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Setting the Christmas Stage Series
“Constructing the Scenery: Elizabeth's Sitting Room, The Stable (and Animals), The Inn, and King Herod's Throne Room”
Based on Setting the Christmas Stage by John Indermark
Meditations on Selected Verses from Luke 1 & 2, Matthew 2
(12/4/11; Second Sunday of Advent)
Jennifer M. Hallenbeck
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MEDITATION 1: Elizabeth's Sitting Room (Luke 1:24-25, 39-45, 56-58)
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I spent three days in Milwaukee with family on my mom's side. For over a decade it's been our family tradition to spend Thanksgiving in Milwaukee where my mom's brother and some of his children have settled. There are typically anywhere between 25 to 40 of us present over the weekend.
Every year when we all gather, grandchildren have grown a little, a new one has been born, someone's job has changed, a boyfriend has come and gone. We talk, we laugh, we take pictures, and, of course, we eat – a lot!
To help counteract all of the eating, last year my sister got us going on a new tradition that continued this year, and that I suspect will continue each year: the family Turkey Trot – a 5-kilometer run (or walk) the morning after Thanksgiving.
Following the family Turkey Trot, this year we got to do something extra-special. One of my cousins is expecting her first baby in January, so, in addition to the normal family Thanksgiving weekend events, we also had an extended family baby shower.
As is typical for baby showers, this event was women and girls only: the boys of all ages had to go find something else to do while we women had our baby shower. (I think the guys went to the nearby park and did some sort of mini-Olympics...)
During the shower we snacked, we had coffee, we played some silly games, and, of course, many, many gifts were opened and rejoiced over.
There were four generations of my family's women at this baby shower...and I know that many of us who were there were struck by what a beautiful thing it was we were celebrating.
Of course there was the “normal” joy of celebrating the upcoming birth of another child into our family. But there was added emotion because my cousin and her husband were not sure that they were going to be able to have any children.
Later that evening, my sister and I were talking with one of our male cousins and, with a bit of a smirk on his face, he asked us just what exactly goes on at a baby shower. He made some joke about being a bit afraid of what might happen with so much estrogen in one place with no men around to sort of balance it out.
Of course, my sister and I then responded with jokes of our own about how “what happens at the baby shower stays at the baby shower.” And, as silly as that is, there's some truth to it. We told our cousin about the games and the gift-opening...we even told him that there had been some tears among the laughter.
But we didn't get too specific. And not for any reason other than that there are just some things women and men probably will not ever fully understand about each other.
At several points during Thanksgiving weekend with my family, I found myself sitting with other female relatives talking babies – talking labor, delivery room, hospital room...talking about things we wouldn't have talked about if one of the guys had pulled up a chair to join us.
There's something sacred about this kind of conversation among women – just as I think there is something sacred about “guys-only” conversation. Though we all appreciate mixed company, the special bond we feel with others of our own gender is important – especially during certain seasons of our lives...and, for women, pregnancy is one of those seasons.
Of course, as I reflected on Mary's visit to Elizabeth in our Gospel reading from Luke, I couldn't help but think about the baby shower I recently attended for my cousin.
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As many of you know by now, we are using John Indermark's book Setting the Christmas Stage to help give shape to our Advent and Christmas worship services.
Last week we “built the backdrops” of the Christmas stage by hearing from four of the Old Testament prophets who had foretold the coming of God's Messiah. And this week we are “constructing the scenery” that identifies the places surrounding Christ's birth.
This first piece of scenery is one we might not normally think of when thinking of Christmas: Elizabeth's sitting room. We might not normally think of it because, by the time we get to Christmas, this piece of scenery has been taken off the stage...and, with the stable full of animals, we easily forget just how important this place was.
This scene at Elizabeth's is so important because it highlights how truly remarkable the Christmas story is...for here, in this place, there are not one but two unlikely pregnant women: Elizabeth, long thought to be beyond childbearing years, and Mary, a young virgin.
I love the moment when Mary and Elizabeth first greet one another: they see each other – again, two unlikely pregnant women – and the joyful exclamations begin, complete with John the Baptizer leaping in his mother Elizabeth's womb. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” Elizabeth cried upon seeing Mary.
And then, beyond these joyful moments when Elizabeth and Mary first see each other, there's silence. All we know from the Scripture about Mary's visit to Elizabeth's is how long it lasted: “Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.” That's all Luke tells us about Mary and Elizabeth's time together.
