This past Sunday, December 28, the 1st Sunday in Christmas, I was asked to give a reflection during the service (in place of a sermon/message/etc.) at my parent’s church.  Here is what I shared:

Putting the “Extra” in Extraordinary

Today we celebrate the 1st Sunday of Christmas, and the 4th day of Christmas. In a world that is already putting away the Christmas decorations, taking down their trees, and stores are putting away images of Santa and replacing them with red and pink hearts for Valentine’s day, we come together to continue to celebrate Christmas, a season in the church year that lasts just 12 days, but lasts forever in our hearts.

Let’s stop and reflect on some of the people and images in the Christmas story and season.

First we find Mary, a simple girl, nothing special about her, no long lineage of royalty. No celebrity status. No real mention of her prior to the Christmas story. Just an everyday ordinary girl.

We then have her fiancé Joseph. Again, nothing really special about him, he is of the lineage of David, then again, so are many other people. No super skills, not a major leader in his community,  just an ordinary everyday tradesman.

When they get to Bethlehem, they have no choice but to take whatever lodging they can find, and end up staying in a simple barn currently in use to house animals. Nothing special about the barn, one of many around the area, quite ordinary.

When Jesus is born, he is wrapped in simple plain bands of cloth, no onesies with cute little sayings, no royal robes, just plain ordinary wrappings, and being laid on some hay in a feeding trough – no special bed, no cute bedding set, just a plain ordinary manger.

Then enter the shepherds. Working hard at night keeping their ordinary sheep in line and safe. Not a glamorous job, and not a highly respected one at the time. These weren’t shepherds minding the sheep of a king, just your everyday hard working ordinary shepherds. Nothing special about them either.

Skip ahead a little in the story and we get to the wise men. While they seem like they would be special because they come a long distance and bring expensive gifts, however, they aren’t mentioned by name, we don’t really know how many of them there was. Just people who watched the stars, observed a special star and thought they better check it out, so they traveled to where the star lead them and found and worshiped Jesus. What they did may be special, but the wise men themselves appear to be quite ordinary.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the symbols of Christmas around us today.

We have the poinsettias. Early on the Aztecs would use the sap of the poinsettia for medicinal purposes and its bracts to make red dye. It was a plant used as so many other plants of the time were used, for ordinary purposes.

We have a wreath made out of branches cut off from a tree, that are slowly dying. When we find branches lying in our yard, we’ll often rake them up and toss them away.  In the wreath we have 5 candles. Just ordinary candles that we could use to light our house when the power goes out. Each part of our Advent wreath is quite ordinary.

Next, we have this large tree. A tree cut down and put in water to keep it alive for at least awhile. Nothing special about this tree either, just a tree that was growing outside looking like many other trees. On the tree we put ornaments made out of everyday material, some of these ornaments have symbols and messages on them, but nothing really special about how they are made. We also have lights on the tree, colored yes, but still simple light bulbs similar to ones you use to light your home.  Overall nothing really special about a Christmas tree when you look at all the parts that make it up, just everyday ordinary items.

So, from what we’ve looked at so far, nothing that makes up Christmas is special, everything by itself is quite ordinary. But yet we celebrate it as one of the two main celebrations of the Christian faith.  That is because we have one more part of the story that we haven’t mentioned yet.

The word, the light, God, Jesus.  All the same, all in one, all that make Christmas special. God through Jesus takes all of the ordinary people and objects and makes them extraordinary. God is the “extra” in the story that transforms the everyday people and things into something that we remember and celebrate through the ages.

It’s not just at Christmas that God is the “extra” making ordinary things extraordinary.  It is everyday. Through the ages, including today, God takes the ordinary and turns it into the extraordinary. Think about this church, you collect items for Nifty Thrifty, common, everyday ordinary items.  However, God takes these items and makes them extraordinary because they provide help and hope to those in need, letting them know that even though things might be tough for them, people care for them and want to help them. You had your Christmas Bazaar, selling ordinary everyday items, and God changed those items into money that will be used to do extraordinary things.

Michigan State University recently launched a large capital campaign that they call “Empower the Extraordinary”, but God invites us to a better campaign, and calls us to “be” the extraordinary. We provide ourselves, just as we are, very ordinary, and God provides the “extra” and we become extraordinary, so that we can share the love of Christ through our actions to the whole world.

So, remember when you are wondering when something extraordinary is going to happen, you might just be that very extraordinary you or someone else is looking for. All you have to do is be yourself, and invite the word, the light, God, Jesus – into you, to be transformed into the extraordinary.

Part of us being extraordinary through Christ is coming together as one common church across the nation, so I bring you this Christmas message from the presiding bishop of the ELCA:

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

I recall this image from my home congregation: A banner depicting Mary and Jesus in the manger and the backlit silhouette of the cross cast over this scene. It was jarring. The cross on Christmas? I didn’t like it.
Christmas can carry so much emotional freight. We must be merry and filled with good cheer. We are driven to get everything perfect by the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve. We are filled with wistful longing. But what are we longing for?

We long for peace, love and a place to belong. We want to know that someone cares. We want the assurance that all of this means something. And, we try to bring that all about in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The hope of Christmas was fulfilled on Good Friday. The cross is part of
Christmas. “Nails, spear shall pierce him through, the cross be borne for me, for you” (What Child Is This?). The cross is the Christmas gift, where all of our Christmas glorias are realized in Jesus’ glorification on the cross.

We don’t have to get everything completely right. We can’t. That’s God’s work and it has been done. So, good Christian friends, rejoice!

Peace,
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

So as we continue through the rest of the 12 days of Christmas, remember that we aren’t perfect, we won’t get everything right, but all that is part of being ordinary, Christ puts the “Extra” into us to transform us into the extraordinary, now and forever.

Amen.