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Christmas Eve, 24 December 2005 |
Luke 2:1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!" 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. Messing up the story Carrie had volunteered to be Mary. Her confirmation class was part of a “Christmas Pageant Spectacular” at her local congregation. The High School Youth were putting on a drama in which the Christmas story would be told, the Elementary School Youth were putting on a traditional Christmas Pageant, complete with angelic little angels, and a rag tag group of shepherds. Carrie’s class was doing a version entitled, “What if Jesus were born today?” Carried had volunteered to be Mary. As part of the preparation for their task, the confirmation class had to do some research and creative interpretation of the Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel. They determined that today, Mary and Joseph would be refugees traveling to a new home with all of their belongings in tow. Though they noted that there was no “donkey” for Mary to ride in the Bible, they decided that some transportation would be needed today, so they chose a rusty Chevy Impala of some ancient vintage for that task. There would be no room for Mary and Joseph at the Motel Six, and no hospital in “ Hicksville” where they would settle, but a temporary room was found them in the back of a barn, attached to the house where they would be staying. It was really quite cleverly done. Carrie and her classmates had jumped into the assignment, as they jumped into life, with enthusiasm beyond their 13 years. But no one had any idea what was in Carrie’s mind. She felt that there were details of the story neglected by the previous pageants she had seen or been in. She made plans to correct that, but told no one, for fear that she might upset the good people of her congregation. She made her secret plans and carried them out without anyone noticing. She looked radiant and beautiful during the scene in which an angel appears on her television screen to announce that she would have a baby. She cried appropriately when she had to tell Joseph, her fiancé, what was going on, and cried again when he informed her that he loved her anyway and would still marry her. Then, as the scene changed, she disappeared backstage to prepare for the “journey and birth” portion of the play. When she emerged for the final scene, walking slowly with Joseph (played aptly by a young man named Chris), she brought gasps and not a few nervous giggles from the congregation gathered to watch. Carrie had tied a pillow under her “Mary” Costume. It rode low on her hips and clearly indicated that Mary was expecting a baby. When “the time came for her to be delivered” Carrie imitated labor pains, complete with a yell or two. Not a few people in the congregation, including the young pastor who was directing the play, were shocked at how far Carrie carried her assignment, though all agreed that it had been accurate. It was just that no one had ever seen Mary “pregnant” in a pageant before. Carrie had given them an image that disturbed the mental pictures of Jesus’ birth that we normally see. Sanitized Christmas Over the years we have sanitized the Christmas story, made it something for children and the young at heart. But it is far from the story in the bible, and perhaps, because of this, far from the “good news” that it could be for all of us. Here are some examples: The shepherds, keeping watch, would likely have been a group, gathered around a fire, probably taking turns on the watch with the rest sleeping. They may have been hired hands (see later contrasts in the New Testament with the good shepherd) and quite possibly represented the lowest levels of society in and around Bethlehem. Those who spent time with the animals would not be quite so well behaved in polite society as we command our pageant shepherds to be. We imagine a quaint manger scene in a cave or grotto for the animals. But we usually neglect to imagine the animal manure, and its accompanying smell, in our minds eye. And of course, few of us actually dare to imagine Mary as really pregnant. In some corners of our world, the birth of Jesus has been sanitized right out of things, replaced by red nosed reindeer and Santa Claus, not to mention shopping until we drop. In fact, in the retail world, whether you call it the Christmas Season, or the “holiday season” the meaning is still the same. Make as much money as you can by attracting as many people as you can and offending as few as possible. Where is God in the middle of all this? Seemingly nowhere, though not actually. It offends our sensibilities, after all, for God to come in the middle of a messy world, where shepherds sleep on the ground after drinking too much around the fire, where animals do what animals do, and where women who have babies are not called “great with child” for nothing. We think that God demands and deserves better than this, so no matter how Luke writes the story, we rewrite it to suit our understanding of God. We place God in this story in such a way that we can continue to protect the “Godness” that we need, the immunity that God has from the depth of our humanity. God in the middle of the mess But when we do this, we fail to understand the depth of what God is doing in the incarnation at all. God chose to be born into our world, with