Christmas 1999

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Christmas 1999
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 24 and 25, 1999

TEXT: Luke 2:1-20, (21-38) - The Christmas Story

But the Angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find the child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

"Guided by the Spirit he (Simeon) came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the law required, he took him in his arms, praised God, and said: 'Now, Lord you are releasing your servant in peace, according to your promise. For I have seen with my own eyes the deliverance you have made ready in full view of all nations: a light that will bring revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel.'"

ISSUE: Luke conveys the wonderful poetic story of the birth of Jesus. It is rooted in Israel's past and gives new hope for the future. the story assures that God in Christ has come to his people, not in some ethereal or spooky way, but in the human form to experience and identify with the human experience. The concluding part of the birth narrative tells how Simeon, who would not die before seeing the Savior, picks the Christ child up and holds him in his arms. The story asks us to contemplate our response to the Christ.
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We are gathered here again this year, the last Christmas before the new millennium to once again ponder the beautiful poetic story of Christ's birth as told in St. Luke's Gospel. Tonite I would also like to speak a little about "the rest of the story" as it is recorded in Luke and with which we are not quite so familiar. That is, there is an important part of the drama or story that does not get quite as much attention as the earlier part of the story.
All of the parts of the story have their special significance. It is the story of a family in great distress and tells of a people in great distress. Our creche's and manger scenes often sentimentalize and sanitize the story. We probably even sometimes think of it as children's story, but the themes are really quite adult.
In the story the lives of Joseph and the pregnant Mary are disrupted by the oppressive government of Caesar Augustus and Quirinius the governor. While the Romans may have brought peace to this land, it was at the cost of great loss of civil and human rights to the people who were heavily taxed and controlled. The birth of Christ is set by Luke into its true historical context of a very hard and difficult time for the people.
Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where the child is born in a manger, because there is not room in the inn. The clear indication here is that Mary and Joseph had little standing. Those with greater honor and standing had taken whatever guest rooms were available in this little town of about a hundred residents. Bethlehem did not have any "inns" as such, they were merely a few rooms available in single home dwellings. Most of these dwellings did have mangers in them because animals were kept in the homes at one end of the house at night. Most peasant women did infact deliver their new born children in the manger. Jesus birth in a manger was not unusual. It was so common of a thing that one wonders why Luke even mentions it. Birth in the manger heightens the lowliness of the birth of Christ which indicates his coming to the poor, the least, the last, and the lost. But make no mistake about it. Mary and Joseph are displaced people, and are facing a time of great distress.
The manger setting is also based on a passage from Isaiah in which Isaiah 1:3. The manger is a feeding place. Donkeys and oxen know where to feed, but often people miss the feeding that God gives to them. Luke tells us that Jesus is the new food of God to sustain and bring hope, healing, and love to the people who will turn to him.
Luke tells us that the child was wrapped in swaddling bands of cloth. This swaddling was again a very common practice of the time. It was thought to make a child grow healthy and strong. It's restrictiveness to the legs and arms of the child were also considered to be disciplinary. It led even the youngest child to know that he needed to be obedient and controlled. But even though this was a very common practice, the swaddling cloths will be a sign to the shepherds that they have found the Christ. From the book of The Wisdom of Solomon 7:4-5, the richest and wisest of all of Israel's kings, King Solomon writes: I was nursed with care in swaddling clothes, for no king has had a different beginning in existence." Luke is telling us, yes the Christ was human and born like all others, yet he is royal, Son of the Most High. He is food for spiritually hungry people in very difficult times, and he is royal unlike the world understands royalty.
Jesus is born in Bethlehem, which was the city where King David, a simple a shepherd boy had been born. David had risen to great heights, and was a faithful shepherd to his people of Judah and Israel. For Luke, Jesus is nothing less in his simplicity than a Good Shepherd to the people of his time as he leads them in love and to a deeper faith and love of God.
Shepherds, though sometimes romanticized in scripture, were really considered to be a very low status and dishonorable occupation are the first learn of the Christ's birth. They praise him on earth while Angels praise him in the heavens. Both earth and sky come to worship and to adore him. God in Christ has been born; he has come to dwell with his people.
This story is one of God acting in the history of his people, in the days of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. God comes once again to be with his people, even the most lowly, to show them the light of love and hope, and to give them the assurance that God is with them, and to provide forgiveness where it is needed. God in Christ is humble and lowly, entering the human condition in its fullest, born in a manger and dressed in swaddling clothes. At the same time his truly the royal prince of peace. The story emphasizes how the humble, simple, mundane things of life are touched by God, how royal and hopeful they can become. Jesus Christ is truly human and experienced in the hardness and difficulty of the human condition, as well as its moments of joy.
Now for the rest of the story, and the important part of my offering to you tonight. This part of the story is not so well known and discussed from Luke's Gospel birth narrative.
After just eight days, Mary and Joseph take the child to the temple as was the custom of the law. Mary is to be purified which was the religious custom after a birth had taken place. They make an offering of the poor, two turtle doves, as opposed to the lamb that would have otherwise been offered those of slightly more wealth. The male child Jesus will be named and dedicated to God. Now in the Temple is a man named Simeon, and an old widow, Anna of the tribe of Asher, who is 84 years old. For anyone to live in those days to the age of 84 was extraordinary. But the oldest people, like this widow were considered to be very wise, and in a time when most people were illiterate, the elders provided memory and history for the community along with wisdom. So Anna would be held in high regard.
Now Simeon is said to be a man of the Spirit of God. And Simeon was told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen Israel's salvation. He would not die until he had seen the Christ. When Simeon sees the child Jesus in the Temple, he goes to the child, and picks him up in his arms and embraces the child, gives thanks to God and says:

"Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou has prepared for all people,
To be a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel."

The old and wise Anna validated the song of Simeon.
I suggest that Luke is telling his readers and the community that he was addressing that this is a word to the wise. These were indeed very frightening and difficult times. We know that Jesus was born, that he is God's son, the light, the love, the hope of the world. But the wise will embrace the Christ, they will take him into their arms and hold him for dear life, and live according to his word.
These are difficult times for us too in our world and in our lives. It is a scary time. But do not be afraid, God is in our midst, knowing full well our pain and suffering, our fears. Pick him up, embrace him, hold him dear, and then we can live and die in peace.