From The First Baptist Church in America pulpit

“Mary Kept All These Things” (Luke 2:15-19)

Christmas Eve 2007

Dr. Dan Ivins, preaching

Christmas Eve is a wild scene. Everybody up there’s coming down here. Everybody down here’s looking up there. Angel’s sing. Shepherds quake. Wise Men follow. Caesar taxes. Herod fears. And Mary ... ponders. She kept it all to herself -- cuddling her armful-of-promise, that’s mystified people for centuries. So we're not quite sure what to do with Mary. Our Catholic friends have elevated her to the mother-of-god. To Protestants, she’s little more than a baby carriage.

But the Gospel of Luke focuses on the conception, not the birth. We call it, for lack of a better term: “Immaculate.” That which was conceived was of God in her womb. But the best she could do was “keep silent about it and pondered it in her heart." And what it meant to be “overshadowed” by the Almighty. Angels singing heavenly birth-announcements, we can understand. Shepherds bowing in reverence before the manger, makes sense. Joseph changing his mind about his new bride after a dream, all that we can accept, if we’re more familiar with grace than law. But Mary unnerves us with her Christmas calm.

Somehow she was impregnated with Grace. And she delivered it to the world. “For unto us, a Child was born!” Offering us a chance to believe in the future again! As a church; as people on this planet. But for that to happen, we too will need to ponder. To take anything in our arms, we’ll have to put down whatever we’re carrying. We can’t expect to be at God’s side while trying to keep him at arm’s length. Before we can take up Jesus into our arms we’ve gotta stop lugging around things we don’t need–old grudges and wounds, regret and guilt, the if-only’s, soft-mindedness, fears, illusion and self-deception -- the chief sins of church people. God sent his Son to break the yoke of those things. What have you brought with you tonight? What taxes your spirit, saps your energy? What anchor is holding you back? Now’s the time to lay it down, so that your arms will be freed up to hold Mary’s child!

So Mary ponders. And God saw something in this young woman that made her fit to mother the Messiah. The Apostle Paul thought Abraham was the father of all believers. But for Luke, Mary’s the mother of all believers. Not just because she gave birth. Most any adolescent can do that. But the way she responded before and after the birth. That’s what made God smile!

Everybody knows Mary’s first career was mothering Jesus. But have you ever pondered her second career -- birthing the Church? Mary’s wasn’t a blind faith. Hers was a religion with some grit in it. So this homeless teenager told Gabriel, "Yeah, I don't know why I should, but let’s give it a go." She wasn't sure she knew why, but somebody remembered her saying "Let it be to me as you have said." And the world’s never been the same. What else could she do but sit in silence, while everybody else is rushing around--angels scaring shepherds half to death, singing "Glory to God in the highest"; shepherds scurrying over to Bethlehem, and once they see it, rushing back to glorify God; wise men traversing the countryside; Herod killing little kids, glorifying somebody’s god. Everybody's going crazy, but Mary!

And stuck there like something out of place considering the others is V. 19, "But Mary treasured these words and pondered them in her heart." Surely she pondered how Elizabeth’s baby kicked in the womb on her pre-natal visit. Signaling the harsh reality that underneath every birth lies some pain. Labor pain, to be sure. But also the relational pain, the realization that behind the partying, caroling and financial pain, there’s an ache deep within the heart of humanity that only her Child would be able to heal.

People who ponder know what hurt is. Maybe she anticipated the grief, as the birth of her baby Boy meant the death of Rachel’s sons, who bore the brunt of Herod's paranoia. Or maybe she already felt what Simeon said the first time she took Jesus to church, "A sword will pierce your soul!" Somehow Mary sensed all this affliction! Beloveds, that takes some doing! How could she even imagine a crucifixion. All she can do was ponder. Mary was unique in all the world. No other person was called to do what she did and that to be “favored of God” you’ve got to put yourself out.

