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December 30, 2007 Rev. Steve Gehlert Christmas is over. Soon, most of us will have put away the ornaments and have dragged the tree out to the curb. It's over. Now, back to normal. Christmas is a wonderland, a fantasy of snow, love, and good will. But normal is the world as it really is the workaday, ordinary fallen world. Yet, after the parties, visits with relatives, the giving and receiving, the doing our best to remember those in need, the helping out in ways that aren't typical of us, don't we kind of look forward to getting back to work, back to accustomed routines, back to normal? Isn't that why most of us pack away the creche, take down the tree, turn off the lights by the first of the year? We'll celebrate Jesus' birth (and live as if his birth makes a difference) for a limited period of time, but we don't want to have to sustain it for too long. We don't want the new year to be too new. It's so much easier to live in the "normal" world, the world that doesn't give much thought to him or his way. We want to protect our "normal." And yet, something has happened in our world since we last met. Jesus has been born. God has come among us, intruded upon us as babe in a manger. Still today, we're singing songs welcoming him. But is it time to get back to normal? King Herod, when he heard the magi speak of a newborn king, wanted to protect his normal, his power and control, so he unleashed a murderous slaughter of all the baby boys. It took an angel's warning to get Mary and Joseph to flee with Jesus as refugees to Egypt. Is it time to get back to normal? We welcomed Jesus as the messiah – at least for a week. But Herod didn't welcome him. There was too much about his normal that he wanted to protect. What about us? This baby brought a new kingdom, a new rule. In that, he was an attack on everything Herod believed in. But he's also an attack on everything we believe in. If we truly welcome him into our world, none of us can ever go back to normal. He makes us all "refugees" from our old, accustomed ways of doing things. There are people here today who could tell us. People who were going along in their old ruts, going through the motions, just normal. Then they met Jesus. He was born into their live, their world. And everything got disrupted. They were forced to move, made to change. Others are still deciding. Their dad grew up in a house where father was master and mom the servant, and learned that nothing was his responsibility, and even if you said you'd do something, if you avoided it long enough, eventually, mom would do it. So, their dad makes sure that he is counted on for nothing but a paycheck. Dad can leave messes and not clean them up, watch TV when there's lots to do, and say he'll do things but ignore them until mom, in frustration, is forced to do them. That's the "normal" their dad's been able to establish. That's what they've seen as they've grown up, along with pouting, fuming, put downs of their mom for being "obsessive" when she reminds him of things. So, as kids, they've never been counted on to do anything regularly either. That kind of empty-promise, no commitment, no responsibility "normal" is mighty appealing. It's so easy. All you have to do is what's convenient for you. All you have to do, is watch someone else do everything. And not care. Problem is, they've also grown up learning about Jesus, seeing his self-giving love in others, so they do care. Though they've often mimicked their dad, avoided responsibility, and let mom do it all, deep down, they know it's not right. They know what it's like not to be able to count on him, to have his words be empty, to know he doesn't care. So, as they become adults, they have to decide if that's what they'll do to others, to choose between the self-serving "normal" of their dad, or the self-giving "normal" of Jesus Since Jesus has come, what's been "normal" doesn't have to be. Do ya really wanna live that anyway? |
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