FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth
December 13, 2009
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WANDERING TOWARD THE MANGER
Scripture: Luke 2:1-7
INTRODUCTION
The theme of our Advent sermon series “wwwww.come” is focused on five words which start with the letter W that can help to lead us toward Christmas. We have already talked together about “Watching for the Light” shining in the darkness, described in John chapter 1. And last week, Craig Goodrich preached about “Wondering How It Happened” as the angels announced to Joseph and Mary that she was going to have a baby.
Continuing on our journey today, we turn to Luke chapter 2 and join Joseph and Mary along the way to Bethlehem where they will discover that they have been “Wandering Toward the Manger”, even though they did not know in advance how it would all turn out.
I
But we do. We who live almost two thousand years after that first Christmas, we know the story about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, and as Christians, we believe that the story is true.
So every December we try to remember and tell the story all over again by reading the scriptures, singing the carols, preaching the sermons, setting up our crèches, and perhaps our favorite event is celebrating the children’s Christmas Pageant on the third Sunday in Advent.
Just an hour ago, here in the chancel of this sanctuary, more than 200 children dressed in full costume re-enacted what happened long ago in Bethlehem. It’s a major production, and we are so thankful to the directors, teachers, parents, staff members and musicians who have worked with our children to make this “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”!
And in every pageant, almost without exception, something happens which is a total surprise. Our dear friend Dr. Joanna Adams from Morningside Presbyterian Church describes a memorable pageant in one of her former churches:
“The children had practiced their parts for weeks, and were ready to perform according to the Christmas Story. But when…the big performance came, there was an unexpected development. As the children who played travel-worn Mary and Joseph appeared at the door of the inn and knocked on the door, the innkeeper was overcome by an onslaught of spontaneity. He said to them ‘I am so sorry. All our rooms are taken, but why don’t the two of you come on in and have a drink?’” (From “Fear Not,” a sermon preached by Dr. Joanna Adams on December 22, 2002 at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago)
Out of the mouths of babes. And here’s the point: although Mary and Joseph did not know in advance how it would all turn out, we who live on this side of that first Christmas, we know what happened.
And every December, we remember and re-enact and re-tell the story all over again, rejoicing that Jesus’ birth has brought God’s light and love and grace and peace all the way down from heaven to earth.
II
So if we really believe that He is the reason for this season, then why are so many of us apprehensive, anxious and sometimes afraid as we wander toward the manger today?
One reason is that some of us are in just too much of a hurry to get there, with places to go, people to see, packages to send, parties to attend and a to-do list that never ends.
It was once said of the journalist H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) that “he lived at the corner of work and worry”, and that’s where we often find ourselves – unable to rest and feeling overwhelmed by all the things we’re compelled to do.
A church in Little Rock, Arkansas, decided to develop a nativity scene for people in a hurry. The Associated Press article is entitled “Drive Through Nativity Scene Puts Christmas in the Fast Lane”. Listen:
“In a nation of fast food restaurants, cash machines and drive through liquor stores, the city’s First Church of the Nazarene is finding people want their religion quick and convenient too… This week, the church is closing its parking lot to set up a drive-through nativity scene for those who want to experience the ‘true meaning of Christmas’ but don’t want to leave their cars. They expected about 10,000 people to take the 15 minute drive… to see 140 costumed characters and a stable full of animals, from donkeys to hens.” (From AP article in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 5, 1999)
How completely different is the description in Luke chapter 2, where the Bible says that after the shepherds were visited by the angels, they said to one another “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing which has taken place … So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger.” (Luke 2:15-16)
You see, in the original story, those shepherds were so excited and filled with awe, that they probably hiked up their robes and ran toward the manger to see the Baby that had been born – quite the opposite from that drive-by nativity in Arkansas where folks don’t even have the time to get out of their cars.
So, some of us are in too much of a hurry and so filled with anxiety and worry that we might actually miss the birth of the Baby at Christmas. T.S. Eliot put it this way: “We had the experience, but we missed the meaning.”
If that is where you are today, or if that seems to be where you’re headed, then know this: there are twelve days left until Christmas, and it is still not too late to stop, to look and to listen: stop your frenetic activity, look for quiet places and for the people you love who need your attention, and listen for the voice of the angel who proclaimed “Do not be afraid, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”! Don’t miss it, my friends. Don’t miss it!
III
Now there are others who are wandering toward the manger but have lost their sense of direction. For some of us, it’s not too serious – we’ve simply let ourselves become distracted with things that matter the least instead of those things which matter the most.
The Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose mind was razor sharp and could cut to the chase on any complicated case brought before him – he was also known to be absent-minded about details of lesser importance.
Leaving Washington by train late one afternoon, he was looking out the window when the conductor came to collect his ticket. Fumbling in the pockets of his jacket, Holmes could not find his ticket. He apologized, and the conductor replied “Don’t worry judge, we can get you another one.”