She was starting to put the pieces of the puzzle-that-is-Jesus, together. That was Mary’s second career -- laying the groundwork for the Church. Destiny really is enigmatic. How can we know what God has in mind for us? How could she know Jesus would grow up to give the world plenty to ponder like unto no other before or since? Or the consequences of him changing the face of religion from ritual to relationship? Or like being more at home with sinners than church people? Or finding life by losing it? Or not being afraid of a little thing like death? Riding a beast of burden instead of a stallion of war. Conquering with love not violence.

Somebody wondered in a modern song: “Mary, Did You Know?” Did you know “your baby-boy would do all that?” How could she know? It's as if Mary already knew. Luke's Gospel was written, looking backwards from the Passion, so that many stories exist in a time-warp. All she could do was “ponder it in her heart.” As Jesus moved from his mother's protective love in pursuit of the dangerous call of his Father, he acted surprised at the temple: “Mamma, Did you not know? I must be about my Father’s business?” How could she know?

She recognized it when he rebuffed her in Cana, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come.” It took many hours of pondering to understand what he meant by “his hour.” Or what he meant when he spoke from the cross, “Woman, behold thy Son! Son, behold thy mother!” If his birth astounded her, his death mystified her.

Angels sing. Shepherds worship. Joseph supports. But Mary pondered ... all the way from the cradle to the cross. The cruciform-Christ is such an inconvenient intrusion into our celebration of his birth! It just doesn’t mix with “Here Comes Santa Claus.” But for anybody to have to endure the holidays with a big hole in their hearts, where their loved ones used to be....these can to relate to Mary’s reflection.

We can’t see it if all there was to it was Christmas. The puzzle-that-is-Jesus didn’t really come together until his ascension, recorded in the Book of Acts (1:9) "...as they were watching, this more was more-than-a-man, as he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight." Mary was among the “they” that day. Ascension Day was Mother’s Day for Mary! That’s when she knew her second career had been more successful than the first. Not just birthing but faithing! Ponder that! And this. While most religious people seek to be clothed in righteousness, God bathes us in grace. Offering us a Jesus we can follow but never prove. That takes some pondering.

Incarnated in flesh and blood that breathes our air; endures our pain; saves our souls; and never runs outa life. You won’t get this at the malls, over there “dreaming of a white Christmas.” More like a “green” Xmas! That’s way too temporal for Mary’s Baby. Nah, you gotta go to church to hear about the babe growing up. Because the church remembers how Christmas points to crucifixion, resurrection, ascension...eternity! And how short life is, but eternity’s not. No need to ponder after that.

Just praise. Because “Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and the kingdom of this world is the Kingdom of our Lord and he shall reign forever and ever.” Amen.

Prayer: Lord your coming gives us much to ponder, like why in a manger, or why from a cross, or why even bother at all? Your love for this world is as amazing as grace is good. May that love, embodied by Mary of Nazareth, touch us as we contemplate today the meaning behind the coming...and the dying, and may we do our best to share that love, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Prayer (12-24-05)

God who is our Alpha and Omega, we come to the end of another year of worship and service. Remind us that the “Son of the Most High” was the child of the most low. And that we don’t kneel before the Lord of the mansion but the babe in a manger.

We pray for all who are captivated by their memories of Christmases gone by, some with joy, others whose grief is still tender and raw by the seasonal memories, grant them encouragement and hope.

We pray for those, who on this day of promise feel more keenly the edge of injustice and oppression and war around the world. Sustain those who stand for the promises of this season and those who have yet to receive them.

We remember those in pain and in hospitals and care facilities as well as those who attend their needs. We remember people from who we are separated today, by distance both physical and relational.

May our church enable us to live our lives with spiritual depth as we bear witness to the true meaning of Christmas for all people.

Be born today O Christ! Into the rude stables of our hearts. Banish the fear. Soften the anger. Temper our ambition. And forgive our sin. So that for us as for Jesus, we too have been born for a holy purpose. Through Christ we pray...Amen.