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Hespeler, December 31, 2023 © Scott McAndless – Seventh Day of Christmas
Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Psalm 148, Galatians 4:4-7, Luke 2:22-40

The young couple joined the crowds climbing the broad staircase that led to the entrance of the temple. The woman carried in her arms a child just barely over a month old. She had carried him all 11 km from the small town of Bethlehem the day before with frequent stops for nursing and changing the swaddling clothes.

This little family had spent the night in a bare room in the city, the only shelter they could afford. As is the common experience of parents with newborns, they had had little sleep. But they had risen early, thinking perhaps that they might beat the crowds, conclude their business and escape the city before the heat of the day came on.

But, as they passed through the porch and entered into the Court of the Gentiles, they realized that they were not the only ones to have had such a thought. The place was packed. It was filled with pilgrims, gawkers and worshippers. They glanced at each other anxiously. It seemed that this was going to take a while.

The child, thankfully, didn’t seem to be bothered by the noise of the crowd and the cries of the sacrificial animals. He slept contentedly in his mother’s arms for now, but they shuddered to think of what might happen when he awoke.

The Sellers

After a few enquiries, they made their way to the court of the women, where they needed to go today. As they approached, they saw the large pen filled with young lambs and the smaller cages that contained pigeons and turtle doves. Wealthy women were standing by and bartering with the sellers while their nurses held their children at a distance.

When the young man heard the prices that were being demanded for the sheep, he winced. He was sure that he could have gotten one for much cheaper from those shepherds who had dropped by shortly after the child was born. But, of course, the sellers here knew that their customers had little other choice.

He was glad that he didn’t have to ask the price of a bird. He knew that that would be ridiculous as well. He had been extremely fortunate the day before and been able to trap two turtledoves as they travelled. They cooed softly in the makeshift cage he carried in his left hand as he guided the mother and her child through the entrance.

Living on the Margins

The last month had been difficult. They had been unable to find anything like secure lodging. In fact, things had been so unsettled when the child was born that they had had no place else to lay him but in a feeding trough.

Things had not gotten much better since as they moved around from place to place, taking hospitality from strangers for the most part. On the eighth day after the boy was born, they had been very fortunate to find a skilled elder who was willing to perform the boy’s circumcision and he had been admitted into the covenant of the people of Israel under the name of Yeshua.

Of course, it would have been preferable for them to return to their home in Nazareth where at least the boy’s mother had family connections and support, but they had remained in the area so that they could perform the ritual for her here on the first day possible. There was some urgency to completing it, after all. Until such time as this had been done, she was effectively set apart from ordinary society. She could not eat with others, nor could she have proper relations with her husband.

This was not, to be clear, because there was anything wrong with her. It was a matter of ritual impurity, which had nothing to do with moral sin or error. It was more like she was being given a special honour. She had, after all, just done something amazing. She had brought a new life into the world. Men in particular were somewhat wary of this special power that only women had to create life. They didn’t quite know what to do with it. And so, they felt a need to segregate that power for a time out of respect for it. But, even if it was an honour, it was an inconvenient one. The couple were more than ready for it to be over.

The Clerk

They stood in line for quite some time, surrounded by the sound of bleating sheep and cooing pigeons and doves. There were many women who were here waiting to perform the required sacrifice. Finally, the line began to move, and they came to stand in front of a Levitical clerk who sat behind a wooden table.

“And for what purpose do you come here today,” he asked them in a bored tone as if the answer wasn’t made completely obvious by the presence of a month-old boy in his mother’s arms. The man was very proud to hear his wife respond in a clear and unwavering voice: “I am here to perform the purification ritual following the birth of my son.”

In the tones of a bureaucrat who spends all day every day reciting the same piece of legislation, the man responded. “When the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a turtledove for a purification offering. He shall offer it before Adonai and make atonement on her behalf; then she shall be clean from her flow of blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, male or female.” (Leviticus 12:6-8)

He looked up at them, taking in their poor clothing and dishevelled appearance at a glance, “So, you see, you’re supposed to bring a lamb. I don’t see a lamb. Where’s your lamb then? They are on sale out in the outer court.”

