As the Christmas Story is Told in Luke, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.

As the Christmas Story is Told in Luke, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: How Does a Weary World Rejoice? A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Matthew 1.21, Luke.

Take the journey with Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, envisioning their weariness on the long trip and finding shelter in a stable for Jesus’ birth, where God meets us in our weariness.

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At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.

We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don’t ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.

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Keywords:

mary, joseph, weariness, night, child, candles, weary, journey, hope, advent season, bethlehem, world, god, sleep, spacious, birth, weary world rejoices, fear, christmas, trudge, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregon

Featuring:

Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

Transcript

0:34

Welcome to worship with First Presbyterian Abend. We practice what we call a spacious Christianity where there is room for everyone, no matter where you find yourself on a faith journey. Even if you find yourself without faith, you are so very welcome here. We welcome your questions and your doubts as gifts that invite us into deeper conversations. We celebrate diversity, and believe it is a strength. And we remind you that you are made in the image of God's goodness, and that you are so very loved. We do our best to live the spacious and radical love of Jesus, so that all might flourish in this world. As we practice a spacious Christianity. We hope you can find space to breathe, have faith you can believe in and a God who believes in you. Today in our worship, we are beginning that Advent season which is the season we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to make room for God's love to be born a new within us and within our weary world. There's a Christmas carol that says a weary world rejoices. That's our theme and focus during this Advent season. How does a weary world rejoice? There's a tradition of lighting, candles of hope, peace, joy and love during Advent. And the first week of Advent, we light the candle of hope. How does a weary world hope by telling stories of hope by lighting candles in the night and planting seeds in the winter that will bloom in the spring by praying for children as they grow and picking up trash on the sidewalk by insisting that small acts can make a difference. There are million ways to practice hope so today we light the candle of hope as a reminder and a charge with God's help may we bring hope into a weary world. Hi. I would like candles this Christmas candles of joy despite all the sadness, candles of hope where despair keeps watch. Candles of courage with fear is ever present candles of peace for tempest tossed days candles of grace to ease heavy burdens, candles of love to inspire all my living candles that will burn all the year long. This is the first week of the season of Advent as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. There's a line from a Christmas carol that says, a weary world rejoices. Our world is so weary. Maybe you too are weary. What weariness Do you carry in your body and in your soul? That's going to be a theme for the next few weeks in this Advent season. How does a weary world rejoice? Now chances are pretty good that most of us know the basics basics of the Christmas story pretty well. And what a glorious story it is. A couple Mary and Joseph who courageously traveled to Bethlehem with Mary about to give birth, a radiant star shining brightly in the night angels filling the sky with song cows and sheep that somehow know to be tamed by the moment. proud parents showing off their newborn baby to delighted shepherds, wise men proclaiming the birth of a king. Glorious, isn't it? The beautiful picture perfect Hallmark Christmas card? Well, that's the sentimentalized and romanticized version of the story. We forget sometimes that the real story was less than ideal. Anything but perfect. It was actually a real mess. Full of confusion, fear, uncertainty, and the unexpected. You know, kind of like life. I'm guessing most of us can relate to the mess and the weariness more than we can relate to the Christmas card Instagram, perfect version of the story. You know we lose something really important. When we clean the story up and remove the mess and the pain and the weariness for it's right there. In the midst of the weariness of the world and a weariness of our own lives is where God meets us. Where Love is bored. It's right there in the weariness that God is with us. So today I want to do something actually a little I'm different. I want to invite us to travel with Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. And to actually experience their weariness, allow their journey to be our, our own journey. I'm going to lead us in a guided visualization. It's going to be a journey, not so much of the mind. But the heart. And I invite you to use your imagination. As I guide you, finding yourself on that dusty road with Mary and Joseph on the way to Bethlehem. If you get distracted, that's okay. Simply come back to my voice and the images I'm awakening. So let's travel together. Consider Mary for a moment. God chose Mary, this ordinary poor, young, unimportant girl, probably 1314 years old. In her culture and time, a nonperson. Even. This is who God chose to bear the incarnation of God's love. This is who God chose to be the bearer of hope. God comes in the most unlikely places, in the most unlikely ways through the most unlikely people. You know, makes you wonder, how might God be seeking to show up, show up in this weary world in and through your life? Consider the courage of Mary. I've no doubt trembling with fear, the willing to trust we find Mary in her small dwelling place. It's a simple, tiny place with a dirt floor. There are a few furnishings and a straw palette for a bed. Even many of the pores today have more. Mary prepares a simple meal, placing small loaves to bake on an open fire. Joseph arrives. This face trouble Joseph says there's an edict from the Emperor. Everyone must go to their own birthplace for an imperial census. You know what this means? We have 90 miles to travel to get to Bethlehem and with you about to bear a child. Joseph