The ordinary and the messy, the simplicity and the wonder
Sometimes when I was younger, Christmas itself felt like a bit of a let-down. The build-up was so huge. The decorations, wrapping the presents, planning the feast - it almost seemed bigger than the day. Luke’s gospel is a bit like that - in his first chapter, there are dreams, visions, people being struck dumb, angelic visitors, and wonderful hymns. In this chapter, things become quite ordinary - background details of emperors and governors, a census, a busy time with lots of travelers, and overcrowded accommodation. The words in v 6&7 are quite bare “While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” There is very little detail and nothing mystical here. No star, no sparkles, no angel, no dream… With Luke’s buildup, we thought something amazing was going to happen. A bit of letdown - pretty ordinary.
Luke began his gospel discussing how he investigated all these stories - I wonder who his source was for this part of the story - did Mary herself tell him? If so - again the detail is minimal. If I was sharing the story of the birth of my own children - it would be a lot longer than these couple of sentences! I wonder - have you seen a birth? perhaps of your own children, or as a support person for others or perhaps you have seen an animal born? If you have - you’ll know it's messy. Going back to my childhood - one year our cat gave birth beneath the Christmas tree - the tree was placed on red crepe paper and the red dye in the paper seeped into the carpet below that birth - messy! We can imagine other details in the story of Jesus’ birth - Mary’s cries of pain, perhaps there were some other women there to assist and act as midwives, did they or Joseph rub her back? Who bathed Mary’s sweat-soaked body when she was done? Who cut the cord? Was there some fresh water to wash the baby Jesus before wrapping him in cloth? Did Mary bury the placenta in the earth as many indigenous cultures still do today, connecting Jesus to the earth? So few details.
We do know about the manger/food trough though - that gets mentioned a couple of times. I wonder what it was made of? - Christmas cards show a wooden manger but wooden mangers date from medieval times; scholars suggest it was more likely made from rock - hollowed out to contain the grass or hay to feed the animals. So at the beginning of Jesus’ life, he was wrapped in cloth and put into rock, and at the end of Jesus' life, he was wrapped in cloth and placed into rock (the tomb). Those few bare words contain the message that the divine-human, Jesus came to earth and was in every way part of the earth, not just humanity but the earth itself with all its beauty and all its mess.
The location then shifts to ordinary working folk - shepherds looking after their sheep. The angels arrive on the scene here with the shepherds; there had been no angels at that very ordinary scene in the cave with Mary & Joseph. If we eavesdrop, along with the shepherds, we can begin to understand the cosmic significance of that very commonplace birth.
We have become very good at adding details - we have angels sitting on the roof of the stables in our nativity scenes, the shepherds and wise men visit together on our Christmas cards and baby Jesus has a halo of light around his head. Our TVs, streaming services & cinemas are chock full of Christmas movies - apparently, Christmas is about romance, Santa, trees, and decorations, glitz and glamour and sparkle. We add other things to our own Christmas celebrations - pressure, debt, arguments, violence… These days according to the news - Christmas is the very worst thing for the environment, we buy stuff that they don’t want for people that don’t need it and wrap it in glitzy paper which won’t degrade… Along with all the things we add we seem to remove that simple truth about a woman giving birth in an overcrowded place. We also play with the message given to the shepherds - Christmas has come to be about me and my immediate family experiencing joy, having a serene peaceful feeling in my heart.
What was the message to the shepherds? - the joy is for the whole world! God’s peace & shalom & wholeness for the whole earth (not just a feeling of serenity in my heart)! And what was the sign? was it the star, the angels? a tree? No, the sign was a baby in an animal’s feed-trough. Mary and Joseph may not have seen or heard the angelic chorus and message but they heard about it 2nd hand from those shepherds and they were full of wonder and as for Mary - she “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”
May the God of Love this Christmas help us not add or subtract from the message
and help us to remember
“the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn…
good news of great joy for all the people…
Glory to God…
and peace on earth…”
It’s a story of cosmic dimensions - God came to the earth in a new way in the birth of Jesus. It’s a story that is simple and part of the mess of ordinary life - God came to join us in our mess on earth. It’s a story of wonder - full of hope and joy and peace for the whole earth.
As we return to our lives, lives which are mundane and messy but also, if we look hard - shot through with glory - may we take with us the simplicity, the ordinariness, and the wonder of Christmas. May we continue to hope for and join in God’s mission to bring joy and peace throughout the whole earth.
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