of faith today.
Mary got up and hurried to a city in the Judean highlands. She entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. With a loud voice she blurted out, “God has blessed you above all women, and he has blessed the child you carry. Why do I have this honor that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.” Luke 1:39-45 CEB
Most often we laud Mary as the one who accepted everything and was “saintly” in her actions. But, there was the scandal with Joseph, there was the gossip, there was the disbelief – surely there were those that find it convenient that an “angel” visited her in the night (no witnesses). This story is not nearly as pretty as we want to make it out.
What does Mary do? She got up and hurried to Elizabeth.
Why? Mary needs what every human needs in a time of crisis – someone to understand.
There are times in our lives that WE just need someone who understands. Understanding doesn’t always come with words – sometimes understanding comes with a look, a nod, an embrace. And we all need that – Mary needed that.
Mary speaks and the Holy Spirit arrives. This is the first report in the New Testament of the Holy Spirit. Here is what is amazing to me – the Holy Spirit arrives in the most ordinary of moments – Two women greeting one another. Carry this picture forward and the Spirit will again arrive and John will speak (John 1:29) when Jesus and John are again united.
Here is another surprise of Christmas – the ordinary is made extraordinary by the presence of God. But that shouldn’t surprise us. God’s promised arrival didn’t come in the form promised by the pretty post card!
God didn’t come to a place of promise – God chose Bethlehem.
God didn’t come to a place of worship – God chose a manger.
God didn’t send the message to the priests or to royalty – God chose a flock? Of Shepherds.
Truly Christmas comes at the intersection of the holy and the most common. And that is Good News for us. We need not (despite all our efforts) improve our ‘dress up’ all that is common in the Christmas story. No matter how pretty you try to make the picture it still takes place in a common place. Ever considered that the prettiest of nativity sets still has sheep and cows!
The day Mary gave birth – no one recorded the date. Contrast that with today. As soon as you announce you are having a child – everyone wants to know when is the due date? We now go as far to plan birth dates with induced labor and scheduled C-sections.
Not so with Jesus. No one really even took notice. But know this – God was not surprised – this was the plan! This plan wasn’t even a secret. God had revealed the plan through the prophets 100s of years in advance.
So here is one more piece of Good News for us in this Christmas Story:
God has a plan.
In the Tedium of your work, during the time of visiting with a friend, in the midst of the routine, while you are practicing the rituals of the season – God will be present.
SO, be open to the surprises! Be open to the unplanned – the unrehearsed. Be ready to celebrate Christmas. Christmas will come and God will be with us. God will be with us even in those moments that aren’t quite as we would have planned and perhaps that is the best news of all.
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