Anticipation

Luke 2:1-7

There are definite advantages to living in a small town. AND there are definite disadvantages to living in a small town. One advantage to living in a small town is that everyone knows everyone. One disadvantage to living in a small town is… everyone knows everyone.

Everyone in Marysvale knew Amy Williams. She had been born 17 years ago, crippled in body if not in spirit. No one had expected her to live, but she had. Everyone knew Amy, her hunched back and twisted spine were recognizable at a distance.
And here she sat by the Choir room door, agonizing over the audition for the communities Christmas program. “What am I doing here?” she thought, “I’ll never be chosen.”

This Christmas program was a community tradition, it had gone on so long that no one even knew when it had begun or even who had written it. Each year more people tried out for the play than there were parts and each year some had to be turned away. There were 12 choir parts, the angels, Mary, Joseph, the Angel of the Lord, the Inn Keeper, and a few Shepherds and Shepherd boys.

As Amy sat there, she through about leaving, she didn’t want to be rejected again, “I try not to care, but I do. I don’t want to be hurt anymore.” She thought to herself, “Mr. Simons will never choose me for a part. I just don’t fit. But at least I don’t have to audition in front of Mrs. Prendergast.”

Mrs. Prendergrast had been the music teacher at Marysvale High School for more than thirty years. She had cast, directed, and accompanied every pageant and production of the school and community for many of those thirty years. Three years earlier Amy had tried to audition for the Christmas program but Mrs. Prendergrast took one look at Amy’s misshapen body and said, “Child, you just don’t fit. I don’t remember anywhere in the script where it calls for crippled girl.” Without singing a note Amy had been rejected. Hurt and humiliated she vowed never to try out again. Then… Mrs. Prendergrast retired.

The new Choral teacher, Mr. Simmons was the polar opposite of Mrs. Prendergrast. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he expected perfection and taught in just that way, but he also understood when perfection was not reached. He taught with love and compassion. He coached and corrected with kindness, and he himself sang with such power.

One day after class he asked Amy to try out for the program. That is the only reason she was even there. As she sat she thought about leaving and avoiding the pain of rejection, but she didn’t want to disappoint Mr. Simmons. As she struggled with what to do the door opened and she heard the words, “Amy, your next.”

After the audition Mr. Simmons said, “Thank you, Amy. The list will be posted tomorrow.” And with that Amy walked out of the Choir room, anticipating the rejection that was to come. For brief moments she would allow herself to speculate that she may have made it into the heavenly choir of angels, then reality would hit her in the face as she tried to move her deformed back. What chance did she have? Yet still she waited.

We’ve all been there in some degree or another. We know the waiting game:
Waiting on our final grades
Waiting for the proposal
Awaiting the birth of a child
Waiting on the test results from the doctor
Waiting on the call to come after the job interview

Anticipation… It has a sense of excitement, like a child watching as the gifts collect under the tree.
It also has a sense of anxiety… that not knowing what is to come, not knowing the answer.

This weekend I felt both senses of anticipation. You see, Friday we left after the school parties were all over to go to my moms for Christmas. There was the excitement of seeing family and the giving and receiving of gifts. But there was also the anxiety of things not being as the once where. You see, my dad died in 2003, my mom has remarried, and things just aren’t the same any more. There’s different family there now. New traditions. A different home. It just isn’t the same any more. And, I anticipate every holiday we spend together because of that.

But any anticipation, any excitement, any anxiety we feel for things like this fall far short of anything Mary and Joseph felt during the 40 weeks of her pregnancy with Jesus.
Remember, they were not yet wed.
Even Joseph shunned Mary when he found out she was pregnant. He loved her so he couldn’t have her stoned. Even though….
That is what the law called for, that she be stoned.
It took a visit from an angel for Joseph to be willing to believe the story - that the child she was carrying would be the Son of God.
The community shunned her; who in their right mind would believe a story like hers, that even though she was pregnant she was still a virgin.

