And Mary Pondered These Things
Isaiah 9:2-7 2The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. 3You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
Luke 2:15-20 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." 16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” Do we feel like the shepherds? Are we full of praise and glory and gratitude for a wonderful Christmas season? Later we read that “the Wise Men, being warned by an angel, returned by another way.” Are we feeling like the Wise Men? Do we think there must be another way to do this Christmas thing? Here is the centerpiece response to Christmas: “But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
I want us to practice this unique and central response to Christmas. The Greek word for ponder literally means “to bring together”. The word pictures a person bringing together bits and pieces of a puzzle to see the whole thing and to make sense of it.
The difference between worrying and pondering is faith. Pondering asks questions of God even if we know there are no answers. Pondering allows different thoughts to pass through our mind and heart until the right one hits home. It is not aimless but focused, and something significant usually comes to us from pondering. And if Mary is our example, pondering is one way we nurture truth in the depth of our soul. Pondering is the way we let something sink. It is the way we let reality reach and take root in our soul.
Certainly we want to ponder the birth of Jesus. The birth of Jesus says that there is a new fact about our life. Jesus was Emmanuel. This is what people experienced then and experience now. Jesus is Emmanuel, the presence of God in our world. Jesus is Emmanuel. God is with us in life with all its vitality and vulnerability, with its joys and with its pains, with its routine days and unusual moments, its loves and its conflicts, its triumphs and its tragedies, its noble and its shabby conduct.
God is present and God has no illusions about the ambiguities and flaws that mar our humanity. For God is present not simply to comfort, but to confront and to conquer the human heart that has lost faith and trust in God.
Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us to confront the pretensions of religion with the real life call to trust God completely with our life and with our death. Jesus is Emmanuel, God present with us in events that still confront and conquer. Trust is the opposite of trying to be in control. Emmanuel, God with us, to confront our own tendencies to be in control rather than to trust God completely.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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