Luke 2:1-20
Personally, I find that the Christmas story is by far the most difficult story to preach on during the liturgical calendar year.
In a society that has created it’s own Christmas narrative, it is far too easy to find yourself leaving out essential characters from the more modern version we happily embrace, especially on this night.
Drummer boys, Innkeepers, Nester the long eared Christmas donkey, and an extensive array of livestock that would lead us to believe that Jesus was born on a midwestern dairy farm rather than in a bustling Palestinian town.
We are enamored with these specific details of the story that aren’t present in any of the Gospel descriptions.
John’s Gospel really doesn’t say a word about Jesus’ birth.
Neither does Mark’s Gospel.
Matthew’s Gospel acknowledges that the birth took place in Bethlehem; but other than a brief confirmation of those events, Matthew goes into greater detail about Joseph’s elaborate efforts to protect Jesus from Herod
He then jumps into the Epiphany story, describing the Maggi’s visit, but it is unclear how long after the birth this occurs.
Matthew also makes no mention of the Shepherds, the Angels in the field, the manger, or any other description of the accommodations in Bethlehem.
In our modern retelling we really like to spruce up the story a bit.
If we combine Matthew’s description with Luke’s account -which we have read tonight- then we can spend more time with Jesus in the manger.
But, those details don’t really give us enough time at the scene of the birth, so we add layers to these combined stories.
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| Nester, a claymation favorite |
Painting a picture that combines the Maggi, the Shepherds, the manger scene, and the star all in one
Then we sprinkle in livestock, innkeepers, barns, drummer boys, and yes, Nester the long eared claymation donkey.
Pulling these stories apart and taking out the details we have added to scripture is difficult and it is equally frustrating to those hearing the story as well as the preacher, attempting to present a message that is both hopeful and honest.
One of my favorite movie scenes involving prayer is from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
In a dinner prayer scene the main character -race car driver Ricky Bobby, played by Will Ferrell- is tasked with saying grace over a feast of Domino’s, KFC, and Taco Bell.
After repeatedly addressing Jesus in prayer as “baby Jesus” and “Tiny infant Jesus” Ricky’s wife attempts to broaden Ricky’s limited perception of Jesus pointing out to Ricky that;
“Hey, you know? Jesus did grow up, you don’t always have to call him baby. It’s a bit odd and off-putting to pray to a baby”
To which Ricky responds
“Well, I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m saying grace. When you say grace, you can say it to grownup Jesus, or teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus or whoever you want.”
When the disagreement escalates to include other friends and family members, Ricky’s teammate and friend Cal comes to his defense when he shares his own view of Jesus, proclaiming;
“I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo T shirt, 'cause it says, like, “I wanna be formal…" "... but I’m here to party, too.”
This exchange, while a bit exaggerated, certainly gets to the heart of the issue at hand for us, not only in the Christmas story but throughout scripture.
We take the parts we want to hold onto the tightest, the parts that give us the comfort we crave, especially on this night of all nights.
And if we need a little extra pizazz we sprinkle on some details that we find in Christmas movies and books that we devoted as much time to, if not more, than the texts in scripture.
So here it is in a nutshell. Luke sums up the birth of Jesus in two verses; 2:6-7
While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 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 guest quarters.
Those are all the details we get, and the place we think of as an inn is probably a home belonging to Joseph’s relatives which is filled to the brim with other family there for the same reason that Joseph and Mary are there.
Not only is the possibility of limited space a factor, but giving birth to a child in front of a house full of family members doesn’t seem like a pleasant method to introduce Joseph’s new bride to the rest of the family or vice versa.
So they are sent into another room, a room that is less of a barn and probably more of a garage.
Considering Luke only makes mention of a single manger we really seem to think that implies a rather expansive farming operation with an elaborate barn.
But the room they are sent to is most likely a place to keep the few animals needed for transportation and commerce, like sheep or a donkey.
These animals were expensive investments often kept within the structure of a home to be protected from the elements but often separated from the living and dining areas as you can imagine.
In a pinch, this is an area that could be used as a spare room when guests were overflowing or you wanted to spare everyone, including Mary and the unborn child, the sight of childbirth.
A house packed full of people probably offered few options for privacy other than this spare space, probably the lower portion of the structure or as some believe a cave which many houses were built around or over.
So this doesn’t give us as much detail as we would like.
It certainly doesn’t give us front row seats to the birth of Christ, maybe because Joseph and his family preferred to keep it from becoming the spectacle, which we have made it into.
