This will be for you a sign

I’m a sucker for a good church sign. You know the ones where you can change out the letters and say something clever? Like, “How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.”

There was a Christmas-themed sign I saw once that said, “Jesus had two dads and he turned out great!” And, another, that said, “Don’t make me come down there! - God”

But, the best church sign I ever saw was at a Lutheran church in Victoria. They went viral a few years back with their Barbie-themed sign for Christmas Eve. When the Barbie movie came out a couple of years ago, it had the tagline, ‘She’s everything. He’s just Ken.’ It was meant to highlight the disparity between various accomplished Barbies (doctors, judges, writers) and Barbie’s boyfriend Ken, who is “just an accessory.” In the Barbie movie, a big part of Ken’s story is his struggle to move beyond being “just Barbie’s boyfriend.” 

Riffing on this, this Lutheran Church in Victoria put up a sign for Christmas Eve that said, “Mary’s everything. He’s just Joseph.” 

It, like, won the Internet. The pastor at the church told one reporter that they see their 44-character sign as a conversation starter. They have to be brief and to the point, and they have to say something that’ll catch people’s attention. “Mary’s everything. He’s just Joseph” did exactly that, raking in 1.2 million views on Tik Tok!

At St Clement’s, we don’t have one of the church signs with letters that you can swap out to say something clever. What we do have—I don’t know if you’ve noticed—is a giant steel anchor. It very much acts as a sign for people coming here. I can’t tell you the number of people—okay it’s mostly visiting clergy—who come to St Clement’s for the first time, and I tell them, don’t bother with Google maps, just look for the anchor. Then, they tell me that they were following Google maps and they turned off Lynn Valley Road onto Harold Road, and, how is it they turned on to Harold but the church is on Institute and, were we aware that we’ve been giving out the wrong street address all this time?

But, you tell anyone local to Lynn Valley that there will be a service on Christmas Eve at the church with the big anchor out front and they go, “Yeah, okay. The one on Institute.”

When the angel of the Lord appears to the shepherds in the Christmas story, and they proceed to give the shepherds directions for how to find the saviour of the world, they don’t give them a street address to plug into Google Maps, or even a clever church sign to point the way. They say, “This will be for you a sign: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 

The angel gives the shepherds the “look for the place with the anchor out front” kind of directions. Because the writer of this story wants the reader to know that these shepherds weren’t strangers or visitors to the idea of a Saviour. The shepherds were very much expecting this news like a person local to Lynn Valley would know what you were talking about if you said the church with the big anchor (or the intersection with the Walter Draycott statue). 

Here’s a fun fact about the shepherds. There’s a group of scholars who say that the shepherds—who we typically imagine working out in these fields—that they were more likely what were called Temple Shepherds, priests working within the confines of the Temple, raising lambs intended for sacrifice. These shepherds, being Temple shepherds, were very well acquainted with the hopes and expectations of the Jewish people—including the expectation that one day a Saviour would come and rescue them.

I’m telling you this because, when the shepherds hear the news that their Saviour has arrived, and they receive the sign from the angel that they’ll find him as an infant lying in a manger, you’d think they’d be excited; but they’re not. They’re terrified. They are expecting a Saviour who will overthrow demagogues, a Saviour who will raise up an army greater than all of the armies in the Roman Empire. How the heck is a baby born in a manger of all places going to do all that?

While the idea of a Saviour isn’t news for the shepherds, that they’ll find him as a child as opposed to a fully grown military commander—is bewildering.

I wonder if you’ve ever received news that similarly threw you for a loop? I’ve shared from this pulpit before that when I was 15, I first felt a call to be a pastor. This was surprising news at the time because I was part of a denomination that didn’t ordain women. For a long time, feeling a call to become a pastor was a whole lot of “What?” And, “This isn’t what any of us were expecting.” 

Admittedly, ‘woman of the cloth’ is an unusual career to be called to as a 15 year old. But, as Mary the mother of Jesus would remind us, stranger things have been asked of teenagers. (Giving birth to the Son of God, for example?). 

As I got older, the more I started to trust the good things this strange call might mean for my life. Soon, it became a source of joy, rather than a place of fear. I think this is something of what’s happening with the shepherds in the Christmas story. They’re scared when they first learn this news that will change their lives forever. Of course they are. But, once they get curious about this news, once they go and find this baby lying in a manger, they come away rejoicing!

I wonder where in your life you might be feeling afraid because of a sign you’ve been shown from God? I wonder what strange twists your life has taken? Tonight, you’re in the very good company of a bunch of shepherds, shepherds who move towards the something-turning-out-totally-differently-than-they-had-expected. They come away rejoicing, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. I wonder if we might come away with that same joy this Christmas? Amen.

Image source: Pexel free images