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22nd
December 2013 - Advent 4 - Revd. Preb Maureen Hobbs |
Sermon for Advent 4 - Year A
Isaiah
7 10-16
Matthew 1.18-25
So how are you feeling in these last few days? Do you love all
things Christmassy? From the first pack of Christmas cards found
in the shops as August draws to a close to that frantic zoom
round the supermarket on Christmas Eve? Or do you don the metaphorical
equivalent of a "Bah, Humbug" hat that I spied the
other day?
Have you turned your back completely on all the hoo-hah and commercialism?
Are you confining your present giving to just one inexpensive
gift for one person in the family? Or have you pushed the boat
out as usual - after all, God would not have given us credit
cards if he didn't want us to enjoy Christmas, would he?
All in all, Christmas can be a time of enormous stress - at least
for the adults. So much to do, so little time to get it all done!
So much food to buy and prepare! So many people to see and mince
pies to be eaten!
But Christmas has always been a stressful time - so maybe we
should not be surprised - and maybe there is something rather
appropriate after all in us feeling hard pressed?
We get reminded this morning that the very first Christmas brought
its own stresses and strains for those intimately involved in
the nativity story that we all think of now as such a nice story
"for the children". And yes, of course we love to see
our little ones, bedecked in tea-towels and tinsel - acting out
the old story. But despite the legendary nature of the Nativity
story, our familiarity with the story masks the true nature of
the events that unfolded over 2000 years ago in a quiet backwater
of the mighty Roman Empire. Events that would come to rock human
civilisation to its core and which still - in some parts of this
globe - hits people with the wonder and awe that the first shepherds
felt when they heard the skies ringing with strange, other-worldly
sounds. Sounds that drove them from their posts, guarding the
sheep out on the hillsides above Bethlehem and sent them scurrying
into the town - seeking - well what exactly? A baby, certainly,
but more than that - a child who would, so they were told, grow
up to represent HOPE and SALVATION for all the nations.
Stress most of all for the parents; a young teenage jewish girl
- Miriam. Scared out of her mind I wouldn't mind betting. Pregnant
by an unknown father - that in itself would be enough to stress
out most girls of the time. Not I think the serene, mature and
beautiful Madonna that the artists have given us over the centuries,
but a young frightened teenager, who had to break the news to
her fiancé that she was expecting a child - one that he
knew could not be his. And then to undertake a long and uncomfortable
journey by foot (in all probability) or at best being bumped
along on a donkey when 8 or 9 month's pregnant. Then having to
face the ordeal of giving birth in a strange place and without
the reassuring presence of friends and family around her - only
Joseph...
And what of Joseph / Yusef? How stressed do you think he must
have felt chaps? Compelled by some faceless bureaucrat in far
off Rome to up-sticks, leave his trade and customers in Nazareth
and the surrounding area. Drag his heavily pregnant partner to
the other side of the country, just to satisfy the tax authorities
- and then discover that he could not find a proper shelter for
her to give birth! Even if he was still smarting a bit about
realising that he was to bring up someone else's child - that
the devout and malleable young bride he thought he was getting,
was not quite what she seemed! It must have hurt his pride that
he could not find proper shelter for them both .... And then
to be faced with such strange visitors soon after the birth itself?!
But it doesn't end there... Joseph, I am sure, did not want to
draw attention to himself and Mary and the child. Being noticed
by those in authority only spelt trouble for poor folk like them.
But how could he hope to stay inconspicuous with a great star
hanging in the heavens right over where they were staying? It
was a good enough signpost for the strange visitors from the
east who turned up unannounced.... True their gifts were welcome
- they were far more valuable than anything he could hope to
provide as a humble tradesman, but such strange words they spoke
in their even stranger accents!
And then that troubling dream - where he seemed to see only danger
ahead for the baby, his mother and himself. Joseph is so stressed
and troubled that he is forced to pack up his little family and
take them off into the unknown - to flee as refugees to a strange
land, hoping to find rest and sanctuary for a while. And just
as well he did, because word would soon have reached him of the
terrible cruelty meted out by Herod's men as they moved from
house to house, searching out all the infant boys to kill them.
The noise of wailing mothers and distraught fathers must have
been terrible.
So, next time you are tempted to complain about how stressful
you are finding the whole Christmas thing, spare a thought for
Yusef and Miriam, the Shepherds and the Wise Men, - they weren't
without their stress too. But if it had not been for them, oh,
and the baby of course - just think of all that we might have
missed ....
God with us - Emmanuel.
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