We look to stories in the Bible as incredible tales of amazing people doing utterly remarkable things. The truth, though, is that most of them lived most of their lives in moments that were utterly mundane. That wasn’t just the case for characters in the Scriptures. It’s the case with our lives today too. And yet, as ordinary as most of our lives are, we long to experience the extraordinary. We want to be special, to know that we are more than we seem. This is where the wonder of the Christmas story comes racing to center stage. As extraordinary as we imagine that story to be, most of it was very, very ordinary. What made the difference in these ordinary moments was the movement of God in their midst. Today, as we wrap up our series, When Heaven Met Earth, we are talking about the ordinary moments in the lives of ordinary people, and how things can become entirely more extraordinary than that. Let’s get started.

The Miracle of Mundane Moments

Sometimes the most extraordinary things can happen out of the most ordinary circumstances. Consider something that every single person in the room has in their kitchen, and which most of us have used at least once in the last 24 hours. In 1945, Percy Spencer was working as a radar researcher at Raytheon Labs. Raised as an orphan who never finished elementary school, Spencer taught himself physics and advanced mathematics, joined the Navy, and through that discovered his penchant for science. One day, Spencer was working in the lab with a radar magnetron. That’s basically a tube that converts electrical signals into electromagnetic radiation. It had been invented a few years before and was essential to the invention of modern radar. As Spencer worked with this magnetron, he noticed that a bar of chocolate in his pocket had melted. 

Now, you have to understand how the mind of a science nerd works to grasp the significance of this moment. Whereas many people might have rolled their eyes at the inconvenience of a melted—and messy—chocolate bar in their pocket, Spencer asked why. He later brought some other types of food into range of the magnetron and got similar results. The magnetron heated them up. It even caused popcorn to pop. What Spencer realized was that the microwaves being produced by the magnetron for radar purposes had a secondary impact: they made certain things exposed to them heat up very quickly. Spencer soon went to work on developing a closed box where microwaves could be focused, allowing for the rapid heating of foods. Want to take a guess at what he called this accidental, time-saving, wonder of science? Yeah, it’s the microwave. Ordinary circumstances; extraordinary outcome. If we’ll listen for it, I think there’s something here that we don’t want to miss. 

This morning we are in the final stop of our Advent season teaching series—which today is actually and finally our Christmas season teaching series—When Heaven Met Earth. All this season we have been taking a look each week at the stories of Jesus’ birth. Sometimes, because these stories are so familiar to so many people, we’ll get creative and approach the truth that Jesus was born from all sorts of different angles. This year, though, we went back to the basics and have been giving our attention directly to the various nativity stories in the Scriptures. The stories themselves may not be fresh for many of us, but by looking with fresh eyes and with the Spirit’s help, we have found some fresh truths worth knowing. 

In the first two weeks of our series, we worked our way through Matthew’s birth narrative. He presents the whole thing from Joseph’s perspective. Joseph’s lot was a tough one, but as we saw, he came to understand that even when God’s plans don’t make much sense, they are still for our good. God’s plans looked like they were going to blow his nice, neat life to bits. But when he leaned into righteousness and listened faithfully to God’s word, he was able to see that God had a great deal more going on than it first appeared. In the same way, we saw in the second week how the wise men’s willingness to take God’s word seriously resulted in their getting to meet Jesus. This at a time when many of the most powerful people in the land—including those who would have been very eager to make His acquaintance—completely missed out on what was happening right under their noses. What we saw here is that if we will take God’s word seriously, we will meet Jesus just like they did. 

After taking a week off to celebrate the season with song and the choir’s excellent cantata (as well as the kids’ excellent Christmas program), we came back last week to look at a story of Jesus’ birth that doesn’t fit with all the rest. In Revelation 12, the apostle John does his best to convey a vision he received that revealed the deeper and wider significance of Jesus’ birth. His coming to earth was part of a cosmic war that had been raging for a very long time, and which God was at last taking clear and decisive steps to draw to a close. It was a wild story, but it helped us see that Christmas is bigger than we realize. 

And then, in a bonus fourth part of our series this past Wednesday at our Christmas Eve service, we looked at the first part of Luke’s birth narrative. Through the reality of the place of the shepherds in the broader culture at the time and in spite of that their being the first to learn the news of the newborn king, we were encouraged with the truth that God can accomplish His plans through anyone. Even the most unlikely servant is a servant God can use to great effect if they will only trust Him and commit themselves to keeping His word. 

Speaking of God’s willingness to work with ordinary people in ordinary circumstances, this morning, I want to look with you at the rest of Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth. Like the second part of Matthew’s story, this part of the story doesn’t have much to do with Jesus’ actual birth, but it does give us a fuller picture of what all was going on around that time and God’s action in it. If you have a copy of the Scriptures handy, join me in Luke 2. We’ll pick up in v. 21. 

