Presentation to Montclair Mother of Preschoolers (MOPS) on December 14, 2022
Good morning moms! It is 10 more shopping days until Christmas! Are you ready? If you have been shopping you know the stores are certainly ready, right? They have been ready since Halloween, with decorations and advertisements everywhere. There is also no end of entertainment available: Christmas story books, TV specials and movies. I looked up favorite Christmas movies on Google and of course it has a list of the 65 top movies, a very eclectic selection: from It’s a Wonderful Life, Frosty the Snowman and The Polar Express, to Die Hard, Home Alone and Love Actually. The Hallmark Channel and Netflix has an endless supply of Christmas themed love stories offered this time of year.
My personal favorite Christmas movie wasn’t on Google’s list. It is called The Nativity Story. Have you heard of it? Maybe it did not make Google’s list because it is just the original Christmas story. Many have tried to create a more modern and exciting story, but for me, nothing surpasses the miraculous impact of the original.
Maybe it’s considered boring because it is essentially a story about a mom and her birth story. But for us moms, what could be more interesting? That is the first question I ask when I see a new mom. I always ask how the birth went. I want to know all the details of the delivery and usually the mom is ready to tell me the whole thing from start to finish. It’s cathartic for the mom and fascinating for me.
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| Christina's Birth/Christmas Stocking |
As I told you all last month, my first child was born on Christmas Eve. It’s 35 years ago but I can still clearly remember circumstances of her birth. I remember having my brother-in-law come and pick up our dog because I had been having contractions for what seemed like days. I remember the ride to the hospital in the middle of the night with the muffler dragging making the most horrific noise. I remember the doctor examining me the next morning telling me since my contractions had stopped to go home, only to return a few hours later after my water broke. I remember how the walls of the room looked as I labored and how the nurse told me I would forget all about the pain. The woman laboring in the next room had been howling in pain and my husband comforted me saying, “The doctor said all labors are different, honey! Yours won’t be that bad.” I remember my baby Christina screaming as she poked her head out of me and the nurses commenting that she had a good set of lungs. On Christmas morning in the hospital they brought her to me in a baby-sized red stocking and a little red cap. She was perfect. I was so happy.
You remember too, don’t you? Sometimes the tiny details of that one special time stand out so bold in our memory, don’t they? Some women, I am told even remember the night their baby was conceived. I don’t but some do.
2000 years ago, Mary of Nazareth was probably around my age when a man named Luke visited her and asked her what she remembered about her son Jesus. Luke was documenting the life of Jesus and he started his scroll with this:
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses ... With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account… (Luke 1:1-3)
Luke tells us there were already other documents written about Jesus at that time, specifically the scrolls that would become the gospels of Mark and Matthew, but Luke was looking for more information from eye witnesses. Luke, who was a medical doctor by profession, understood the importance of obtaining eye witness testimony from Jesus’ mother.
But we know how mothers feel, don’t we? So we are not at all surprised when Mary was asked, she remembered many details about the birth of her son Jesus, even His conception. Luke’s gospel reads:
… God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. (Luke 1:26-29)
In those days, it was not 20-30 year olds getting married as is the case today. Mary was engaged at the time and so she was probably around age 15. Can you imagine how you would feel, at age 15, if you were sitting in your home, maybe folding laundry or washing dishes and suddenly there was an angel in front of you talking to you? No wonder she was troubled and confused!
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a Son, and you are to call Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:30-34)
Mary still had questions, of course! I love that Luke records her questions and that the angel Gabriel was quick to explain.
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:35-38)
Can’t you picture Mary telling this story to Luke with him writing down notes as she spoke? So many years had past and yet she was able to remember it so clearly because of the impression such a miracle had on her life.
There are those who do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Of course it is hard to blame them, it is such an impossible thing. Even angel Gabriel acknowledges this. But the Jewish scriptures and the recollections recorded in the gospel of Matthew corroborate this. 700 years earlier, the Jewish prophet Isaiah recorded this revelation:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel [meaning God with us]. (Isaiah 7:14)
The gospel of Matthew records Joseph’s side of the story:
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:19-21)
In those days, an unmarried woman found to be pregnant could be stoned to death under Jewish law. Mary’s agreeing to God’s plan meant she could be disgraced, at best and stoned at worst. Mary was not only obedient but also courageous. Notice Joseph’s reluctance to move forward with his marriage to Mary because he knew the baby was not his and so he assumed she was unfaithful to him until God sent an angel to him as well. This was complicated enough but God was not done. The Baby had to be born in Bethlehem. Also 700 years earlier, the Jewish prophet Micah prophesied where their Messiah would be born:
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)
God used the Roman Caesar to accomplish this. Luke continues:
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. (Luke 2:1-6)
The trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem is about 90 miles, less then 2 hours by car but over a week by foot. This is about the same distance as from Montclair to Philadelphia. Can you picture this? Imagine yourself in Mary’s place, you are at the end of your first pregnancy and you are leaving everything and everyone you know: your home, your mother, older sisters, your aunts and traveling with a man you have not had sex with yet for 90 miles carrying everything you own on a donkey. And then when you arrive in town, things get worse. There is no place to stay so the only shelter Joseph can find is a barn.
While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a Son. She wrapped Him in cloths and placed Him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:7)
Again imagine you are Mary. You are surrounded by cows, chickens, ox, dung and hay, and there you give birth. Your only aide comes from a man who had never witnessed a birth of a baby and also never seen you undressed. How are we doing? How’s her birth story compared to yours so far? Why isn’t this enough drama for a good movie? But the miracles don’t stop coming. Luke continues.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a Baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.”
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the Baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen Him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this Child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2:8-19)
Aren’t you amazed at how God planned for His Son to come to earth? It could have been in any way He wanted, as a powerful prince on white horse, or with all the angels in glory coming down directly from the sky. God could have sent His Son as someone rich, powerful, comfortable and famous with Youtube and Twitter enabling Him to send His message to everyone in the world at once.
But instead God’s perfect plan was for His Son to enter the world as we all do, naked from our mother’s womb, helpless and dependent. He also entered poor and homeless to a teen girl far from home, family, let alone good medical care.
The question this morning for us moms is, why is this original Christmas story important? What can God be saying to us in that He preserved this story so that we can hear it over 2000 years later across the world in New Jersey?
I think God is trying to tell us that moms are important. That God values our contribution even though it often seems small and insignificant. That God sees us and will come to our aid when things get difficult.
And it all began with Mary saying YES to the angel Gabriel. She could have replied anything to the angel, but she said: “I am the Lord’s servant.” That was all she had to do. God took care of everything else. God provided the miraculous conception through the Holy Spirit. God sent an angel to Joseph convincing him not to divorce and disgrace Mary but to move forward with the marriage. God used the Roman Ceasar’s decree to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, the prophesied location for the birth of the Messiah. God even provided a shelter and safety for the baby to be born. It was a hard place to be sure, but it worked out.
That is what God wants from us this Christmas, to say YES to Him and then trust Him for the rest.
Even though Mary did not understand the full implications of what was happening to her, she did understand God’s love and mercy. While she was pregnant, she visited her cousin Elizabeth and doctor Luke records this song she sang:
“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For He took notice of His lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy,
and He has done great things for me.
He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear Him.” (Luke 1:46-50)
That is the story of Christmas, God’s mercy and great love even to this generation of moms today in New Jersey. So Merry Christmas.