Pushing Back

The man had been expecting this. And fortunately, he was well-versed in the traditions of his people. He knew that the law had been written in such a way as to make allowances for the poor and disadvantaged, and he felt no embarrassment in invoking these traditions now.

“Come on, you know very well that the law made provisions for those who could not afford a lamb for the purification. Maybe you don’t care if we have little, but God does! We are perfectly allowed to offer up these two turtle doves instead,” he said holding up his little cage.

The Levite smirked. “You call those doves? They’re filthy! You’re sure that they’re not flying rats? You didn’t buy those here!”

“Doesn’t matter, does it?” the man replied sharply. “The law never says you have to buy them. I caught them myself!”

“Yes, added his wife with a smile, “I’m rather of proud of my man’s hunting skills.”

The clerk finally let out a great sigh as he reluctantly let them pass.

The Real Money

A lot of people thought that the temple made its money from the tithes and donations that people brought. But the priests and the Levites knew very well that the real money came from the sacrifices. Once most of the sacrifices were performed, some of the meat would be returned to the worshippers. Only a certain portion would be burned up – mostly the parts that were inedible or prohibited from Jewish consumption. The worshippers would take it and have a feast.

The priest wasn’t paid money. Instead, he would also claim a portion of the meat for his services – indeed, some of the best cuts of beef or mutton went to him. In a day’s service, a priest would receive much more meat than he could possibly eat with his family before it spoiled, and so it could be sold off to the elite of the city at premium prices.

That was why it was very much in the interest of all who worked in the temple to pressure people into sacrificing fine animals. What’s more, they had deals with the sellers in the temple that gave them kickbacks for every animal sold to the captive audience there. So of course, they would pressure everybody who came along to sacrifice the best animal that they could.

Temple Economics

This was something that was not only true of the temple in Jerusalem, of course. This was how it worked at most every temple of every god in the Mediterranean world. But not every ritual law made exceptions for the poor. But thanks to the strength of the Judean tradition or, some might say, thanks to the compassion and care of the God of Israel, they could not deny access to this impoverished young couple.

 And so, I will say that it was with some pride for having stood up for their rights, not to mention some relief for having completed all that was fitting for a young child of the people of Israel, that the parents walked away after the completion of the sacrifice of their birds. They knew their place within a tradition that was deeply meaningful for them and that would be, they knew, meaningful for their son as well. They felt as if they had begun something very important.

They returned to the Court of the Gentiles and were very surprised, among all those who were present in the ever-swelling crowds, to be approached by a venerable old man and then a saintly widow.

More than a Mise-en-Scène

I always assumed that the first few lines of the story of the infant Jesus in the temple were just the mise-en-scène, you know, just a setting of the stage upon which the really important events will take place. The storyteller just needs to get Jesus and his parents into the temple where they can encounter the prophets, Simeon and Anna, who will tell us these very important things that we need to know about Jesus. But, as I looked closely at the opening verses of the story, I realized that it would be foolish to just skip over them.

The gospel writer is trying to teach us something important about the traditions of the people of Israel and the place of Jesus within those traditions. He is reminding us that Jesus was a part of the ancient covenant of Abraham, which would have been marked into his flesh on the eighth day after his birth.

He is also reminding us of the rituals of purity. And I think he would like us to be mindful that these were not about treating women in Mary’s situation as if they were dirty or shameful. That’s not what these rituals were actually about. They were symbolic of the incredibly powerful thing that Mary had done in bringing new life into the world, especially when, in the case of Jesus, it was new life that would come as a gift to the whole world.

Mary and Joseph’s Poverty

But the thing that particularly strikes me about this short preface to the story is what it says about those in poverty. Luke has already gone out of his way to underline to his readers the situation of abject poverty into which Jesus was born. Laid in a manger because there was no proper place to stay for him, visited by shepherds whose status was about as low as you could get, Luke has already made it quite clear that Jesus was anything but financially well off at his birth.

