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First
Reading
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Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Isaiah 9:2-7 |
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Titus 2:11–14 |
Luke 2:1–14, 15–20 |
Christmas is really a story within a story. The first story is about Caesar Augustus ordering a comprehensive census of the empire, the greatest empire the world had ever known. An extensive bureaucracy was mobilized for the logistics of the counting, as vast populations needed to stir and present themselves. The second story is about the birth of a child to an ordinary couple that hurriedly took place in a provincial town of no real consequence.
Of course, it was perfectly clear why there needed to be census. Augustus required accurate population figures to properly collect the taxes needed for the continued operation of the imperial realm. The greater the number of people counted and enrolled, the more taxes that could be raised.
If the people of Rome, Jerusalem, or Bethlehem had been asked, I suspect all of them would have been none too sure if the world actually needed another peasant child. Mary and Joseph were hapless victims of circumstance. Presumably they had no relatives in Bethlehem they could call on. They were lucky to have found shelter in the stable in back of an inn just in time to have their child. It was hardly a propitious beginning and pretty difficult to imagine any great expectations out of it all.
So I would not be too hard on the people of Bethlehem who were so close, but missed it all. I don't know if people have really changed much. I understand why many people prefer to avoid or obscure the meaning of Christmas with innumerable parties and forced gaiety. It is much more comfortable to believe in the regular operation of our world and in our permanent retention of established control and authority than in God suddenly entering our world with the intention of shaking things up. An announced concert with a printed program of non controversial holiday music on Saturday night at 8:15 is much preferred to a sudden appearance of choirs of angels late at night on a hillside telling us not to fear for right now there good news offered to all people. It is so much easier to put one's trust in an objective census than the angels' arresting announcement, immediately sending us into completely unknown territory.
I also understand why people prefer to stay in palaces rather then travel at night to stables. It is so much safer and warmer in palaces. In the world's palaces, all one's assumptions are protected by a firewall built with certainty and conformity.
The people who paid more attention to Jesus' birth than to Augustus Caesar's census were very different than most. The shepherds—well everyone knew that shepherds were sort of a shady lot. Like migrant farm workers, who knew where they were really from, or what their background was. They were perennial outsiders wherever they went. Probably the census takers didn't even bother to compel them to be enrolled. They had nothing of value. As people who had nothing, they were uniquely receptive to the good news that God wishes all humanity well.
Others who would also recognize the presence of something of immense significance tended to be outside the circle of society's mainstream, too. According to Luke, Mary and Joseph took the newborn Jesus to the Temple where Anna and Simeon clearly recognized that the ancient promise of God's redemption was being fulfilled. Anna and Simeon suffered all the insults of advancing age and certainly carried with them a burden of loss and loneliness. They lived in the increasing shadows of obscurity and the fading twilight of their generation. Yet they, among all the worshippers, recognized that in Jesus, God was creating a new earth.
According to Matthew, it was the magi who arrived in Bethlehem a few days later. They didn't fit in either: an odd bunch, definitely foreigners, and not the usual tourists who hankered after the customary souvenirs and took the tours recommended by the Chamber of Commerce. They perceived and saw what others never did. They were true searchers, never satisfied with surface appearances or easy answers. They knew the difference between truth and deception, insights of universal significance and flashy trivialities.
None of us here tonight would fit the exact description of those to whom God's grand revelation was first given, but there is something different about us or we would not be here. Society doesn't care anymore if you celebrate Christmas, only that you increase your seasonal year-end spending. Society is very nervous about people thinking too deeply about the meaning of Christmas. Yet like the shepherds, Anna and Simeon, and the magi, we somehow know that the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem would change the world ever after, while the census was a mere passing inconvenience shoring up a failing empire for just a while longer.
We are people of faith who believe it is possible for the world to change. We believe that it is possible for new birth to happen on this old and sorry planet and to move humanity to an entirely different plane. We believe that God has given us reason for profound joy, a joy never to be snuffed out by the Caesars, Herods and their henchmen. Christmas is always a story within a story, inviting us to choose. While most of the world chooses to party in the palace, sleep in the inn, rely on the census to define their world, or belittle the ancient experience and wisdom of faith, we are those who hear the angel's song and ever after will be looking for God who chooses to make a home and live among us.
Yes, Christmas is really two stories. The world will inevitably be impressed with the story of Caesar proclaimed from the stone towers of a great empire. The second story takes place in a simple shelter made of wood. It is a story of "things which were cast down being raised up, things which have grown old, being made new, and all things being brought to their perfection." 1 It is a story of God overcoming the strength and force of the world. There is hardly a greater contrast between Caesar and Mary. People of faith realize that it is the people like Mary not Caesar who are the instruments of God's movement in humanity's future.
Those who choose to value the story of the stable know that Mary did not simply acquiesce to God's request. God never acts like Caesar. Mary had a choice. The angel waited for Mary's response. When Mary embraced and responded to God's call the best way she knew, she then discovered deep spiritual resources inside her that she never imagined she had. Mary exceeded all expectations. That's one of the most precious lessons of the important story of Christmas. We too as we respond to God's call will discover a profound ability to exceed all expectations. That's the good news from the stable tonight where a woman is incredibly strong and a child reveals the brightest light of God's love.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
Cf. Book of Common Prayer, p. 280.