says I don't know. I don't know how we can possibly make this journey. I suspect you to know what it's like to wonder how you will make the journey you know, you must make physically emotionally spiritually. Mary and Joseph gather some food for their journey. They load the donkey with their meager possessions and some blankets for the cold nights along the road. Bright and early they start out the sky is overcast. There's a cold, biting wind blowing into their bases. They trudge this dirty, dusty, uneven challenging terrain. Hour after hour. They pause at noon time by a ravine and eat some cheese and dry bread. And then go on. There's rain. The dust turns to mud. Evening and darkness are coming when they find a mill and knock on the door. They're wet, chilled, bone tired, so weary from the journey. Mary only a few days from childbirth. The miller lets them in. They sleep on bags of grain and a corner of the mill. Outside the wind house. Rain beats against the roof. They have a restless night's sleep those fearful thoughts that often come at three in the morning. Those fearful thoughts take hold of Mary They refuse to go away until she drifts to sleep from sheer exhaustion. The next day they keep traveling under broken clouds. They meet others traveling from their homes who barely nod. Maybe notice noticed how our own journeys can be so consuming at times. We even failed to notice others along the way. HOUR BY HOUR. Mary and Joseph trudge on the journey is long, difficult. It's hard to see what lies ahead. What does it all mean? There are moments when fear takes hold but some Somehow they muster the courage just to keep going. What fear takes hold of you on your journey? Where will you find the courage to keep going? Take a breath. Imagine in the midst of your own weariness, being graced with the strength you need, when you need it the most. This night, an old villager and his wife, that Mary and Joseph asleep in a corner of their hut. It's good they say, to welcome strangers, one may entertain God in doing so. I wonder if Mary and Joseph knocked on our door in the middle of the night. Would we open the door and welcome them in another long day, a day of climbing a winding road. Just when they begin to wonder if they can possibly go one step further. They see off in the distance, the city of Bethlehem in hope and expectation, Joseph knocks on the great door of the in. The innkeeper opens the door he's a hulk of a man larger than life framed by the light of the fire blazing in the fireplace just behind him. Sorry, no room. No, not even a corner. The town's fall because of the census. You might be able to find some shelter out the back there's there's a cave in the hillside. The heavy door claim shut. The darkness of the night becomes even more penetrating. Joseph stumbles down a little hill the time. The time is very close. He's finds the cave in the hillside with a shelter built in front of it. straw in the back. Standing standing in the shadows, a donkey and some oxen. The dung is thick on the dirt floor of the cave with steam rising in the cold night air. The manger, which is an animal's feeding trough. The manger gleams with the saliva of the oxen that have just eaten they're not a very likely place for the birth of Christ. The birth of love, the birth of hope and possibility. But you know, the less likely the better. Then we can't say that our messy, imperfect wiry lives are any less likely a place for love to enter. A runaway child sleeps in a pile of straw at the very back. A frightened child who's run away from the beatings of a stepfather. This unlikely space of grace welcomes those who are weary and have nowhere else to go. Is your heart a safe place? For those who have nowhere else to go? Mary goes into labor. This exhausted impoverished, frightened child miles away from home endures the most mysterious, sacred, terrifying, painful experience a woman may know. And into that dark place, that lonely place that unexpected place that God forsaken place. The child is born. God's love in Tours The weary world. It was dirty. It was dark it smelled. It's the very indignity of the story that makes it so compelling. Could it mean that our own indignity our own dark places, our own pain, our own fears? Our own weariness can be transformed into something holy and beautiful. For a moment there was sacred silence. And a child's cry pierced the silence in the dark night air. Mary picks up, picks up the child and she starts to cry. Joseph tries to comfort her. I mean she's in awe Her heart is bursting with love for the child she is holding. She welcomes a joy like she has never known before. And at the same time she tells Joseph she wants her mother. She wants to go home and then wiping the tears from her eyes. She says she's sorry. Joseph says, That's okay. That's okay. And he means it. They hold each other. They cried together. Mary and Joseph hurt all over from their journey. Man, there's nothing to eat. It's cold, they're tired. So very tired, scared and alone. There is this light that seems to be coming from a distant star. And the light penetrates the darkness through the cracks of the shelter's roof and shines gently on this child's face. And as Mary and Joseph are holding this child, they have this deep, deep sense that the child is holding them and somehow they know all will be well. Scripture says Mary will conceive and give birth to a son and his name shall be called Emanuel which means God with us that's the gift we prepare to receive again this Advent season God is with us love is with us. God meets us right where we are in our weariness you know love can't always fix things but when we have a deep sense that God is with us in our weariness we can endure those things that can't always be fixed maybe even find some joy in the midst of the weirdness and do what we can to bring hope into a weary world may it be so friends go into this weary world but the peace and love of Christ reminded that God is with you and may your love be with others in their weariness in such a way that they might experience peace. Amen thanks for joining us today we hope you found a space to breathe a faith you can believe in and a God who believes in you visit us at bend F p.org There you can get more information on who we are and what we're about you can learn about how we're trying to make a difference in this world and how you can partner with us and support us financially or you can make a prayer request until next time God bless.