all of its faults, and foibles, in fact because of them. God chose to come not into a palace, but into the squalor of humanity’s injustice and cruelty to one another, with a family that wanders homeless, announced to shepherds in a pre-dawn stupor, in a place normally reserved for the animals. God chooses to be in our mess. Only we choose to keep God out of it. But then, God has a history of being in the mess. He chose Israel, an enslaved nation, to be his people to enlighten the nations. He endured the complaints and disobedience of his people over thousands of years. God suffered with them in bondage in Babylon, and rejoiced with them in coming home. Jesus’ birth into this world is also a death sentence. Mary hears the chilling words of Simeon, that a sword will pierce her own heart too (read the next story in Luke 2). In Matthew 2 we have the terrible story of a king so threatened by this child’s arrival that he attempts to kill Jesus by killing all of the children of the same age in and around Bethlehem. Jesus enters a messy world and his entrance does not seem to make it “tidy” in and of itself. Of course we know that Jesus eventually will grow up to be killed on a cross. When God enters our world of pain and suffering, he doesn’t hesitate. He enters it completely. He gives himself to our pain. For our world, fractured by sin, limps along with an image of a distant and vengeful God. In our attempt to preserve God’s place as “holy” we imagine that God comes to pluck all of the sinners out of the world that he can before destroying it with fire from “beyond.” Even today this religious ideal gains a lot of supporters in the “left behind” series of books and movies. Interestingly, the very notion of Christmas, the very thought of a God incarnate speaks against this understanding of what God is up to. The message of Christmas places us on a very different path. It says that the God of creation is not distant but intimately connected to the creation. It says that the creator God is made so vulnerable in the act of creation and the love for what is created that he enters into that creation when it is fractured and broken. Placing Christmas squarely within the dirt and grime, the pain and suffering, the very human and worldly stuff of pregnancy and childbirth, helps us to understand the length to which God will go for his creation. The cross finally shows us the depth of that commitment. In the midst of life, setting us free FOR life! God comes in the middle of things. He comes in the middle of history, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a complicated world, so that from the inside out he might set us free from our notions both of what God is like and what we need to be like. For as we see Jesus, even as a baby, no longer can we see God as something separate, distant, apart. When we see in Jesus the very image of God in our midst, no longer can we view being human as something to escape or apologize for. Instead God gives us a way to see life as we were meant to live it. Not for ourselves but for all people, including wandering couples like Mary and Joseph, including poor shepherds on a lonely hillside, including mothers mourning for their lost children in Bethlehem. God is for them all. God is for us all, including people who live in fear rather than faith, including people who struggle without homes from natural disasters, including parents who struggle with the illness and untimely deaths of their children, including people who are oblivious to the presence of the poor and suffering in our very own communities. God is born for all of us. And in his coming he invites us to open our eyes and our lives. We, too, hear the angels announce that God’s power is greater than all the powers that be. We, too, learn to live for others rather than ourselves. For God has hallowed all creation with his presence and asked us to care for each other and his world as a consequence of our redemption. God came in the middle of a dying world to bring life, and we are sent into the middle of a dying world to announce God’s presence and life. That’s why we sing with joy this night of all nights. For God transforms our whole existence and reclaims us as his creation once again. Just as he dwells in the world in Jesus, so also is his presence experienced by his whole church, broken and made whole in Christ. In the end, I think that Carrie had it right. She found that Christmas came in the stuff of real life. She does not avoid the tough things that Christmas brings, but instead locates God squarely in the midst of them, and so has found the depth of God’s love. It is just this thought that comforts me especially this Christmas as I face the holidays for the first time without my own father. In the past 4 months since his passing I have, when I have allowed myself, experienced the emptiness and the pain of loss. But then I find the child Jesus in the midst of my depression, just as I experienced the Lord in the midst of my father’s illness and death from cancer. Some people wonder where God is when loss and death occur. In Christmas I have my answer, he is in it with us, for us. May you find joy in the same answer. May the God made flesh grant you peace and joy in knowing that he continues to be with and for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman, Pastor
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