Luke tells a powerful Christmas story. A breathtakingly simple yet surprisingly powerful story of a young girl giving birth to her first child, attended only by shepherds and stable animals but heralded by angels above. Here is a story that should not even have been noticed, let alone told again and again across millennium. After all, countless young girls gave birth that night and we remember none of them. Emperors and governors are much better subjects for dramatic narratives; unwed teenage mothers and their vulnerable babes are not. Yet Luke puts this simple little story right smack dab in the middle of the powers and principalities of the age to make a claim: The child born to this young mother will change the course of history, and the fates of leaders and common folk alike hang in the balance of his destiny.
The genius of Luke's story, of course, is that he portrays all this through the simple, sympathetic, and even everyday characters of a young mother and common shepherds. So that we are forced to wonder, if God can work in and through such ordinary characters, perhaps God can also work in and through us. Luke wants, I think, to make sure we realize that it is not just human flesh "in general" that God takes on in Christ; it is our flesh. And it is not simply history "in general" that God enters via this birth, it is our history and our very lives to which God is committed.
Here is the promise of Christmas in a nutshell. God deigns to dwell not with the high and mighty, but with the lowly, the unexpected, those considered "nothing" by this world. And here, amid the weakness and vulnerability of human birth, God makes God's intentions for humanity fully known. God is love, John writes, and here Luke portrays that love, as God takes human form, the infinite becomes finite, and that which is imperishable becomes perishable.
This story of long ago is not only about angels and shepherds, a mother and her newborn. It is also about us, all of us.
Here is the promise of Christmas in a nutshell. God deigns to dwell not with the high and mighty, but with the lowly, the unexpected, those considered "nothing" by this world. And here, amid the weakness and vulnerability of human birth, God makes God's intentions for humanity fully known. God is love, John writes, and here Luke portrays that love, as God takes human form, the infinite becomes finite, and that which is imperishable becomes perishable.
This story of long ago is not only about angels and shepherds, a mother and her newborn. It is also about us, all of us.
On a much lighter note!
I have received a few emails after my last sermon, commenting on my off the cuff comment that it seemed as if Mary was doing all the visiting and appearing. The men not doing much, sitting around on their duffs watching bowl games. Well, seems as if some people took to searching the world wide web and found all sorts of Jesus sightings...here is a you tube video that compiles a bunch of news reports about Jesus sightings. The piece is titled "Finally tonight...". It appears that Jesus sightings typically are the news piece right at the end of the news cast. Check it out.
Since we're on You Tube here's a modern look at the Christmas story that I love!
No comments:
Post a Comment