Culturally speaking, all Jewish baby boys were circumcised. That practice had been in place since God’s covenant with Abraham, and was one of the primary markers of who was a Jew and who wasn’t. By the time Jesus entered the scene, the practice had been formalized into a ceremony that is still practiced today by orthodox Jews. It takes place when the child is eight days old–long enough then to make sure the child was likely to survive. During this ceremony, the child was officially named. On the 40th day, then, the child is dedicated to the Lord per the Law of Moses. 

Our story here opens with Jesus’ parents taking Him the short distance from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to the temple for His dedication to the Lord per tradition. “When the eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus—the name given by the angel before he was conceived. And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were finished, they brought him up to Jerusalme to present him to the Lord (just as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male will be dedicated to the Lord.’) and to offer a sacrifice (according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons’).” 

I really can’t emphasize enough that Jesus’ parents weren’t doing anything extraordinary here. They were simply following the law as best they could. They were seeking to be faithful to God’s command in all the ways they could. This was all very much part of the mundane of life in first century Judea. 

Yet just when Mary and Joseph thought they were going to remain firmly rooted in mundane obscurity, something unexpected happened. “There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him.” In other words, Simeon was someone who had invested all of his mundane moments in serving the Lord and studying His word, and as a result, had a connection with God that went way beyond what most people ever experienced. That’s just the kind of person who has positioned himself to be used by God in a powerful way. “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the law [in other words, mundane], Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said, ‘Now, Master, you can dismiss your servant in peace, as you promised. For my eyes have seen your salvation. You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples—a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel.’”

This kind of scene almost certainly could not have unfolded today. At the very least, no mother is going to put her one month old baby in the arms of a complete stranger no matter how harmless he looks. Yet this scene was one rich with significance. For Mary and Joseph, this would have been a powerful affirmation that everything they had experienced before Jesus’ arrival wasn’t just all some kind of a fever dream. This really was something God was doing. More than that, Simeon offered them a pointer toward what was yet to come. “His father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and told his mother, Mary: ‘Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed—and a sword will pierce your own soul—that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’” 

Now, we don’t know what kind of a scene this created in the larger temple complex. That area was a pretty big space. It certainly doesn’t appear that anyone remembered Simeon or what he said 30 years later when Jesus was doing His ministry work. But Simeon’s loud exclamation of praise did attract at least the attention of a woman named Anna. Anna was another fixture at the temple complex like Simeon. Being a woman, there was only so close to the actual temple she could get, but her lifelong devotion to the Lord had gained her the reputation of being a righteous woman who spoke the words of the Lord to those willing to hear them. “There was also a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and was a widow for eighty-four years. She did not leave the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers. At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” How interesting that one of the very first public presentations of the Gospel message before its official unveiling in the work of Christ was by a woman. We would perhaps do well to remember that we serve a God who isn’t bound by human stereotypes even when they are draped in religious language. 

Luke loved making summary observations at critical points in his narratives. There are several of them in Acts. We find two such observations in this passage. The first one is here: “When they had completed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The boy grew up and became strong, filled with wisdom, and God’s grace was on him.” I’ll just pause here long enough to observe that this doesn’t have to mean that Luke thinks Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem and went straight back to Nazareth. We know from Matthew’s presentation of this same story that it would still be a few years before the family actually made it to Nazareth. 

Here, then, Luke does a bit of a time warp with us. It would be nice to know what happened in the time between the flight to Egypt and return to Nazareth and what happens next, but we don’t know and have no way of knowing, so we aren’t going to speculate. The one thing we do know is that after Mary and Joseph had moved back to Nazareth, they began making a yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover. This was something most Jews who were able did. It was just a normal part of life for a people who were committed to seeking the Lord. And for many years, these trips were evidently unremarkable. And then one wasn’t. 

“Every year his parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival.” Pause there a second. Some 30 years later, in the second year of Jesus’ ministry, John tells us that things were getting pretty intense in His rocky relationship with the Jewish religious authorities. Several people counseled Him not to go to Jerusalem for the annual pilgrimage He was still making, and although Jesus initially seemed to agree with them, He later went anyway. The habit His parents faithfully drilled into His heart and mind over all those years growing up persisted later on in His life even when it was hard. Interesting. 

In any event, “When he was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the festival. After those days were over, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.” They were part of a community of faith, and they trusted that community to take care of their kid even when they didn’t have their eyes on Him personally. Don’t miss what the Spirit has to say. 

Going on now in v. 44: “Assuming [always a dangerous thing to do] he was in the traveling party, they went a day’s journey. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days [and Luke doesn’t say this, but you know those were three increasingly panicked days when the couple was almost certainly not at their best with each other], they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all those who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.” Much to their credit, they didn’t kill Him—which would have made for a really awkward conversation with God—but they did express their anxiety a bit. “When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.’” That’s probably putting it rather exceedingly mildly. 

For His part, though, Jesus was perplexed at their frustration and anxiety. “‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked them. ‘Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them.” I’ll bet they didn’t. 

