Northside Church - Sydney
Back to Earth (After Christmas)
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. They say that a huge percentage of any special event is the anticipation of that event. That constitutes a huge, a significant percentage. I've heard it put as high as 30%, 40%, which seems to be very high. Maybe let's say 20%. But a large percentage of any special event is the anticipation of that event. Now, this applies particularly when it comes to travel. And you season travelers out there know what I'm talking about. And it's one of the things that brings novice travelers and new travelers unstuck. If you've been around Northside for quite a few years, you'll know you've heard this before. My first overseas trip, I'd never been before, but I was so eager to get overseas. It came when I was in my early 30s, and it was courtesy of Rotary International. I was nominated by a Rotary Club in Adelaide to participate in what was called in those days the Group Study Exchange Award program. They took young professional men, now they take men and women, but it was men in those days. And this was a cultural exchange in another part of the world, and I happen to be going to Texas. And the preparation for this trip extended over nearly nine months. From the first selection, every Rotary Club in this district in Adelaide could select one person or to put before the larger panel of judges to get that one person. Most clubs interviewed quite a lot of young men, maybe 15, 20, and the idea was to go from about, I guess it was in the end, about 40 finalists down to five people who would take part in this trip. And then we had to, once the selection was made, we had to then get together every month as a team to kind of build camaraderie. And then we eventually bought the wives inside, the wives could support each other while we're a while. And on the day of departure, we visited the LORD MAYOR of Adelaide, the Premier, the Governor. And it was huge. I mean, Rotary international, when they do something, they do it in a big way. And this was six weeks in the Texas city of Houston. Now, the buildup was incredible, and I cannot tell you, because I've always had this sort of love affair with America, going back to my Mickey Mouse Club days, and at full of cello, I know all those sort of things. You have to be at my age to remember that. So I remember her. And so, you know, I was, but you know what, like, things happened on that trip. Certain things went wrong. Some of the accommodation was pretty dodgy. Some of the people who said they were going to meet us didn't meet us. You know, like, and I just had this picture, everything was going to be so fantastic. What I'm coming to is when that trip ended, and I found myself back in my lounge room, back in Adelaide, with all my bags surrounding me, and my wife was there, and my, I think, like, one child or two, and those two children, yeah, two children, those days. Like, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. You know, I was happy to be hollering in one way, but I actually, and I'm not ashamed to admit, I actually did break down the overwhelming emotion of that moment when I realized that something I'd looked forward to for so long was now over. It was, it was gone. That's anticipation. You know, if you're a novice traveller, that, that side of travel can really hit you hard. You realize that, oh, okay, we're over here. We've been delayed. There are problems. The accommodation is not so great. You know, anticipation of how you think things are going to go is often a big part of the actual event. I've become better at anticipating the realities of travel. I'm ready for anything to go wrong. I'm ready for disappointment for delays and problems. Anticipation can be a problem for somebody wired like me who tends to be optimistic and fairly positive. Generally, I have an inflated view of how something's going to go. And so I've got to sort of scale back a little bit and get a bit more perspective. That's where bed comes in. She's fantastic at just sort of easing me down and helping me face reality. Well, talk about a build up for Mary and Joseph. You talk about anticipation. Talk about a build up for Mary and Joseph. Gosh, angels visiting each of them with a special word. You are the chosen one. You are going to be the mother of the Son of God. You are going to be the father, the earthly father of the Son of God. What an incredible nine months to get their heads around this. And then, you know, hold the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem and all that that would have involved. It's incredible. Verse 22, though, of Luke chapter 2, we get a glimpse into post Christmas life for Mary and Joseph. Look at this verse, 2 of Luke 22. It's just a little bit before the passage and read to us. The time came for Mary and Joseph to perform the ceremony of purification as the law of Moses commanded. So they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Now, friends, this would have been about a month after the events of Bethlehem, after the shepherds and the wise men had all departed. The angelic hosts cease their singing and everything was getting back to normal. And in Luke 2, we have a return to reality for Mary and Joseph. That's the best way to put it. In Luke chapter 2, we have a return to reality. There were a number of things to do. There were religious obligations to keep. The purification rites, they're set out in Leviticus chapter 12. They were quite elaborate. You can read them if you have some spare time. Very involved, very complex. They involve sacrifice of turtles and dubs. And this is where every devout Jewish mother and father would find themselves in about a month's time after the actual birth. There were difficult journeys to make for this young couple. Gone was all the magic and the