Luke 2:1-20
I wonder if Mary expected things to turn out a little differently. From the moment the angel Gabriel came to her to announce that she would be giving birth to the Son of God, I imagine that the birth scenario she had pictured in her head was a little different from what actually happened. Mary probably expected to give birth in Nazareth, at her home, helped by female friends and relatives, like her cousin Elizabeth, comforted by the familiarity of faces and surroundings. Those would have been reasonable expectations for her, especially seeing as how this was her first child.
But, boy, did things happen differently than Mary expected, or even than we would have expected. For one thing, Mary was nowhere near her home when it happened. She wasn't even in a house - she was in a stable, for goodness sake! Talk about not meeting your expectations - I mean, really, who expects to give birth in what is essentially a barn? And on top of that, the family support that Mary expected wasn't there - no mother, or sister, or aunt, or neighbour - only Joseph, who had probably never seen a woman give birth in his life. Mary was essentially on her own for this birth, and I'm pretty sure that's not what she expected.
And of course, if she had had any other expectations because this particular baby was Jesus, the Son of the Most High - you know, like maybe there would be angels to welcome the baby, or maybe even Gabriel might show up and say, "Good job, Mary," since he was the once who was there at the beginning, well if she had had any of those expectations, and they would have been reasonable, to be sure, well then she would have been disappointed then, too. Sure, there were angels, but they came to the smelly shepherds in the field, not to Mary who had laboured so hard to bring forth God's Son. They showed God's glory to some guys who hadn't done anything - Mary and Joseph only got to see the cows and donkeys that were in the stable with them. Some birth of the Saviour of Israel! The whole thing must have been a bit of a let- down for May, and I think it's safe to say that that very first Christmas didn't live up to expectations.
We sometimes find that to be true for our Christmases, too. Christmas is a time of expectation for us. We spend the four weeks of Advent getting ready for it religiously speaking, and even longer shopping and putting up decorations and making plans. Although most of us haven't spent nine months getting ready, like Mary did, we still come to this day with a lot of energy invested in certain hopes and desires for what the holiday will be like. In our heads, we all have a picture of what Christmas is supposed to look like - families gathered lovingly around the Christmas tree, waiting patiently to open presents, children gratefully thanking their parents for whatever they've gotten, feelings of love and warmth and peace filling our homes. And we expect, or at least hope, that after all our hard work, our Christmas will look something like that picture.
But Christmas doesn't alway happen that way, and for some people it never does. We can feel let down at this time of year, we can feel that the season doesn't live up to our expectations. Where we might remember our childhood Christmases as being times of unparalleled joy, where every present brought happiness, except for maybe the socks, sometimes we find now that Christmas has lost the magic it once had. Presents need to be more elaborate and more expensive than past years in order to elicit the same grateful response. The joy we expected to get from the gifts is diminished.
Where we might remember past Christmases as times when the family got together and everyone was happy and the house was filled with love and warmth, sometimes we find now that that's no longer the case. Sometimes people aren't there who used to be - they've passed away, or families have split up, or they're too far away or too busy to travel. Sometimes we see with adult eyes what we missed as kids - that despite smiling profusely, Mom and Aunt Betsy really can't stand each other, that jolly Uncle Rory is actually an alcoholic, or that Grandma and Grandpa are getting older and this might be their last Christmas. The love and fulfillment we expect to get from our family gatherings isn't always there the way we thought it would be.
Even the Christmas Eve service doesn't always bring the peace we expect it to. Sometimes the beautiful carols aren't enough to take us away from all the things we have to finish before tomorrow, from the problems that we know will face us again in the New Year. Sometimes the Christmas story just doesn't hit home the way it used to. And again, our expectations aren't met.
