Christmas Eve 2007

This Holy Moment
Christmas Eve: Luke 2:1-20


I think I was 6 years old when I first participated in a Christmas Pageant at church. I was a shepherd. I remember my part as if it were yesterday. When the angel appeared I was to act terrified. When the angel finished speaking I was to act joyful, then go and kneel next to Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. It was a simple little pageant that my church put on. My costume wasn’t much more than a bathrobe. But, what an impression that particular Christmas made on one little person’s faith.

I was very excited to be a part of this pageant. So much so that the manger scene caught my imagination, possibly for the first time that Christmas. Among the many traditions that were part of the Christmas season in our home was this little nativity scene that my grandmother brought out each year. It was a little wooden barn filled with ceramic figurines of shepherds and sheep, Wise Men and camels, parents and Child. And, my grandmother would place it prominently under the Christmas Tree. This little manger scene captured my child-like imagination for the first time that year. I remember lying on my belly on the floor in front of the tree moving the figurines around to reenact the story. I still vividly remember climbing clear under the tree to position my face right behind each of the wise men and each of the shepherds in order to imagine what they must have seen that night. Since then my child-like imagination has changed, and I have seen many more depictions of that nativity scene. Each time, the scene is basically the same: the manger in the middle, Joseph and Mary nearby, and the shepherds, magi, angels, and animals flanking the scene.

We've all seen it, probably thousands of times on Christmas cards, in churches, on front yards, in pageants, and in plays. And every time, the scene is essentially the same: the manger in the middle, surrounded by the parents and all the familiar visitors. But, I have yet to see a pageant, or a play, that really and truly depicts the whole Christmas story. Actually, I have never yet seen a card, a painting, or a even a stage that is big enough to depict the whole Christmas story. It would require a stage the size of, well, Honey Brook. And then, the nativity scene would actually be this tiny little non-event happening off in the woods somewhere unnoticed by the normal activity of life in Honey Brook. In other words, to truly pull off a depiction of the whole nativity story, the stage would need to be enormous, so that the proportions would be correct. For, you see, to tell the whole story, the nativity scene itself would have to be made tiny. Very tiny. Unnoticeably tiny.

Luke tells us the whole Christmas story, and he sets for us the stage -- the whole stage of that very first pageant. He begins with the headline of the day: "In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered." If there had been newspapers in the ancient world, this would have been the front page headline on every one of them. It would have been the lead story on every news broadcast and the hot topic of every contemporary discussion. This decree meant higher taxes. Higher taxes meant more hardship, more poverty. This decree meant an increase Roman domination through war and oppression. This decree forced people into motion all over the Empire, including a certain newly married couple from Nazareth. Luke begins to set the stage for the Christmas story by telling us that Rome, not a manger in Bethlehem, is at the center of the stage. The Roman Emperor, not a baby, is the character with the top billing of the show. And the prospect of an Empire-wide tax, not some anonymous birth, is the headline. Luke goes on to tell how the decree from Caesar Augustus prompted Joseph to travel from Nazareth, where he lived, to Bethlehem, which was his ancestral home. A traditional nativity scene puts the Bethlehem manger in the center, under the spotlight. But, Luke's account reminds us, that Bethlehem was not only far from the center of the world's stage, it was not even at the center of Joseph's stage. Joseph’s home was Nazareth, and going to Bethlehem was a long way from home, not a journey one chooses to make with a pregnant wife on a donkey. Joseph went because he was forced to do so under the oppressive foot of the empirical decree. Next, Joseph and Mary arrive in Bethlehem, only to find that there is no room for them in the inn. This couple and this birth were not even big news in the small village of Bethlehem. They were pushed off to the side of a town that was itself off to the side of a province that was off to the side of the empire.

We’ve never seen the whole Christmas story depicted because we’ve only ever seen the manger at center stage. But the birth of Jesus was not center stage. In reality, if we were to climb under the Christmas tree and peer over the shoulders of the real characters and see through the eyes of those who were actually there, this Holy moment, when God first broke through time and space to enter creation in a child, happened so far from the center of the stage that it was practically backstage. Yet, from backstage, with the center stage players completely unaware, God steals the show.

So let's reset the whole nativity scene in our imagination. At the center is not a manger but a throne. It's Caesar's throne -- the seat of the world's power -- and it's in Rome. Off to the far side of the stage is a bit of background scenery -- that represents the rather unimportant Roman province of Palestine. Painted on the edge of that scenery is a tiny village, barely even noticeable to the audience. The tiny village is Bethlehem. And somewhere behind the scenes, away from the main events even of that tiny town, is where we find the manger. It is not center stage at all. It’s actually barely noticeable, off in the margins of life and existence. Yet, miraculously, wondrously, perfectly, that is where God came into the world. God came in the margins of life; on the edges of things where the world least expected it. The truth of the Christmas story is that God came into the world backstage, behind the main scene. He came practically unnoticed by the entire world. No headlines. No politics. No Banners. No Guns. He came in the silence of a night, in a manger, in a barn. He came to an unknown and unimportant place, and he came to unknown and unimportant people. He snuck in! While the big news of the day was so many other seemingly important historical events, God was behind the scenes re-creating history itself.

It is mind boggling to consider how God could have made his entrance onto this world's stage: the awe-striking spectacle, the unmistakable glory, and the unfathomable power. Shock and Awe, that is likely how we might have expected the scene. But that is not how God came down from heaven and began a new life among us. The truth is that while the domination of the world’s powers seemed to be the drama on center stage, God came into the world backstage through the weak, the poor, and the ordinary. And, what a difference this backstage act has made.

