RCL Christmas 1C
29 December 2024
Church of the Epiphany
Surrey BC
Of the four gospels, the Gospel according to Luke is most interested in the childhood of Jesus. Matthew tells us of the Magi and the flight into Egypt, but Mark and John say absolutely nothing. Luke tells us about two visits to the Temple in Jerusalem, one when Jesus was a little more than a month old, another when he was twelve. Luke knew that his non-Jewish, Greek-speaking Gentile readers had been raised on stories of great people, stories that always included details from that person’s childhood – important people always were special children.
Today’s story has always been one of my favourites. I think anyone who has ever been responsible for taking care of a child has had the experience that Mary and Joseph had. One minute the child is right next to you, the next minute nowhere to be seen. And, when you finally find the child, the little toad does not appreciate your panic! If there is any doubt that Jesus was a fully human person, this story reminds us of how annoying a twelve-year-old can be – even if they are the Son of God. I always have deep sympathy for Joseph. Did you notice that he is not even mentioned by name in Luke’s story? Did you notice how Jesus, with that casual cruelty that teenagers possess, dismisses this man who has put up with a great deal with these words, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2.49b NRSVue)
After such an episode I have a mental image of Mary and Joseph, as they rejoin their family with Jesus in tow, having the same kind of conversation that parents have. ‘Now what?,’ one of them says to the other. ‘How do we take care of a kid like this? I’m not sure I signed on for this.’
Paula, David and I arrived in Canada on the 23rd of June 1987. Within ten days I began my teaching career at Vancouver School of Theology and all three of us began our crash course in Canadian culture. We quickly realized that sharing the English language and the North American continent did not mean that there were not significant cultural differences that we hit like a brick wall.
Since both Paula and I love to sing, our new friends used songs to help us connect with our new home. One couple, Paul and Valerie Borthistle, introduced us to Stan Rogers, and we feel in love with his lyrics as well as his voice. Another gift of song came from my colleague Gerald Hobbs. He had been editing a new collection of songs to serve as a companion to the ‘Red Hymnbook of 1971’, a collection of hymns that was intended to bring Anglican and United Church folks closer together. Gerald’s hymn collection, Songs for a Gospel People, ‘the Green Book’, recovered some familiar hymns left out of the 1971 book and introduced Canadian Christians to a number of new hymns.
One of my favourites is ‘I Am the Light of the World’ by Jim Strathdee. Let me share some of the hymn with you.
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and the shepherds
have found their way home,
the work of Christmas is begun.
to find the lost and lonely one;
to heal the broken soul with love,
to feed the hungry children with warmth and good food,
to feel the earth below, the sky above! [1]
What I love about this song is that it describes one of the more common human experiences – a joyful celebration of or preparation for something important that is immediately followed by the reality of the need for hard work.
I remember my first day in the Diocesan Office in Colorado – Monday, the 15th of June 1981. I had spent the last three years studying for ordination. The last year had been a particularly grueling one – written ordination examinations in January, then interviews and oral examinations in Colorado in March followed by graduation in May, a liturgy that I helped to plan, played a major role in and received my degree. As I was packing up my things at my seminary in Wisconsin, I was also planning my ordination service to the transitional diaconate to take place in my home parish in Colorado Springs on the 11th of June. On that Monday morning I sat down at my new desk and said to myself, ‘Now what?’
I didn’t need to worry. By the end of the week the Bishop gave me plenty to do, and I was kept very busy for the rest of my time on the Diocesan Staff. But that sense of uncertainty has come to me on other occasions as well – on my first day in my first parish, on my first day as a faculty member at Vancouver School of Theology, and so on and so on. I’m sure that you’ve had similar experiences and have said the same words, ‘Now what?’
And that’s where we are, my friends. While all around us the trappings of the Christmas season are being put away or put out on the street for disposal, we are getting ready for the work of Christmas. Our Parish will soon be advertising for a new Rector to lead us into the coming years. We’ll be considering how to re-develop our property to enable our service, worship, evangelism, education and pastoral care. We’ll be doing what we’ve been doing for years as a place of help, hope and home for our neighbourhood. We’ll be working in partnership with God, as followers of the Christ-child, as vessels of the Holy Spirit.
I’m sure that there will be moments when we as a community or as individuals will sit down and say to ourselves, ‘Now what?’ But the good news is that we’ve been here before and we know that we’ve not only survived but thrived. As one of my mentors was fond of saying when faced with a challenge, ‘Thanks be to God! There’s work to be done!’
To free the prisoner from all chains,
to make the powerful care,
to rebuild the nations with strength of good will,
to see God’s children everywhere!
To bring hope to every task you do,
to dance at a baby’s new birth,
to make music in an old person’s heart,
and sing to the colours of the earth! [2]
And it’s work worth doing by people just like you and me. Thanks be to God.
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