We're disappointed when that happens, just as Mary must have been a little disappointed by the way her son came into the world. Now, Christmas isn't always like that - sometimes Christmas really is magical and full of love and warmth. But everybody, at some time or another, has had a Christmas that's been a let-down. And when that happens, we can find ourselves wondering, where is God in all of this? After all, this isn't just any holiday - this is a religious holiday, and we expect to feel the presence of God somehow, whether it's in the family gathered together, the holiness of the Christmas Eve service, or the joy of thoughtful gifts. But when Christmas doesn't live up to our expectations, when we feel disappointed somehow in the holiday, we start to lose hope. We start wondering if God has somehow opted out of this one, or, more seriously, if we're doing something to keep God out, if maybe we've been too busy meeting our own expectations at Christmas to truly feel Christ.
Part of me wants to say, yes, that's it. That when we get so preoccupied with gifts and cooking and family, it makes sense that we would be too preoccupied for God, and that God has sent Christ elsewhere, to people who can appreciate him. It makes sense that God would only be with those who expect their happiness to rest solely with Christ, and not with the perfectly trimmed tree or the present they've been waiting for all year. It makes sense that God, in fact, might be disappointed in us, that we have failed God's expectations, and so has stayed away.
But God isn't about making sense. Christmas isn't about making sense. In fact, the point of Christmas is that God sidestepped all of our expectations and sent Christ to us in the most disappointing of places and in the most unexpected way. You see, the remarkable thing about Christmas is that God chose to come as a human, the complete opposite of a god, someone who was born and who would, shockingly for a god, die, someone who would feel love, but also pain, who would be vulnerable in ways that God was not expected to be, who was on the same level as the paltry humans who worshipped the divine. Even more unexpected, God chose to make the Son of God not a great high king, or a mighty military ruler, but, disappointingly to some, an ordinary joe - one of us. The world expected God to come as someone great and grandiose - the world did not expect God to come as a poor baby born in a barn with no fanfare whatsoever, and yet that is what God chose to do. God chose to come at a time when no preparations could be made, when the city and country was in chaos because of the imperial registration, to a couple whom the world didn't even know existed. God chose to be with us in Christ in a way that none of us would - or did - expect.
And so I'm sure Mary wasn't disappointed for long. After all, the baby she had carried for nine months was born alive and healthy - a miracle in itself at that time. The angels did appear to sing of her son's birth - a whole host of them, even if they were in a field in the middle of nowhere. And Mary was reunited with her friends and family who helped her to care for the new infant. But even more, despite the unexpected birth situation, the baby did grow up to be the Saviour of the world - and not in a pop-star, Canadian Idol way. Christ brought life to the world not through power and greatness, through hob-nobbing with the celebrities, or brunching with heads-of-state. Christ brought life as the healer of the sick, the companion of the outcast, as the agent of God's forgiveness for all. God's promises to Mary at Jesus' conception did indeed come true - not, again, the way we would have expected, but, then, we know now that's not how God works. God doesn't come in grand ways, or in conventional ways, but in small and humble, unexpected ways.
Why? So that we would be comforted in our disappointments and failed expectations, because it's in those moments that we find God with us. You see, Christmas wasn't one day two thousand years ago and now it's over. God continues to send Christ to us in unexpected ways. Yes, Christ may very well come to us in the joy of presents and food, in the warmth of festivities and family - that's why they're so meaningful to us at this time of year. But, more importantly, Christ comes to us disguised in those moments of failed expectations and disappointments. Christ comes to us when we can't keep our family together, when the kids fight over the presents, when we're alone on Christmas Eve. Most importantly, Christ comes to us when we wonder where God is in all of the holiday disappointments, when we feel our most human and most disillusioned by our expectations, when we look for angels and see only barnyard animals, in others and in ourselves. God will come to you in this way. Christ will be with you this Christmas in this way. So don't lose heart when Christmas celebrations don't turn out the way you expect, when things are far from perfect, when they look nothing like you had hoped. Instead, take heart that God is working in unexpected ways in the world, sending Christ to you in the midst of your disappointments, tonight, tomorrow, and always. Glory to God in the highest heaven! Amen.
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