Topsy Turvy

Scriptures:         Isaiah 7:10-16    Luke 1:46-55,    Romans 1:1-7   Matthew 1:18-25

Topsy Turvy

 

I have to begin this sermon with a personal disclosure:  I have no children.  A shocker, I know.  However, one of the gifts of life in the church is being able to spend time – an hour or two on Sunday, anyway – with families with children.   And, of course, most of my friends of mine from high school or college got married and had children – and now these friends are grandparents.  One thing I think it’s safe even for a non-parent like myself to say is that bringing a child into the world is a life-changing event.  There’s life BC – before children – and life AK – after kids.  There’s no going back to what was normal life before children.  After children, there’s a new normal, surrounded by a different set of highs and lows than before, with diapers and feeding schedules and strollers. 

 

Our Scripture readings for today, especially the two Gospel texts – and actually the Luke reading was an optional text for last week – give us pictures of Mary and Joseph dealing with the impending arrival of a child.  And basically, the arrival of the child has turned their lives upside down, being turned topsy turvy.  Neither Mary nor Joseph were planning on a baby at this point in their relationship.  But the angel of the Lord was busy making announcements – to Zechariah that his aged wife, Elizabeth, would be give birth; to Mary, who had not been intimate with Joseph, that she would be with child; to Joseph, to reassure him not to leave Mary, but to see the pregnancy through, because the child was from the Lord.  And all of their lives would be turned upside down. 

 

Our season of Advent waiting is rapidly coming to an end.  At our Christmas Eve service on  Tuesday – at 7 p.m. , be there or be square – we will once again remember and celebrate the coming of the Christ Child.  But in welcoming the Christ child, the baby Jesus, Emanuel, God with us, we’re welcoming the change and adjustment and topsy-turviness that comes with welcoming new life into the world – and not just any new life, but God in the flesh.

 

In our reading from Luke’s Gospel, Mary gives us a very explicit vision of what the coming of the Christ child will mean, for her, and for us.  She begins with expressions of thanksgiving and joy – “My heart rejoices in God my Savior; for God has looked on the lowliness of his servant, and all generations shall call me blessed, for God has done great things for me.”  All understandable, given the blessing God had bestowed on her.  But then she starts talking about society being turned upside down – “God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; God has brought the powerful down from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”  My goodness, Mary started out thanking God for a baby, and now she’s talking about revolution, about society being turned topsy turvy.  How’d we end up here?

 

Mary’s words remind us of how much our culture has domesticated Christmas; how much our culture has domesticated Jesus..  Our society’s tame version of the baby Jesus came to earth to give us Christmas carols and gift wrap and holiday decorations and lines at the mall and a day off work and a big family dinner.  That version of Jesus will change nothing, will only offer us the status quo, more of the same, only to be packed away with the Christmas lights and stored away for another year – and leave us with a boatload of bills to pay come January.

 

But the real Jesus came to turn our life and our world topsy turvy.  Certainly, for those who lived in Jesus’ time, it probably looked like not much changed.   The folks who were in power when Jesus was born were still in power when Jesus was executed.  The high and mighty were still high and mighty and the destitute were still destitute.  But Jesus’ ministry and message, his death and resurrection set in motion changes that are still playing themselves out 2000 years later.  Caesars have come, and Caesars have gone, and Christ and his message about the reign of God are still here.  And the body of Christ on earth, the church, is still here.

 

On Christmas Eve, we welcome the coming of the baby Jesus.  But do we know who it is we’re welcoming?  Are we prepared for what it will mean to welcome the Christ child?  Because the child will grow up into a man, named Jesus, who will demand change.  And those in authority know it, and fear it.  In the years following Jesus’ birth, Herod tried to have him killed, slaughtering many other innocent babies in the process.  Consistently through his ministry, he was a challenge to the religious establishment.   And in speaking about the kingdom of God, the reign of God, Jesus was a threat to the reign of Caesar.  And so Caesar – through his representative, Pontius Pilate, had him executed.

 

Are we ready?  Are we ready to have our lives turned upside down – or maybe, more accurately, turned right side up?  Are we ready to enter the topsy-turvy world of Jesus, where the poor receive the kingdom of heaven and the meek inherit the earth; where the hungry are fed and the naked are clothed and the sick are healed and the prisoners are released, where those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are satisfied, and where the rich and powerful, those who’ve been running the show, and running those on the bottom of society into the ground, they are sent away empty?  Are we ready? Are we ready?

 

If your name is Herod, or if your name is Caesar, you’re not ready, and you’ll never be ready.  But if you’re us here at Emanuel – struggling to scratch out a living, or struggling to scrape by on a monthly check, struggling to find work that pays a living wage, or struggling to find time and energy to hold down multiple jobs, struggling to raise the children God has blessed us with, working hard to keep a marriage or a relationship together – and every single person here today is struggling with something, every last one of us carrying a heavy load -  we are the ones to whom Jesus came to preach good news of great joy.

 

Yes, the baby will turn our lives upside, down, will turn our world upside down.  But the message of the angel to Mary and to Joseph is God’s message to us – do not be afraid.  Don’t be afraid to risk public ridicule, as Joseph did in taking the pregnant Mary as his wife.  Don’t be afraid because you can’t see the end of the path on which God is leading us.  All we’re asked to do is to trust God for the next step, and the next…..the next step on the journey, the next day of our lives, the next year of Emanuel Church’s ministry here in Bridesburg.  Things will be topsy turvy, in our lives and here at Emanuel Church, but God will be in the midst of the topsy-turviness…and so we’ll be ok.  We’ll be ok.  Amen.