The Park Road Pulpit
Sermons from Park Road Baptist Church
Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors
Amy Jacks Dean, December 23, 2001
He was an ordinary man. A good man. A man who was well liked and hard working. A fairly quiet man who was content with his life of wood working. A man with an average, yet bright future ahead. A man who was in love and who busied himself with a normal life making plans for a normal future. Was Joseph prepared to live so close to God? My guess is no. My guess is no because I think Joseph was like most of us. Regular ole’ Joe, living day by day, trying to do the right thing – never expecting that God might come so close. Joseph never dreamed that this baby, that he would be responsible for, would so closely follow in the way of God. Every day must have been more than Joseph could take in. How could this ordinary man live in the midst of one would was extraordinary? Joseph could do it the same way we all do it each and every day. Emmanuel – God with us – is always being born.
A now retired pastor, a close friend and mentor to us, Roger Lovette gave us a treasured gift when our first son was born. It is a framed calligraphy piece that has a baby’s footprint on the left and a quote on the right, “Every time a baby is born it brings with it the hope that God is not disappointed with humanity.” That gift hangs in the room that our sons share with a picture of each of them on the day that they were born hanging above it. The pictures are the ones that the hospital takes, and we parents buy as if we haven’t already taken 6 rolls ourselves. We buy these inflated priced photos because in that moment every parent thinks that that is the most beautiful baby ever born. And
though there are already 148 pictures of this same child being held by every relative and friend that comes into the room already being processed at the one hour development counter, we buy these hospital pictures because they are done by “professionals” on the first day of life. That first day of life causes parents to do unusual things and spend ridiculous money because in that one brief moment we are so overwhelmed by pure and utter joy that we temporarily loose our minds. I contend that that is what happens when God enters the world.
In an article written by Fred Craddock entitled “The Surprise and Joy of Advent,” Craddock asks the question “Why is it that we continue year after year to anticipate through the Advent season an event which has already occurred?” (The Living Pulpit Oct/Dec 1997, page 6) Are we merely worshippers of a past – rich and full as it is – have we gotten so caught up in the “what was” that we never consider the “not yet.” The kind of commercialization that has happened to Christmas has caused us to look backward – to have occasion to celebrate what has already been. Sometimes we do this celebrating with no thought to the celebration of the not yet. Craddock says that the event of the birth of Jesus is one that “assures us God will continue to come to us, and in surprising ways; sometimes in cosmic convulsions, sometimes in a child at its mother’s breast.”
The event of the birth of Jesus should be celebrated for it was and is a moment of Joy. But this story that we tell and celebrate over and over and over again should not be a surprise to us - for it is in God’s nature to come to us. The unexpected Joy should be that it still happens. We all walk around living our lives like Joseph, completely unaware of how God is entering our world, and if we are not careful, we will miss it. I’m afraid that we tell this story only in past tense – as a one time event – and then on December 26th we put the story away until we come upon it again next year where we pick the story up, tell it and celebrate it, and pack it away again. I’m afraid the only way we tell this story leaves us merely looking forward to yesterday. On this day of worship, I want to call us to not only look forward to yesterday, but to remember tomorrow - that in this celebration of the birth of this one named Jesus, we would be called to recognize God breaking into the world even now.
The birth of Jesus some 2000 years ago was God coming to us – God breaking into our world – in a cosmic convulsion, yet as ordinary as a baby. Joseph, who would be the link to King David in Jesus’ family tree, would get to name this child, and he would give him a common name – “Jesus.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VIII, page 134) Thus this unordinary and extraordinary person is given an ordinary name. God breaks into our world in powerful and in ordinary ways. We should celebrate this Christmas not just in remembering an event of long ago, but in recognizing the way God may just be breaking into our world and coming among us again.
When Lindsay and I stepped into that warm water behind me, God broke into the world again. When Lindsay spoke words of commitment that talked of sacrifice and following the teachings of Jesus, we had a moment where we knew that God had come among us yet again. And it was unexpected joy.
On Friday evening, Russ and I waited with Deke and Renee Wade’s family for the birth of two boys. Cameron first, then Crawford took deep breaths and cried small cries, and we had a moment where we knew that God had come among us yet again. As I watched Deke hold Crawford, all he could say was, “Hey son.” Then he took Cameron and said, “Hey son.” It was unrehearsed. It was spontaneous. It was honest and good and true. And it was unexpected joy.
No matter how much one anticipates baptism or birth, one can never fully prepare for the flood of emotion. It is always a surprise. That must have been Joseph’s experience. Nothing or no one could fully prepare him for all that his life would hold. Joseph’s life with Jesus would unfold, day by day, just like yours and mine. But, was Joseph more attentive, more wide-eyed, more curious after that night in that stable? Did this good, honest, hard-working man live life differently because God came so close? Did Joseph spend his days and nights remembering that one unbelievable night of birth? Or was he now more alert to God’s presence in the moment?
We, as the people of God, have been called to both remember and to anticipate. We remember the birth of Jesus as if we had been there. The story is so real to us that we can all but feel it. We reenact it and are transported back to a time that we have never experienced. We are good at looking forward to yesterday, but that is all worthless if it doesn’t change the way we look at today. Are we peering into every moment, believing that it is in God’s nature to come to us? Are we searching for ways that God is with us? Christmas is a reminder to live this way – all the time.
It is told that when Lou Ann Parsons, a missionary from South Africa, would stand in the pulpit, she could not see the congregation unless she stood on her tiptoes for she was a short woman. One observer noted, “Unless we are on our toes, actively looking for God’s revelations, chances are we won’t have any revelations. Whenever we read the Bible, a novel or a poem, or go to the movies or the theater, listen to music, engage in conversation, we need to try to be up on our toes actively searching for God’s revelation, always looking for the ways in which the beyond is in our midst, the sacred breaks through the walls of our profanity, the Spirit makes perfectly clear a truth we should have known a long time ago. Unless we are up on our tiptoes, we will miss these revelations.” (The Living Pulpit, Oct/Dec 1997, pages 44-45)
Advent is a time to pay attention to the clues that God is active and not just was active. Will we remember tomorrow with the same passion that we celebrate the long ago birth of Jesus? I will admit that the birth of Jesus was an unprecedented event. There is no other human birth that people all over the world still talk about and celebrate. But I contend that every birth, and every baptism, and ever moment holds the same kind of joy-full possibility. Will the timing be right? Will we be alert? Will we strive to be all that we have been created to be? Will God come to us in some kind of cosmic convulsion this Christmas again? Perhaps. But are we even prepared that God will come to us in the ordinariness of life, must less in some kind of grandiose in-breaking?
As we gather here tomorrow night to receive communion, I pray that our senses will be keen. As we watch angels on a roof and shepherds herding sheep around a fire and Mary and Joseph with a baby, I pray that our memories will be long. As we gather around Christmas trees and dining room tables, I pray that we would be aware – that it is in God’s nature to come to us. But be careful – when we are overwhelmed by pure and utter unexpected joy, we may temporarily feel as though we are loosing our minds – because that is what happens when God enters the world.
I pray that I will be like Joseph – that I won’t miss it – that when God comes so close, I will know unexpected Joy when I see it. May it be so for you as well.
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* (title phrase is borrowed from Fred Craddock in the Living Pulpit Oct/Dec 97, page 6)