St. Andrew Presbyterian Church
  • Home
  • New Here?
    • Belonging Here
    • Contact Us
    • Directions
  • Who We Are
    • Stories
    • About Our Ministries
    • Leadership
    • Staff
    • Manantial de Vida Congregation
  • Worship
    • Worship in Absentia
    • Sermons
    • Audio excerpts
    • Aftertalk
    • News >
      • News
    • Newsletter
  • Give
  • Get Involved
    • Choirs and Music
    • Social Groups
    • Community Service
    • Missions >
      • NICHE
      • Gulfport Mississippi 2008
      • Honduras 2012
      • Honduras 2015
      • Honduras 2018 >
        • NPH 2018 photos
    • Christian Formation
    • Sustainable Living
    • Worship
    • Youth Group
  • Calendar
  • File Cabinet
    • Donations - Electronic
    • Clerks Drawer
    • Elder/Deacon Resources
    • Policies and Procedures
    • Personnel and Budget Drawer
    • Media
    • Members & Metrics
    • Our Discernment Process
    • SHALOM
    • Directory & Deacons' Lists
  • Coronavirus Updates
  • Bridge Ministries Sunday

Christmas Day, Year A

12/25/2016

0 Comments

 

Julie Kae Sigars

Isaiah 52:7-10 • Psalm 98 • Hebrews 1:1-12 • John 1:1-14

​No one is alone.
​
In the beginning was the Word
       and the WORD was WITH God.

This WORD became flesh and LIVED AMONG US.

No one is alone. Not even Joseph, and Mary, and the infant Jesus.

When I think of the birth of Jesus, I think of Joseph and Mary—going to a strange place---traveling from inn to inn…looking for a place to stay…alone.  rejected.

Yet, when I read the story in Luke, in the CEB translation…. we hear:  While Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom. 

Guestroom.  Yes. It seems that all along, there might not have been an INN like we think of it. A motel.​
Matthew has nothing about the actual birth besides: Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the rule of King Herod. And then we hear the magi story.  No lonely Joseph and Mary going place to place to find room to give birth. 

Somehow, I think this appeals to us, the idea of Joseph and Mary being rejected.  I recall many a Christmas pageant, where there were lots of innkeepers. All saying no, until the last one. It did give each of the children a part in the play. But in the story, the first one person who answered the door said YES. Of course. But there isn’t room in the normal place you would stay. The guestroom or the upper room. Why?  All those other relatives, second and third cousins, folks you might not know, who also arrived for the census, they are already here. But in naming your own heritage, “I am Joseph, son of Jacob, song of Matthan,” which we hear in the very beginning of Matthew…and This is Mary my wife. About to give birth”  Of course! Jacob, son of Matthan …you would have a place to stay. No room in the guestroom, the upper room, it is packed, but here, stay here in the great room, the living room, where we bring the animals in at night…you can come here.

That’s why there was a manger. Not out in a barn. But we bring the animals in to the house. To keep them safe and warm. And Jesus, the bread of life, Word made flesh, was laid, snugly wrapped in a manger, a place for food, for animals.

Jesus was born in the midst of lots of people. Which was probably a blessing for Mary and Joseph. Women there to help with the birth and to provide wisdom and food for them.

Joseph, having had this amazing dream about Mary and her child, was given a place with his family, because that is what the people did. You are my great uncles grandson?

Of course you are! Come in! Sorry it is so crowded. We will make due. Speaking of due, my goodness! Wife! Daughters! Aunts! Come and help this young mother to be!

Just imagine. All those people.  All that ….flesh.

The WORD became flesh. That WORD that was there in the very beginning, That WORD became flesh.

Stop and feel your hands. Flesh.  Feel your face. Flesh. 

Touching your loved ones faces and hands…The WORD became FLESH. Soft and smooth like a baby’s skin. Wrinkled, dry, and droppy like many of us. But flesh all the same.

Became a part of you and me. What we are as human beings.

Into our messy lives.  Didn’t stay in the best room. Stayed where there WAS room.

And this WORD, THIS FLESH, that lived among us. was the light for the world. That enlightens everyone.

No one is alone. Jesus Christ, born in a manger, but a manger surrounded by other flesh. God came to be with us, in the midst of all of us.

The mystery and the mess.

Thanks be to God. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    St. Andrew Sermons

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Advocacy
    Allegory
    All Saints
    Annie Dillard
    Anti Racism
    Anti-Racism
    Ash Wednesday
    Auden
    Authority
    Baptism
    Beatitudes
    #BlackLivesMatter
    Bones
    Catechumenate
    Center Of Hope
    Christian Formation
    Christian Hope
    Christmas
    Clarity
    Climate Change
    Communion
    Compassion
    Confession
    Courage
    Creation Care
    Creative Process
    CS Lewis
    Dance
    Deacons
    Dealing With Death
    Desmond Tutu
    Despair
    Discernment
    Easter
    Economics
    Fairy Tales
    Faith
    Faithfulness
    Fecundity
    Footwashing
    Forgiveness
    Frederich Buechner
    Fred Rogers
    Generosity
    Godspell
    Good Friday
    Grace
    Gratitude
    Greatness
    Guns
    Hans Rosling
    Home
    Honduras
    Hope
    Housing
    Hulie Wigmen
    Incarnation
    Jan Dittmar
    Jimmy Nelson
    Judgment
    Julie Kae Sigars
    Justice
    Leadership
    Leigh Weber
    Lent
    Life In Christ
    Linda Ferguson
    Living In The Light
    Longing
    Love
    Maggie Breen
    Maundy Thursday
    Memory
    #MeToo
    Miracles
    Moral Injury
    Neighborliness
    New Life
    Newness Of Life
    Nicodemus
    NPH
    Palm Sunday
    Parables
    Peacemaking
    Pentecost
    People's Campaign
    Photography
    Poetry
    Pope Francis
    PTSD
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    REACH
    Reformation (New)
    Reign Of Christ
    Resilience
    Richard Powers
    Righteousness
    Robin Wall Kimmerer
    Role Of The Church
    Scott Anderson
    Security
    Sermon On The Mount
    Sermon On The Plain
    Sin
    Singing
    Social Media
    Solidarity
    Spiritual Formation
    Steadfast Love
    Temptation
    The Church
    Timothy Egan
    Transfiguration
    Trinity
    Tse-whit-zen
    Wendell Berry
    White Supremacy
    Wonder



​WORSHIP

Sunday 10am

PHONE:
425-272-5836


​OFFICE HOURS
Wednesday and Thursday
10AM-12PM 
                                        

  • Home
  • New Here?
    • Belonging Here
    • Contact Us
    • Directions
  • Who We Are
    • Stories
    • About Our Ministries
    • Leadership
    • Staff
    • Manantial de Vida Congregation
  • Worship
    • Worship in Absentia
    • Sermons
    • Audio excerpts
    • Aftertalk
    • News >
      • News
    • Newsletter
  • Give
  • Get Involved
    • Choirs and Music
    • Social Groups
    • Community Service
    • Missions >
      • NICHE
      • Gulfport Mississippi 2008
      • Honduras 2012
      • Honduras 2015
      • Honduras 2018 >
        • NPH 2018 photos
    • Christian Formation
    • Sustainable Living
    • Worship
    • Youth Group
  • Calendar
  • File Cabinet
    • Donations - Electronic
    • Clerks Drawer
    • Elder/Deacon Resources
    • Policies and Procedures
    • Personnel and Budget Drawer
    • Media
    • Members & Metrics
    • Our Discernment Process
    • SHALOM
    • Directory & Deacons' Lists
  • Coronavirus Updates
  • Bridge Ministries Sunday