Message by Rev. John Culp : December 30, 2007
Now What?”
Text – Luke 2:21-24
Now what?!
There is still a day and a half left of old 2007, but Christmas is already past. You can almost feel the tentacles of those post-holiday blues beginning to wrap themselves around your throat, can’t you? All of us are aware of that general seasonal trend. For some, however, those after-Christmas blues reach the really serious level of clinical depression. Dr. Gary Malone is chief of behavioral health at the Baylor University Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. Malone reports that he actually sees more cases of depression in January than at any other time of the year. (Source: www.healthday.com)
Now we can think of a number of causes for that phenomenon. No doubt the change of seasons plays a significant part. The lack of light is the well-documented culprit of what’s come to be known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). For us here in western Pennsylvania, the seemingly unending series of grey, sunless days that we know so well certainly doesn’t help!
But I would bet that they get plenty of sunshine down there in Fort Worth. We all know that there’s more to it than just the weather! The rhythm of our annual holiday celebration unquestionably plays a large role. You know how it is: You put all this physical and emotional energy into preparing for what for most of us is the biggest holiday of the year. Then in just a day, Christmas is over! Some emotional letdown is inevitable. I suspect that this time of year most all of us are left at least some years with an overwhelming feeling of Now what?!
If that’s the case for you – this Christmas season or ever – I have good news for you! As in every sphere of life, our faith in Jesus Christ – as you know, the Reason-for-the-Season in the first place – has the answer to the problem.
And while the whole truth of the Gospel combats depression – seasonal or otherwise – I want to suggest that we look in a perhaps surprising place. It’s a part of the Gospel story that gets relatively little attention. The events described in today’s text from Luke would be memorable enough in the life of any first-century Jewish family: attending to the rites prescribed in the Law of Moses following the birth of a first male child.
But in the context of the story of the birth of Jesus, they’re very easy to miss. You may know that immediately after the passage we just read, not one but two devout people – the man Simeon and a woman named Anna – meet Mary and Joseph in the Temple, and deliver striking inspired prophecies about the Baby Jesus. And of course the brief story we just read comes right on the heels of that familiar, spectacular account of Christ’s birth, complete with the journey to Bethlehem, no room at the inn, amazed shepherd visitors and a glorious choir of angels.
In the midst of such amazing parts of the story, it’s easy indeed to miss this simple account of a poor family’s faithful observance of the routine rituals associated with the birth of a child. But we do well to take a closer look at what Luke has to report to us here, even for very practical reasons. That’s because
The faithfulness of Mary and Joseph provides for us an example
that serves us well as we face the post-Christmas letdown, and in all of life.
It seems to me that three specific things Joseph and Mary do are of interest to us here. Let’s take a few moments to look briefly at each.
First, there is the circumcision of the Baby Jesus. It calls us to remember.
The special religious observances of the Bible always called God’s people to remember. As they participated in those observances, it was certainly true that they were to be very much in the moment. At the same time, those rituals also directed their attention to the future, as they thought about God’s call on their lives.
But in a big way, at key times in the religious life of God’s people, He called them – He calls us – to look back, and to remember. When God first gave the rite of circumcision to Abraham close to 2,000 years before the birth of Christ (Genesis 17:9-14), He gave is as a sign and seal of His covenant with the patriarch, calling him and all his descendants after him to remember and keep that covenant. The physical mark of circumcision on the body would be a lifelong reminder for all who received it.
When God gave the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 20:2), He began by reminding Moses of all He had done for Israel in the miraculous Exodus from slavery in Egypt.
Near the end of Joshua’s life, when God renewed the covenant with His people (Joshua 24:1-13), He started by calling them to remember what He had already done for them in the conquest of the Promised Land.
When God established an everlasting covenant with His servant David, He first (2 Samuel 7:8-9) reminded David of all that He had done for the king to get him to that point.
When in the shadow of the cross Jesus establishes His New Covenant, He gives us this sacramental meal, in which He calls us always to remember (Luke 22:19).
In that spirit of remembrance this humble couple presents their precious Baby Boy to receive the age-old rite of circumcision. No doubt as they do, they wonder what the future will hold for their miraculous Child. But surely as He is circumcised, they would have to remember the richness of God’s covenant blessings to their fathers across the ages. Certainly they would remember as well the amazing things that have been promised about this holy Child.