drama and the beauty of the manger. Now they had difficult journeys to make. Bethlehem, Jerusalem, that's not too far. That's about nine kilometers. But with a new baby on a back of a donkey, that wouldn't have been a picnic, exactly. And then, of course, from Jerusalem back to Nazareth, that's a hundred kilometers. And that wouldn't have been an easy journey either. And then, of course, Matthew's gospel talks about the escape to Egypt. And we don't quite know exactly what that meant. But if that was the case, then that was certainly a longer journey again. But of course, the biggest reality check of all was a new baby. And parents, you know what I'm talking about when you had that new baby comes into your house. I mean, here at Northside, we've had so many new babies born in the last few years. And the story's always the same. Oh, Graham, we didn't have to be tough as this. Because everybody has the idea that their baby is going to be the perfect baby. They've seen others. There's not going to be like that. And we all think that we all, but that's not the way it took that anticipation. That's, you know, first night, Bevan, myself, with our little Tamara, we, some of you know this, we could not stop her crying in our first night home. We actually took her back to the hospital. And this was, if you know Melbourne, this was some noble park to the Margaret Cole's hospital in South Yarra, which is a long journey. And Bevan said, we must do it because we can't stop her crying. We've just got to, so we went back there and a very kindly nursing sister tried to minimize her rolling of the eyes, I think. I'm sort of going to go. But instead of just gently reassured us that everything was fine, and we just had to go back and crying was all part of the deal. So like, this is Mary and Joseph, first child, boy, they're getting back into the groove. They're coming back to earth. And it's a poignant reminder of a truism in life that is inescapable. The fact is we can have wonderful moments of exhilaration involving travel or recognition in various forms, rewards for service, great achievements, special significance or days of special significance like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, all these things happen to us and we love them. And associated with all of them, there's a tremendous amount of anticipation and expectation. They all involve anticipation and that represents a large part of our enjoyment of the event, getting ready for it. Christmas is clearly one such special occasion. For most people, it's a holiday. They get a chance to relax. You get some gifts. How good is that? People say nice things about you. Some of them actually put it in writing what they think about you. And, you know, you get to sleep in in the afternoon or you get to have a little sleeper up in the afternoon. How often do you get that? It's not hard to handle, is it? That's Christmas. Most people can handle the magic of Christmas. That's not that hard. But the real test of our effectiveness is how we handle the mundane moments of life. Is that not true? Let's be honest. The bulk of our lives is routine. Unless you're the Prime Minister or the President of the United States, and even they have their routine moments, I'm sure. But real life for most of us is handling the pressures of work, the hassles of parenting, going for long periods up to 12 months, maybe without anybody saying anything nice about us, little I'm putting in writing. The challenges of marriage, the pressures of study, the pain of suffering, this is the routine that most of us find ourselves in, rarely are these moments as magical and as exciting as Christmas. But friends, as followers of Jesus Christ, we don't need a Christmas day sensation all the time to get us through these harsh realities. We just need the constant realization of the essential message of Christmas, which is Emmanuel God with us. With us all the time, for Mary and Joseph, it meant getting back into their faith. It meant getting back into the temple. It meant getting back to the ordinances and the traditions that were familiar to them. It's the same for us. It'll mean getting back to prayer, getting back to Bible reading, getting back to our connection group, getting back to regular worship. Life just goes on after the magic of Christmas. I love the way Paul was very, very honest in the way he talked about his life as a leading churchman, as one of the great leaders of the Christian church of the first century. And these are words familiar to all of us. Philippians chapter 4, and you get the sensation here or the sense that life for him was full of ups and downs. Philippians 4, 11 to 13. Look at this. Philippians 4, 11 to 13. I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret so that anywhere at any time I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little, I have the strength to face all the conditions, all conditions rather, by the power that Christ gives me. And over in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 8 and 9, this is even more poignant and more graphic, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 8 and 9. He says, "I am often troubled but not crushed, sometimes in doubt but never in despair. There are many enemies, but we are never without a friend. And though badly heard at times, we are not destroyed." This is Paul. He's a man. He's talking about doubts. He's talking about being badly heard. He's talking about life's ups and downs. Sometimes I've got plenty. Sometimes I've got hardly anything. But through it all, I've got the power, the strength which Christ gives me. Paul enjoyed some phenomenal highs in his ministry. But he obviously, for the most part, the challenge for him was just getting through the daily grind of ministry. If I thought about that, that's how it was for him. It was