Consider these tidbits of how God has stolen the show away from the Empire by working backstage. At that time in the world in which Jesus was born, dates were set according to the Roman Emperor -- what year of his particular reign it was. But now, most of the nations of the world set time according to this singular baby's birth -- December 24th, 2007 A.D., anno domini, the year of the Lord. At that time, Caesar Augustus, Quirinius, and Herod were big names, important men. Now they are just the supporting cast in the bigger story of what God was doing with Jesus’ birth. At that time, Rome was the most important city in the world, and Bethlehem was just a backwater village in a conquered country. Now, Bethlehem is one of the most famous, most visited places on earth. And Rome's greatest claim to fame today and through much of Western history is, arguably, the role it plays in Christ's church. This singular moment in time—This Holy Moment—changed all of history, even our understanding of time and place. And God did all this, from behind the stage. God didn't come with power or prominence, with influence or importance. God didn't come into the spotlight of center stage. God came into the world through the world’s back door. God snuck in through backstage, and then stole the show.

My friends, on this Christmas Eve and every Christmas, and even every moment, that continues to be God’s divine strategy for entering our lives. He continues to come into the world, into our lives, through moments and events that seem completely benign and unimportant. Think about it—-Stores, banks, and malls that would never play "Amazing Grace" or "A Mighty Fortress" over their sound systems during the rest of the year will, at Christmas time, routinely play songs that say, "Let earth receive her King," "God and sinner reconciled," "Let every heart prepare him room.". God sneaks into banks, stores and malls. We Christians often lament the commercialization of Christmas. I wonder, though, if we have underestimated God. For I suspect that the effect may actually be flowing in the other direction: it is not Christmas that is being commercialized, but rather it is our already over-commercialized culture that is annually, routinely, and unwittingly overrun by God’s good news for the world. Christmas was -- and continues to be -- God's Holy Moment—when God shows up in the most unsuspecting of times. And by God’s entering this tiny moment, it becomes a moment of holiness through which all moments thereafter are transformed by God’s presence within it.

Ever since, God has continued to come to us every December in tiny seemingly unnoticeable and fleeting moments through songs, traditions, and sentiment. He comes through even the tiniest measures of generosity, good will, and just the sheer festivity of the season. God comes through the excitement that children feel as Christmas approaches, and he comes through the longing, and even the hurt that adults feel at this time of the year. God brings joy, wonder, and magic into our lives in ways that none of us can produce—not even Disney World can produce the true magic of Christmas. But, God can, and he does every year and he does it out of what seems like nothing to us. God turns our mere moments into Holy Moments—giving us these tiny glimpses of the eternity with Him that He has promised to all who believe. It are these tiny moments, that fill us every December with a renewed sense of holiness that encourages us to respond to God with faith, hope and love. It is God sneaking in upon our hearts that turns us toward charity, forgiveness, and grace for all of our brothers and sisters on the earth, and instilling in our souls the hope of a world where peace reigns.

Christmas was nothing for history to write about, a mere moment in the ticking of all of time—But, it was a moment into which God came to this world—and through it the world has found that every moment in time offers the opportunity for holiness. Christmas gives us a glimpse of what God is like and what he continues to do. God didn't come marching in through the front door, flexing his muscles, and demanding the spotlight. He could have, but he didn’t. The king of the universe arrived in swaddling cloths, mostly ignored by the world he had created. And, still today, God does not barge into our lives. He waits for tiny fleeting moments, when we least expect it, and when our hearts are made vulnerable, to inspire within us just a moment’s worth of true faith, true joy, true hope, true love. And through that moment—and the memory of a host of others like it—God turns our tiny, unnoticeable lives into a sign of the eternal presence of his Son for others to see. God’s most precious gift for all the world—the child born in a manger—is now the child born again and again in and through us.

At that first Christmas, God came into the lives of insignificant, common people, and the angels announced to shepherds that this was good news of great joy. And it is! For we are assured that God willingly comes into our lives too. In that first Holy Moment, God came into a place that seemed small and unimportant. That’s good news of great joy for all of us, for our life and our homes seem so small and unimportant. Yet, God comes to be born in us. In that first Holy Moment, God came into a place that was messy and unworthy of him. And that's good news which brings great joy because our hearts, our lives, and our world are messy and unworthy. Yet God comes to be born in us.

I have yet to see the whole Christmas story depicted on a stage. But I have seen the whole Christmas story played out again and again in individual lives. It is the story of this God who could come bursting in, but does not. It is the story of this God who comes in gently and unassumingly, perhaps even unnoticed at first. And it is the story of this God who, bit by gracious bit, comes into your life and mine backstage, by his mercy, and becomes the star of our show in lived out moments of holiness.

I was 6 years old when the nativity scene first caught my imagination, I first got to play a part in a Christmas pageant, and that was my privilege. But it is today our greater privilege -- to live every day as if we are players in God’s continual nativity scene. Tonight, here into this tiny moment, God comes to you and me reminding us that:
just as he entered in and provided the grace for a young mother,
just as he entered in and encouraged a confused adopting father,
just as he entered in and brought hope to overworked and lonely shepherds,
just as he entered in and provided a sense of wonder and adventure to three wise old men—-God once again comes to us.
Best of all, he promises to come and be accessible to every moment of life—turning our lives of uneventful moments into lives filled with the same love, peace and joy found in the child born in that first Holy Moment.

Amen. Merry Christmas!