Perhaps it's because nothing very eventful happened during those three months – maybe that's why Luke says so little about the visit. But I think it might be more than that.
Perhaps we know so little about these three months because it was such precious, private time between female relatives who were sharing something that no one else would ever truly understand.
Surely God came and met Mary and Elizabeth in powerful ways during those three months when they were together...and as wonderful as it would be for us to know about what exactly happened, it's okay that we don't.
Because we all have precious, private experiences with God and with others that we hold close to our hearts – not because they're secrets that we don't want anyone else to know...but, rather, because no one else would quite understand if we talked fully about it.
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God blessed Mary and Elizabeth with three months together at a critical time for each of them. Two unlikely pregnant women: one beyond her child-bearing years, the other a young virgin.
We don't know what happened in their three months together – what they talked about, the details of their pregnancies – we don't know what happened...but we can be assured it was precious, holy time.
In so many ways, those three months in and around Elizabeth's sitting room served as Advent for Mary and Elizabeth, for in those three months, God prepared them for the birth of their children.
In those three months, God prepared them for the coming of Christ into their lives and into our world. May we, too, make time and space for such holy preparation this Advent season. For, when we do make time...we can be assured that Christ our Lord will meet us there. Amen.
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MEDITATION 2: The Inn & King Herod's Throne Room
(Luke 2:1-7 and Matthew 2:1-4, 7-8)
One of these two pieces of the Christmas stage scenery is familiar to most of us while the other is not.
Each year we are used to imagining the inn as we think about the Christmas story – we're used to imagining the inn because, if it weren't for “no room at the inn,” there would be no stable full of animals, no manger bed on which baby Jesus could lay down his sweet head.
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The Innkeeper, with his full inn, is made out to be something of a villain on the Christmas stage – we think, “How dare he turn away the Holy Family!” But, like just about everyone else in Bethlehem that night long ago, he had no idea who he was turning away.
Some Bible scholars believe that “the inn” may have actually been a guest room of sorts at a relative's home...that Joseph and Mary checked with a family member to see if their guest room was available and that, when there was no room, the relative offered the stable as a second option.
You may think that makes it better, you may think that makes it a whole lot worse – the possibility of a relative turning Mary and Joseph away from their home and out into the stable.
Whoever the Innkeeper was, and whatever kind of set-up he had (or, rather, that he did not have) something caused him to offer a stable. In so doing, he became something of a villain on the Christmas stage.
But the Innkeeper is not the real villain on the Christmas stage. The Innkeeper was simply an innocent bystander who happened not to have available space on a busy night in his little town – a little town that was over-crowded thanks to the census. The real villain on the Christmas stage appears in Matthew's Gospel: his name is King Herod and the scenery constructed around him is his throne room.
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It occurred to me recently that the popular Christmas song “Do You Hear What I Hear” - which I love, by the way – confuses this particular scenery of the Christmas stage. The final two verses of “Do You Hear What I Hear” say this:
“Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king, 'Do you know what I know, in your palace warm, mighty king? Do you know what I know? A child, a child, shivers in the cold, let us bring him silver and gold. Let us bring him silver and gold.”
“Said the king to the people everywhere, 'Listen to what I say! Pray for peace people everywhere. Listen to what I say! The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night, he will bring us goodness and light. He will bring us goodness and light.”
I'm not sure who the king is that's being referred to in the last two verses of “Do You Hear What I Hear,” but it is most certainly not King Herod...and the scenery surrounding the king in “Do You Hear What I Hear” seems a bit more pleasant that what likely surrounded Herod.
See, King Herod's throne room was a place where destructive plans were made...where a fearful and jealous Herod found out where the Messiah was to be born and sent outsiders – the wise men – to find the baby king so that Herod could destroy him.
I don't want to say too much about Herod today because he will be featured in next week's worship service...but for now, for today, we are called to consider the scenery surrounding him: a place within which evil schemes were pondered and executed.
King Herod's throne room is scenery on the Christmas stage we would prefer to ignore...but it is space that we must deal with head-on because, if we're not careful, our own hearts and minds can become like Herod's throne room: places where unhealthy thoughts are given space to grow...places where grudges are nursed...places where sinful plans are developed.
This Advent season, may our hearts and minds instead become spaces where Christ is welcomed and where his will for our lives is honored.
And so today, as we prepare to celebrate Holy Communion, know that each of us is offered the opportunity to welcome Christ into our heart as we receive the bread and the cup, and as we kneel at the altar in prayer.
Let us now turn to our liturgy for Holy Communion...