for him like it is for us, responding to and handling the routine moments of life. Talk about routine moments. What about Simeon and Anna? This couple that Anne read to us, read about this morning to us. Boy, I love these two. In Luke chapter 2, we've got a front row seat to the greatest moment of their lives when they see, presented in their temple, the Messiah, the chosen one, the promised one. Simeon, when I told his age, Anna, for some reason, we're giving her age 84. We're giving a bit about a marital background to married seven years. So Luke goes into quite a bit of detail there. But look, here's the thing. Imagine the ordinary moments in their lives that would have led to this magical moment. How many ordinary moments, the Bible gives the impression that both of them had been hanging around the temple for years, waiting for this particular moment, waiting for their one special day. Remarkable patience. Many disappointments, many close calls, some impressive babies being brought in, maybe, is this the one? No, no, it's not the one. Maybe, no, that's not the one either. Something like the Holy Spirit confirmed that this one, Mary and Joseph, coming in with this little baby, he was the one. Simeon was resting on a promise. Verses 25 and 26, the Holy Spirit had promised. He would not die before he saw the promised one. So he was living with a particular promise, this man. Friends, our promise is greater than that of Simeon's. He was promised that one day he would see the promised one. Our promise is that we will, in an ongoing way, experience the promised one by the power of the Holy Spirit living within us. Anna was constantly aware of God's presence. She was living in a close relationship with him. She chose to hang out in the temple the whole time, just waiting for this moment. But imagine a number of ordinary times or ordinary days that she would have had to experience. Look, I'm glad that Christmas is such a spectacular event. Let's be honest. It is fantastic. And it's worth the build up. And as long as you keep your anticipation and your expectations reasonably realistic, allowing for the miraculous, it's usually a fantastic time. I'm glad we have days like Christmas. But I'm also glad that we have really tough mundane ordinary routine days as well, because we need those to grow. We need those to develop our faith. We need those to be reliant on God. We need those kind of days to really have our faith sharpened and our confidence in God strengthen. Friends, I don't know what 2013 has for you. I don't know what it has for me. My guess is it's going to be a mixture of highs and maybe a few lows. Who knows? It's that time of the year we start to reflect on what it could mean for us. But I believe the message of God today is it doesn't matter what the year holds for us. Nothing. Absolutely nothing will take away from the fact that we as children of the living God will have the constant abiding presence of the Holy Spirit with us all the time to give us the faith and the courage and the strength to get through just as we have in the past. I find myself at the beginning of a new year not only looking forward, I do a fair bit of reflecting on the tough times through which I've already passed. And I find that gives me great courage and strength for that which is to come because I'm affirming, well, God, you got me through this. So if that's the sort of thing, then I'm ready because I know you'll get me through in the because you've already got me through this. It's a great time for reflection as well as a time for anticipation. Friends, here's how I'd sum up this whole thing today. Following the breathtaking beauty of Bethlehem came the normality of Nazareth. But in that normality there was growth, there was preparation. Jesus Christ was growing, you know, adolescence. And then to his young adult life, and then at 30 years of age he was ready to embark on his three-year mission. And all through it, he, Mary, and Joseph all had the assurance of God's presence and power. Is that where you're at this morning? There'll be a lot of simian and anomomance for us just the drudgery of the routine, waiting, hoping, be ready for the miraculous, but also be ready to handle with confidence and with certainty and with poise and dignity, the reality of the mundane. That's where life is for most of us. And it's how we handle those moments. Anybody can handle the miraculous. It's how we handle the tough nitty-gritty moments of life. That's where our faith really hits the road. Let's move into 20-30 with great confidence, shall we? Bow in prayer. Father God, we thank you so much for the experience of simian and anom. These two faithful elderly people who must have been tempted to give up when they kept going to the temple, wondering, waiting, hoping, but Lord, they learned to handle the mundane moments of life. And they had an expectation, they had anticipation, and they were ready when this special moment came. But for the most part, they were just there, faithfully serving you and making themselves available to you to be used in whatever way you wanted. Lord, we want to draw from their experience. We want to draw from their example. We thank you to Mary and Joseph, and the fact that after the beauty and the wonder of Bethlehem, they too settle back into the normality of Nazareth. And that's about where we're at today, settling back into our lives, preparing for another year of life in your service, in our families, in our work. Give us the faith and confidence, Lord, to face this new year in a way that honors you, in a way that draws deeply on your strength and power, so that like Paul, whether full or hungry, whether we have plenty or not so much, we will be able to be victorious. That's our prayer, that's our desire. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.