But with a concerned look on his face, Oliver Wendell Holmes looked up and said, “Young man, the problem is not ‘where is my ticket?’ The problem is ‘where am I going’”?
You see, for many of us who have lost our sense of direction as we make our way toward Christmas, that situation can be resolved by paying more attention to our souls: coming to worship on Sundays, setting aside the time each day to read the Bible, our Advent booklet and to pray; and by opening our hearts and minds to the Spirit of the Christ Child in both our giving and our receiving during this sacred season.
But for those who have lost their sense of direction because of financial trouble during this recession, or broken relationships within our families and circle of friends, or because of some kind of addiction that has grabbed hold of us and won’t let go – when that has happened, then we need a power greater than our own to see us through.
One man found that power before it was too late. His life had been all but ruined by alcohol. His wife was ready to leave him, his children were afraid of him, and his company was about to fire him. A month before Christmas, his closest friend, who was a Christian, confronted him and said “Unless you get help, you are going to lose everything.”
The man knew he had hit rock bottom, so he let his friend take him to a church where on Sunday mornings he worshipped God and on Wednesday nights he started to attend AA meetings and found a sponsor. Then he decided to give his life to Jesus Christ and to rely on a power greater than his own. And for the first time since he had been a child in Sunday school, that man began to feel the peace and the presence of God.
A business associate noticed the change, and one day at the office, he said in a rather insensitive manner, “Now that you’ve found religion, do you really believe that Jesus turned water into wine”?
The man thought for a moment and then replied “I don’t know for certain. But I do know that He turned wine into toys for my children at Christmas, He turned whisky into a new coat for my wife, He turned me into a fit husband and decent father for the first time in my life.”
If you need that kind of help today, this church has the resources you need to find the right direction as we make our way toward Christmas. Our Samaritan Counseling Center is ready to welcome you, our unemployment support group is eager to embrace you, and our AA meetings on weekday nights are open to you, right here and right now.
Don’t wait until it’s too late. And as you seek to draw closer toward the Lord, He has promised to give you a greater power and peace than you have ever known before.
CONCLUSION
At the end of our gospel lesson today, Luke tells us that after Joseph and Mary had traveled a long distance – more than 60 miles on rugged roads – from Nazareth to Bethlehem, “While they were there, the time came for Mary to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped Him in bands of cloth, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no place (no room) for them in the inn.”
You see, somehow, someone – it could have been an innkeeper – reached out to Mary and Joseph with an open heart and helped them in their hour of need.
And that leads to this closing story which has been ringing in my ears and speaking to my soul since the beginning of this Advent season. I re-discovered it in my morning reading on the 30th of November in this daily devotional book “Listening to Your Life” by the Presbyterian author Frederick Buechner.
Having shared it with you before, I repeat it once more because I believe that in this story, the Lord has something for you and for me to do as we wander toward and make our way to the manger:
“I remember an especially dark time of my life. One of my children was sick, and in my anxiety for her I was in my own way as sick as she was. Then one day the phone rang, and it was a man I didn’t know very well then though he has become a great friend since, a minister from Charlotte, North Carolina, which is about 800 miles or so from where I live in Vermont. I assumed he was calling from home and asked him how things were going down there only to hear him say that no, he wasn’t in Charlotte. He was at an inn about twenty minutes away from my house. He’d known I was having troubles, he said, and he thought maybe it would be handy to have an extra friend around for a day or two. The reason he didn’t tell me in advance that he was coming must have been that he knew I would tell him for Heaven’s sake not to do anything so crazy, so for Heaven’s sake he did something crazier still which was to come those 800 miles without telling me he was coming so that for all he knew I might not even have been there. But as luck had it, I was there, and for a day or two he was there with me. He was there for me. I don’t think anything we found to say to each other amounted to very much or had anything particularly religious about it. I don’t remember even spending much time talking about my troubles with him. We just took a couple of walks, had a meal or two together and smoked our pipes, drove around to see some of the countryside, and that was about it.
I have never forgotten how he came all that distance just for that, and I’m sure he has never forgotten it either. I also believe that although as far as I can remember we never so much as mentioned the name of Christ, Christ was as much in the air we breathed those few days as the smoke of our pipes was in the air, or the dappled light of the woods we walked through. I believe that for a little time we both of us touched the hem of Christ’s garment, and were both of us, for a little time anyway, healed.” (“Listening to Your Life” by Frederick Buechner, “A Visit”, pages 310-311, HarperSanFrancisco, 1992)
Now, with twelve days left before Christmas, I want you to think of one person whom you know, perhaps in your family or among your friends – or somebody else who might be a complete stranger – and reach out to touch them as you wander and make your way toward the manger.
Remember, God reached out to touch us in person, through His Son our Savior Jesus. And as we come to Christmas, He wants us to do the same. We call it “Incarnation”.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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