The
(Extra) Ordinary Story
I.
Family Stories
a.
All
families have stories. If you look in
photo albums, you can find people and places and stories that go with
them…sometimes family and/or stories you’ve never heard of.
b.
Uncle John Gemini project (my uncle worked at NASA and I shared about how proud I was of that and how that shaped my bent toward science and learning)
c.
God’s
family has some stories, too. The family
photo album is quite a compository of amazing stories.
II.
Mary and Joseph
a.
They
were ordinary people
i.
Paying
taxes!
ii.
Life
isn’t going the ‘planned’ way.
iii.
Between
Joseph’s middle aged callouses and Mary’s stretch marks, this couple looks a
lot like us…unless of course, we consider who lived inside them.
b.
God
used them to bring Jesus to this world.
Jesus entered this ordinary world, on an ordinary day, by way of two
ordinary people…just like you and me!!!
III.
You and Me
a.
“Congratulations: You qualify for a modern day Christmas
story. God enters the world through
folks like you and comes on days like today.”[1]
b.
These
were not royalty; they were not Prince Joseph or Queen Mary. It was not Passover or Columbus Day that saw
the birth of Jesus. No it was so very
ordinary. And maybe that’s the best part
of Christmas, the best part of God’s best story: The Word of God, Jesus, came to ordinary
people like you and me. Because if
that’s true, then it gives us hope that God can and will do something
extraordinary through our lives, too.
c.
Too
often we dismiss ordinary. We hardly
ever hear someone say, “I want to be ordinary…or look normal…or make an average
living.” Max Lucado points out that one
place we do want to hear “normal” is when the doctor holds the sonogram to our
pregnant wife’s bellies… ‘two arms, two feet, ten toes, two eyes…everything
looks normal.’ Sometimes, normal isn’t
just good. It’s the best.
d.
God’s
story is full of ordinary people. Abraham
a simple farmer. David a little shepherd
boy. Isaiah, simple writer. Peter a simple fisherman, and Mary, an
ordinary girl. However, when they opened
themselves up to God, their ordinary lives are turned into extraordinary
miracles that changed the world forever.
e.
We’re
young, old, middle aged, middle income, poor, educated, uneducated…namely, very
ordinary people. But the question
is: Are we open to letting God do
something extraordinary in our lives? Now
before you jump on board, I want to warn you:
Extraordinary is NOT ordinary.
Most of us don’t get real excited about becoming an unwed pregnant
teenager like Mary. Most us pray that
God would slay the giant so that we don’t have to battle him face to face. Ordinary people pray ordinary prayers of
being blessed with comfortability…not extraordinary blessings of leaving
everything behind for Jesus to create God’s Kingdom on earth like Peter.
f.
The
ordinary people of God’s Family stories are extraordinary because they invited
God’s extraordinary power into their lives.
They made a decision that was the most important decision a human can
make: God’s Story is bigger than my
story. In fact, my story is a part of
God’s story…The question is: How does my
life fit in?
g.
Brothers
and Sisters, I challenge you to the ordinary life of Joseph and Mary giving
birth to Jesus so that the world might be saved. Ordinary people in God’s Story, but “in God’s
story, ordinary matters.”[2] For our God makes the ordinary, extraordinary. Amen.
IV.
Here
in this ordinary church, with ordinary people, we partake in ordinary bread and
ordinary juice. But here in the presence
of God, together as followers of Jesus, Brothers and Sisters filled with the
Holy Spirit of God, something extraordinary is happening. Are you open to it? Are you willing to be the extraordinary
person who births Jesus to this world? I
invite you to this ordinary table to worship our extraordinary God, who is
calling us ordinary people to an extraordinary life.
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