I'm going to go ahead and turn
it over to Greg. Alright. Well,
hey everybody. Uh if I haven't
said it yet, my name is Greg,
one of the pastors here. I
felt like sitting down today.
Um sometimes I feel like when
I'm standing up, I just my body
wants to be more animated than
it needs to be and so, uh I'm
just gonna, I'm gonna sit today.
You're all sitting so I'm just
gonna do a little bit of an
event which is obviously at this
point, 123, joy. Yeah. And
during that, we're we're
reminding of ourselves of all of
these things. We're but we're
also reminding ourselves that
Jesus has arrived. Uh Advent
just means arrival. So, we're
reminding ourselves that he's
arrived but we're also
reminding ourselves that he
will arrive again remembering
that God's people, the
Israelites waited centuries and
years for him to arrive. We
continue to await his return
again as we live in the
meantime, in the now, and the
not yet. And in that meantime,
we need some reminders of what
it is that God is offering and
what he offered. Reminders of
hope, reminders of peace,
reminders of love, joy, light.
A few years ago, uh I said
that I was in line of line of
like on one unattainable thing
after another. I would say like
okay, here, peace and hope,
joy, you know, like it's feels
like you uh to have all of them
all lined up and to
consistently feel all of them
kind of feels like finding
Bigfoot and then finding the
Loch Ness Monster and then
catching Saint Nick putting
Christmas presents underneath
them. It's all elusive because
sometimes we might feel like
they're imaginary. But that
reminds us to look for hope,
peace, joy, love, and light in
a real place. In the story of a
real person. In the infant
arrival of Jesus and to keep
that in mind. Today, we are
reminding ourselves of joy.
Alright, so let's open our
Bibles and read the scriptures
together as we consider joy.
We're going to be in the book
of Luke. It's in the New
Testament. It goes Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans.
If you see any of those, you
know that you're in the right
neighborhood. If you don't have
a Bible, we have physical ones
out in the lobby. You're
welcome to take one home with
you. We have Luke two, six,
through twelve, and we have a
tradition of just giving the
scriptures our full attention
when when we read them and so
you can do that any number of
ways. You can continue to sit
or you can stand with me as you
are able in body or spirit as I
read Luke two starting in verse
six through twelve. Here we go.
While they were there, the time
came for the baby to be born
and she gave birth to her first
born, a son. She wrapped him in
a blanket and said that there
was no guest room available for
them and there were shepherds
living out in the fields nearby
keeping watch over their flocks
at night. Angel of the lord
appeared to them and the glory
of the lord shown around them
and they were terrified but the
angels said to them, do not be
afraid. I bring you good news
that will cause great joy for
all the world for all the
people today in the town of
David, a savior has been born
today. This will be assigned to
you. You will find a baby
wrapped in cloths and lying in
a manger. Let's pray. God of
every tribe, every tongue,
every color, and every nation,
we thank you for the scriptures
that they have persisted
throughout the millennia and
that we get to read them today
and I pray that whatever you
have for us to learn that it
would stick, that it would
become a part of the framework
of our faith, that our faith
would become stronger because
we are in the process. Amen.
Amen. Okay. On our way to joy,
I just want to take a few
minutes to clear up a couple
cultural Christmas
mischaracterizations. Alright,
you with me? First of all, it
says in verse six, while they
were there, the time came for
the baby to be born. In other
words, the idea that Mary and
Joseph were in a rush is not
accurate. Okay, they they
weren't in a rush. Thousands
of old Christmas programs have
had Joseph and Mary in a hurry
to find a place because she's
about to pop. But if you read
it, it's clear they were
already settled in Bethlehem
after their journey while they
were there. Secondly, says in
verse six, they placed him in a
manger because there was no
guest room available for them.
There's two things here. If I
said, close your eyes and
picture where Jesus was born.
Some of you might picture a
cave or a barn, particularly a
cave happens quite often and
why? Well, it's because the
image of Jesus being born in a
cave is another one of those
very popular images from
Christmas programs and the idea
does come from some very old
story that over the centuries
has continued to find its way
into the way that we tell the
story but it doesn't line up or
agree with the way that Luke
tells this story and then we
need to understand that they
were not looking for a hotel.
