Friday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon

"Who bugged the Manger"

There is so much in the story that is suspicious and scholars have questioned it to the point that they have ruined it for some of us. On the other hand there is much that is in the story that is so human and so natural that, even if you know it is a story told by a gifted writer(Luke) it is accurate because it represents what would have been said by any rational person under the same circumstances.


There are two issues that strike me as important in Luke's story:


1. That there are things that come to pass and most of those things are complicate by the decrees issued by people in power. Mary's baby was born at an inconvenient time and place. It matters not where or when has there ever been a baby born when the time was perfect and the place was what was expected. Stuff comes to pass and decrees are issued. Our job is to do something with it.

2. That Mary would keep these things in her heart is not unexpected. She and we keep many important things in our hearts because the truly important things require a long period of time (sometimes a lifetime) to determine what meaning is to be drawn from them. She had a baby she knew to be special and she kept things in her heart. Maybe she knew some of how special her baby was but she couldn't know HOW special he would be. That took her whole lifetime to realize. She had to see him at 12 debating with the theologians in the temple. She had to see him step forward into ministry at age 30. She had to hear him speak and realize the wisdom and spirituality he possessed. She had to watch him be arrested, tried, and crucified to know the humiliation and pain of his death. She had to experience his resurrected spirit to realize what it meant that Easter day when death was defeated.

It took Mary a lifetime to understand what she had to keep in her heart the day her child was born.

There isn't a mother alive who is perplexed about that. All mothers and many fathers keep these kinds of things in their hearts and then watch as they unfold.

What are the things you have kept in your heart that will take a lifetime to understand?

Write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the congregation click on the 'comments' box below.

If you would like an email with a rough draft of the sermon indicate that and I will send it. There is one part of the sermon I have to get permission to use and I may leave that out if I am not permitted to use it.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster