Stay the Course; Luke 2

May the mumbling commence!

Talk about humble beginnings!  Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph far away from their home.  They had traveled from Nazareth of Galilee to Bethlehem of Judea for the census.  Jesus was born in a stable.  There were no grandparents there to welcome Jesus into the world.  In today’s world, with the ease of travel, it is unheard of for any living grandparents to miss the birth of their grandchildren.

I remember when my son, Micah, was born – almost three-and-a-half years ago.  My wife and I were living in Americus, Georgia.  My parents live in Ohio, nine-hundred some miles away from us.  They were there to witness Micah come into the world – even though Micah is their thirteenth grandchild.  My wife’s parents live in Kansas, about a thousand miles away.  They were there to witness their first (and only) grandchild being born into the world.

Yes, birth is a grand time of celebration.  I cannot figure out how someone can experience human birth and not be moved to recognize the divine touch on our world.

But, who was there to witness the birth of Jesus?  His mother and father and some barn animals were there.  There were some certain poor shepherds who came shortly after.  But, where were Joseph’s and Mary’s families?  If I were in Joseph’s and Mary’s sandals, I would feel extraordinarily isolated.  It would have been enough to turn away from my family and all that was associated with them.

But Joseph and Mary did not forsake their faith in the Lord, who gave them such an unexpected call – to raise the Son of the Most High.  There weren’t any parenting magazines to help with that.  They felt solely dependent upon God to be faithful to this task.  They approached God in many ways.  One of them was through their Jewish heritage.  Read from Luke chapter two:

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.  When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord"), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons." (Verses 21-24)

On the eighth day of Jesus’ earthly life, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to be circumcised and named – according to the Law.  Later, when the time of purification after childbirth was over according to the Law, they brought the sacrifices for cleansing.  Mary and Joseph were not well off, but that did not prohibit them from doing what the Law required of them to do.  They even offered the less costly two doves, which was a provision in the Law for the poor.

Mary and Joseph had plenty of reasons they could give for abandoning their families and their families’ faith, but they did not.  They chose to stay the course that God had given them.  And they were amazed at the witnesses to the faithfulness of God in Simeon and Anna when they brought Jesus to the temple.  Simeon and Anna sought to point the people at the temple to the amazing miracle of the birth of the Messiah.

Will we stay the course that God has given us?  Have we sought out that course together?  If we stay the course, we will receive blessings.  These blessings will be so great that they will make us forget the blessings we missed out on because we stayed the course.  May we stay the course together – in right relationship to God (dependent) and to each other (interdependence).

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out