Then, in the final weeks of the pregnancy she had to travel by donkey, across the rough barren land of Nazareth of Galilee, through Samaria and on to Bethlehem of Judea. It was a long and dangerous trip, especially for an expectant mother near the time of birth.

Think of Joseph, of what he endured. The snide remarks made behind his back about what he had done to her.
The questions of why he stayed with her if it wasn’t his fault.

Together they anticipated surviving in a culture that considered adultery and pre-marital relations as a crime punishable by death.
They anticipated the birth of Jesus
They anticipated raising the Son of God
How could they ever live up to the standard, to be the parents of the Messiah?

There was so much to anticipate.


And there was so much for Amy Williams to anticipate as well. Amy didn’t even want to go to school the next day. She just didn’t know how she could face Mr. Simmons after being rejected again. She didn’t want to see anyone or do anything; she just wanted to be left alone.

She avoided the choir room as long as she could but then Third-period choir rolled around and she would have to walk by the list to get to class. Timidly, fearfully, she looked at the list. The heavenly choir was listed at the bottom of the page. As she suspected, her name wasn’t there. “Rejected again!” She turned to enter the class when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw her name at the top of the page. She, Amy Williams, had been chosen to sing the only solo in the entire play, she was to be the Angel of the Lord and sing to the Christ child.

After class Mr. Simmons told her he needed to talk to her about her part. He told her, “I don’t want to upset you but I need to stage your part a little differently this year.” Amy thought to herself, “Yeah, right off the stage, out of sight.”
But Mr. Simmons went on to explain that he wanted to have a pyramid build and have the 12 angels coming up and to have her at the top center of the pyramid above the Baby Jesus as she sang her part. All those years of pain welled up in her and exploded on Mr. Simmons. “You don’t want me center stage. I’ll ruin the show. I don’t fit in. Everyone will stare at me and it will ruin the show.”
But Mr. Simmons stopped her and told her that he had chosen her for the part because she deserved it, what she thought of herself was out of his control, but he wanted her to sing as the Angel of the Lord, and since the song the Angel of the Lord sings is the central meaning of the entire play, he wanted her front and center to sing it.

That night Amy made her decision, she would be in the play. The rehearsals were exhausting, her body ached each day after climbing up and down the pyramid but great joy filled her heart as well. She did fit in.

Once again, one of the advantages to living in a small town is that when there is a special event everyone comes and this Christmas program was no different. And so it was the Sunday before Christmas when the whole town of Marysvale attended the Christmas program. Amy Williams, broken in body but not in spirit, climbed to the top of the silver-white pyramid and with the true voice of an angel sang her heart out to the Christ child.
“What child is this who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?...”

Never had the angel sung more sweetly.

No one had realized how sick Amy really was because they were so used to seeing her broken body. No one even knew she went to the hospital the next morning
So, it was a real shock to the community when she died the next Tuesday. Her mother conveyed a last request from Amy to Mr. Simmons. Would he please sing at her funeral?

And so, on Christmas Eve two of Amy’s classmates helped Mr. Simmons from his wheelchair and supported him as he sang for a daughter of God, just as she had sung for the Son of God.

You see, sometimes we can anticipate what is to come. Other times we must simply receive that which comes our way.

Today, we await the celebration of the birth of our Savior. We sing songs together. We do good deeds for others. We gather with family and friends. And we anticipate the birth of the Christ child. But we also await Christ coming again. We can anticipate all we want. We can prepare our hearts by being in relationship with God through Christ, but in the end we must simply receive that which comes our way.

I hope today you will receive Christ, not just as a child but as the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and as a Savior. I pray you will receive the Son of God into your life today and everyday from this point forward.

Let us pray…

(The Story of Amy Williams came from: James, Bob and Kelli eds, Celebrate Christmas and the Beautiful Traditions of Advent, White Stone Books, Inc, pp 144-148.)