Are We There Yet?
a sermon by Rev. Rebecca Segers|
Isaiah 7:10-16
Matthew 1:18-25
This is the final week of Advent. There are only six more days until the official celebration of Christ’s birth. I know I’ve really been slowing us down this year, hopefully helping us to contemplate what this season is about, and you’re all really ready to be there. After all, we’ve got signs and songs and symbols of Christmas all around us. Everywhere we go there is the music – mostly secular Christmas carols, but still – and the decorations and the lights and hullabaloo surrounding us. But the event, the big event, the celebration of the coming of God in human form into our world has not yet transpired.
It’s almost like we’re a bunch of little children on car ride. We’ve been in the car for a while, we’ve eaten all the snacks, we’ve played all the games, we’ve annoyed our brothers and sisters, and we want to know, “Are we there yet?”
I want to take the Scripture reading that we heard today from Matthew – well, actually, not the whole lesson, but simply the first sentence and see if we can find within the answer to that question, “Are we there yet?”
In case you don’t remember, the first sentence of our reading was, “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.”
“What?” you say. “That’s just an introductory sentence; there’s nothing in there, no real meaning. Get to the meat of the scripture. Tell the story. Talk about it.” Well, I humbly ask you to give me a minute or two here. Let’s take this sentence and break it down word by word, phrase by phrase, and see what we come up with.
Okay, let’s go. The sentence is “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.” The first word of that sentence is “now.”
“Now.” Bear in mind that this is the 18th verse of chapter one of the gospel according to Matthew. In the first 17 verses, nothing really happens. They are the genealogy of Jesus from King David to his ersatz father, the Nazarene carpenter Joseph. Matthew is setting the stage for his readers to understand that Jesus’ lineage allows him to be heir to the title “Messiah.” But it is in verse 18 with the word “now” that the story begins. This is a word that implies resumption of a story that has gone on long before. Matthew is saying, “Now the narrative stage has been set for what is to come. Now I’m telling you the story. Now is the time that is important. Now the birth of Christ can happen.”
The next word in the first line of our scripture lesson is “the” – a word that implies singularity, oneness. This isn’t an event that has happened over and over again, but once. At only one time in history did God come to earth in the form of his son, Jesus.
So far we have “Now the” – the next word in our sentence is “Birth.” We all think we know what “birth” means, but I looked it up in a few different dictionaries just to be official. The 2002 American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary published by Houghton Mifflin Company gives five meanings for the word “birth” as a noun: 1) The emergence and separation of offspring from the body of the mother, 2) The act or process of bearing young; parturition, 3) The circumstances or conditions relating to this event, as its time or location, 4) The set of characteristics or circumstances received from one's ancestors; inheritance, and 5) Origin; extraction. These all sound like reasonable definitions to me and hopefully to you, too. But the one that I really loved and that touched me in reference to this passage was from the 2003 internet dictionary WordNet ® 2.0, published by Princeton University: Birth means ‘the time when something begins (especially life); as in "they divorced after the birth of the child" or "his election signaled the birth of a new age."’
The time when something begins, especially life.
The next word in our sentence is a simple one: “of.” It means “derived or coming from; originating at or from.” “Of” is a transition word that literally takes us to the source. It leads us directly into the next word, the one we’ve been waiting for this Advent season, “Jesus” – the human who was God.
Jesus is the name that we use when we speak of Jesus as a person. Jesus was the name that he was given by his parents. When we speak of God as Jesus, we are using his human name, like John or Joe or Bea or Sukey. It is the name he grew up with, the name that the village boys called when they stopped by to grab him for a game of stickball or that Joseph called when he wanted him to help out in the carpentry shop.
Speaking of Joseph, the gospel author, Matthew, is telling the story from his perspective, the man who it appears has been cuckolded, who has been betrothed to a woman who has shown up pregnant with a child that he knows is not his. And it’s not a pretty story. As a matter of fact, in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 22 verses 23-24, it says that capital punishment is required if a young woman, a virgin engaged to be married, is involved in a sexual act with someone other than her betrothed. She, along with the man who slept with her, is to be stoned to death. But Joseph, who we are told is righteous – which would have meant someone who follows the Jewish law – decides not to obey in this case, but to quietly divorce Mary. He must have been devastated when his fiancé shows up pregnant and not by him, and according to the law, he had every right to punish her. But there is something in him that does not want to see her die, whether it is that he truly loves her or that he cannot bear the killing of another human being or something else. So he resolves to nullify his commitment to her and quietly send her away.
