READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 11:1-5
Galatians 4:1-7
St. Luke 2:33-40
Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Merry 4th day of Christmass in which we ponder
our Lord’s words from His Gospel, saying:
“And His father
and His mother marveled at what was said about Him”
Christmass is only the beginning. As Jesus continues to make
His father and mother marvel at what is said about Him, we too follow along for
the marvels. In God’s Word, we hear of marvels because we too are supposed to
marvel at these things. The words you use affect you, thus calling Jesus God is
important. We are to believe this, come to understand it more, and live life
according to it.
The Sunday after Christmas is a double-win for the Christian.
First, contrary to the world, the celebration continues. There are 12 days of
Christmass, not just last Thursday. And second, we breathe a heavy sigh of
relief that the commercial and material have forgotten Christmass and that the
frozen depths of Purgatory have once again received Mariah Carey.
As soon as the Bethlehem light goes out, we also return to
our unbelief. With no more store shelves to remind us of the season and no
house lights flashing in time to AC/DC, we get back to “real life”. Life that
has been put on pause because of lunches, dinners, parties, and giving. It
wears a poor soul out.
Instead of the chaos, we crave routine. A steady, no frills
existence where we can be with the familiar and predict what's coming. So when
we are thrust into the Christmass celebration, though we enjoy it, it gets in
the way. We can’t do what we want because we have to go see so-and-so. We can’t
spend as we wish, because someone needs a present. We can’t leave yet, we just
got here.
Sts. Joseph and Mary may be glad to see the 8th day after
Christmass, in our Gospel today. Since the conception of their Son, there has
been no normal. Exhausted by angels, stars, dreams, controversy, and shepherds,
they rejoiced to get back to Church.
Back to Church as in, “everything according to the Law of
the Lord”, as we heard. They had a baby, so normal! So now they must do family
and baby things. For Church its going to offer the appropriate sacrifices at
the appropriate time. There is no room for surprises. God’s Word is very clear.
That means a trip to the Temple. That means prayers. That
means service. It is a relief and comfort because God is doing all that work
that He has been since the beginning. Same offering. Same sacrifices. Same
blessing. Same God.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, Sts. Joseph and Mary
did not get to rest from marveling. For no sooner had they fulfilled their
Temple duties, than St. Simeon came up and began singing, Anna began speaking
to everyone who would listen, and they marveled at what was said about Him,
once again.
Why? Because Jesus is Almighty God. The marvel is that He is
not just Almighty God on paper, but almighty God in the arms of His parents, in
the arms of shepherds, in the arms of Simeon. The ink has leapt off the pages
of Scripture and has become a being that we now must deal with and yet He
continues to look normal.
Though Jesus returns with His parents to grow like a normal
boy, they will soon marvel along with the teachers and priests of Israel when
Jesus enters the Temple at 12 years old, questioning and answering the
elite.
People will continue to marvel at Jesus, at the words He
says and the work He does, the rest of His life. The Apostles marvel at Easter
and at the recognition of Jesus in the breaking of the Bread.
And what Jesus marvels at, in the face of all this, is
unbelief (Mark 6:6). That it takes all of the Christmass chaos, all the Lent
chaos, and all of the Easter chaos and yet still there is unbelief. That is the
true Christmass miracle and it is a backwards miracle. God being made man is
normal. God’s creation not believing it is not normal.
It is to this weak and lowly state that Jesus comes. He did
not wait for St. Mary to be highly favored, but made her that way, spoke her
that way. He did not wait for St. Joseph to be a righteous man, but gave him
the righteousness necessary. He did not wait for shepherds, angels, or lowing
oxen. But instead made His own way. The Normal Way.
Yes, Jesus marvels at unbelief, but He also marvels at
belief, saying, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Lk
7:9). This from a non-Jew centurion who confesses that he is not worthy to
have Jesus enter under his roof to save his son.
Two things here: One, for the centurion it was not normal
that the mighty condescend to the weak. Two, it was not normal that death
should take a loved one. It was not normal that demons torment the people. It
was not normal that wind and wave should kill and destroy. It is not normal
that the dead should come back alive.
Jesus gives us His Advent to show us how off track we are.
It is normal for God to be doing all these things and it is normal for us to
live that life, no matter how it shocks our sinful system. Therefore, as Jesus
spoke Mary “highly favored”, so too does He speak to us and gives us the faith
to live this, godly, normal life.
We marvel that God cares so much about our lives that the
same words He used for His father, mother, and Apostles work for us. That He
speaks of us as highly favored, in Christ. He speaks of us as having greater
faith than all Israel, in Christ. That He gives to us eternal life for faith in
Christ.
Normal is God actually working in our lives, as He said.
Normal is being able to handle God as He comes near to bless us. Normal is
being able to find Jesus in the breaking of the Bread. Why? Because He loves us
and because He chooses to act in this way.
So now it is our turn to marvel and continue to do so. Each
time we hear the words of the Gospel, that we are free from the guilt and
punishment for our sins, for Christ’s sake, we say “So extra ordinary”. But
when we see the Way this is accomplished and look at church and font and Altar,
we say “so ordinary”.
And that is where God locates Himself, in the ordinary.
Those things which are repeated countless times. His holy Scripture. The Lord’s
Prayer. His Word made flesh. It is the abnormal life of sin that gets in the
way, pauses the life of faith, and does not let us do as the Holy Spirit
directs.
God’s Way is ordinary. Word, water, bread, wine. Preaching
and Teaching. A Church life that continuously runs through that ordinary life
of Jesus year after year, just to see Him once again win salvation for us. And
that deserves celebration. Not just once a year, but every year. Every Sunday,
even.
Jesus doesn’t want a lot for Christmass. Just you. Hearing,
believing, and holding sacred the holy things He has set out for you in His
Holy Church. The cross stands still as the world spins off its rocker. Drawing
nearer to that cross, we marvel at the stillness of the Holy Child, God made
man, manifest. God has done this. This is real life now. We marvel at the
mightiness of God made man.
Merry Christmass.
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