*nb: at St. Matthew's, the Sunday on which we officially receive new members to our family is the second sunday in Advent.*
It’s coming up to Christmas! Did you know that Christmas is a season of introductions? It totally is, especially here. Today is our official “new member Sunday”, so this is the day we introduce ourselves “officially” to some people. Remember to be on our best behaviour. It’s an important time.
I know it’s important: Gord sent me an email yesterday, it was short. It said: remember to wear pants.
Apparently, the time I came in my bright green flannel pajamas is still a little close to his heart.
*Note to you who are joining our family today: it’s never boring.*
And of course, Christmas Eve is always a busy time. I get so many introductions at Christmas Eve services I think that I should be wearing one of those vests from Wal-Mart. I meet lots of people. There are people who come for the first time, who come seeking a little bit of this “Christmas” that we talk about with hushed and reverent tones. On that night, we introduce them to a baby – and, perhaps, it will be the beginning of a relationship for them.
Then there’s always the surprising introductions: “Hi, welcome, I’m Pastor Mick. Thanks for visiting!”
And the reply: “actually, we’re members here!”
Really? I stood in a garage for an hour once; it didn’t make me a car…
But I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just hard for me to understand that particular kind of faith commitment: it’s always been for me that developing a relationships with a faith community is a high priority.
And we hear introductions all the time, in our Scripture readings, in our devotional readings, and in our singing – we sing, yea, Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning; we read “the Lord God comes with might,” and we light candles to keep watch for the coming Messiah.
There’s an important part that we play, too: we are also heralds of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
So, let me ask you this: ff you were asked, if you could, how would you possibly introduce Jesus? No, I don’t mean, “how would you share your faith with someone.” We can talk about that later. I mean, if you were at a party, at a nice evening soiree, and someone tapped you on the shoulder and said “you’re good with words…and there’s this guy here I’d like you to meet.” How would you do it?
Would you take a page from Mark’s book, and just jump right in? That’s how he does it: no long introductions, just “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Or would you learn your lesson from John the Baptizer, and be all prophetic: “I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal…” ?
Or maybe, you’d be tongue-tied. I know that the few times I’ve had the privilege of introducing someone at a banquet or a fund-raiser, I’ve made certain that the introduction is memorable; something with a little ‘bazinga’ as Sheldon would say, from Big Bang Theory. But also, I’ve known people whose introductions have been along the lines of mumblemumblemumble... Not maybe the most moving introduction, but they’ve been petrified – suddenly scared to speak about someone whom they know, or hold in high esteem; or frozen by the faces of so many people looking expectantly at them.
(Boy, do I know that feeling. If I didn’t have a monumental ego, I don’t know what I’d do on Sunday morning.)
Seriously, though, how would you do it? Soberly, gravely, channelling Walter Kronkite from the glory days of black and white television? Now, folks, with me here today is one of history’s great figures exclusively in our studio today. Or maybe with a lot of the language that we sometimes associate with the old King James Bible: brethren, we gather here today, forewith to beseech the gladsome tidings of this, our most beneficent charge, who doth grace us with his heavenly presence…until you tied your tongue in a knot and sought medical attention.
Sometime it’s easy to miss the way that the gospel writers introduce Jesus – especially so with Mark. Matthew does a good job; the entire first chapter of Matthew is a list of Jesus’ genealogy – who his family was. Luke does a good job, as well, because it’s from Luke that we get the back story of angels visiting, and Virgins singing, and shepherds and kings and all those things that we think of at this time of year.
But other times…other times it’s hard to imagine what to say. Harder still to imagine that you might be the person asked. Or, even as I said earlier – you automatically associated ‘introduce Jesus’ with ‘share your faith’. And you’re right – faith is necessary to the task.
So let’s take a minute and hear how someone would introduce Christ. This is comedian Steve Harvey:
He’s good; I’ll give him that. The first time I saw that video was in one of my homiletics classes at Seminary – homiletics is the craft of preaching, rather than the practice of it. The assignment I gave you was my first assignment in that class: introduce Jesus.
There’s a catch to that though, and it took me a little while to realize what it is: we don’t introduce Jesus. It’s not like Jesus needs someone to block for him like the Lions quarterback on Grey Cup Sunday (but with the Blue Bombers’ terrible offence, did Lulay really need a blocker, either?) Yet often, that’s what we see. It’s one thing to do as Steve Harvey did, and emphasis the great stories of Christ; but is that really what Jesus is about?
How do you introduce Jesus, who spent time with tax collectors, prostitutes, and gentiles, people who at the time were regarded as the lowest of the low by their culture? You can’t, because Jesus doesn’t need to be introduced. But what Christ will do is introduce you.
He will introduce you as one of those who proclaims his coming. He will introduce you as one of those who is loved by God, for whom God’s only Son was born.
He will introduce you as God’s chosen and redeemed child, and bring you into a community of people who, like you, were called to follow: to follow a star to a stable, to follow a king to a cross, to follow a Messiah to life everlasting.
That is one of the greatest things that I am privileged to see as a pastor: I see you (all of you) introducing Jesus to each other, all the time. Not in specific words, but in your caring conversations, your concern for each other, your willingness to be bound up to each other in relationship to this community. You introduce Christ through your actions and your deeds. You proclaim the coming of Christ, as certainly as if you were clothed in camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey.
And as
Even as a child, I loved new member Sundays, but in particular I like that here the day comes with the reading of the beginning of the gospel of Mark. And beloved, realize this: as these new family members come forward today, we could just as honestly cry out ‘prepare the way of the Lord!’ for them – because they will become part of the body of Christ in this place, waiting for the coming King.
Let the people of God say amen.
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