Sermon – December 27, 2020. Rev. Esther Rendon-Thompson.
PRAYER
What are your sources of happiness or joy these days?
You know, every year of my time in ministry in different churches where I served, I used the last Sunday of the year to talk about, resolutions, and often asked:
What are your resolutions for the New Year?
After what has happened in the world this year with the pandemic, planning ahead is difficult, at best. I’m sure, many of our wishes, hopes and plans all came tumbling down in 2020 and we don’t know how long the uncertainty will last into 2021. We cancelled possible trips to Florida and Spain. Today instead of resolutions, I invite us to count our blessings! Some say that the only purpose to looking back is to learn something.
What might we learn by experiencing this degree of mental and emotional pain? Lost jobs or the sorrow caused by the death of loved ones can become nearly unbearable. Separation from common interactions making social distancing necessary and keeping us using video calls or other forms of communication with our friends and loved ones, are at times difficult change to embrace. Restrictions, have kept us away from our normal activities, including driving to neighboring states, flying and/ or just plain visiting.
Let’s think about our blessings for a moment; we have been blessed by not getting sick or recovering from illness; we have food on our tables, a roof over our heads, a warm bed and a place to call home. My heart breaks for those who are homeless, for those who have lost everything, and have become homeless due to fires, mud slides and other natural disasters. Many have found themselves jobless, and now they find themselves standing in long lines waiting for a charitable meal. On the other hand, doctors, nurses, police and first responders, are over worked and tired, their hope is for more helping hands, while others are wishing for some kind of work. To say that we all have been shaken in one way or another by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, is an understatement. A positive thing is that some have found comfort by becoming volunteers in shelters, pantries and restaurants. They are the helping hands that prepare and distribute food to those in need. Some have learned new trades and skills in the process. Some of us have used the extra time for reading, and/or discovering new gifts and talents we didn’t know we had; we simply try to stay connected with family and friends in the best way possible.
As we look back at 2020, we can’t ignore the parallel circumstances that have affected people of color in general. It’s been a year where once again, the cry for justice from all minority groups has come to the surface. Groups that are a fundamental part of the fabric of this nation, are still unable to be reconciled in white-governed America; making racism again, at the forefront of our attention as a cry for justice. For me the related violence we see is a manifestation of that cry. Our society is in crisis at several turns; in education, spiritually, socially, economically and racially.
Our world has been turned upside down; making us learn to create and see our world with new eyes, new perspectives, inspiring creativity, and enhancing technology. Others have had a harder time coping with feelings of emptiness, depression, confusion, disappointment and desperation, as if in a survival mode. Change is happening all around us, and we don’t exactly know what to do.
Let’s look for a moment at a poor family, who was not in a pandemic but in a time of the first census ever taken in Syria. Everyone needed to register in their home towns. No website to do this. No modern forms of transportation, either. The registration had to be done in person. I am talking about Joseph and Mary who had to go from Nazareth in Galilee to the city of David in Bethlehem of Judea, a 70-mile journey. Again, no way to make call-ahead reservations. Joseph and Mary, who was with child, embark on their journey at a slow pace; their donkey carrying Mary and their belongings.
As they finally arrived in Bethlehem, all the Holiday Inns were full. As we know the story, they ended up in a manger. A manger that was private, warm and a bit smelly, but for a tired Mary, it felt just perfect for the night. Her time came that night, and personally, I believe that God blessed Joseph and Mary with a midwife. There just had to be a midwife, perhaps the wife of the Innkeeper who directed them to the manger. Of course, this is not mentioned anywhere in the gospels, as it wasn’t an important detail for male writers in those days. Jesus was born on that starlit night, and under the light of a bigger bright star, directly above them. That star was guiding the shepherds and the magi to the Newborn King.
Note that Luke’s writing does not include the story of the magi, which we borrow from Mathew, when we want to give a chronology to the whole story of the birth of Jesus. I say this because for Luke what was important, was to give emphasis to the law of God. Luke wants to probe that “Jesus was not above the law, but that he came to fulfilled the law…” (Luke 24:44). Bringing us additional stories we don’t often hear during the season, like those of the circumcision, Mary’s purification, the naming of Jesus and his presentation at the temple.
Luke tells us, “On the eight day after the birth Jesus, Joseph took his baby boy to be circumcised as it was custom for all Jewish boys as stated in the law of Moses. “… and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived…” (Luke 2:21)
On the fortieth day after the birth of the child, Mary and Joseph came together to the temple with baby Jesus. The custom was to give an offering to God in gratitude for the firstborn male, and a second offering for the purification of the mother. They were to offer a lamb, but because they were not able to afford one; they offered two turtle doves or pigeons instead for the sacrifice as required by the law of the Lord.
Soon after the sacrifice, Mary and Joseph entered the temple with their child and an old man approached them, and asked to hold the child. Immediately, He started to prophesy, and he praised God saying: “… Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is the light to reveal God to the nations, and He is the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32). This man was Simeon, a very old man, a prophet who spent his older years in the temple. He had earlier received a promise by the Holy Spirit of God, that he would live to see the promised Messiah. And he knew in his heart of hearts that this was the child, the light of the world! Simeon also blessed the parents, and Mary and Joseph were amazed by his words.
A second prophet, Anna, who was a widow after only seven years of marriage, and had lived in the temple for eighty-four years came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph. When Anna recognizes Jesus as the answer to her prayers, she praised God and exclaimed: “Here is the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:36-38).
Just imagine the faces of Mary and Joseph, amazed by the message of the blessings poured out on their child and to them; these are clear examples of moments when unexpected blessings happen! This last Sunday of the year, may we remember that Jesus came to bring joy and happiness to everyone who believes, no matter the circumstances.
So: How about we start the New Year counting our blessings! Amen!