mary grows a child w/o the help of a man

joseph gets upset b/c he doesn't understand

A sermon on Joseph's role in the drama of redemption:

We love these pageants. Don’t we? And it’s not just because these youngsters are adorable in their getups, either. Although let’s face it, they are. 

No, we love these pageants because they hit upon a truth. A long sought-after promise. An ennobling reality, even.

But it is also a truth that is often oh so hard to come by in this harried day-to-day existence we’re all just trying to get through.

However, it must also be said that while these pageants are truthful, they aren’t particularly accurate.

It’s been ten Christmases you’ve all suffered through my sermons. God bless you. And each year, when it comes time to prepare for the sermon, I’m surprised all over again at just how brief the Christmas story is on the matter of Mary and Joseph’s plight! The stuff that entire pageants are devoted to warrants merely a passing mention in the Gospel writer's account of that first Christmas.

Just one measly sentence, in fact! “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” And that part about being hard-pressed to find digs for the night is just ONE-fourth of that sentence! “… because there was no place for them in the inn.”

…Now, my Sunday school teachers were not as creative as ours. Or maybe my classmates and I weren’t as talented. Either way, I never got to be a part of Las Posadas—or “the lodgings.”

Deprived though I may have been, even I knew a significant portion of that first Christmas consisted of poor Mary and Joseph’s ordeal! At the bare minimum, the holy couple had to have had at least three cruel and indifferent innkeepers slam the door in their face. 

As St. Luke tells it, though, that’s nothing more than a minor detail! “And they laid him in the manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” That’s it.

However, as much as pageants like this one may embellish a particular trifle, they still relay a significant THEOLOGICAL truth. These pageants, as homespun as they may be, contain some sophisticated theological exegesis nonetheless! And these pageants are so chockfull of meaning because they tell us all this in a humble way.

And, wouldn’t you know it, this modesty is part and parcel to the truth our children have told us today!

…Las Posadas ALWAYS ends in the church. And this is true even when entire communities put on this pageant, like they do in Mexico, Honduras, and parts of the United States, too. And there’s a noteworthy truth in that. Isn’t there? 

The local church is that humble place in this slapdash world where the Word Jesus made flesh is cradled. Isn’t it?

On account of that truth, though, I feel obligated to tell you that’s where you’ve turned up this morning! The incredible saga of redemption is now playing out in the contours of your life! You’ve assumed an integral role in the drama of salvation!

And here, you thought you were just coming to watch some kids act out a tale from long ago! BUT unbeknownst to you, you’ve been conscripted into this event yourself! Sorry about that.

Not really.

Now, if you don’t feel up to this, and who would? I want you to know you have nothing to worry about. 

Yes, this story will call for more from you than you have. And yes, this story is no small thing. Yes, this story is the truest and most consequential accounting of reality itself. But don’t let any of that worry you.

Ha!

I do mean it, though. Don’t worry! Don’t worry because no one is ever ready for this! 

Just look at Joseph! He was given a prime role in the drama, but all he thought to do was divorce himself from it! There Joseph was, in the very vortex of this momentous episode, and his bright idea what to dismiss the woman pregnant with the very child who would accomplish salvation for all humankind!

Hear this loud and clear; our humble, stumbling, and faltering lives are the very theater GOD thyself has chosen to stage the majestic pageant of salvation! 

Your life is more than one darn thing after another! No, your life hums with eternity itself. Nothing less than the grand arc of salvation makes up the margins of your existence. And the stakes of all this are as near as your next heartbeat or breath.

…And that’s the real piece of veracity these pageants strike upon. Isn’t it? That the epic of redemption happens to ordinary people! 

Mary and Joseph weren’t especially endowed to meet the fateful moment. And they weren’t professional actors trained to deliver their lines for maximum impact, either! No, they were just ordinary people. They were just ordinary people trying to get by for the night. 

But, in truth, it appears it was just how ordinary they were that singled them out in God’s eyes! Why just take another listen to Mary’s song! “You have looked upon the lowliness of your servant,” she sings. 

The lowliness. Not the preparedness. Not the aptitude. Not even the willingness!

No, it was her lowliness. What gave Mary SHINE by GOD’S reckoning was her lowliness. Her lowliness.

Apparently, as far as God’s concerned, there’s no more excellent a theater than the lives of the ordinary and lowdown to stage the breathtaking drama of salvation!

…That’s what these pageants capture. Isn’t it? We see these little ones, and we think, “it’s to the likes of them that God plays out redemption.”

And let me tell you, that’s right! BUT it’s not all right! Because it’s not just to the likes of these that God enacts salvation. It’s unto these! It’s unto these very little ones that God is performing the drama of salvation! 

This pageant was really just a dress rehearsal! These little ones were rehearsing for that holy moment when they divine for themselves that their lives have been caught up in the unfolding drama of salvation! 

And it’s not just them, either! No, it’s to us, too! It’s to me and to you that GOD enacts salvation! God, from on high, looks down upon you and sees no better staging ground for redemption than your life!

Those rough edges of your life just make for the perfect manger for Christ to be borne unto you TODAY! Just as Christ was conceived within Mary without the help of a man, so Christ is born in you today WITHOUT the help of a man! Or anyone else, for that matter.

God IS choosing to give you a staring role in the great chronicle of redemption! Salvation is being born unto you today! What’s more, the faith springing up within you at these words is the virgin birth of saving faith in your very soul, too! 

…Now, yes, this faith is God’s most humble miracle. It happens regularly. And that makes it easy to overlook. But I would advise against that. 

First of all, we should not surmise that God considers this ordinary miracle of little account. 

Truthfully, we ought to do the opposite! Considering GOD’S prediction FOR the humble, we do well to contemplate that a miracle of such lowliness might be God’s favorite. And perhaps even God’s most wonderful miracle!

And there’s plenty of reason for the inkling, too! NOT the least because of God’s upside-down way of directing. BUT there are also ALL the fruits of this miracle. 

Faith has the power to cure your vision. Faith can crack your perception wide open to the work of God right under your nose! Faith can even grant you a glimpse of holiness transpiring in the most quotidian aspects of your life!

And I don’t mean holy in any pious, stuffy, or self-righteous way, either. No, I mean holy, as in that stirring call to the adventure of faith! I mean holy, as in finding your life burning with that sacred fire that lit the cosmos. 

I mean holy, as stepping out of here and looking up to find yourself under a canopy full of angels proclaiming the glory of God! I mean holy, as in looking down and finding Christ himself being born in the heart of those low points in your life. And everywhere in between, too!

Just ask Joseph; heaven and earth meet in obscure places.

Because of this child named Emmanuel, GOD with US; God isn’t so far off. And because this child, Emmanuel, is risen and lives, his mercies abound! They abound all around. In the very warp and woof of your bedraggled life!

And that’s my Christmas wish for you. Not that you’d just get what’s on your Christmas list, but that you’d get way more. That you’d know nothing less than the call to that thrilling pageant of redemption!

And your summons begins NOW! It’s time to join the chorus! Let us sing! Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming; ELW 272