Preached by the Rev. Dr. E. Scott Winnette

What Child Is This?, Luke 2:22-40

December 27, 2009

Imagine the lackluster days. After the “what child is this” wonder, Mary and Joseph go back to normal. After the dazzling Christmas Eve drama: angels, shepherds, stars, and Magi – after the wondrous birth is over -- they go back to normal. It is almost like Mary and Joseph cannot hold onto the miracle of their child in the midst of the normalcy of the child. How do we live after the miracles end? How do we live the next day after our weddings are over? How do we wake up the day after Christmas surrounded by leftovers, empty boxes, wrapping paper, and half empty cookie tins? How do we live those days after the chemo is done and the radiation is over and we remain injured but majestically alive? Even after the miracle of the life of a loved one is over, how do we remain?   How do we live after baptism, confirmation, and ordination after the special anointings?

To most degrees things go back to normal. We cannot capture the light nor can we freeze-frame the happy moments; we pick up the routines of life eating, working, cleaning, forgiving, and hoping.   It seems sad that we cannot live perpetually in the special times. Normalcy reigns – however I believe that within us and around us the miracles, the wonder, and the glamorous holy persists. The moments remain with us while subdued and somewhat silent. Maybe our responses to the special times are more important than their fleeting glitter. How do we linger after the bright Christmas morn? 

If we watch with patience, if we wait with attentiveness we smell the frankincense in February, we taste the Christmas pudding and wedding cake in July, we renew our baptisms in August. If we give thanks for the memories, we feel joy again. We may, we can, we will be touched by the holy again.

            I find it odd that Mary and Joseph after the angels, and the star, and even the visiting Magi go to the temple in Jerusalem just as if they are normal people. They take Jesus the infant to be purified. They, like the majority poor of their day, can only afford a pair of turtledoves for the purification sacrifice.   Why didn’t they sell the gold, frankincense, and myrrh to purchase a proper sheep or ox?   No, they buy the turtledoves in the courtyard and they go in to follow the ritual designation of their firstborn son as holy, as set apart for God. I find it odd; was it not already proven this particular child was holy, even holier than all others? It may seem odd for us who idolize glittery moments over mundane ones. It seems odd for us who hope for more-than-enough instead of just-enough. It seems odd for people who live in a society of television that teaches us, even demands that we idolize the sequins of reality shows, the glittering lights of pursued wealth, the fashion runways, and the center stages and voices of American Idols.   It seems odd that Mary and Joseph did not pursue book deals, and film options, that they did not secure the patronage of the Magi’s wealth. 

It’s odd - God’s odd reversing design. We know the true Christmas story is a celebration of God’s love for the average, God’s delight in the marginal poor, the normal people, God’s love for the outsiders & strangers, God’s revelation in the child and in the elderly. It is not odd that God reveals love for all life. It is not odd at all for our lives are normally normal and we are made in the image of God. The real miracle of the birth of Jesus was not the unwrapping of the gold, and the perfume gifts of the rich visitors. The miracle was not in the star light. The miracle was not in the angelic singing. The miracle was not in a virgin birth.   The miracle does not lie in the spectacular. The miracle is the human mother, the patient step-dad, the child – like every child of wonder. The miracle is that God came into the world, not to be regal, specialized and otherwise glamorous, but to be really average. Like us.

We live in a culture that idolizes extraordinary minorities: those who possess  certain rare things, those who have certain heights, weights and firmness of bodies, and those who are of certain ages. I am not sure what the premier age is, is seems between 16 and 28. It’s somewhere after child-hood ends, some time when adulthood begins but before aging starts. I love that scripture shows us God’s value in both ends of the timelines of our lives both infants and ancients. “For unto us a child is born (Isaiah 9:6)”, “A little child shall lead them (Isaiah 11:6)”, “There was also a prophet, Anna…She was of a great age..At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote – “For age is opportunity no less than youth itself, though in another dress, and as the evening twilight fades away the sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.”

            After our story celebrates the birth of a child, God uses two interesting beyond their prime-life characters. Simeon was a devout man who was addicted to hope. He watched in the Temple waiting and hoping for salvation. Today we might consider him daft, crazy, a loon for he believed that the Holy Spirit of God had spoken to him telling him that he would see the Messiah before he died. He sees the poor couple and the infant. He grabs up the child and praises God saying, Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” Simeon with great excitement then blesses Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Simeon shows us what to do with our normal lives. Live every day with expectant hope. Live every day with attentive watchfulness and when the miracles come, praise God and bless each other.

            And then old prophetess, Anna, sees them, and she rushes over in agreement with Simeon. She rushes over to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Israel. She also teaches us to praise God. Simeon praises God, Anna praises God, even the shepherds after leaving the spectacular Christmas Eve drama praise God - The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. I am glad you are all here for in worship we learn how to praise God. We learn on the Lord’s Day how to live out the other six day praising God. As we learn to praise God, we might be surprised to see more miracles in the average than expected.

There was a minister who was selling his horse. When a prospective buyer came to look at his horse, “the minister told the man that in order to get the horse to go - he has to say “PRAISE the LORD” and to get him to stop he had to say “HALLELUJAH”. The buyer climbed on the horse to try him out. Tentatively at first he said, PRAISE the LORD” and the horse began to trot. He said it again, and the horse cantered. Amazed, he said, “PRAISE the LORD” again and the horse was in a full gallup. The buyer looked up just in time to see a cliff before him that the horse was rapidly approaching. Quickly he remembered that “HALLELUJAH” stopped the animal and he shouted it just as the horse reached the cliff. Wiping the sweat from his brow he said, “PRAISE the LORD” with great relief.