Living in the fields

Luke 2: 1-14, NT page 58 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” Sermon Our girls have already opened one present. This time of year kids are so full of pent up excitement that if you don’t release the pressure a little bit they’ll explode – and that’s why one little aspiring nurse or doctor already received a stethoscope and tiny scrubs and the other a little teacher’s kit complete with a pointer and a bell. I’m only a little disappointed that neither of them wanted a pretend preacher kit with a mini pulpit and robe, but there’s consolation, because the scrubs and stethoscope fill me with the hope that Cece will make so much money as a doctor she’ll be able to take care of us in our old age, maybe her sister the teacher will need some help as well. As you can see, I have to stop myself from mistaking passing interest with long term vocational plans. Just like a father who imagines a daughter’s interest at three will be the same when she’s 18, who knows how many pianos here in Maury County were purchased for a son after his first piano lesson but have been gathering dust ever since. It’s easy to get confused between what is temporary and what is permanent, what is passing fancy and what is long term commitment. We get all mixed up – and it happens easily enough to all of us in one way or another. Some people will have every trace of Christmas out of the house by lunch tomorrow – but someone in your neighborhood will still have lights in the maple tree out front this August, because in one way or another we all get messed up and something that is supposed to be temporary winds up being permanent. Delay college for a year, get a job you hate because you have to do something – it’s temporary anyway so it doesn’t really matter – only 5 years later you’re still doing the same thing. Your girlfriend tells you that “we need to take a break” which sounds temporary enough, but you know as well as I do that it’s not. Then you tell your spouse that you’ll need to work late for the next couple weeks, just to get caught up at the office, so you leave the house at 6:00 and are finally home at 8:00. Your children miss you, but it’s only temporary, or that’s what you’re telling yourself anyway. In the same way, you tell yourself that you’re going to clean off the dining room table. No one goes shopping for a new dining room table and says to the saleslady, “Don’t you think this would make a nice desk?” but one day you have a stack of bills and you put them down there because you’ll get to them later. After a while you can’t see the surface. The treadmill covered in clothes or the coffee table that looks more like an office, or worse, does anyone here have free time that’s starting to look more and more like a day at the office? You’re not complaining. Without a job the bills wouldn’t get paid, the house would go into foreclosure, but how many people do you know who used to have a job that they did when they were at the office but now it’s snuck in to everything else so that you wonder if maybe they’ve mistaken their job for their life. No one sets out to do that, and I’m sure if I asked any of you what your number one priority in life was you’d tell me that God comes first and second is family – but if I were to confiscate your smart phone or find out how you’ve been spending your time over the last week I’d find that plenty of you and me included suffer from a case of jumbled priorities. It happens. Some people eat to live, others live to eat. You’re supposed to live in your house and just drive your car, but don’t you know someone who looks like they live in their car? If you’ve ever ridden somewhere with me than you have. And those Shepherds in our Gospel lesson for this evening, they were living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, but is a field anywhere for a person to live? They’re not the only ones – this Scripture lesson from Luke is full of temporary housing just as our world is. Everyone is on the move, traveling away from home to be counted for the first registration. The Emperor needed to know just how many people he controlled in his empire, so he gave out a decree as though his word were law and everyone uprooted themselves, Mary and Joseph included. Then there’s Jesus. His new mother “laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Our Lord was born in a no place because the inn was full, and it wasn’t his home and he knew it, but not all of us are so fortunate. You know Cousin Eddie from National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. He pulls into Clark Griswold’s driveway – “Clark, that there is an RV,” he says. “More like a tenement on wheels,” replies Clark, and the tragedy here is, that not only has the VA replaced the metal plate in Cousin Eddie’s head with a plastic one, but the RV has become his family’s home. What is temporary and what is permanent – sometimes it gets mixed up so it’s important to be mindful of what you settle in to, because like the shepherds we live out in the fields, but the fields are not our home. A man came into the church office week before last. He told us that his son managed to cram four years of college into six years. The harder thing is the one who managed to let a disagreement that could have been resolved fester until it felt like it had always been there and always would be. Then there’s Uncle Daniel who’s had too much to drink again, which is just as much a normal part of Christmas Eve as stockings hung on the mantel. Be careful about the kind of dysfunction that you tolerate. The resentment that becomes natural, the superficial chit chat that you settle for - these fields that you’ve been living in, were never meant to be your home. So “an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” They went to him, and there he was, pointing them just as he points you, away from what is temporary, what is passing, what you need to let go and move on from, and towards what is eternal. To all of you who live in the fields, shepherding flocks by night, gather around the manger now for a glimpse of your King. Amen.