Christians believe that the most extra/ordinary thing ever is that God became a man. Almighty God (extraordinary) became one of us (ordinary). The story of how this happened is filled with the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary.

June 4, 2017

Introduction and offering:

Merry Christmas! Yes, it’s Christmas in June! For our Summer Bible Series, we are working our way through the Gospel of Luke, and today we are covering chapter 2, which is the famous story of the birth of Jesus. Shepherds, angels, the manger—the works! In June! It’s an extraordinary story—in the truest sense of the word. In the most ordinary setting, the most extraordinary thing happens!

ILL: On January 12, 2007, a man at a metro station in Washington DC started to play the violin. In the next 45 minutes, he played six pieces by Bach. During that time, about 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Only 6 people stopped to listen, including a 3 year-old boy whose his mother finally forced him to move along. About 20 dropped money in his case without stopping to listen; he collected $32. When he finished playing, no one noticed, no one applauded. One woman stopped to listen and engaged the musician in conversation because she recognized him.

You see, the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the finest classical musicians in the world. He had just played some of the most elegant music ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 a pop.

The Washington Post staged this as part of a social experiment. Do we recognize talent or beauty in an unexpected context?

In the midst of a very ordinary setting—hurrying to work on the subway—here’s something extraordinary: one of world’s greatest musicians playing some of the world’s greatest music on one of the world’s most expensive instruments. The extraordinary embedded in the ordinary = Extra/ordinary.

Christians believe that the most extra/ordinary thing ever is that God became a man. Almighty God (EXTRAORDINARY) became one of us (ordinary). The story of how this happened is filled with the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary. It’s Joshua Bell playing in the subway—on steroids! As we read and discuss the story today, I pray that each of you will have the hope that an E