The problem here is a mixture
of translation and culture.
Okay, more than half of the
Bibles. If you went to a store,
a bookstore and said, hey,
where are your Bibles? And
you're going to hear a
scattering of 10 to 12
different translations. Half of
them that you pick up, this
verse would say there was no
room for them in the inn. And
then half of them would say for
there was no guest room
available to them.
In our modern minds, when we
hear the word in, what do we
think of? Hotel. We think of
the hotel. We think of the
La Quinta Inn. We we think of
a hotel. The the word gives us
the impression that Joseph and
Mary were frantically looking
about trying to get a room at
the Hyatt or the Marriott,
right? But what's the context
here? The context is
Bethlehem, right? They're in
Bethlehem. Why are they there?
They're there because there has
been a census called according
to this story. They're in
Bethlehem, the city of David.
Why is it called David? It's
called the city of David
because it's the first place
that King David was anointed
to become king. It's a very
special place in the history of
the Israelites. His family is a
very special family in the
history of the Israelites and
Joseph, a descendant of King
David is in town with his
promised wife who is pregnant.
The idea that Joseph and his
pregnant bride had no family
in town is just highly
unlikely. So, what does it
mean? What does the word mean
even? Remember, this story is
about a census, right? We're
just being told, we're we're
being told that everyone in
town already has at least one
guest staying with them. That
all the traditional guest rooms
are full. Be like if you came
to my house, if someone came to
my house, I would have two
bedrooms for the kids upstairs,
two bedrooms in the basement
for the kids. We have at times
been like, hey, Wallace and
Adley, why don't you guys bunk
up so that we can give this
room to someone else, okay? But
then, if it was more than that,
it would be like, alright, and
you can sleep on the couch in
the basement and you can can
sleep on the couch in the
living room and then we would
be out of space for guests in
our house but in the first
century, a home in this
house, there would be this
space. Sometimes, it would be
dug down into the ground.
Sometimes, it had its own
entrance and exit in the back
where every night, they bring
in the animals. It's because
most families didn't have a lot
of livestock. They didn't even
have a separate barn and so,
what they would do is to
protect them, to keep them
warm, to keep them from being
attacked by wolves or
anything else. They would
bring their small number of
animals into their home in the
back of their home. This is why
it says that Jesus is placed in
a manger not because they were
born that he was born in a cave
or he was born in a barn because
they were bunking with the
animals in the same house as
everyone else which was
why it says that. I think that
when we dig into the context
of this and we understand the
cultural context of what's
actually being said here that
we add a bit of the joy back
into the story when we know
these things. What do I want?
What do I mean? Because Joseph
and Mary and Jesus weren't
alone in a cave.
Joseph and Mary were most
likely to be born very likely
with extended if not immediate
family the night that Jesus was
born. I think about the joy that
is added when you have family
there for something like a
birth. I think about when Brennan
was born, the joy of my dad
holding my first point, my
first born, the the joy of
getting down to hold Liam, the
joy of Tim, my father-in-law,
driving to Colorado to hold
Wallace, the joy of all of my
children getting to hold
Adleria. We add joy back in the
story when we think about the
context and things and we strip
away all the cultural things
that we've been convinced are
what happening and we see just
a little bit more. They're
there. Now, a lot of these
things are just details that
we've been trying to get
through. We live in the first
century. We live in a reductive
society. We like to reduce a
story down as much as we
possibly can. lose details and
and honestly, here's the
biblical writers did the same
thing to a certain extent in
our men's group on Tuesday
nights, we've been going
through the gospel according to
Mark and almost every week, we
have to go through the
biblical
because we don't understand
unless we dig into it more
because the writers when they
were writing these gospels,
they made a lot of assumptions
about what the readers would
already know. They left a lot
out actually because they
thought that the people reading
it would just know all of these
things naturally for instance
here in the Book of Luke, the
passage that I read that that
they're saying the same thing
here in the Book of Luke, we
see that shepherds are the
first non-family members to get
to meet Jesus.
Maybe when we read that, we
know enough about the Bible to
make the connection that Jesus
would be called the good
shepherd, right? Maybe we know
enough about the Bible to make
the connection that Jesus would
be called the good shepherd.
