Settling In

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
December 27, 2009

Settling In
John 1:1-14

The shepherds are back in their fields tending their flock.
Stars glisten in the night sky,
but the heavens are quiet;
The shepherds strain to hear,
but no angelic choir sings out;
a blanket of silence covers the fields.

The memory of the events from just a few days ago are still so vivid,
but the shepherds don’t speak of them;
they don’t know what to say,
what to make of all that happened.

There they were, tending their flocks,
the night’s chill keeping them from falling asleep,
even as their eyelids grew heavy,
when suddenly the sky was ablaze with the glory of God,
an angel speaking to them,
an angelic choir filling the heaven
with such sweet music:
“Glory to God in highest heaven
and on earth peace and goodwill among all people!”

They left their flocks that night
and rushed to Bethlehem
to see the one the angel had spoken of,
“for to you is born this day a Savior,
the Messiah, the Lord.”
They found him just as the angel had said,
a baby lying in a manger,
wrapped in swaddling clothes,
his mother looking worn, yet so serene,
his father standing over mother and child,
his face too showing exhaustion
yet radiant with peace.

The shepherds did not stay long,
it was late and it was cold.
But as they returned to their fields and flocks
they could not keep silent,
and so they told everyone who would listen
the story of what they had seen and heard.

Their long walk back out to the fields
was such a joyful one that night,
each felt as though angels carried them along
as they sang and praised God for what they had witnessed.

But now, three days later, life has resumed its routine;
the shepherds have settled back to their daily chores and tasks.
The life of a shepherd can be so cold, so lonely,
so dull, the only excitement coming when
the occasional unwanted preditor
wanders a little too close,
sensing an easy meal among the flock.

Mary and Joseph are still in Bethlehem,
still at the stable,
but they are alone now.
They will stay there for another couple of days
to give mother and baby a little more time
before they begin their journey home.

They won’t have far to travel the first day,
they will go just a few miles north to Jerusalem.
There, Mary and Joseph will present the child at the Temple
for the circumcision the law of Moses requires
on the eighth day.
It will be on that day their son will named,
named not for an ancestor in the family
as was the custom in those days,
but named “Jesus”,
the name told them by the angel Gabriel.

From there, Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus
will continue northward
to the region of Galilee,
back to their home town of Nazareth,
where they will settle in,
as husband, wife, child,
parents and son,
Joseph plying his trade as a carpenter,
Mary looking after her son and her husband,
Jesus growing in wisdom and strength,
as Luke tells us.

On this third night after Jesus’ birth Bethlehem is quiet again,
the people who came to register and pay their taxes to the emperor
gone back home now.
Some would have only a day’s journey home,
to towns like Emmaus and Jericho and Bethany;
others faced longer trips
to towns like Cana, Capernaum, Bethsaida.
Three days after the first Christmas
and the world is settling back in to its routine,
most people unaware of what had taken place in Bethlehem;
most thinking only about the nuisance of having to travel,
having to be registered,
having to pay their taxes to the Roman government,
knowing that most of their tax money supported
Rome’s military might
and the corrupt government of Herod the King.

Some recalled words from Scripture,
words from the prophet Isaiah,
that spoke to a future with hope:
“Look, the young woman is with child
and shall bear a son,
and shall name him Immanuel”
which means “God with us”.
There were many who still held the hope
that someday a Messiah, a Savior,
would come to liberate them from the grip of the Roman Empire.
But for now, most were focused on their daily routines.
After all, life under Roman authority was not all that bad,
as long as you obeyed their rules,
paid the tax collectors whatever they demanded,
and didn’t cause trouble.

And so, after a few days of disruption,
everyone settles back to their routines,
unaware of what had happened in a stable
behind an inn in the small town of Bethlehem.

And yet, what happened in Bethlehem changed everything.
The world as it had been just a few days before
was gone, gone forever.
The birth of the baby in Bethlehem
gave birth to a new era,
a new world.
a world built not on human authority,
or on political power,
or on military might,
or on economic strength,
but on love,
on grace,
on peace,
on hope.

The world as God created it to be,
the world as God wanted it to be,
a world with the possibility of plenty for all,
a world not marked by rich and poor,
have and have-nots,
those with food, and those without food;
those who lived comfortably
and those forced to dig through the garbage
of Gehanna just to make it through another day.

In Jesus Christ, God swept away
all that stood between him and his people,
all those barriers that humanity had erected over the centuries,
barriers built on arrogance,
on power,
on greed,
on self interest,
on idolatry,
on faithlessness.

In Jesus Christ, the Word became flesh,
God with us,
fully human for us to see, to know, to trust.
And yet, as the Gospel reminds us,
the Word would walk through the world unrecognized by most,
accepted by few,
followed by fewer,
fully embraced by fewer still.

Even now, we struggle to recognize him.
Oh, we see Jesus, but we are more likely to see the Jesus
of our own creation, the Jesus who suits us,
fits our needs, our schedules,
our lifestyles -
the Jesus of bumper stickers,
the Jesus denominations compete to create
and then claim as their own.

We have to work hard to see Jesus,
the Word of God made flesh,
but he’s here,
that’s the promise of Christmas.

Christmas 2009 is now past, but happily
the holidays are not over.
We still have the coming week and
all the festivities that come with the New Year,
but come a week from tomorrow and it’s back to work,
back to school,
back to our routines.

Will you settle back into routine?
Or will you embrace more fully,
more completely,
more faithfully
the new life offered you in the birth of our Lord?

Will you pack away the Spirit of Christmas,
the Spirit of Christ,
with the decorations,
box them all up and put them away until next year?

Or will you keep Christmas?
Keep the Spirit of Christ in your heart
even as you head back to work, to school,
to all the places you are called to go?

Here’s a suggestion:
If you have a nativity, don’t put it away.
Keep it out, put it somewhere where you can see it;
It doesn’t have to be in its December place of prominence,
but put it somewhere where you can see it year round
to remind you of why the shepherds glorified and praised God
that cold winter’s night so long ago:
To remind you that a child has been born for you,
born for me,
a son given to us;
A child we call,
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.

The one born to help us settle into the new life
offered us in his birth
a life grounded in joy,
a life grounded in compassion for others,
a life grounded in peace,
a life grounded in love.

“And the Word became flesh,
and lived among us
and we have seen his glory,
the glory of a Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth…
and from his fullness we have received,
grace upon grace."

AMEN