Rarely does a Sunday or a holy day pass when a word or phrase from one or more of the readings from the Scriptures does not catch my attention. Tonight is just such an occasion.
Towards the end of tonight’s Gospel this phrase stood out for me: “But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2.19 NRSV) A more recent contemporary English translation renders the sentence this way: “Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully.” (Luke 2.19 CEB)
And what did Mary treasure and commit to memory? What did she ponder and consider carefully?
Mary and Joseph had been taken from their familiar surroundings in Nazareth and sent on a risky journey because of two powerful and conflicting forces: God and the Roman state. They had come to Bethlehem where a child would be born who was destined to overturn Rome’s empire so that God’s new world could arise, a commonwealth where all God’s children would be free, where human dignity would be renewed and restored, where justice not self-interest would prevail. This child’s birth was accompanied by heavenly manifestations and the presence of poor and often despised shepherds. Two people, descendants of a noble family, now diminished in stature and impoverished, took on the responsibility of raising a child unlike any before or any since.
Two thousand years later we gather to celebrate the birth of this child during a year that is unlike any other many of us have known. The Cathedral is empty save for the few required to conduct the live broadcast of the eucharist. More of us are in our homes with few if any members of our families or our friends. Some of us may even find ourselves solitary.
Just as Mary and Joseph lived in a threatening environment, so too do we live in times where fear and uncertainty burden many of us. Just as Mary and Joseph lived in a world of social and political upheaval and violence, so too do we live in a society where the stresses of the pandemic have led some to irresponsible and danger behaviour. While we can rejoice in the promise that vaccines are on their way, we are still months away from the loosening of the restrictions intended to protect us.
But despite all this, the angelic song still echoes throughout the earth and the heavens. It is in times such as these that their voices remind us that there is ‘news of great joy’ in all our Bethlehems. Although we may be tempted to fear that we’ve been abandoned and that any further distress is on the horizon, the heavenly choir declares clearly and unashamedly that God is with us, that we are beloved by the Creator of the stars of night and that God’s promises will be fulfilled.
Because of the restrictions imposed upon us by the necessity of combatting and controlling the spread of COVID, we have, I think, been given an unexpected gift. We can join Mary in treasuring and committing to memory all that these past months have taught us about being disciples of Jesus in unexpected and trying times. We can join Mary in pondering and considering carefully how the life and love of God within each and every one of us can shine as radiantly in our homes, neighbourhoods and work-places as that life and love shines in the Christ-child.
Good Christian friends, rejoice. Rejoice wherever you are. Tonight the light of Christ shines as brightly as it has shone on any Christmas. May that Light scatter any darkness from your path and lead you into God’s glorious new day.
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