CHRISTMAS

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

SEASON: CHRISTMAS
PROPER:
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 24-25, 2002


TEXT: Luke 2:1-20 – “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.”

ISSUE: The Birth Story of Jesus is something of an overture to all that follows in the Gospel of Jesus. It tells in simplicity of the birth of a real King, Messiah, and Savior that challenges the powerful forces of the world. The story is a great vision of new peace, and hope, in that God has come in and through Jesus Christ to the world.
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St. Luke tells us the story of the birth of Jesus in one of the simplest and most beautiful narrative forms that has captured the imagination and attention of people down through the ages. Luke wrote this story of Jesus’ birth some 80 years after Jesus’ birth, using hearsay and scraps of sources that had come to him. He weaves these into a most beautiful artistic narrative that tells of a very unique and special messianic hope for a very troubled world.
The story is thought by some to be a political statement, or a parody that challenges the powers and principalities of the time. Luke reports that the birth of Jesus come when Caesar Augustus is the Roman Emperor and Quirinius is governor of Syria. At the time the Roman Emperor was seen to be, in fact, a Son of God. He was considered to be worthy of worship, and people were required to make offerings of incense in praise of his great name. The Roman powers were said to bring about the great “Pax Romana” or the great Roman Peace. But peace in the Roman Empire came at great cost to the conquered peoples, like the Judeans and Israelites, because their civil liberties were taken away, and they were greatly oppressed through Roman taxation. The poorer people, of course, suffered the most in this situation.
Thus, Luke is giving a very contrasting vision to the people of the time. Let me tell you about another historical figure born in the time of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governor of Syria, who is really and truly Son of God, who is named Jesus. This Son of God is in deed worthy of worship and adoration. Angels, the very messengers of God pay tribute and announce his coming into the world. The powers and principalities of the world do not herald him. Angels and archangels herald him as the true Savior of the world. He is not proclaimed to the rich and greedy, and those enamored with power. He is announced to the motley shepherds, who were poor and considered little more than dishonorable thieves who didn’t stay home and care for their families. He is born in the little town of Bethlehem, population 100 plus, the birthplace of the King David, the shepherd boy who had once brought grandeur and hope to his people. Now Luke is saying go to the modest little town and Bethlehem and see a new kind of Savior born in a stable, lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling cloths like all the poor little children of Israel. Listen to the Angels of God singing his praise: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” Here’s a real Son of God who comes to the least of God’s creation to lift it up in healing, love, forgiveness, and hope, and to provide peace. Here is a king and savior who is mighty in love, a wonderful counselor, and mighty God, an everlasting father and prince of peace, who shall wear and crown of thorns, and have a cross for a throne, and all the world, inclusively, will see his glory in his suffering servanthood. “You want a King and Savior do you?” Luke is saying to the world. “Let me show you one: He’s wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger!” Born in a manger; crucified on a cross, ludicrous as that may seem, it gave birth to the potential for a whole new world and a new understanding of the power in love.
Luke’s story also contains many additional symbols for believers down through the ages, which heightens the proclamation of just who Jesus is, and the kind of Savior he shall be. The little town of Bethlehem is the place of the birth of Israel’s favorite charismatic and saving king, David, who had been a shepherd boy. Jesus becomes The Good Shepherd of the world.
Manipulated by the powers of the time, Mary and Joseph are force to make the journey to Bethlehem in Judea. There is no room, no place, no honor bestowed upon them and the coming child. Herein is a another sign of the rejection, and the lack of acceptance by the world for the Lord who will be crucified. Yet, Mary and Joseph and the child persist in bring about what must be, the birth of the savior, even in a lowly stable.
The word Bethlehem was a little town where sheep were raised for sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus is the Lamb of God, whose life becomes a sacrifice, for the sins of the world.
The meaning of the name Bethlehem meant house of bread. The manger in Bethlehem was a feeding trough. The manger scene must have conjured up images of Isaiah’s vision of the lion and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the ox and the bear eating straw together, and the wolf lying down with the lambs. It is a place where all nature is changed and Jesus Christ becomes the one the world needs to feed upon, if it is to change its nature and find peace among men. Jesus feeds the 5,000, and he gives himself as food to his disciples and to the world down through the ages in the Eucharist. If the world is to be changed and find peace, it must feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some two thousand years later, what greater need has the world on the verge of war than to look for and reclaim the ways and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to invite him into our life? What greater need is there in each of our own lives in times of failure, loss, hurt, pain, fear, anxiety, suffering, and all that overwhelms us than to invite the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives, and to feed upon him?