Their faithfulness in having Jesus circumcised points us in a very positive direction. When we take time to remember, that exercise helps us tremendously if our emotions start to head south – right after Christmas or any time.
Even if you’re aware that life is very hard for you these days, let me encourage you to remember God’s blessings. How has He blessed you in this season of Christmas? How has He blessed you in the past year? How has He blessed you across the years of your life so far? Especially when you come to the Lord’s table for communion (which you’ll have the opportunity to do tomorrow at our New Year’s Eve service, and next Sunday in worship), you need always to look at the cross, remembering the breath-taking depth of God’s love for you in His precious Son.
Do you think all that won’t help fight those post-Christmas blahs? First, the circumcision of the Baby Jesus calls us to remember.
Then there is Joseph and Mary’s naming of their Baby, in which God calls us to obey.
It was customary for Jews to formally name their baby boys at the time they were circumcised. So Luke reports that on that eighth day after His birth, Mary and Joseph officially name their Son Jesus (2:21).
Luke reminds us that when the angel Gabriel first announced to Mary some time before this what was about to happen to her, he commanded that she should give Him this name (1:31). So their naming their Baby Jesus was an act of obedience to the angel’s command.
Now I confess that I don’t recall ever having thought much about this. I suppose I’ve always just taken for granted Jesus’ parents’ choice of His name. Maybe you have, too. But it doesn’t strain the limits of the imagination too much to wonder if Joseph might have had a thought something like this: ‘I know what the angel told Mary. But if I’m going to raise this Boy as my own, I should have some say in the whole matter! And there has been no one named Jehoshua in my family back as far as I know. I think we’ll name Him after my grandfather Yitzhak…’
It might seem silly to even speculate along those lines! But it’s true beyond question that Joseph and Mary’s calling their Son Jesus was an act of faithful obedience. That in turn makes us think about the whole matter of obedience in our own lives.
Lowell Streiker tells a story that took place when he was serving as pastor of a church in Philadelphia. One afternoon he was working out back of his house. He was tying to get a vine to climb up the side of the house, so he was nailing it up. The vine was very long. The whole time he was pounding nail after nail into the wall, a neighbor’s son stood by watching closely. Finally Streiker took a break and said, “Well, my young friend, are you trying to get a hint or two on gardening?”
The little guy answered right away, “No, sir. I’m waiting to see what a minister says when he hammers his thumb.” (Lowell D. Streiker, An Encyclopedia of Humor, page 67.)
The question of obedience to the will of God in our lives looms large for us all. And it goes lots deeper than any bad words we might say if we happen to hammer a thumb! Not just occasionally, but on a regular basis – every hour of every day – we disobey God, both in what we do, and in the good we leave undone. That’s why prayers of confession are such a vital part of our private devotional life and our corporate worship.
But when we follow the example of Mary and Joseph in obeying the revealed will of God, we find the secret of that which can help us with any after-Christmas blues, and in fact with all the challenges of life.
You may know that God promises great blessings to His people when we obey. Moses records a list of some specific rewards that will come to Israel when they do what God has commanded them (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). They deal with Israel’s agriculture and commerce, with their families, with the military and political life of the nation. In short, God promises to cover His people with His covenant blessings when they obey Him.
Now it would be naïvely simplistic to claim that our lives will be free from any suffering or adversity if we simply obey God’s law. God has given us the striking story of Job to teach us better! And it’s really no wonder that God’s blessings to us should be less than complete and perfect. Our obedience is always far less than perfect and complete!
At the same time, there is no question that God blesses us when we obey Him. As he writes to his friends in Philippi, shortly after calling them to be obedient to the Lord (Philippians 4:1), the Apostle Paul gives this great assurance: “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus” (4:19 NLT).
So whether or not you’re feeling down in the aftermath of your Christmas celebration this year, let me encourage you to take moral inventory of your life. Are there any areas of your life in which you know you’re less than obedient? I can promise you that when we’re faithful to obey our holy, loving God, He is always faithful to bless us!