But in this story, a new dimension is added to that impoverished situation. The law was clear. A woman in Mary’s situation was expected to bring a lamb for sacrifice. Yes, there was a provision in the law that she could bring two birds instead, a concession given for those who were faced with utter destitution. But many would have died before admitting such poverty before the priests.

No Apologies

But notice how Luke portrays what Mary and Joseph did. He simply says, “and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.’” He doesn’t even mention that the expectation was that they should have sacrificed more. He suggests no sense of shame or embarrassment on their part or his. They, according to their means and who they were, were able to do what was pleasing to God.

And I find that all rather refreshing. We live in a world today where more and more people are falling through the economic cracks. And when people can no longer find affordable housing or their wages – and often enough it is full-time wages these days – are no longer enough to pay the bills, they are just written off. They no longer count.

They are a problem to be solved, a crisis for various levels of governments to fight over. If they resort to living in encampments, they might be evicted without a second thought. If their desperate situation leads to their demise because of addiction or other problems, we react with little more than a shrug.

But when we so callously dismiss a whole class of people, we not only push them deeper and deeper into crisis, we rob the entire society of all that they have to offer – and they have so much to offer us all!

God made room for an impoverished couple to fully participate in the rituals of his people, to be counted like any other Israelites before God. The benefits that came to all of us as a result are incalculable. What new strength couldn’t we find for our society today, if we could let the poor have a full place and voice in our society?

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Hespeler, 24 December 2023 © Scott McAndless – Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
Luke 2:1-6

Twenty-four years ago, I preached a sermon on Christmas Eve and it was the last time that I would read the familiar Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and see it in the same old way. You see, my life changed irrevocably two weeks after that Christmas Eve when my first child was born two weeks early. I became a father.

I couldn’t even begin to describe all of the ways that things changed for me but one of the big ones is that I learned so much. One of the very first lessons I learned was how to swaddle my child. I’m pretty sure that the nurses in the hospital taught me how to do that first. I guess it is one of those few things in those first days, that a father can do. So, I like to think that I became quite good at it – an expert in infant origami if you like.

The reason why new parents in North America are encouraged to swaddle their newborns is apparently because it is very comforting. After all, your child has just spent months confined in a very small space and she has now emerged into this strange place where nothing restrains her when she spreads out her arms and her legs. It is alien and strange. It is symbolic of this poor helpless being now thrust into this cold dark world full of dangers and evils. And so, if you can simulate the warmth and the confinement of the womb, at least some of the time, it can be a great comfort and so you learn to wrap her up tight in a blanket.

It is a bit of parental wisdom that has been passed down since times of great antiquity. How old is it? It is so old that it was already well-known when Mary had her child. New Testament Greek did not have a word for swaddling like English does. What the text literally says is that when Mary’s child was born, she wrapped him in strips of cloth. But the meaning of that is clear enough. So, the old King James Version was quite correct when it translated that as “she wrapped him in swaddling clothes.”

 But, since she did not have a nice, perfectly sized baby blanket that she had ordered from amazon.ca while preparing for the arrival, Mary had to resort to using several strips of cloth instead. Instead of one, let’s say that she used three.

But I was thinking. Mary’s child was no ordinary infant, was he? He was, we are told the Son of God. And how, exactly, do you comfort the Master of the universe who suddenly finds himself thrown into this dark and often disturbing world? With what, then, did Mary swaddle her extraordinary child?

 I believe that one of the strips of cloth she used was the devoted love of a mother. Her own body had protected him throughout his gestation, even through some very difficult episodes and probably the most harrowing journey that Mary had ever taken she when traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem. As she had shielded him with her own body, she would continue to do so with all her love. She wrapped him tight in her love.