Being a father myself, I was rather shaken when I discovered the vast array of gazing eyes the day my children were brought into this world.
I’m not quite sure how I would have felt if someone wrote a book giving an account of the birth of those children down to the finest details.
Especially if those details portrayed me as providing anything less than the ideal or sanitary accommodations for such an event like the birth of a child.
And given the significance of this birth in particular.
The announcement of the birth of this child in Luke’s Gospel overshadows not only all other descriptions of Jesus at birth but the word Savior is seldom used throughout our Christian scriptures.
We only find the word 24 times in the New Testament and only three times in the Gospels; twice in Luke and once in John, thats it.
So, this is a big deal and this big deal is being born in a less than big deal way.
All of the great Kings of this day have magnificent stories that surround their births;
Gaius Octavius -Who Luke names in our Gospel tonight- was himself considered the offspring of a divine being.
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| Caesar Augustus |
Gaius Octavius is in fact named Augustus in order to differentiate him from any other Emperor who came before.
He is considered majestic and largely responsible for establishing the longest lasting and most expansive civilization yet seen.
Using the military might at his disposal to protect and keep order throughout the empire under his power, establishing what becomes known as the peace of Rome (Pax Romana).
And regardless of how we see this empire, it was, for the most part, the closest thing to a civilized peaceful society that this region had seen in a very long time.
Roads, education, art, architecture, commerce, all the benefits of a fully functioning republic were put in place by Caesar; “the magnificent one”.
In the midst of such a political, sociological, and economic feat like the establishment of the Roman empire, what is so special about Jesus on this night, in this place, at this time?
Is it the fact that the Emperor and Quirinius, the governor of Syria, end up using their own power to put the birth of Christ in just the right place, at the right time?
Is it the fact that the Roman empire -the empire in which the sun never rises or sets- itself will one day become the means by which the story of Jesus is spread throughout the world?
Is it the fact that the empire that seeks to crush such a Man and a faith as a subversive movement, ends up embracing that same Man and faith as the most influential event that impacts the world still to this day?
Is it the fact that God, not Caesar, uses the greatest empire the world has ever seen up to this point to share the story far and wide?
Eh…. maybe……
Perhaps there is something bigger though, wrapped in the modest packaging of this very small less than grand story.
Maybe it is bigger because the greatness of this particular magnificent One, this Savior as Luke describes him, entertains an audience of not Kings in Luke’s Gospel, but Shepherds.
It is bigger because this Savior, born to a poor craftsman and a poor girl who is surrounded by a cloud of condemnation for her unwed pregnancy, are the ones who usher in such an event.
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I have been wrestling with this story for two weeks.
It’s been difficult, not only due to the story, but our whole house seems to have come down with something, just in time for Christmas.
We took my oldest to the Doctor at the end of last week, to find she had pneumonia.
The Doctor prescribed an antibiotic to treat the infection in her lungs.
In the midst of a hectic schedule and a long to-do list, we couldn’t get her to take the medicine because it made her sick.
We spent three days going back and forth to the Doctor’s office.
On the third day, I tried again -without success- to get her to take the medicine.
She refused and I flew into a rage
I was concerned we would be spending Christmas in the hospital
concerned about our repeated visits to the Doctor
concerned about her health
frustrated that she wouldn’t do what I told her to do
frustrated that she wouldn’t take the medicine that was her only option for getting better.
I yelled, I screamed, I stomped, I… acted like a child.
As we were driving to the Doctor’s office for our final visit we came to a stop at a red light.
I turned around and glared into her eyes tucked behind weary shadows and angrily asked
“Have you ever seen me this angry?”
She wearily shook her head no.
“Do you even care that I am so angry?!” I asked
She again wearily shook her head no
“You don’t even care that I am this mad?!” I repeated
She again shook her head no
“Why not!?” I scolded
She looked up at me with her weary eyes and replied tenderly
“Because I love you too much, Daddy.”
In that moment my anger, my frustration, my rage, was shattered against the love of a child.
~
There is a lot to take away from this story, sisters and brothers.
But we obsess over that scene surrounding a peasant child, in a pathetic place, in a modest package, with an audience of powerless people,
Because speaking to us through the weary eyes of that less than royal picture we hear the voice of God in a Child, Emmanuel, simply saying;
Because I love you too much.
And in that moment our anger, our frustration, our rage, our hate, our sin, our brokenness, is broken against that manger.
Amen
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