Where Meek Souls Will Receive Him

December 24, 2018 – Christmas Eve

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

Luke 2:1-10

Where Meek Souls Will Receive Him

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us pray:

O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today. Amen.

We gather here tonight to remember the holy events which took place over 2000 years ago. 100 generations have passed since then. Every year people of faith have met to ponder the wonder of this night when the divine word became flesh and dwelt among us.

It happened in a quiet, unassuming way. Well, as unassuming as any birth is! That’s an event!!

In our lobby we have that beautiful set of porcelain nativity figures. As I consider all of those nativity figures, my attention focuses on Mary and Joseph. Both of them opened themselves up to God’s plan. To use a familiar phrase, they “let go and let God.” In allowing God to work through them, they each faced challenges and even dangers.

Mary was a teenaged girl. In an age when marriages were arranged between families, Mary was betrothed to wed Joseph, but she still lived in the house of her parents. One day Mary was visited by an angel, the angel Gabriel. He announced to her that she was to be part of God’s plan for salvation.

But her involvement in that plan would take her down a perilous path! She was to bear a child. He would be a holy child; he would be the Messiah.

Only one minor problem: Mary was single and a virgin. What would her parents say when they discovered she was with child? What would her neighbors say? And most importantly, what would Joseph say? For he would know that the child wasn’t his!

I try to imagine Mary, so young, so powerless, so vulnerable. But she opens herself to God’s future.

Joseph, too, faced critical decisions. When he discovers that Mary is with child, he plans to break off their betrothal. Joseph is a hardworking, responsible, good man. He intends to break this engagement quietly and not make a public fuss of it.

But then an angel comes to him, too. The angel tells Joseph that all of this is part of God’s wonderful plan for salvation.

Joseph has a decision to make. If he follows the angel’s instruction, what will his family say? What will happen to his reputation in the community?

Joseph opens himself to God’s future. He resolves to proceed with the marriage.

But that’s not the end. More challenges follow. The order comes from Rome for a taxation. And so now, with Mary great with child, they must travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Once they arrive in Bethlehem, there’s no place for them to stay except a barn. This was not what they’d signed up for!

And then nature takes its course. The baby comes. They wrap him in swaddling clothes and lay him in a manger. What was born that night was born through the willing actions of Mary and Joseph. They’d been bound into God’s plan as tightly as the swaddling was wrapped around Jesus.

The full force of what had entered the world that night wouldn’t become known for many years. Mary and Joseph’s decision to align their lives with God’s will would not reveal its outcome for a long, long time. What was required of them was faith. It’s the same thing they needed when first they said yes to the angels. Faith – that God had a plan, a good plan. Faith that God was working through them, through this whole scenario that had played out.

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As we ponder these things, we ask, what can be born in us today? How can I let go and let God?

God is at work in our world every bit as much now as in the days of Mary and Joseph. God works through the people who become holy servants. Like Abraham, like Moses, like Mary and Joseph, God works through you and me.

Some thoughts on letting go and letting God:

- Number One: Let go of the outcome you desire and allow God to unleash a new thing. We all have an idea of how our life should unfold. We have goals we aim for. We invest in that future and do our utmost to nurture its outcome. But with that central focus we can lose our peripheral vision. We become so focused on the future, on our future plan, that we miss God’s calling before us.

Mary and Joseph had notions of how their future together would play out. But God stepped in and invited them into a new future. They were open to receive this new thing.