But in the way of stories back then, his problem is worked out through divine intervention in the form of a dream: An angel appears to him and tells Joseph first not to be afraid, because seeing angels even dreams was pretty scary, but to go ahead and marry Mary, and to name him Jesus. What this means is essentially that the angel is telling him to adopt Jesus, to take him as his own son, which serves two purposes: it legitimizes Jesus and it gives him the lineage of King David.
And what about that name, Jesus? Is Joseph being told to give his special son a royal name, a name that all will immediately recognize as superior or different or unique? No, Jesus is a very common name – it even occurs once in Jesus’ own genealogy. It is also the same as Joshua or Yeshua, sort of like Elizabeth and Elsbeth are the same. But Jesus does mean something special: “God helps” or “God saves.” Matthew has interpreted it with the latter meaning in his description, adding that “he will save his people from their sins.”
What have we got so far? “Now the birth of Jesus.” What comes next? We have the word “the” again. The one, the only, the singular, the significant, the “what?”
The “Messiah” is how our New Revised Standard Version has translated it. The “Messiah,” which in Greek is the “Christ.” You see, “Christ” is not a last name, like so many of us have heard “Jesus Christ” as though it is all one. Instead, it is a title: “Christ” is the Greek word for the Hebrew word that means “Messiah” or deliverer. “Messiah” wasn’t a “who,” but a “what.” Once again, this applies directly to the angel’s prophecy. This child, this baby Jesus is going to be “Emmanuel,” “God with us.” And he has, he is with us even today.
I remember a vacation that Grace and I went on when she was just four years old. We had rented a car, but had been given an upgrade. I had a four-wheel drive hatchback with a big space in the back where Grace could play. Now this was at the time that we lived in Manhattan. We didn’t own a car, so that was a novelty in and of itself. But this hatchback part, why, that was simply heaven. Grace put all the toys and stuffed animals that she had brought with her in the back and would play away the drives to the zoo or wherever we went.
One day, mostly just to let her know I loved her, I got behind the wheel and whimpered to her, “Grace, I’m lonely up here in the front by myself. I miss you. I’m all alone.”
Well. Grace got up and folded her arms across the back seat and looked at me.
“Mommy,” she said, “You are not alone. God is with you. And I am with you, too.”
God is with us. Every one. And we know that in our heads. But do we know that in our hearts? Do we act it out in our daily lives? Do we live that presence in everything we do? Are we there yet?
I’m going to take the next two words together because they belong together: “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place…” Interesting, isn’t it? Why didn’t Matthew say “happened” or “occurred” or something like that? But he didn’t. He said “took place.” When something takes place it takes space. It fills in where something wasn’t before. It isn’t simply an action or an occurrence or an event. It is taking up space in the universe. And you know matter never leaves. It may change or transform, but once it’s in the universe, it’s there forever. So Jesus’ birth took place and it’s still taking place, it’s still happening, occurring, going on all the time…
And the last three words “in this way.” What about them? “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, took place in this way.” If they are occurring all the time everywhere, in this way suddenly becomes a whole lot more important.
There is a wonderful new Christmas commercial out, I believe it’s for Coca-Cola. In it, you see a series of vignettes where the potential for negativity, for rudeness, for bad luck or ill will are all in the cards. The two I especially remember go like this: two men sitting next to one another on a crowded train station. One is dressed in a business suit and reading a newspaper. The second is kind of scruffy looking and is sort of leaning over, cricking his neck, trying to unobtrusively read over the first guy’s shoulder. The first guy realizes what’s going on and you almost see him tense up and start to turn in such a way that the second can’t look over his shoulder. Then he smiles, and opens the paper a little wider and the second man realizes he’s being offered the olive branch and the opportunity to read and smiles, too, and they begin to read together.
