The Messiness of the Birth of Christ

Christmas Eve Homily 2011, Proper 1

There is a tendency to romanticize the story of the birth of Jesus found in Luke’s Gospel. We think of Christmas card images…shepherds in handsome robes, gathered around a fire…a sky full of stars, one of which is immense and hangs over Bethlehem…a baby in a manger with fresh hay in the stable and a pastoral scene of animals quietly grazing.

But we have to remember those images present a somewhat unrealistic idea of what actually happened that first Christmas eve.

One key to the story is that it happens at night, a time of fear, a time of danger.

The shepherds lived under Roman occupation, as did Joseph and Mary.

And historians tell us shepherds, who were the first witnesses of Jesus birth were outcasts from society, looked down on, poor…just the kind of people Jesus talks about reaching out to in his ministry three decades later.

The angels, messengers of God, don’t appear to rabbis, or landowners, or even shop owners, they appear to lowly shepherds, and it’s no surprise the shepherds are fearful.

So the angels first words are “Be not afraid.”

And those words are still at the heart of the Christian Gospel, the Gospel of Christ, more than two thousand years later.

Around our world we see danger and fear—of many things—from natural disasters, to climate change, to war, to persecution, to homelessness and starvation.

Yet the message of Christmas, the message of Jesus is that God is with us, bringing light into the darkness.

Our brothers and sisters in Christchurch, New Zealand are celebrating Christmas with outdoor services, reports Bishop Victoria Matthews.

An earthquake, the latest of many, hit Christchurch on Dec. 23. It was not as damaging as the earthquake that destroyed much of the city’s downtown earlier this year, but it has renewed fears of ongoing quakes which threaten efforts at reconstruction.

The Bishop writes the outdoor services aren’t about: “buildings falling down but about having large numbers of people from the very young to the elderly in close quarters in the event of another tremor. Outdoors, away from buildings will allow for community, but not crowding. I know it isn’t what most expected, but that first Christmas was very messy also, and there was a life saving outcome from that extraordinary gathering.”

The first Christmas was very messy, and dark, and dangerous. It wasn’t like a Hallmark Christmas card.

Herod feared the birth of Jesus, and Matthew tells us the story of the Holy family fleeing to Egypt to avoid persecution. So they were refugees.

And as New Zealand Christians gather for the torchlight (they call flashlights torches) services, they will undoubtedly be very conscious of the darkness and danger of the first Christmas eve.

It is worth considering that the birth of Jesus was announced only to his immediately family, to John the Baptist and his family and to the Shepherds and the wise men.

Otherwise, the birth is unheralded. The religious leaders, and wealthy people who held authority in Israel were not told.

The birth of Jesus, came not in a palace, but in a rough stable. Jesus was born to ordinary parents, not of noble birth.

What are we to draw from this simple yet powerful story of Christ’s birth in such an unexpected way, in such an out of the way place.

Perhaps it is that power and wealth aren’t what really count. It is what is in our hearts that matters. The good news the angels announce is the beginning of what would become a call to repentance, a call to hope and a call to a new way of life in harmony with God and other human beings.

We, as Christians, are called to live in community, to model the life of Christ, to live in peace and justice and to love each other.

As the prayer book service says, quoting scripture: “This is the first and great commandment, that thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul and all thy strength. This is the first and great commendment. The second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

Living that out is far from easy. One term, that has been used to describe our western society in recent years, is “affluenza.”

We get so caught up in materialism, in shopping in consuming ever more that we lose our compass. We don’t care for others as we should. We allow too many riches to be concentrated in too few hands while others struggle without jobs, food, proper shelter, or hope.

Christ was born in poverty, and throughout his ministry he lived as an itinerant preacher, teacher and healer, with few possessions but the clothes on his back.

He reminds us that it isn’t ultimately what you have in riches which matters, but the spirit in our hearts and minds.

When I think of Christmas stories outside the Bible, I often come back to the Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Ebenezer Scrooge learns through his encounter with spirits of Christmas past, present and future, that accumulating wealth does not bring happiness. Instead, it can bring loneliness and despair.

We, like Scrooge, can find new enjoyment of life if we seek opportunities to help others, build relationships and seek to live out our Christian faith.

Hope, grounded in faith is what sustains us as Christian people in this broken world. Jesus is the light of the world, a light no darkness can extinguish.