The second strip of cloth that Mary took to swaddle her child, was the deep and rich tradition of her people. Jesus would know who he was by learning all the stories of the people of Israel. And the final piece of cloth was the law of those people. These time-tested rules for living would provide for the growing child the boundaries and the limits of his behaviour.

These three swaddling cloths are things that we all need. If we are fortunate, if we are blessed, we all received these things as children, and they helped to make us the people we are today. Because we knew that we were loved, because our traditions and practices told us who we were and because we had wise and reasonable rules to guide us, we were given that strong foundation that allowed us to go out into the world and make our way. These things are invaluable.

But there is one thought I would add to that. Swaddling is good and comforting for a newborn, but it is hardly healthy to keep a child confined that way. As they grow, they need to stretch out their limbs and start to define themselves. This too is an essential part of life.

And wow, did Jesus stretch out his limbs! He took that love that he had received from his mother and turned it into a love that was able to encompass the whole world. In the ultimate display of such love, he stretched his arms and his legs wide on the wood of a cross.

And Jesus took the noble teachings of his people, and he stretched them to extend to many others. He took that special relationship and covenant blessing that his people enjoyed and showed the whole world how they could experience that as well. He taught us all of a loving heavenly father who pours out blessing on all the people of the world.

And as for the law of his people, he never lost his reverence for that, but he taught that it was never meant to be cruel or vindictive like some people applied it. He certainly taught that it was never meant to exclude people who didn’t fit in but rather designed to draw people in close. He also showed in word and deed how the grace and mercy of God can overcome even our worst transgressions against the law.

But it all started with a newborn babe, swaddled in strips of cloth and lying in a manger. It is such a fitting beginning of the hope of the world.

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Hespeler, 24 December 2023 © Scott McAndless
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Luke 1:46b-55, Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-38

ne day Dave was just sitting around and shooting the breeze with his good buddy Nate. Dave, you see, had done pretty well for himself. He had built his own personal kingdom, had beat out many enemies and he was feeling pretty comfortable in his life. He had even recently built his own very nice house.

Dave had done so well not only because of his own initiative and strength, but also because he had had the support of a very powerful God named Yahweh. Yahweh was the God who had formed a very special relationship with the people of Israel but who had particularly chosen Dave as his special buddy. Thanks to God’s support, Dave had been able to do so much and, if he now had rest from his enemies, it was all thanks to Yahweh.

Dave’s Idea

But there was one thing that was bothering him, and so he spoke to his best friend about it. “See now,” he said to Nate, “I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent. What I mean is that my God has been a great support to me but he’s kind of wild and unpredictable. I mean, he lives in a tent, so he doesn’t have to settle down anywhere. That means that he can change his mind and may even decide to pick a new favourite.”

“Say no more!” Nate interrupted him. “I know exactly what you are thinking. You’re looking for some way to persuade God to settle down and formalize his choice of you and your descendants.

“And, in fact, I understand how you mean to do it as well. You want to build a house for God to live in. You want to domesticate Yahweh and even establish an institution and priesthood to tell God what he can and cannot do. You know, I think you should go, do all that you have in mind, after all, is not Yahweh with you, and don’t you want to make sure that things stay that way?”

Underlying Considerations

The Bible records that exchange between King David and the Prophet Nathan so briefly that you could be forgiven for just skimming over it. The surface meaning seems clear. David is apparently just concerned with making sure that God has a temple that does him all due honour. But there are always some underlying considerations to such plans. You only have to read between the lines to realize that David might have some other motivations in his proposal.

And, in fact, that is just what Nathan realized as well. In the heat of the moment, when David first threw out the idea, Nathan just agreed that it would be a great thing to do. But it didn’t take long. That very night, as Nathan reflected on David’s idea, he came to see that it was more than a little bit problematic. And, what’s more, Nathan realized that his sober second thinking wasn’t just something that was happening in his own brain. It was a word from Yahweh.

God’s Misgivings

God’s misgivings about David’s plans are expressed like this: “I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”

The message is clear. Does God need a temple? Does God need some sort of religious institution and structure in order to be in a right relationship with God’s people? Certainly not! God seems to prefer the life of living in a tent and being free to move around. But it is not just about God being a camper at heart. As with most things having to do with religion, this is all about control.

