Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
It is now the 28th day of December. Jesus is three days old. Mary and Joseph have not had a good night’s sleep for a week or more, they are exhausted. The baby is not sleeping through the night. He may be the Son of God, but he is also very human, and he has not figured out how to nurse. Don’t romanticize it, there was more crying under the stars than there was hymn singing during those days after that first Christmas.
Mary and Joseph and the baby, it was just three of them now, they had no choice but to face an uncertain future together. It was a time of wonder and terror. Jesus arrived, as babies do, with no user manual. First time parents especially are easily overwhelmed; “what is normal, should I worry that he has not pooped, why does he cry all the time, cloth or disposable diapers, I am too tired to think.” This birth was complicated too by the God thing. It is one thing to wonder if your mother-in-law is judging your parenting, it is entirely different to know that God is watching your every move. 2000 years ago, a large percentage of the babies died before they were three years old, with the salvation of the world on the line this added a lot of anxiety for a teenage mother and a carpenter who probably had never held a baby before. What to do with the baby?
In a much different light, the same question is before us. No, we don’t need to worry about keeping the baby fed, comfortable and healthy but we still must figure out what to do with the baby. The baby became a man, the man became a carpenter and then a Rabbi. That Jewish Rabbi, Jesus, taught us how to live, how to love, how to welcome the stranger, how to touch the untouchable, how to wash feet, how to trust God in life and how to trust God in death. Jesus once said to a known sinner, “neither do I condemn you, now go and sin now more.” Jesus did not judge the broken, he invited them to the table, he risked hostile stares from the religious folks and hung out with undesirables. Does our congregation do the same? Are we a triage for the broken or a country club for self-righteous pretenders? What will we do with the baby? Three days after his birth, the presents are opened, the eggnog is depleted, the family has gone home, what now?
What will we do with the baby? There is no user manual for babies, lots of advice certainly but when it comes to babies, one size does not fit all. Thankfully, there is a user manual for the human journey, the life and teachings of Jesus offer us a pathway to a more abundant and healthy life. Of course, there are no heavenly insurance policies that will protect us from the dangers of living, the vulnerability of loving, and the inevitability of death. We are never promised an easy life, and no one I know has had an easy life. The manual for living in a fallen world tells us to love God, to express that love by loving our neighbors, and to somehow learn to love ourselves, to forgive ourselves for being human. Human like the teenage mother, human like the father who adopted Jesus, human like the baby who did not know how to nurse and consequently did not sleep though the night.
It is December 28th, the baby is three days old. What now Mary? What now Joseph? My friends, what are we going to do with the baby?
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
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