At Christmas time, I find myself inspired by the children’s story, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson where a group of rough around the edges, bullying kids teach a church community about the power of the Christmas story by seeing it in a fresh light. The Herdmans are a group of six kids on child welfare who leave much to be desired. They lie, cheat, steal and even smoke cigars. As they decide to take over a Sunday School Christmas Program, bullying their way into all the lead roles, they come in contact with the Christmas story for the first time. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever reminds us that a story that is so common to us, one which we have made so clean is an absolutely amazing story filled with wonder and awe. Mary isn’t with child, she’s pregnant. The Herdman wise men don’t give jeweled boxes, they give their Christmas turkey, something that means something to them. And Mary and Joseph are seen as a couple of refugees covered with the dirt of travel and exhausted from their journey.
We are surrounded by the wonder of Christmas. We have many different traditions that inform the way we read the Christmas story, and sometimes they detract from what that very story is. We have heard the Christmas story so many times that we tend to take it for granted. So, let us go back 2000 years and see a group of people who live in a captive land. Let us go back to a woman about to give birth to a child that does not belong to her new husband and let us see something about the humility of God.
Mary and Joseph were refugees. They were told to leave their home town of Nazareth and travel to Bethlehem so that they could be counted in a census. I’m sure that they were tired from their journey and worn out. And here they are, not even able to have the baby in a house, but in a stable. Go out to one of the barns around this town to see what that might be like. No, it wouldn’t have been as cold, but it would have been something, nonetheless. Not exactly the most ideal place to have a baby. Talk about God’s humility. Let alone the fact that God is born as a baby. When babies are born, they are completely dependant, they are unable to care for themselves, they need to trust others. Jesus, when he was born, needed to rely on Mary and on Joseph and allow them to care for him. Humility. And this began a life of humility for Jesus. For throughout his life Jesus continued to live humbly. He begins his ministry by giving up a place to live and becoming a traveling teacher, with no place to lay his head at night. Again relying on the care of others. And his life ends in total humility with his death on the cross, dying for a crime that he did not commit.
But in the midst of that humility, there is glory and wonder. When we read the Christmas story we do not wonder that we have spent the last 2000 years celebrating Jesus’ birth. There is a star in the sky that shouldn’t be there. There are stately foreigners traveling great distances to greet new royalty. There are angels filling the sky with glory, singing and praising God. There is a special birth, the birth of Jesus… the beginning of Jesus’ life and ministry on this earth. The Christmas story prepares us for that which we will celebrate in three months… the death and resurrection of Christ. It is the prologue of the story… it begins us on a journey that will take us through Jesus’ ministry to the point that seems to be total defeat. This baby, born in such a way will be killed thirty-three years later. But then he will come back. He will come back in glory, having conquered death.
And so we have the humility and we have the glory. And they come together in this night as we celebrate Jesus’ birth: A humble birth, born to refugees in a stable. A glorious birth, sung about by the heavenly host.
We like to focus on the glorious part of Jesus’ birth; and face it, we like to focus on the glorious part of Jesus’ life. But the story that the Herdman children tell reminds us of the humble part of Jesus’ life and birth. But why did Jesus’ life have to begin in such a humble way? What is the meaning behind this? I think he was setting an example for each of us even at his birth. One which I’m not sure we always notice at Christmas.
Here in the United States, I think we’ve taken Christmas and Americanized it about as much as you can. Walk into any store at Christmas time and you will instantly realize what I am talking about. We have made the time where Jesus’ humility and glory are to be celebrated and turned it in to a time of stress. We have taken Jesus’ example of relying on others and turned it into a celebration of getting presents. Oh, I remember very clearly when I was a child and discovered that I enjoyed watching someone open a present that I had gotten them more than opening my own presents, but there is still a part of me that feels let down after the wrapping has come off and I didn’t get that book I wanted. In typical American fashion, we have taken the example that Jesus made of giving and we have turned it into our consumerist celebration of receiving. We don’t ask “what did you give for Christmas” but “what did you receive?”
God gave his Son. He gave Jesus, born in a stable, lying in a manger. This season leading up to Christmas, I have spent a lot of time focusing on belief. Though we talked about a number of different aspects of belief, the one thing that is most important is that for belief to be real, for it to matter, it needs to affect how you live. It’s one thing to believe that Jesus slept in a manger 2000 years ago. It’s another thing to allow that truth to inhabit you; to fill you; to change you; to make you a better person. When I see God’s glory, when I see God’s humility, it makes me want to live differently. It makes me want to celebrate Christmas differently. It makes the presents a bit less important. It changes what I’m about as a Christian. Jesus spent his whole life serving others, relying on the care of those around him, repaying hate with love, sacrificing himself for his people. This was God’s humility. This was God’s glory. This changes who I am, for I want to be like my God. I want to live the humility that Christ lived. I want to experience the glory that Christ experienced. I want to believe. It’s not just about assenting to the facts that Christmas presents to us. It’s about believing, it’s about allowing that Christ child who was born in a stable to be born in you, to be reborn in you. It’s about giving him the control in your life. I know that many of you have asked him into your hearts, but have you truly allowed your belief to affect every part of your life? Have you truly given him control? I know that I haven’t as much as I would like. But I also know that God is willing to hear me and answer me and take control of those areas of my life that I have not yet given him. He can do the same for you. Invite the Christ child in. Believe in Jesus. Amen.
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