The Gift of Being Ordinary

Happy new year to you all! Does Christmas seem like a distant memory? Did you get some lovely gifts? Everything you wanted? As we’re celebrating Epiphany today it seems appropriate to think about our gifts- the ones we gave and the ones we received- and the thought behind them. 

I spend ages choosing presents but somehow I feel I’ve never quite got it right, whilst there’s always a lot of thought and care behind the gift I always worry about how it will be received.

We can see the meaning and symbolism behind the gifts the Magi bring to Jesus, but I wonder what Mary and Joseph actually thought when they opened them? I’m sure the gold would have come in handy, particularly when it came to organising their safe passage to Egypt, and I’m sure they appreciated the depth of symbolism in regard to the Frankincense and Myrrh, but I secretly imagine Mary in particular wishing they’d have turned up with something a bit more practical for the care of a new born, son of God or not.

I don’t want to lean towards gender stereotypes but I’m sure you’ve heard that if it had been three wise women that had turned up they’d have brought a casserole, cleaned up the stable and organised a nappy laundering service.

Now I’ve preached a lot on Epiphany, maybe more than any of the other festivals, and I’ve always looked for a different angle than talking about the gifts, I don’t know if I’ve ever even mentioned them on epiphany before so I made a conscious decision this year to reflect upon the gift aspect of this festival as it inspires our own gift giving, which if you were to take an objective look at Christmas, away from our lens of faith, it would seem to be one of the most central things about the season.

The predictability of a gift sermon is it ends up being about our own gifts and what we bring to the manger and therefore to the body of Christ, and this sermon was going to look very different to how it turned out, the themes were the same when I was planning it in my head but then….my family became obsessed with the new Disney film Encanto which came onto the Disney channel on Christmas Eve…I think we’ve watched it 7 or 8 times now.

So what is Encanto about? Well it’s about a very special family who each have, I’m sure you can guess…magical gifts…that is all except one. The central character, Mirabel has no gift. She’s completely ordinary and the whole town knows it. The family matriarch, their Abuela (the film is set in Columbia so there’s lots of Spanish names and references, Abuela is grandma), Abuela sees this lack of gift as a failure, something which will damage the family.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I’m a film nerd, and it’s these ordinary characters like Mirabel that I always find the most relatable and interesting. Not the special, magical or superhero characters. 

I think a huge part of that is because I myself have always felt completely ordinary- don’t worry it’s not a self esteem or self-worth thing, I know I’m fabulous, but very ordinary, which is perfectly ok, because most people are it’s what keeps the world turning. 

Imagine how exhausting it would be if our lives were full of extraordinary people! And yes, we are all special and unique and extraordinary and uniquely loved my god…but in an everyday kind of a way.

What I mean is that we’re not all destined to be a top concert pianist, Olympic swimmer, noble prize winner or Prime minister (although the bar for that one is quite low).

What we see in Encanto is the weight and burden of the gifts upon those who’re labelled as special. Luisa has super strength but feels the weight of the entire town upon her, she feels she would be worthless if she couldn’t fulfil everyone’s expectations, that her only worth is in service. 

Isabella is beautiful and can create flowers and plants out of nothing, she makes everything around her beautiful. She feels the need to be perfect in all things and all times- this includes nearly marrying a man she doesn’t love because it’s expected of her. She never makes anything for herself and when she does she’s surprised and amazed to see it’s a spikey little cactus.

And poor Bruno, he follows the fate of so many biblical characters. He’s the family prophet who sees the future and is rejected for telling people difficult stuff they don’t want to hear.

And who is it that saves the day, the family and the town – fingers in your ears if you don’t want spoilers – but it’s Mirabel, of course it is. Ordinary, gift-less and in no way special. Or is she?

Because I see our ordinariness as a gift. How many magi were wandering around Bethlehem? Not many. How many shepherds? Dozens, maybe even 100s dotted around the outskirts of the city. Beyond ordinary, the lowest rung on the social ladder, and whilst the magi’s visit rounds off our manger story, let’s not forget that the shepherds received a personal invite from God’s holy messengers. They knew they had nothing to bring, utterly gift-less, and yet they came.

Now this is part of a gift sermon when we’re asked to contemplate our own gifts and what we can bring to the manger to lay before the Christ child, and how we can use our gifts to contribute to the body of Christ, but I’m not going to ask you to do that.