Human Institutions

Human beings love to create religious institutions. They build temples and churches and mosques. They write their books of theology and even their holy books with one goal in mind. They want to control God. They want to say who God can be and what God can do. I mean, look at so much of our religious thought and practice, it is often reduced to statements of what God “has to” do. “If I make this sacrifice, God has to make it rain.” “If I confess, God has to forgive me.” “If God inspires scriptures, they have to be literally true.” “If I pray this particular prayer, God has to let me into heaven when I die.”

I understand the impulse, of course. Who wants to live with the concept of a God who is completely capricious and wild and does totally unpredictable things? But God resists being limited or controlled by us. And that is why, after some sober second thought, Nathan goes back to David with God’s answer and that answer is no, you can’t build a temple. But interestingly, at the same time, the answer is not no forever.

God Recognizes Our Need

God may not need temples and religious institutions in order to prove God’s greatness and glory but also seems to recognize our need for these things. And so, as an act of mercy and kindness, Nathan does inform David that his son, who will be somewhat less compromised by David’s history of using violence and trickery to get his way, will be allowed to establish a temple in Jerusalem.

This is actually an indication of God’s kindness and grace. As a concession to our weakness and limitations, God allows us to have a mediated relationship through a religious institution. You might even call it a sacrifice God makes on our behalf, sacrificing God’s own freedom and choosing to relate to us within the bounds of a religion.

But surely this is a temporary comprise. God is still seeking a more fitting way to be present here on earth. But this is not the time to implement that alternative plan. And so, God puts something in place that will set up that better way. “Moreover, Yahweh declares to you, David, that Yahweh will make you a house… Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”

The Strange Visitor

“How can this be?” the young woman wanted to know. After all, what the strange visitor had told her seemed like crazy talk. He had told her that she would have a son, which was impossible enough. But then he had gone on to say, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

The connection between that incident in the Gospel of Luke and Nathan’s answer to David is clear. Here, in this small house in the village of Nazareth, the conversation that started between David and Nathan so many centuries before was continuing. This wasn’t just about the impossibility of Mary, a virgin, having a child. This wasn’t just about the fulfillment of the promise of a house to King David. This was about God being present in this world outside of the limits of religious institutions.

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” the visitor continued, “and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”

Holy cow, do you realize what this is saying? God, in some way that I’m not going to pretend to completely understand, is finding the ultimate way to enter into this world. Somehow, in Mary’s child, God is planning to enter into the human sphere. But God will do this in a way that sidesteps things like human-built temples, religious institutions and dogma. God is entering into our world in a way that does not require a priesthood or architecture or theologians to manage and control. By coming to us in a person, in Christ, God is maintaining the freedom to, well, to be God. And yet, because Christ comes as someone fully human, we are still able to relate to him as humans ourselves.

God’s Better Plan

You see, David came up with the plan all those centuries ago. It was a plan to try and limit God and tell God what to do. God said no, but did graciously continue to relate to the people of Israel through the religious institutions they eventually set up.

But in Jesus, God decided to do so much more. In Jesus, God decided to relate to human beings in a way that was not constrained by the walls of church or temple, by the judgments of a priesthood. God came to live among us as one of us.

And what do we see of God when he appears in Christ? When God is truly allowed to be God without human constraint here on earth? What we see is a God who reveals himself in love and compassion and mercy and ultimately in sacrifice, giving himself utterly in death upon the cross.

David was afraid to allow God to be God, and felt as if he had to keep God in a box. But in Mary’s child, God is set free to reveal a depth of love and grace that I suspect David could have only imagined. God is set free to reveal a love that is able to welcome all, no matter who they may be.

It kind of makes you wonder why David thought that he had to keep God under wraps. Kind of makes you wonder why we continue to think that we should try and tell God what God can do and be today as well.

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