And here, Luke gives us one last summary statement that covers the rest of Jesus’ life from this point until His ministry begins some 18 years later. “Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them. His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people.” 

So then, as before, that’s the story. And while this one may be a bit less familiar than the others we’ve looked at (with the exception of last week, of course), still, if you’ve been around the church for more than a couple of Advent seasons, you’ve probably heard this one before. What is there for us, then, in this story we know fairly well? As before, more than we might imagine. 

Think back over this with me. As we have walked through it, I’ve tried to draw attention to something that keeps cropping up in the story. What Luke describes here is all very ordinary. Yes, the exclamations of Simeon and Anna were a surprise. And, yes, Jesus’ response to His parents’ finally finding Him after three days certainly caught them off guard. But the rest of what Luke describes here was just normal people going through the normal rhythms of what was for them normal life. The trips to the temple, Jesus’ growing up, the family and community interactions were all just so ordinary, so mundane. Yet God kept popping up in the midst of the mundane. And when He did, ordinary moments had a way of suddenly becoming extraordinary ones. 

Friends, I think this is a point we dare not miss here. When Jesus came to earth, while there were of course some pretty wild things that happened, those tended to have a remarkably small audience given the existential realities of His arrival. This was the Son of God come to earth. The second person of the Trinity was here in the flesh. This was the most significant birth…ever. And yet, by and large, the whole thing was just so very ordinary. The thing that made any of it more than that was God and the presence of His kingdom. His kingdom always transforms what we consider ordinary into something extraordinary. It transforms sinners into saints. It takes broken things and makes them whole. It takes what is wounded and heals it. Where injustice is flourishing, justice wins the day. Where hatred once held court, love takes center stage. This is all why Jesus came: to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Jesus came to bring the extraordinary of God’s kingdom to the ordinary of our lives. 

Okay, but how do we experience this? If Jesus came to bring the extraordinary of God’s kingdom to the ordinary of our lives, how can we put ourselves in a place to be there when it happens? I don’t know about you, but I spend most of my life in the ordinary. I suspect you do too. And maybe you encounter the extraordinary of God’s kingdom on a regular basis, but maybe you don’t. What makes the difference between one and the other? Luke gives us a clue in this passage. All of these moments these characters were experiencing were mundane, yes, but what were they doing in these mundane moments? They were pursuing their relationship with God. They were doing normal things, but they were normal things in pursuit of a deeper, fuller, richer relationship with Him. They were striving to live life His way in their ordinary moments. And that is when the extraordinary of God’s kingdom bubbled to the surface. If we want to experience the extraordinary of God’s kingdom in our ordinary moments as Jesus came to bring us, we have to be seeking Him in those ordinary moments. We have to live each and every one of those moments with a sense of expectation and anticipation. We have to live with the trust that God is moving in our ordinary moments even when we can’t see Him or feel Him in ways that may yet prove to be extraordinary later on in ways and times when we least expect it. That’s just how God works. 

Mary and Joseph weren’t expecting anything extraordinary when they took Jesus to the temple when He was six weeks or so old. They weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen when they made their annual pilgrimage to the temple when Jesus was 12. For that matter, they definitely weren’t expecting the shepherds or wise men to make the extraordinary appearances they did. Joseph wasn’t expecting the dreams He experienced. On and on and on it goes. But they were seeking Him in all of those moments as they did all of the other moments of their lives and so when He moved, they were there to see it. Jesus came to bring the extraordinary of God’s kingdom to the ordinary of our lives. When we are ready to seek Him in all of our moments, we will find ourselves in those extraordinary moments without even realizing how we got there. 

So, what does it take to do this? It takes an intentional decision to pursue a relationship with Jesus each and every day. We do that by intentionally engaging in His word on a regular, consistent basis. We do that by engaging with Him through prayer on a regular and consistent basis. We do that by engaging with Him through His body, the church, on a regular and consistent basis. We do that by serving the least, last, and lost in our midst. We do that by working for justice where it is being denied. We do that by working to bring about the peace of God’s kingdom where there is strife and discord. We do it when we show the kindness and graciousness and gentleness of Jesus to those around us. We do it when we choose to lean into hope, peace, joy, and love in our daily interactions. We do it when we celebrate, proclaim, and participate in the character of our God—that is, when we worship—in everything we do. 

All of this and more pursued in every ordinary moment of our lives will put us in the place we need to be in order to experience the extraordinary of God’s kingdom when He moves. This is why Jesus came. Jesus entered into a moment thick with ordinariness. Babies are both all day, every day, everywhere in the world. In a sense, there’s nothing more mundane than that. But when Jesus entered into that ordinary moment, God’s extraordinary kingdom came with Him, and nothing has been the same since. Jesus came to bring the extraordinary of God’s kingdom to the ordinary of our lives. May we receive Him and position ourselves for the extraordinary together.