We have amazing, gifted, glorious people in this room but what I want you to do is contemplate and celebrate your ordinariness, because God does. The special, the exalted, the lifted up…are these the people Jesus chooses to spend his life with when grown? Is that the family and community God incarnate chose to be born into? Nope. Ordinary. The most extraordinary being chose ordinary because ordinary matters. 

Ordinary is what keeps the world turning, keeps us going, feeds families, cares for the sick, runs towns and cities, operates valuable services, puts kids to bed…and continues the cycles of love and living that God put into the world when God chose to create earth and life and humankind. Our extraordinary ordinariness. 

And as we contemplate our beautiful, ordinary lives, remember that this is what God chose that first Christmas, yes Jesus was for from ordinary, but his choice of an ordinary life, to begin with, is all the proof we need of how much God values us and what we bring to the world. And go and watch Encanto, it’s got some banging tunes. Amen.

Epiphany- you are enough.

Epiphany is that final chapter in the nativity story and yet it passes us by so quickly. For many of us (and those who we've encountered so far in this new year) I’m sure Christmas is done and dusted, but I enjoy that we get to sit with it for a little longer.

I’m sure all the signs of Christmas will soon be removed from our houses, just as they’ll soon be removed from the church- the tree taken down and the stable put away until Advent. I always think everywhere looks a little bare, or maybe a better word is uncluttered, after the Christmas paraphernalia has been taken down. I find that an uncluttered space means I can actually think more clearly, but I do miss this sparkle and especially the lights. There really is something about Christmas lights- reminding us of the light that shines even in the darkest places but also of that guiding light the Magi, now completing their journey, have followed.

There’s always a lot of talk of gifts in epiphany sermons, quite naturally, and an encouragement to think about our own gifts and what we would bring to the stable, to make our own offering before Jesus.

I think it’s really important to remember that it’s just enough that we bring ourselves, it’s great when people have awesome gifts to bring to ministry or this communal life we share, whether it’s the gifts of listening, hospitality, organisation (wish I had that one!) or maybe leadership- however people contribute to our shared life of faith.

But it’s also ok that we’re just here, offering ourselves, even if we don’t think that means much to the God who created everything from nothing. It means everything. 

As we start this new year and are tempted to make plans, resolutions or self-improvements of whatever kind I just wanted us to remember that we are enough, just as we are. Jesus’ birth subverts everything we think we know about power and worth, even the Magi don’t get it at first and they go searching for him in the palace, the seat of human power, but when they eventually find the promised child in a grubby outhouse they realise that this is something different entirely.

You know I like to share bits and bobs with you that I read or find so this is “A Sonnet for Epiphany” by Malcolm Guite, priest and poet:

It might have been just someone else’s story,

Some chosen people get a special king.

We leave them to their own peculiar glory,

We don’t belong, it doesn’t mean a thing.

But when these three arrive they bring us with them,

Gentiles like us, their wisdom might be ours;

A steady step that finds an inner rhythm,

A  pilgrim’s eye that sees beyond the stars.

They did not know his name but still they sought him,

They came from otherwhere but still they found;

In temples they found those who sold and bought him,

But in the filthy stable, hallowed ground.

Their courage gives our questing hearts a voice

To seek, to find, to worship, to rejoice.

On the twelfth day of Christmas...

...I slept

The twelfth day of Christmas happened whilst I was sleeping between night shifts, although being on a night shift meant I was there in those last few moments, as Christmas became Epiphany. The decs are down, the food has all been eaten and baby Jesus is wrapped in tissue paper, waiting for Advent to come round again. But we still have Jesus the man, our incarnate God who shared table fellowship with the despised, who spoke to women when is wasn't socially acceptable, who stood alongside the outcasts and marginalised, who showed anger at hipocracy, and cried at the death of a friend. He revealed to us, as far as is possible for us to comprehend, what God is like and how much we're loved. I am so, so thankful for that.

On the tenth day of Christmas...

...I had an epiphany

A couple of days early for an epiphany I know, but today we celebrated epiphany in both our main Sunday service and our family service. My personal epiphany came when my 9 year old son, holding my hand, asked me why my hands are so rough. I explained that it's because of my work as a nurse- I have to wash my hands before and after everything I do and there's little time for hand cream between jobs. One of the assignments I've undertaken as part of my course was designing an act of worship, for which I designed a thanksgiving for caregivers. This included a blessing of hands. Today I thank God for my hands, as a symbol of being a caregiver.

