Christmas Eve                        Luke 2:1-20                               12/24/06 PM

                                           "Ponderings"

 

Pondering - a lost art, I think. With MP3's, Bose music systems, television (why, we can even have video players in our cars now) there’s too much noise to allow for pondering. With a long work day, calendar full activities, multiple jobs and multi-tasking, there’s no time for pondering. With all we carry on our hearts and minds, there may not be an openness to pondering even. This could be a greater loss than we know though.

That wasn’t the case back in Mary’s day. There was plenty of time as she and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem and then around town seeking a place to stay. With nothing to distract her but the sounds of animals and birth pangs there was nothing to do but ponder. For one so young, a teenager probably, she’d had a lot of strange experiences, especially in the last nine months, so she must have been very open to pondering.

And was there a lot to ponder...

 

The appearance of an angel telling her she would bear God’s Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. She was just a peasant girl after all, why would God show her such favor?

 

The need to trek (70 miles by the shortest route, through Samaria) to be part of a

Roman tax registration like no other before or since - and at this time with the birth

so near. What strange timing God has and what power to manipulate Rome so the prophecy would be fulfilled.

 

Oh, and the birth itself. Any woman who’s given birth can tell you, there’s much

to ponder when you’re in full labor, and for a young girl having her first child, in a stable,

probably with only this man, not yet her husband to attend her? What did she draw on

for strength during those hours?

And then there were those shepherds, rough fellows strangely transformed, with their

amazing story of a special proclamation and angel choirs, who came to see The Child...

her child... Why them? Why her? Why God!?

 

Yes, there was much for Mary to ponder and those ponderings would likely have continued, at times more sadly, later in life as well.

 

Perhaps through feelings of disappointment and abandonment she pondered by He insisted He must give up carpentry and leave home to become an itinerant preacher...

Nights she lay awake pondering anxiously where He might be and what was happening

to Him. Did He still have that warm cloak she’d made Him?

 

Three years later, heart-wrenching agony of watching Him hanging on the cross, mixed with gratitude that His suffering was over when He finally died.

 

But then,... the utterly amazing event of His rising from the grave. What joy-filled

ponderings since that Easter morning...

 

Yes. And Mary surely did keep all these things and ponder them in her heart.

And ever since, men, women and children have pondered what this all meant for their lives and their world.

 

Through years of war, plague, famine, persecution and just the normal pains of living, Mary’s descendants have pondered what part their experience will have in God’s great plan. They’ve pondered how to draw on the strength Mary modeled as they face their long, sometimes painful, journeys. They’ve pondered how God could have done all this for them and their world.

 

Through births and deaths, good health and sickness, success and failure, happiness and sorrow, Mary’s descendants have pondered what that baby born in a stable means for their lives. They’ve pondered how He could come to earth to save them from the oppression of sin. They’ve pondered how they can ever show Him how much His sacrifice meant to them.

Now, in the year of our Lord, 2006, (and in all the days and years to come) I invite you to join Mary and her descendants in their ponderings. Ponder:

 

* How do the angels of God come and speak to you today? What message do they bring?

 

* Where do you see the hand of God in the happenings of your life?

 

* WHO is always there as you experience the pain and joy of your life? What part have you and your actions played in God’s on-going story of salvation?

 

* Have you allowed yourself to be transformed by angel choirs and the story of God’s unending love for you? Have you followed the urge to come and see, and to go and tell?

Make time, find space, seek silence within and without and open your hearts to the wonder and joy of what God has done for you. Then, have a blessed Christmas and a blessed life all the days of your life. Amen