The past few weeks have really been a blur for me, as I'm sure they have been for all of you. What is it about this time of year? It seems like since Thanksgiving, or maybe even since Halloween, we just move from one thing to another at hyper-speed. There's so much that needs to be done! First, we have the normal day to day necessities of life to tend to – going to work or to school, doing the laundry, shopping for groceries and fixing meals, paying the bills, picking up the kids and taking them to soccer practice or dance lessons – all of the normal demands of modern life. And then, we have the added busy-ness brought on by the holidays themselves. By the time we've gone through the Halloween costumes and parties for the kids, and we've put on the huge banquet dinner for 40 of our closest family and friends at Thanksgiving, we're plain tuckered out. We hardly have time to breathe when December comes. But we do our best, fighting the crowds to find a parking place. Rushing to stores to buy presents. Then rushing back home to put up the tree and decorations.
Then we go to Church, where someone in a white robe says something like, "don't forget to put the Christ in Christmas." It's enough to make anyone want to say Bah humbug!
We live busy, busy lives, and sometimes we might wonder if it has to be this way. Sometimes, we might wonder if life was always so hectic, so full. Surely the pace of life was a little more leisurely "back in the day." Surely there was a time – maybe before cell phones and shopping malls and blackberries – when people could sit back and reflect on the true meaning of life. A time when we could pause and reflect on who we are, and who we are called to be. Like in the Christmas Carols...
"O little town of Bethlehem how still we see thee lie."
Ahhh, it sounds so quiet and peaceful, doesn't it?
Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but the Gospel paints a very different picture of life in Bethlehem from the one we dream about in the Christmas carols. The Bible says that folks were on the move. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people were rushing around all over the place, because an occupying army, the Romans, wanted to do a census for tax purposes. And Bethlehem, which is a tiny little village even now, back then was stuffed with so many people from all over the place, that nobody had any time to breathe, much less ponder the meaning of life. So many folks were rushing around to get registered for taxes, that it looked like the last day of the month at the DMV. People were jamming the roads and taking up every hotel room and spare bedroom they could find. They were noisy and frustrated. They were tired and cranky. They were people who just wanted to go home, and be with their families, and rest.
Mary and Joseph were among all those people. She was expecting her first baby, and they probably wanted to be anywhere rather than in the middle of all these people. But they had to file their taxes, so to speak. So in the middle of all this noise and busy-ness – in the middle of all the people rushing around from one place to another, in the middle of the shop keepers selling things to the people from out of town for outrageous prices, and the waitresses who were serving food, and the farmers hauling things to market; in the middle of all this – Mary had her baby.
Now the birth of a child is a very special event in the lives of the parents. I remember when our daughter was born. It was April 14th, the day before our taxes were due, and I was filling out our tax return in the hospital room. (Nobody had told us that we could file an extension.) I remember wondering, "doesn't anybody else realize how important this event is?" But the fact is that for the rest of the world, life went on as usual.
It was the same in Bethlehem. Folks were busy, and so Mary wrapped her child up in some cloth, and laid him down in a feed trough. That's all we're told. There wasn't any snowy countryside, no donkeys, no kings. Not even an innkeeper. Just Mary, Joseph, and their baby, all in the middle of everything else going on around them. God may have been breaking into the world, but most were too busy to notice it.
But not everyone. Because the story then moves out of the hustle and bustle of Bethlehem to the countryside. That's where the shepherds were tending their sheep. And where, as they lifted their heads and looked up, they saw the most amazing display anyone has ever witnessed. Hundreds of angels, the most beautiful creatures ever created by God, all over the sky, like fireworks on the 4th of July. They were putting on a spectacular show, and one of them comes down to the shepherds and says:
For you, in the city of David, one has been born today, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Let me repeat that...
For you, in the city of David, one has been born today, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
This is the Gospel message that God proclaims to the whole world through the shepherds. And this is God's message to us this night. It isn't complicated, and it doesn't require a PhD in theology to understand. It is a message of simple optimism for a tired and jaded world. It is message of hope for those of us who have lost a job, or who are in prison, or are hungry, or are struggling to make ends meet. It is a message of refreshment and peace for those of us who are too busy to notice that God is all around us. It is God's promise to us all that, through Christ, our relationship with God and with one another will be restored.
For you, in the city of David, one has been born today, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
All of this is incredibly exciting news, right? From now on, nothing will ever be the same! God has come to live among us! We have a savior! And yet, in spite of all of the idyllic snowy images we might carry around in our heads about the first Christmas, God did not choose some peaceful setting in which to be born. And in spite of the vast importance of the message, God did not choose to announce the birth to the ruling empire, or even to the chief priests of the church. No. God chose to be born just like any other child, in a world too busy to notice, with parents struggling to just get by. And God made the announcement to a few shepherds, who were at best bewildered by the news. God chose to do these things in this way, because God didn't come to change the world at all.
Instead, through Christ, God came to live among us, to save us, to change us. God came to teach us that in spite of all of the busy-ness of our lives, there is still room in him for all of us. God came to show us, through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, how to love God and love each other. Christ came, so that we might know that we are loved by the one who created us, loved enough that he came to live among us, and to die for us and to live again within us. God came into the world, not to change to world, but to live inside each and every one of us, so that our lives would be forever changed through Christ, in spite of all the busy-ness of our lives.
For us, God chose to break into the hustle and bustle of the world.
For us, God chose to announce the birth of Christ to simple working class people.
For us, God chose to come into the world this night, bringing good news of great joy for all people.
For us, in the city of David, one has been born today, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
LINK TO THIS ARTICLE - http://www.ecsssj.org/show_article.php?myid=135
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