St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Jesus Family Album – Rev. David Mundy

Luke 2:1-20 Matthew 1:18-25

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Over the years one of the simple pleasures of my job has been receiving photographs of the children in my various congregations. Some of them are photos from baptisms in which I have participated. Actually, I have a number of those photos on my study bulletin board. Children in congregations have given me school pictures along the way, including me in the distribution to family and friends. I always feel honoured. Grandparents are great too – they show me photos of the most beautiful, talented, brilliant children who have ever existed on this planet!

There have been other photographs which are more unusual and are part of a much bigger story. Perhaps 25 years ago a woman came to see me in obvious emotional pain. She had undergone an abortion and almost immediately after having the procedure she was filled with guilt and remorse. We met a number of times to address her relationship with God in all of this and her willingness to accept God’s love and forgiveness. It was a message which she just couldn’t hear, and eventually she decided to become pregnant again to make things right. While this didn’t sit well with me, for years after the birth of her son and long after I had departed for other congregations a yearly letter would arrive with a photo of this growing child.

One of the more intriguing photographs came just a couple of years ago, from an excited young mother-to-be in this congregation. I was included in the email distribution of an ultrasound image of her baby, still in the womb. The “due date” was still some time away, but she was so thrilled she wanted everyone to see her child, already loved and anticipated and with possible names chosen. Eventually I was involved in that baptism as well.

There is what I think is a clever ad campaign in Britain at the moment which uses an ultrasound image as a way of getting people to think about the “reason for the season” of Christmas. "He's on His way," reads the ad's text. "Christmas starts with Christ." It is supposedly Jesus’ prenatal baby photo with a halo to remind us all that he is a unique child, God-with-us. It is meant to be a fun way to bring peoples’ attention to Jesus in a time when Christmas seems to be becoming “Giftmas” and Christ is disappearing.

Of course you know the ad couldn’t just be a statement about the One whom Christians love and adore and want to brag about at this time of the year. Anti and pro abortion groups are squabbling over the appropriateness of this image and what the hidden agenda is and . . . well you get the picture.

This is the final stop on our Advent journey to Christmas and what better day to at least attempt to bring our image of Jesus into focus than on this Sunday which is dedicated to love.

Only two of the four gospels share with us the story of Christ’s birth, and they are very different, and usually we hear one or the other. So for the first time ever in my ministry we listened to both of them on the same Sunday, and you could both see and hear how different they are.

The longer one which most of us would describe as the “real” Christmas story is from Luke and this is more like a home movie than a photograph. Just about everyone except for the Magi or Wise Men gets into this picture – angels, shepherds and their sheep, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. We can almost hear the person with the camera saying “could you all scootch in a little closer so I can get everyone in!” And this is the story that gives us Mary’s perspective.

The shorter story is the “guy” story, focussing more on Joseph and his dilemma of a fiancé who is pregnant and the public disgrace that pregnancy represented. While this version begins by saying that it is about the birth of Jesus the Messiah, we don’t actually get any of the details of the birth. This really is the ultrasound picture, isn’t it? There is no mention of a census or a “full house” or being born in a stable. While the Magi do show up, it isn’t until later.

For better or for worse these are the pictures of the infant Christ we are given. Both of them remind us that this Jesus came into the world as a fragile baby, born away from all the conventional support systems and into a world of challenges related to poverty and politics and yes, even religion. It was up to Mary and to Joseph and those who happened to be around them at the time of Jesus’ birth to decide whether he is a gift of God, a gift of love for them and for all of humanity.

So what photos do you have of Jesus in your family album? We have a photograph on our fridge, the place where so many important pictures go to live, of the family of long-time friends with their three adult children all spruced up for a wedding. I noticed one day that it was different and I tried to figure out how. Then I realized that the dad was gone! This couple had recently gone through a tough break-up and Ruth had removed him with a pair of scissors, knowing that the mom was coming for a visit and would probably be upset by the photo as it was.

We are realizing that Jesus is being photo-shopped out of the photos of our culture even at this time of the year which is supposedly all about him. Many of us find it bizarre that we can’t allow Jesus into the public square, figuratively and literally, including our schools, as though the mere mention of Jesus would be hazardous to someone’s health and well-being. I’m surprised that we haven’t heard about a church being sued for its offensive Nativity Scene on the front lawn!

But truth be told, we can huff and puff about “putting Christ back into Christmas” and not really understand our society is shifting away from religion in general and the Christianity which many assumed would always

Someone in the congregation shared with me the reflections of a man named Harry Mount who now writes about church architecture among other things but admits that when he was a boy church bored him. So he would rather naughtily change hymns and Christmas carols as he sang them. As an example the chorus of O Come All Ye Faithful became:

“Oh come let us ignore him,

Oh come let us ignore him,

Oh come let us ignore him . . .”

I won’t complete the last phrase because it is just too rude, but you get the idea. Well, his tortured carol is actually prophetic, because increasingly our culture we are ignoring Jesus and the community which is formed around him as the church.

Actually, there is a young member of our congregation who was formerly a member in a rather controversial church in Toronto where the minister has decided that Jesus is one option among many in worship, and scripture is regularly not read at all. She recounted that in one Christmas Eve service there was no reference to the birth of Jesus in the message, nor was the Christmas story in the bible read. She said it was a bleak experience which felt rather pointless.

This past week the Globe and Mail newspaper has been running a five-part series on the wane of organized religion in Canadian society. All surveys and studies show that our society is rapidly becoming secular with virtually no religious ties for many.

As recently as 2002 34% of Canadians between 15 and 29 said that religion was an important part of their lives. Today it is down to 22% and less than one in five attends worship. Of course the predominant religion they are not choosing is Christianity.

So should we just “throw in the towel” on our faith in Christ, accepting the inevitable that Jesus is one of those old faded sepia-coloured photos from the past? It may not surprise you that my answer is an emphatic “no!” When we listen to both of the Christmas stories in the gospels we discover obstacles to the Good News which seem almost insurmountable for everyone involved. Yet from humble beginnings and seemingly impossible odds a new faith was born, with an improbable, remarkable story which has not only survived two thousand years, but continues to flourish in many parts of the world

In some respects we have no control over social trends, other than to be open about our faith with others. We choose to be focussed and alert and passionate about Christ in our midst and in our lives. I invite you today to make sure that Jesus the Christ is “in the picture” for this Christmas season, in whatever ways you can.

My encouragement to those of you who are parents is that during this season you share the Christ’s story with your children, that you explain the Nativity in whatever ways you can, and it is never too early to get started. We have a friend, the Rev. Norm Esdon, who is a photographer, and he often creates his own Christmas cards. A few days ago this year’s version arrived in the mail and the front was a nativity scene taken from above, although the figure of the baby Jesus is missing. The words Amber Alert are superimposed, using the words often flashed on signs and television screens when authorities are looking for a missing child. Inside the card Jesus is at the centre again.The Good News is that we Jesus will be safely found just where we thought he was in the first place.

As adults, please allow this season to be a time of renewal, and a commitment to deepen your own faith in a way that allows for both childlike wonder and the maturity of our exploration through the years.

This morning a number of people are willing to stand before us and make the commitment of faith which includes their conviction that they are Christ’s people. One of them will be baptized as a Christian, marked as Christ’s forever. How appropriate that this will happen this morning. We can be grateful for their witness to us, and hear the call to live as Christians each and every day.

However we meet and experience the Jesus of the manger, and the Christ of the cross and the empty tomb, he can be part of our family album, where love abounds. He is still on his way, and for this we say “Thanks be to God!”