I don't know about many of you all, but that Sunday between Christmas and New Year's has always been a weird Sunday. What are you supposed to do with it? I've heard it referred to as a "cannonball Sunday" meaning that you could shoot a cannon off in the middle of worship and not hit anyone....because they're all gone!
In many churches (and I've done this in the past) this is the Sunday that Youth Pastors/Directors, Associate Pastors, Lay Speakers, Bob from the church down the street, all get up to preach because the Pastor who would normally preach is gone on vacation. Like I said, I've done that many times, and will do it in the future (probably next year).
The trouble with all of that prevarication is that I was still preaching yesterday (the weird Sunday). I had to figure out what to do. As a part of my sermon planning, and preparation, I thought I had at least an idea. I had an idea, it was a decent idea, but I just wasn't feeling it...at least for that moment in time.
I always try to have my sermons planned in advance so that I know what I'm doing, I can share that info with my worship leaders, my secretary, and because I need things to ferment in my head for a while before I can do anything with them...at least do something good with them and hope that they don't turn out like some sort of over-fermented sour kraut.
Because of that, I rarely am starting my sermon on Saturday. Occasionally I will be finishing it on Saturday, but most of the time I try to have it done before then so that it can sit for another day or two before Sunday morning. That wasn't the case this week. This week was that weird holiday week that is referenced in the image at the start of this post.
I'd been trying to figure out what to do for a couple of days, but when it got to Saturday morning I knew I had to get it all put together and written. That was when I was reminded of something. Normally the Spirit and I have to have longer conversations about what I'm preaching on because I'm thick-headed and it takes some time to get it through what I should be doing. But sometimes I pick up on things more quickly.
In Luke 2 there are a couple of stories that we often overlook during the Christmas season. They get lost in the middle of everything that is going on. Partially that's because these events take place after Jesus is born, and partially it is because they happen in the middle of the chapter and there's so much happening that it's easy to overlook a couple of short stories.
One of those stories really stuck with me. If you want to follow along, it's in Luke 2:36-38 (all of 21-40 is included for context).
Anna is an interesting character in this part of the story. She pops up momentarily in the middle of things, and then is gone. Mary and Joseph have taken the baby Jesus to the Temple to be presented and circumcised. While there they meet Simeon (who has his own story) and Anna. What I love about Anna is that she is in her own weird sort of time in her life. She'd been married, but her husband passed and she had been widowed for many years.
She has received no promise that she would meet the Messiah like Simeon did....she kind of appears to stumble across him. I get the feeling that she recognized him immediately, and didn't feel to concerned about the fact that he was a baby, or that his parents didn't seem to be all that impressive. Instead, after meeting him she praises God, and then tells other folks in the temple about him. Then we leave her story and go on to something else.
At certain times in our lives we need to approach things more like Anna. We can try to dig deep into something and find great profound truths, but often we should do like she did. We stop for a moment, praise God, and then take the next step forward. Not even a big leap or life-changing jump, just a step.
This is even more true during those weeks when we aren't sure what day it is and things are a little...weird. Taking a moment to praise God can help us to refocus on what's in front of us and then take the next step forward.
As we go into the new year, find some time every week when you do that one simple thing. Take a moment, praise God, and then step forward. I hope you have a great and a Happy New Year!!
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