In all of the commotion that happens in the Christmas story, it is easy to miss one of history’s most understated lines, “she gave birth” (Luke 2:7)… We may recall Caesar Augustus’ decree. We might remember how we felt when Joseph and a very pregnant Mary were away by the inn keeper. Undoubtedly, we have yawned with the shepherds “keeping watch over their flocks at night” (2:8). Perhaps, we joined the heavenly hosts singing of the birth of Christ into our world. Maybe like Mary, we too have pondered all of events in the shepherd’s report and “treasured them” in our hearts. Yet, the moment all the earth has been waiting for is merely glossed over in Luke’s telling of that first Christmas.

            Hidden within the Christmas story, we are told of Christ’s birth after the fact. Luke writes Mary “gave birth” (2:7). The angel’s announcement to the shepherd’s was in the past tense, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you” (2:11). We are never told how long Mary’s labor took or if Jesus was born breached. Like the moment of the resurrection, Jesus’ birth happened off screen. In fact, that is the scene (probably for good measure) left out of children Christmas pageants. Mary is plump with an oversized pillow under her gown. The scene changes and a thin Mary reappears with Jesus lying in a manger.

            In Grasping God’s Word, authors J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays tell of a Christmas pageant in Dilla, Ethiopia. The church was jammed packed with people, the room was dark as Joseph and Mary wandered in, except the couple “did not travel alone” (138). Atypical to many

On Easter morning, the church proclaims more than an empty tomb. The abandoned tomb points us to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. During the season leading to the celebration of Easter, we have kept near the cross of Jesus. At the foot of the cross, we have heard the blood curdling screams of forsakenness and Jesus whisper his trust in the Lord. The dark of that fateful Friday afternoon gave way to the resurrection’s early light a couple days later.

          Describing Easter’s impact on us, Peter writes, “In [God’s] great mercy [God] has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”      (1 Peter 1:3). This verse is packed with so much nutrition, that I have only quoted in part. However,

“Today in the town of David a Savior

has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

(Luke 2:10)

On this holiest of nights two thousand years ago, a small band of shepherds were startled by an angel of the Lord and the announcement that, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Prior to this moment the birth of God’s Son was merely anticipated; it was oriented toward a future yet unknown. However, there in the outskirts of Bethlehem the angel’s announcement makes an important and unmistakable shift that proclaims that Jesus has been born. The timestamp on the angel’s message reads “today.” In other words, angel emphasized the present as time of fulfillment, now as the time of God’s gracious deliverance.

In The Redemption of Scrooge author Matt Rawle indicates the shift of time that occurs in the Christmas story of Luke 2:1-20. It is a shift that moves us from speaking what happened “In those days” to what to God is doing on “this day.” Our Savior’s birth changes everything:

In those days the palace ruled the world, but on this day the world is being turned upside down. In those days the shepherds were less than unimportant, but on this day, the shepherds received the kingdom of God!

In those days we simply read about a miracle. On this day we expect one.

To me the Christmas story is every bit as pregnant as Mary. Under every detail is a trap door to a deeper meaning. Sometimes I am drawn to the ordinariness of the shepherds, when it dawns upon me that the Messiah came to save common people like us. Other times I identify with the innkeeper and wonder if there is room for the Christ child within. Still other times I wonder if my faith is strong enough to follow Mary’s boy to the cross. This Christmas, I am drawn to the excited and wonder-filled voice of the angel’s first word to the shepherds, “Today”!

            I pray that you will find within the Christmas story a detail to ponder. Hopefully a detail that causes the Christmas story to leap off the pages of Luke’s gospel and come alive within. During the next several weeks of December, you are welcome to come and to celebrate the Savior’s birth with your church family. Each service is unique which allows you to blend your insights of the Christmas story with your love for Christ.

  Christmas Blessings,   Nicholas Perry, Pastor  

Psalm 116 is an ancient poem sung or recited each year during the celebration of the Jewish Passover. It is located within a larger collection of poems referred to as the “Egyptian Hallel.” The Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113-118) offers a retelling of Israel’s gospel when they were delivered from the slavery that had bound them in Egypt for hundreds of years.

When I read Psalm 116, familiar voices from Israel’s past can be heard, outlining the drama of Israel’s gospel:                         verse 3: The snares of death encompassed me;                         verse 8: For you have delivered my soul from death;                         verse 17: I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the                                           name of the LORD. The beauty of poetry is its ability to soar to the heights and plunge to the deepest depths.

“Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?’”  (Luke 17:17)

It must be time for Thanksgiving. All indications suggest that it is: shoppers congregate in the supermarket loading up their carts with turkeys, dinner rolls, and vegetables. Both the school and work weeks have been shortened. Most of the leaves have blown off the trees except for a few holdouts. Nevertheless, I can always tell that it is Thanksgiving because the assigned Gospel reading is Luke 17:11-19. It is a simple story about ten lepers healed by Jesus.

The ten lepers played by the rules, “they stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us’” (Luke 17:12-13). Jesus commended them to “Go, show yourselves to the priests’” (Luke 17:14,) and obediently they went. The plot thickens when the gospel writer’s states:

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him— and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other Nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God expect this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:15-19).

Typically, I assume that only one of the lepers was thankful for the healing Jesus had given. The flipside is that I usually condemn the other nine labeling them “ungrateful” for the healing that came from Jesus. However, this year I am rethinking my traditional approach to this familiar story.

In his book, They Way of the Wolf Martin Bell imaginatively and beautifully wonders “What about the others?” The Scripture its self is silent, however Bell provides nine plausible reasons for the no-show of the nine lepers:

• One of them was frightened—that’s all. He didn’t understand what had happened, and it frightened him. So he looked for some place to hide. Jesus scared him.
• A second was offended because he had not been required to do something difficult before he could be healed. It was too easy…And so Jesus offended him.
• The third had realized too late that he had not really wanted to be cleansed. That he did not know what to do or how to live or even who he was without his leprosy…Jesus had taken away his identity.
• The fourth leper did not return because in his delirium of joy, he forgot. That’s all. He was so happy that he forgot.
• The fifth leper was unable to say thank you to anymore to anybody. There is something that happens to a man who must beg and who is shunned by his fellows…He just doesn’t say thank you anymore to anybody—not even to Jesus.
• The sixth leper was a woman—a mother who had been separated from her family for eleven years because of her leprosy. She did not return to give thanks because she was hurrying home…She had been freed by Jesus.
• The seventh just didn’t believe that Jesus had anything to do with the cleansing. He knew that healing had taken place, but why and how were the questions… He didn’t return to give thanks because Jesus had had nothing to do with the healing event.
• The eight leper did not return precisely because he did believe that Jesus had healed him—that the Kingdom of God was here and the Messiah had arrived… And so he ran to publish the news.
• The ninth leper why didn’t he return? I don’t know the answer… All I know is that he showed himself to the priest and immediately was cleansed. He then stood still for a moment and smiled. It is impossible to say precisely why he did not return to give thanks.

As, I pondered each of these possible responses of the nine lepers, I found myself slipping in and out of each of the characters thinking, “That sounds like something I think or do.” All of these years, I have been impressed by and admired the one leper who returned to thank Jesus; failing to see that in reality I’m more aligned with the nine who didn’t return. In Jesus’s question to the returnee he asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine” (Luke 17:17)? Now, I am able to say with a grateful heart, “Lord, I’m over here!”

This Thanksgiving, whether you have fallen at Jesus’ feet in praise and wonderment or express your gratefulness to Jesus’ gift of life and healing in ways that might at first glance seem less obvious; know that the Jesus who asks, “Where are the other nine” (Luke 17:17) does in fact know where were they are. In fact, Bell says, “He knew all along.” My prayer is this Thanksgiving your life will be touched by the grace of Christ and your heart full of gratitude.

Blessings,

Pastor Nick

Greetings,

Last year, I had the distinct blessing of participating in this congregation’s tradition of Heritage Sunday. It was a moving and meaningful service. I can still remember walking into our beautiful sanctuary last November seeing the names and the photographs of those whose memory we hold near to our hearts.

Charles Wesley once wrote, “Glory to God, and praise and love be ever, ever given, by saints below and saints above, the church in earth and heaven.” M

y sermon on Heritage Sunday will be focusing on John’s vision in Revelation 7:9-17. This beautiful and meaningful service will conclude with the sacrament of Holy Communion. Immediately following the 10am service will be a covered dish lunch (desserts & beverages provided) in the Fellowship Hall. I would love your presence. In the meantime, as always the First United Methodist Church will continue to life you in our thoughts and prayers. 

Blessings,

Pastor