Simple Joy
Advent 3 – December 15, 2024
What does this Advent Sermon Series have in common with Real Estate? Give up? Location, location, location. I know it’s a bad joke, I made it up. We started in Rome with the census from Caesar Augustus, then on to Jerusalem where Zechariah and Elizabeth welcomed their son John. This Sunday we are going to Nazareth where the angel Gabriel visits a young girl, Mary. To be honest I have always thought of God choosing the person Mary, not the location where Mary lived as being important. But I am rethinking that, and I will tell you why. Nazareth was a little-known place when Mary was told she would bear a son. Because it was not situated on a main road that would provide travelers and merchants or on a river or reservoir, Nazareth was limited in size. It was a tiny village with a population estimated between a handful of families to as many as a couple hundred people. You see Nazareth had only one water source, one well, to support all inhabitants. Today we call it Mary’s Well, but in biblical times that single well gave life to the small community of Nazareth and confined its size by its need for water.
Who here has lived in a small town? John Melencamp’s song Small Town is running through my head. Those places where life is slower, there are only a few traffic lights, and everyone knows everyone. Moms would often look after each other’s kids who found it hard to get into trouble because there were maternal eyes everywhere. A small town might lack big entertainment and shopping, but what it has in spades is a feeling of community. Interdependence. Everyone shows up for everyone else.
I never thought of Nazareth this way. I guess John’s question, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (1:46), and Jesus saying, “No prophet is accepted in his hometown” (Lk 4:24) made me undervalue the place God speaks to Mary. Then discovering that the Jewish historian Josephus mentions 240 towns in Galilee but not one word about Nazareth. Nor is Nazareth in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, or the Midrash (On The Way to Bethlehem, OTWTB, Rob Fuquay, p. 66). So the place Mary discovers she will bear God’s son and the place that Jesus spends most of his life before his ministry, is a place of simplicity, a place that needed interdependence for support and survival. “Families would have known each other well and no doubt helped and looked after one another, offering a strong sense of security and support” (OTWTB, p. 67). Jesus grew up in the simplicity of a small town.
Yet Jesus would not have had a sheltered life. Nazareth was near the city of Sepphoris, that was being rebuilt by Herod Antipas during Jesus’ childhood. Scholars believe that Joseph, Jesus’ father, worked as a carpenter in Sepphoris, so that Jesus would have heard about the people, where he worked, and the politics and culture of the day. In a way Jesus had the best of both worlds, a tight knit community and knowledge of the “IT” place to be.
Today Nazareth is a bustling city with a population 70% Muslim and 30% Chrisitan. It also has the nickname of “the Silicon Valley of the Arab Community” (OTWTB, 57). Yet its first claim to fame is the beautiful Church of Annunciation built over ruins believed to be where Gabriel visited Mary and announced that she would be the mother of the Savior of the world. “The archaeological foundations of the first century home are exposed and visible beneath the floor of the church.” A sign in Latin reads, “The Word became flesh here.” A cupola at the center of the dome high above the sanctuary allows light to stream below conveying a sense of God’s presence coming down over the house. You get the sense that the earthly and the eternal meet inside this church… This was the place God stepped from eternity into the limitations of time and space” (OTWTB, 63).
Yet I wonder, “what it was about Nazareth that would have shaped and influenced a young girl in such a way as to find favor with God? What spiritual meaning can we take away from Nazareth that helps us in our own journey to experience Christ and prepare for his coming among us?” (OTWTB, p. 67). Nazareth was a place of community and interdependence; this shaped Mary and would also shape Jesus and his ministry. Think of caring for one another, breaking bread, the stories at the well, much like the well he would have walked to with his mother. In Nazareth, Mary found favor with God. This can mean she had a character worthy of being the mother of God. But it could also mean that Mary was the one to receive God’s grace. You see the word “charis” means “favor” or it can also mean “grace.” We know that “Grace is God’s gift. Grace is the gift of kindness, mercy and love. We don’t earn or deserve grace. This is what makes grace a gift” (OTWTB, 72). Do you remember the song, Simple Gifts? It comes from a Shaker community, that believes in simplicity, equality, and communal living. It goes, “It’s a gift to be simple, It’s a gift to be free, It’s a gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we see ourselves in a way that’s right, We will live in a valley of love and delight!”
So what are some of the simple things about Christmas that bring you Joy? What small ways can you invite God into your heart and home this year? This week at Dick Yeo’s memorial, Gwen spoke of Dick’s love for Christmas and his love of Dicken’s Christmas Carol, the one with Albert Finney. You might love to watch Its a Wonderful Life or put out your treasured Nativity scene. May our joy this Christmas be found in community and precious family and friends, in our church family and the ways we care for one another. We might not have been raised in Nazareth, but St. Andrew sure knows how to be a caring community.
God made Mary full of grace. God favored her. Mary was young and innocent. Yet who better to carry the life of Jesus within her than someone who could not brag about heritage, accomplishments, worth or status. Mary carried Jesus within her from the time Gabriel appeared until Jesus was born. “Have you ever known people who carry Jesus within them? Everywhere they go, every encounter, they convey grace, kindness and love from deep within them” (OTWTB, 75). People who embody Jesus in their life and actions. You know the ones; they seem to have the peace and joy of Christ in their hearts, and they share God’s grace with everyone. How might we carry Jesus and show God’s grace, kindness and love this Advent season?
Jesus came from the simplicity of a small town, Mary was filled with grace and carried Jesus within her, embodying, hosting, the divine. This sacred moment in Nazareth created an incarnational reality. In that tiny home, when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, God showed up. God’s love became specific. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Remember the sign in the Church of Annunciation, it added one simple word, “here.” “Here” is right where you are. Yes God became real in that particular moment, “but through Jesus’s death and resurrection God becomes real to all people in all times in all places! Here becomes everywhere to God…. The Incarnation means The Word became flesh here. God is with us right now. Nazareth teaches us that while the place where we are feels…far removed from the place we thought life would take us, it is still a place full of God’s presence… God is here. God is with us.” (OTWTB, 78). Amen.