Expect The Unexpected!

My farewell sermon to my placement church, St Matthew's Stretford, which I preached at yesterday's Epiphany service.

If you were told you were going to meet a very important person what would your expectations be? I must admit I’ve not met many VIPs but I got quite excited when I was little to hear that my dad had met the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, at the Royal Agricultural Show, and presented her with his latest book on Massey Fergusson tractors. I don’t know about Mrs Thatcher’s experiences of meeting my dad but I was very interested to hear what his experiences of meeting this important person were. His measured reply was “shorter than I expected”.
It’s true that we probably have our own ideas about what important people will be like, or should be like, and we probably have some very definite ideas about royalty, as did the wise men in our gospel reading.
They know the child has been born in Bethlehem but that’s not where they go to first. They enter Matthew’s narrative by turning up at the palace in Jerusalem, expecting that’s where the King of the Jews will now be, as that’s where he ought to be.
They don’t find a new born king in Jerusalem but Herod and with him the important temple officials. The dominant emotion their presence evokes there is fear. Kate talked about fear on Christmas day, how so many characters in the Christmas story experienced fear but overcame it to achieve The purpose God had for them, but that’s not what we see with Herod. In Herod we see what happens when fear is allowed to dominate.
Herod lived a life in the shadow of fear. It lead him to kill his wife whose unfaithfulness he feared, 3 of his sons who he feared would usurp him, and to call for the murder of innocent boys in an attempt to destroy the infant Jesus who he also feared threatened his position. Herod let fear dominate his actions and it lead to his downfall as he was tormented by taking the lives of those he had loved.
I wonder what the wise men knew of Herod and his reputation? Did they believe him when he said he wanted to pay homage to the child? Did they leave the palace in fear of what Herod might do to them if they didn’t return with the information he requested? And how, when they left, did they feel about not finding the King of the Jews in the king’s palace as they expected?
So they journey on to Bethlehem, still guided by the light of the star, and when they find Jesus what they experience is an outpouring of joy. They fall to their knees and worship Jesus as the king they’ve searched for. They don’t question his humble surroundings in a small town. They didn’t find the King of the Jews in the Jerusalem palace but a more modest dwelling. Although it wasn’t what they expected there’s no hesitation.
Whatever their motivation for travelling so far to honour this king they now must surely realise this is a king like no other. They’ve experienced 2 kings- Herod in his Palace surrounded by fear, and Jesus in lowlier circumstances, surrounded by love, a love that must radiate out so completely to convince these men of wisdom that this is the king they’ve searched for, despite their expectations.
I think that like the wise men what we expect of Jesus and what we experience of Him can be very surprising. We might expect to experience him in church, but I find him frequently in the hospital rooms of frightened cancer patients. We might expect to find him in our fellow Christians, but I often see him working through my friends who claim to have no faith.
If you were to think about your week, or about your experiences over Christmas, where have you seen Jesus at work? Where have you been surprised to see him? How has he altered or changed your expectations of who he is or where he is?
I think the key to knowing where Jesus is, like in the gospel reading, is to look to where the love is- to put our expectations aside and live to simply experience Jesus as he is, not how we would wish him to be; wherever he might be, whoever he’s working through. If we open our hearts to the endless love and possibilities that God offers us, our God who exceeds any expectations we may have, we may find that we can experience him in all places and in all people.

Guide us to thy perfect light

So here I am- Twelfth Night. Christmas season itself continues until Candlemas on the 2nd February, but my celebrations can't last that long.
I tried to keep an Advent of prayerful preparation, to joyfully welcome the Christ-child on Christmas morning, and to continue to celebrate God's glory until today's feast of the Epiphany.
This morning's Gospel reading was Matthew's account of the Magi visiting Herod, then placing their gifts before Jesus; gold for the king, frankincense for the priest and myrrh because he was destined to die.
One classic sermon preached on this reading is what gifts do we bring? If I had one wish for this year it would to be more loving, to offer this as my gift. If I've learned anything in ministry, work and life it's that love, in the broadest sense, is what really matters.