But when the early Christians
read the Book of Luke,
especially if they had any
connection to Judaism or that
culture, they would have known
immediately how scandalous it
was for shepherds to be the
first ones to meet the Messiah
to meet a new king. Why? Because
shepherds were typically
thought of as outsiders
because they were always dirty.
They worked all hours of the
night and so people assume they
probably weren't following a
whole lot of those religious
laws out there with the sheep.
These guys aren't your model
temple goers. These guys aren't
supposed to be the first people
to get to meet a new king.
There's a perfect example of
this. If you read Matthew's
version of this whole story, he
says, you know, remember, I'm
not going to read the whole
passage, but just hang with me.
Think about when the Magi go to
King Herod and ask him where
the new king has been born. They
go to the current king because
they would have assumed if
anyone knew where the new king
was born, it would be the
current king. The Magi didn't
think to go ask the shepherds
because that's not how the
new king was born. This good
news will be great joy to all
the people. Not just the ones
up here. It's going to be good
news of joy even to the
outsiders because joy is
available to everyone. Joy is
available to everyone because
Jesus is available to everyone.
Now, I could end there. It's a
story of joy joy joy joy joy
joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy
joy joy joy down in my heart
and button it up right. down in
my heart.
but like I've great and from
Marshall, there's more. There's
still another layer that I want
to point out something that we
missed something that isn't
obvious to us. So, so hang with
me. Okay. So, remember this
story that we're reading that
we're talking about Jesus being
born but it's also part of the
bigger story of Israel. This is
something that we lose when we
think of the gospel and we
think about oh, I'm going to
tell someone about Jesus. We we
do it. We strip Jesus out of
the story of Israel when we
talk to people about him but
when we read this, we have to
remember that this is in the
larger context of something
that had been going on for a
long time. It's the angel
appearing in the night sky.
Those of you who are well read
in your scripture just saying
that is already popping other
things up in your mind and it
would have popped things in the
minds of early readers of this
angels appearing in the night
sky speaking to someone giving
a message from God. It can
remind us of another shepherd
in another field on another
day. It's the night of the
night that Jacob was running
away from home.
Fleeing for his life, fleeing
from his brother because he has
tricked him out of his
blessing. He laid down in a
field with his head on a rock
and he had a dream about angels
in the sky. A lot of people
call it Jacob's ladder. You
know, it's a stairway. It says
that God was there and he spoke
to Jacob and he said, I will
give you and your descendants
the land on which you are
lying. So, think about it.
Jacob has just stolen
something. He's running away.
He's laid his head down on the
ground as a wanderer. He ends
up being a shepherd. And God
says to you, that you will
be blessed through you. Your
descendants will be like the
dust of the earth and you will
spread out to the west, into
the east, to the north, to the
south. Here's this word again,
all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you and your
offspring. This Jacob, this
Jacob is the grandson of
Abraham. The same Jacob that
Isaiah prophesied about that I
mentioned a couple of weeks
ago, the same Jacob that angel
the angel mentioned when
the descendants of Jacob forever, the same Jacob that years later when he finally came home to face
his brother the night before he would see Esau again, afraid of what would happen. The scriptures
say that he wrestled all night with God and in the morning, God changed his name from Jacob to Israel.
And his name became the name for all the people.
The Israelites. From one God encounter to another were meant to be reminded how long they had been
waiting, how long Israel had been waiting for God's promise to them to pay off, how long joy had been
bottled up. I just wonder if like this whole thing, the way that we think about the Christmas story,
maybe you've lost some of the details of your story too. Maybe some of those details need to
be added back to give it a little joy where it belongs. And I wonder if maybe you have joy
bottled up because the promise has been waiting so long. And I want to say that you're not alone.
I feel this way far too often. I feel fine. I'm good. I'm good. Most of the time I feel truly
content, but I hold joy at bay. And when I think of it, the truth is that I do not
want to feel it for very long
because it's like I don't believe that it will last
because it feels like it's something that always goes away.
Like something always goes wrong.
