“In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be taxed….all went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:1-7)
Each Christmas Eve, as we hear those words, we know that Christmas has truly arrived. Seven short verses, but packed with information. Nazareth, Bethlehem, Joseph – descendant of King David, engaged to Mary, not married but pregnant, no room in the inn, laid in a manger.
Around those phrases, we have woven elaborate stories, told elegant tales of Jesus’ birth. From the phrase “no room in the inn, laid in a manger,” we have developed a detailed stable scene. Picture the Christmas cards – sweet, gentle, glittering, pristine. Everything perfectly in its place. How could it not be perfect when God’s child is lying in that manger?
I invite you to stop for a moment and consider though the reality of the scene. This is a barn. There would be the smell of the animals and, of course, the smell of the manure. And what barn is complete without flies buzzing about? The stable of Jesus’ birth would not have been the pristine place shown on Christmas cards. Why does that matter?
The God we worship is not a judge sitting in the heavens watching out for our misdeeds. The God we worship is not one to gleefully plot and plan tragedy, disaster and challenges for our lives in order to test us or torment us. The God we worship is one who says, in Jesus, “You don’t have to come to me; I’m coming to you.” And then shows up in a stable, in the muck and manure of life, amid the buzzing flies, and says, “Here I am! You are not alone.”
We worship God who chooses to come into the worst that life has to offer and make a home among human beings. We worship God who journeys with us through the joys and sorrows, triumphs and tragedies of life. We worship God who holds us in tender and caring arms, and looks upon us in love. We worship God in whom we live and move and have our being.
It’s so easy for us to fall into thinking that we have to somehow deserve God’s love. It is so easy to begin to believe that have to earn all that God offers to us. But that is not the case. God came in the vulnerable little baby to say, “I love you just because I love you. I choose to be with you!”
So why do we imagine a pristine and perfect stable when we read the first verses of Luke 2? First of all, I think it is because we can’t imagine God being born in any spot less than perfect. Yet that is the very message of Christmas – that God does choose to be born in an imperfect, muck-filled, manure-smelling place. That’s how great God’s love for us is! The second reason we imagine the pristine stable is because of what happens when we look into a baby’s eyes. The moment we look into the deep well of newborn eyes, everything else melts away. We see only the wonder of the moment. We feel only the joy, the love, and the delight evoked as we look upon the newborn child. We see only a perfect stable for a perfect baby.
This Christmas I invite you to come to the manger and look deep into God’s eyes, letting all the cares, worries and challenges of your life melt away, until all you see, all you feel, is God’s deep love for you, a love so amazing, so wondrous that it came to a muck-filled, smelly, filled-with-buzzing-flies stable.
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