So second, Joseph and Mary’s naming of Jesus calls us to obey our Father God.
Luke also records the offering Joseph and Mary make as part of the ritual for her post-childbirth purification. That simple act of faithfulness reminds us to think of the ways in which we relate, both to others and to God.
The Law of Moses said that a woman was ceremonially unclean following the birth of any child (Leviticus 12). The period of her uncleanness lasted forty days if she bore a son; eighty days if she had a daughter. At the conclusion of that period, she was to come to the Tabernacle (later the Temple), bringing an offering to the Lord. Then once again she would be able to participate fully in the religious life of her nation.
We may tend to think only of ourselves. Certainly we’re likely to feel that our religion is strictly a personal matter, that it has nothing to do with anyone but us and God. Mary’s obedience to the law is a simple but powerful testimony to her awareness that she was part of a community of faith, a community to whom God had given very specific commands governing the ways in which they were to live in relation to each other and to Him.
In today’s Old Testament lesson, David declares: “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:3 NKJV). He knew that, especially in the face of the problems of life, we need to focus on the God who can deliver us. Thinking exclusively about yourself will only contribute to any tendency toward depression, or at least intensify and prolong our emotional lows.
Author Fred Smith tells of one of his treasured memories. It was a small drama that he saw played out in a doughnut shop in Grand Saline, Texas. A young farm couple was sitting at the table next to his. The man was wearing overalls; the woman a gingham dress. After finishing their doughnuts, he got up to pay the bill, and Smith noticed that she didn’t get up to follow him. But then the man came back and stood in front of her.
She put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up, revealing that she was wearing a full-body brace. He lifted her out of her chair and backed out the front door to the pickup truck, with her hanging from his neck. As he gently put her into the truck, everyone in the shop watched. No one said anything until a waitress remarked, almost reverently, “He took his vows seriously.” (told in Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 1.)
Throughout our days we relate to other people. Some are spouses to whom we have promised to be faithful, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. Some are friends. Some are total strangers. But the ways we relate to each of them are intimately bound up with our relationship with the God who has made us all.
Focus exclusively on yourself, and you will be writing yourself a prescription for depression and all manner of mental and emotional maladies. Look beyond your own navel to those with whom you rub shoulders each day, and you will not only be more faithful to God’s will for your life. You will also be helping yourself stay on the path to greater mental health.
Mary’s simple faithfulness to God’s law of purification helps us remember that life-changing, life-giving truth.
We’ve been thinking today about the faithful example Joseph and Mary set for us. Fred Craddock is a distinguished pastor, preacher and professor. He has a vivid, memorable way to help us think about what it means – and what it does not mean – for us to be faithful.
Craddock points out that it may appear somehow attractive to us to give our lives for Christ. We may think in terms of pouring ourselves out for others – even of paying the ultimate price of martyrdom. If being faithful means going out in a blaze of glory, we might at times be entirely ready to sign up for that assignment.
In that light, giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it down on the counter, saying, “Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.”
But, Craddock goes on, the reality for most of us is that Jesus sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here, 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of telling her you’re too busy. Show as much genuine interest as you can possibly muster when the old man in the nursing home tells you the same story for the hundred and first time. Even go to a committee meeting over at church, though you’d rather stay at home chilling in front of the TV.
Craddock concludes that being faithful, giving your life to Christ usually isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easier to go out in a flash of glory. It’s harder to live the Christian life little by little, over the long haul. (Darryl Bell, in Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 4.)
Now what?
Christmas is over! Focus on Christmas and you’re just setting yourself up for depression.
But Christ is forever. He has promised to be with us always! Fix your gaze moment by moment, day by day on Him and on being faithful to His will for your life – even as did Mary and Joseph after the first Christmas – and you’ll find the secret of real power and joy in living.
Let us pray. Thank You, heavenly Father, for the beauty of the Christmas story. Please forgive us when we live as though we worship the holy day, rather than the One who makes it holy. Help us to be faithful to Your will for our lives, just as did Mary and Joseph so long ago, that we might live not in the fleeting happiness of Christmas, but rather in the surpassing, enduring joy of Christ our Savior. We pray in His blessed name. Amen.