The other vignette is in the rain. A man is standing in a tuxedo at a busy intersection and something, I don’t remember what, drives by. An SUV, a bus, a something with a lot of splashing power, zooms past causing a huge spray of dirty water to fly. Out of nowhere, something comes flying down in front of the guy and you realize that someone has swooped their umbrella across him to catch the spray – and the man who is all dressed up remains spotless and clean.
There are several other little happenings in this short 60-second spot, all of which turn a potentially sad or angry or negative situation into a positive through the intervention of a human being. I think it beautifully emulates how the world might be if the Christmas spirit, the spirit of Jesus the Christ, was lived out in each of us in such a way every day, throughout this season and beyond.
If I’ve heard one story of people dealing with incompetent shop clerks, recalcitrant computers and long lines this season, I’ve heard twenty. How many of us took the deep breath and inhaled in the Spirit of God, “Emmanuel,” and turned the scenario into a happy one instead of grumbling and being rude along with the rest? How many of us have greeted all we’ve met with the love of Jesus as we’ve wrestled with the demands of the season?
I was visiting Doris Opitz at the Birchwood Center the other day – we’ve videotaped her for the Christmas pageant and I would encourage each and every one of you to come back to the church at 6:00 p.m. this evening and see an amazing Christmas pageant. This year’s story was conceived and developed by our Youth Group and they have done a terrific job. But I digress…
I was at Birchwood and we were filming Doris in a room at the front of the building. I ran back to her room to get something I needed and as a passed through a large common area, a woman called out, “Can you help me?”
Well, I had rushed through so quickly that I didn’t hear her until I was practically gone, and there was an aide coming in behind me, so I continued on my way. I picked up whatever it was that I had gone for and on returning, the woman said again, “I need help!”
This time I stopped and said, “What do you need, honey?”
She held up a Christmas card and said, “I can’t read this…”
I took it from her, and holding it where she could see, read the text and the inscription inside. It said something very simple like “with love from Millie and John.”
“I know them!” she cried. “I should be happy…” and she smiled at the thought that someone had remembered her at Christmas. I wished Millie and John could have seen her face and the joy that they brought simply by mailing that simple card.
“Merry Christmas,” I said to her and went on my way.
Are we there yet? I believe the answer to that question is a circle. It occurs in the first word of our scripture lesson today – “now” and in the last words – “in this way.” Jesus the Christ has come into the world – he was born in human form 2000 years ago – and he is in the world in the form of the Holy Spirit animating our lives and our love today. And “now” when we act in His way and His will, we are fulfilling the gospel message. We forget that Emmanuel – “God with us” – is here “now.” And that we are called to live out the gospel with each and every day, each and every action of our lives.
Sweet Hollow Presbyterian Church sponsored a Blood Drive for Long Island Blood Services yesterday. This time of year, blood is needed more than ever, and yet, it is the most difficult time to get people to contribute. You see, we’re all worried about our own lives and our own families. Did we get the tree up, the cards sent, the presents bought and in some cases mailed, did we get the house cleaned for the family members who are coming, the food purchased and the recipes chosen, the list goes on and on and on….and in the midst of it, we forget that we are called to a gospel of ministry to others. We forget that the good news of Jesus the Christ is not that we all are stuffed beyond capacity and sit around like beached whales around a television set, but that “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”
Yesterday, we had 17 people try to contribute blood and only 8 were successful. You see, people had colds and stuffy noses, their iron count wasn’t high enough, for a variety of reasons they got screened out. We added eight pints of blood to the bank yesterday, and that’s great! Eight pints that will be needed as we go through a holiday season which will undoubtedly include traffic accidents and heart attacks and strokes and happenings that require life-giving blood. But how many of us didn’t give that could have; didn’t even try? During a season that blood is needed more often than the norm and given less?
What are other ways that we could live out the “now” and the “in this way?” Could we simply treat another human being with kindness when we’d rather express our frustration? Could we let someone in on the road as we rush to or from the mall rather than speeding up and keeping them out? Could we offer a “Happy Holidays” to those we see at the grocery store or the shopping center or the gas station? Could we let Jesus the Christ be born in us, live in us, so that others might know his love even if they don’t know that’s what it is?
“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.” May it be so – in our hearts and in our lives. Amen.