It reminds me of something that Brene Brown wrote. She asks, why do we insist on dress rehearsing
tragedy in moments of deep joy? And she answers, she says, it's because joy is the most vulnerable
emotion we feel. When we feel joy, it is a place of incredible vulnerability. It is beauty and
fragility and deep gratitude and impermanence all wrapped up in one. Beauty, fragility, gratitude,
impermanence. Joy is difficult to fully embrace because our bodies remember the years of waiting.
And we remember the moments that we felt joy leave.
We remember the moments of exile. We remember the years of pain that we felt, and we tell ourselves
that we don't want to feel joy because we don't want to feel it leave again.
We would rather be just okay to just remember joy for a moment than to actually feel it.
There's moments where I come home and my wife is delighted to see me. It's true.
Every once in a while. And she'll just be in a great mood.
And the truth is that sometimes my body does not know what to do with it.
My brain says rejoice with her. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to
do that. My brain says rejoice with her. Be happy with her. Delight with her and in her. Brace this
moment. Live in it. But the memories that my body has tells me to resist. Give her a hug. Be good.
Be good. Be even. But I think that Jesus, maybe this is Captain Obvious moment, but I think that
Jesus wants us to feel joy. He wants me to feel joy. And I know this because he told me in a dream.
And I want to tell you about that dream. But if you will, if you're willing to, what I want you to
do is I want you to close your eyes and imagine it with me. Put yourself in it.
And you have permission to let God shape it in the way that your imagination needs to.
This was literally a few nights ago.
In my dream I was in a restaurant.
And I intuitively just felt like I knew the owner. I also felt like I knew of the chef.
But when I sat down at the table I knew that the server didn't know me.
I felt like that was because it was a fancy restaurant. Kind of place that cost a lot. Five
stars. The truth is that I was not dressed for the restaurant. So it felt as though the server
assumed that I would want something simple because I was dressed simply. So they suggested
something like a chicken dish. But I knew that this restaurant had my favorite dish on the menu.
Now I'd never had it there before, but that particular dish was the best thing that I had ever
tasted. But that had been at a different restaurant. It felt like it had been years ago.
And it felt as though nothing had ever lived up to it.
Moments later the chef comes to the table herself.
And she puts in front of me a plate that had what now I think was one fried ravioli.
It was maybe the size of a Post-it note. It was brown. It felt crispy in my hand. Like if I
snapped it, it would break, but it was full of something soft and savory. She stood there watching
me as I could see myself holding it in front of me. And I put it to my mouth and I took one bite
from the corner and I ate it. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to die.
I took one bite from the corner. As I chewed and as it dissolved in my mouth, I began to weep.
It lit up all of my emotions. While I was still in my mouth with tears coming down my face,
I knew that I was crying because it was better. It was the best thing that I ever tasted. And I
wasn't just crying because it was good. I was crying because I had stopped believing that I
would ever taste something this good again. They were tears of relief. They were tears of comfort.
They were tears of delight. And I woke up feeling like they were tears of joy.
And like God was telling me that there is still better.
And even now with your eyes closed,
I want to tell you about a word called anamnesis.
On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he said, when you do this, do this in anamnesis of me.
Do this in remembrance of me. But this word remember does not mean to think of something
that happened one time anamnesis means to remember as though happening again.
Means to remember as though happening again. Remember as though present here.
So here in this moment, before we begin the table, before we move to the Eucharist,
if you would just let the Holy Spirit serve you.
To give you the dish you've been waiting for.
To let the joy that you experienced one time somewhere else sometime before
be literally handed to you on a platter.
And then accept the reality that we are the ones that have to decide whether we will take it.
God in this moment, I pray that you would convince our hearts to reach out and take,
to take and to eat. I'm reminded of the prophet that was told to eat of the scroll,
the scrolls that were covered in words of sorrow, but when he ate it, it tasted sweet like honey.
I pray that today that we would reach out, that we would receive, that we would take, that you would
convince even in our bodies though we have memories of the sorrows and memories of the feeling of joy
leaving, that by your stripes we would be healed.
That our knee-jerk reactions and rejections of your joy would be overcome by your work,
by your beauty, that we would take and eat.
That we would never hunger again. I pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.