JOURNEY TO NAZARETH

Sermon Summary from Nov 29, “Journey to Nazareth”

When I grew up, Christmas was a big deal. The baby Jesus was a big deal.  Mary, not so much.  We were Protestants after all.  I didn’t know much about Mary. The Advent series is about the who of Mary and Joseph, the where of Nazareth and Bethlehem, and about what they can teach us about God, Jesus, Christmas and about ourselves.  Today we start “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.” (Luke 1:26)

Yet Sepphoris was an elegant, bustling, luxurious town of thirty thousand (yep, big) less than four miles away, the capital of Herod Antipas’ region.  Why not to the rich and famous?  Nazareth was a no-count Podunk of 300 (at most).  Josephus called Sepphoris the “Ornament of Galilee.”  Nazareth wasn’t on most maps. 

Most of the homes in Nazareth were caves carved out of the hillside.  More that likely, Mary laid her head down at night in a cave in a hillside.  A humble village.  Like all villages, it had a well from a spring that still flows today.  If you visit, you can drink from the spring that Mary and later Jesus would draw from.  In fact, some modern depictions have the “annunciation” taking place on the way to the well.

It was to Nazareth, not Sepphoris that the angel came.  And it was to Mary.  Continuing: “to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.  And the virgin’s name was Mary.” (Lk 1:27)  Luke tells us that God sent his messenger not to a princess in Sepphoris but to a poor maiden in Nazareth.  Not to a woman but a girl, not to a palace but a Podunk, not to a city but a cave.  And yet the angel says, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.”  He continued, “And behold, you shall conceive… and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus.  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 father David…”

Here’s what we hear: Jesus, Son of God.  He will save us.  He will restore the throne of David, forever.  Here’s was Mary hears: “You shall conceive.”  How can this be?!?

And here’s the amazing thing, Mary never had a doubt.  “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord.  Let it be me according to your word.” 

So what do we learn, from Nazareth, from Mary?  The nature of God is to favor the lowly and the humble.  If we want to get our hearts in tune with God’s, that’s what we need to focus on this Advent.  Second, God chose Mary, not for the easy task, but for the difficult.  We are called to transform the world.  God chooses us for the difficult.  We need to be ready.  If we are to tune our hearts to God's this Advent, it is to favor the humble, the oppressed, the marginalized and be ready to say "yes" to the difficult. 

I often have played the clip of Charlie Brown and Linus and the Christmas tree for the children at Christmas focusing on Linus telling us "that's what Christmas was all about, Charlie Brown."  Yet, in watching one more time, Charlie catches the very Spirit of God by selecting the scrawny tree, overlooking the Sepphoris, ornamented tree and choosing instead the Podunk, Nazareth tree.  Let us not miss that either, for that too is what Christmas is all about.  Amen.